Scope and Content Note
The papers of Henry White span the years 1812-1931, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1880-1928. Consisting chiefly of correspondence, supplemented by diaries, letterbooks, financial records, and material relating to the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, the collection documents White’s long career in the diplomatic service, his personal life, and his business interests. The papers also include material concerning the interests and activities of his wife, Margaret Stuyvesant Rutherford White, a prominent American socialite. The collection is arranged in ten series: Diaries , Letterbooks , Family Correspondence , General Correspondence , Selected Correspondence , Business Correspondence , Peace Conference File , Financial Records , Printed Matter , and Miscellany .
Diaries in the collection are relatively brief and incomplete; they include diaries of Henry White for part of the period 1892-1894 as well as diaries of Mrs. White. Six volumes of Letterbooks make up the second series in the collection. These volumes, which are available on microfilm, contain a large number of letters relating to White’s diplomatic activities as well as his personal and business interests during the period 1882-1909.
The four correspondence series constitute the largest and perhaps most valuable part of the collection. The Family Correspondence includes numerous letters from White to his wife, many of which contain his observations on American foreign policy. Copies of White’s correspondence with his superiors in the diplomatic service are scattered throughout the General Correspondence . Within the latter series are letters from many prominent Americans including Woodrow Wilson, Henry Cabot Lodge, Tasker Howard Bliss, Robert Lansing, Elihu Root, and Frank L. Polk. A number of revealing letters from Theodore Roosevelt as well as White’s extensive correspondence with his friend and superior, John Hay, are separated into a single container of Selected Correspondence . White’s business interests, particularly his extensive real estate holdings, constitute the substance of the Business Correspondence series.
Social prominence brought the White family into contact with many leading American literary figures, including Henry James (1843-1916) and James Russell Lowell. A partial index of their letters to both the Whites is appended to this register.
The Peace Conference File contains a wealth of material relating to the negotiations in Paris in 1919. It contains letters, cablegrams, and memoranda from several members of the American delegation at Paris and correspondence with American political figures including President Wilson, Henry Cabot Lodge (1850-1924), Tasker Howard Bliss, Robert Lansing, Frank L. Polk, John Foster Dulles, Allen Welsh. Dulles, William C. Bullitt, Christian Archibald Herter, Herbert Hoover, Bernard M. Baruch, and Ray Stannard Baker. Military intelligence reports and numerous cablegrams from American legations throughout Europe provide a vivid account political, economic, and social conditions in Europe after the war. The bulletins, minutes, resolutions, decisions, proceedings, treaties, and maps that supplement the correspondence offer a succinct, if incomplete, record of the activities and achievements of the Conference.
The collection concludes with a Financial Records File , a Printed Matter series, and Miscellany . The latter incorporates correspondence relating to the erection of a statue of Abraham Lincoln, 1917-1918, and includes several letters from Lincoln’s son, Robert Todd Lincoln.