Scope and Content Note
The papers of Lester Hood Woolsey (1877-1961) span the years 1831-1958, with the bulk from 1909 to 1928. The collection consists primarily of a subject file from Woolsey's public service in the Department of State and while he was a partner in international law with Robert Lansing. It relates principally to American foreign relations during World War I and to international legal problems, notably sabotage claims during the postwar period. Included is correspondence, memoranda, drafts of state papers annotated by Woolsey, Lansing, and others, telegrams, treaty documents, minutes and resolutions of conferences, manuscripts of articles, diaries, and annotated printed matter. The collection is organized into eight series: Diaries , General Correspondence , Special Correspondence , Subject File , Printed Matter , Bibliographic File , John Watson Foster Correspondence , and Edward Yardley Correspondence .
Also in the collection is a small group of correspondence and a separate file of Woolsey-Lansing correspondence for the period of their law partnership. Additional material includes family correspondence of the Lansing family dating between 1831 and 1921, as well as holograph drafts of articles, speeches, and an unpublished book by Lansing. A series of letters by various correspondents to Lansing's father-in-law, John Watson Foster, dates between 1878-1912.
Other correspondents include Jane Anderson, Daniel W. Bell, Robert W. Bonynge, John Foster Dulles, Avery J. Howe, Manley O. Hudson Clarence H. Mackay, John J. McCloy, H. H. Martin, John Bassett Moore, Amos J. Peaslee, Frank L. Polk, and Theodore Joly de Sabla.