Scope and Content Note
The papers of diplomat and economist Norman Hezekiah Davis (1878-1944) span the years 1898-1979 with the bulk of the material concentrated between 1915 and 1944. In 1902 Davis began his business career in Cuba where he organized the Trust Company of Cuba. He commenced a public career in 1917 and served in four presidential administrations consulting on international finance at the Department of Treasury, the Department of State, and international conferences and committees during World War I and the the interwar period. Davis was chairman of the of the American Red Cross from 1938 to his death in 1944.
The papers are organized into seven series: Correspondence and Other Papers , Printed Matter , Addition I , Addition II , Addition III , Oversize , and Classified . The Correspondence and Other Papers series consists of correspondence, diaries, journals, minutes, addresses, statements, scrapbooks, memoranda, clippings, printed matter, photographs, and other papers relating chiefly to Davis’s services as a participant in international conferences and commissions on peace, disarmament, monetary matters and as a financial and economic consultant. The series includes material on conferences and organizations including the Supreme Economic Council of the Allied and Associated Powers (1914-1920), the Armistice, Paris Peace Conference (1919), International Economic Conference (Geneva, 1927), League of Nations, Limitation of Arms Conference (Geneva, 1932-1934), Monetary and Economic Conference (London, 1933), London Naval Conference (1935-1936), the Brussels Nine-Power Conference (1937), and other conferences and organizations. Correspondents include Herbert Hoover, Viscount Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, Cecil of Chelwood, Cordell Hull, Thomas W. Lamont, and Frank A. Vanderlip.