Scope and Content Note
The Beale Family Papers from the Decatur House span the years 1794-1957 and include journals, diaries, correspondence, speeches and writings, biographical material, miscellany, printed matter, and scrapbooks. The collection consists primarily of the papers of Edward Fitzgerald Beale; his son, Truxtun Beale; and their family.
The elder Beale was famous for his exploits in the West, especially for a daring adventure with Kit Carson after the battle of San Pasqual during the Mexican War, and was the first to bring news of California’s gold strike to the East. A naval lieutenant, an army general, a diplomat, and surveyor general of California, he was an intimate of prominent figures in American public life, a connection reflected in these papers. He acquired large land holdings in the West and later, in 1871, purchased Decatur House (originally owned by Stephen Decatur and built by Benjamin Henry Latrobe) on Lafayette Square, which was, during the residence of his and his son’s family, a center of Washington society. Truxtun Beale, named for his great-grandfather, Commodore Thomas Truxtun, became a diplomat serving as minister to Persia, Greece, and Romania. Marie Oge Beale, the wife of Truxtun Beale, was a Washington hostess, philanthropist, and advocate for historic preservation. She was the longest resident of the Decatur House and bequeathed the house to the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1956.
The correspondence in the Beale Family Papers is almost equally divided between the careers of Edward Fitzgerald and Truxtun. Especially prominent are the letters written to Edward Fitzgerald Beale from Thomas Hart Benton and his daughter and son-in-law, Jessie Benton and John Charles Frémont, as well as those from James Buchanan, Simon Cameron, Roscoe Conkling, Ulysses S. Grant and his family, John Alexander Logan, John Sherman, and Bayard Taylor. Truxtun Beale’s diplomatic correspondence, international in character, is included.
Bayard Taylor, a friend of Edward Fitzgerald Beale, called him “pioneer in the path of empire.” Material pertinent to this attribution is represented in the collection by early California letters and by other sources on Beale’s many Western expeditions. The latter include the journal covering a portion of his journey in 1853 to take up his post as superintendent of Indian affairs for California and Nevada and a more extensive journal covering his survey for a wagon road from Fort Smith, Arkansas, to the Colorado River from 1858 to 1859.
There are also original manuscripts and transcripts of manuscripts written in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries by Commodore Thomas Truxtun and by Stephen Decatur. In addition to Marie Oge Beale's diaries, speeches, and writings, there are social invitations and newspaper clippings.