Scope and Content Note
The papers of Oscar Solomon Straus (1850-1926) span the years circa 1856-1955, with the bulk of the material dating from 1856 to 1923. The collection chiefly relates to Straus's service as minister and later ambassador to the Ottoman Empire (Turkey), United States secretary of commerce and labor, and member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, Hague, Netherlands. When appointed by Theodore Roosevelt in 1906 as secretary of commerce and labor, Straus became the first Jew to hold a cabinet post. The papers are organized into the following series: Correspondence , Diaries and Notebooks , Scrapbooks , Miscellany , and Addition . A select index of correspondence from Theodore Roosevelt and his secretaries appears at end of the container list.
The Correspondence includes general correspondence and letterbooks of Straus's outgoing letters. In the early correspondnece are letters between Straus and his older brothers, Nathan and Isidor, with many of Isidor's letters written during Straus's first appointment as minister to the Ottoman Empire (Turkey). Other correspondents from Straus's career include Robert Bacon, John Barrett, Thomas F. Bayard, Nicholas Murray Butler, Andrew Carnegie, Grover Cleveland, Calvin Coolidge, Ralph M. Easley, James Rudolph Garfield, Lloyd Carpenter Griscom, Warren G. Harding, Benjamin Harrison, John Hay, Lee Kohns, Robert Lansing, William Loeb, William McKinley, Adolph S. Ochs, George Foster Peabody, Theodore Roosevelt, Elihu Root, William H. Taft, and Woodrow Wilson.
The Diaries and Notebooks series contains diaries covering Straus's career and miscellaneous notebooks. The diaries begin with Straus's first appointment as minister to the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) from 1887 to 1888, resume with his second appointment to that post from 1898 to 1900, then cover the remainder of his career beginning with his appointment as secretary of labor and commerce in 1906 through his appointment as a member of the President's Second Industrial Conference in 1919 and end in 1923. A discrete set of notes tucked inside the 1887-1888 diary is Straus's memorandum about a trip to Egypt in March-April 1888. Also included in the folder with the diary is a memorandum and letter recounting infringements on religious liberty in the empire probably in violation of the Berlin treaty of 1878. The miscellaneous notebooks include lecture notes and thoughts and quotations kept by Straus and two notebooks in shorthand kept by Straus's personal secretary, Theodore Linus Weed.
The Scrapbooks , though arranged somewhat chronologically, are largely topical. Individual scrapbooks cover Straus's publications The Origin of Republican Form of Government in the United States of America; Roger Williams, the Pioneer of Religious Liberty; and The American Spirit. Other volumes include his involvement with the Ottoman Empire (Turkey); the Permanent Court of Arbitration; the National Civic Federation; his years in the cabinet; Romania and Russia; the death of his father-in-law Louis Lavenburg; World War I; and the death of Straus himself. Selected items have been microfilmed.
Miscellany contains manuscripts of Straus's publications and speeches, commemorative items, photographs, clippings and other printed matter, diplomas, and an autobiography of Isidor Straus published posthumously. Included also are the minutes of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a memorial address in memory of John Hay.
The Addition is comprised of the records of the Oscar S. Straus Memorial Association. Included is correspondence, congressional resolutions, minutes, clippings, blueprints, and mailing lists covering the public subscription campaign and the construction of a memorial to Straus in Washington, D.C., and a lecture series given under the aegis of the association entitled "Commentary on Pan American Problems" and presented by Ricardo J. Alfaro.