Scope and Content Note
The papers of Edward S. Crocker II (1895-1968) and Lispenard Seabury Crocker (1902-1984) span the years 1892-2003, with the bulk of the material dating from 1923 to 1941. The collection documents the career and family life of a foreign service officer and his wife at multiple postings in Europe and Latin America, culminating with his work at the embassy in Tokyo 1934-1941. The papers are arranged into the following series: Digital Files, Family Correpondence, General Correspondence, Miscellany, Photographs, United States Embassy, Tokyo, Japan, and Oversize.
Two decades of family letters, home films, and photographs capture the private life of the Crockers while serving at postings in San Salvador, Warsaw, Rome, Budapest, Stockholm, and Tokyo. The papers document their marriage, the birth of two children while abroad and the death of one, the social life of the diplomatic corps, and the financial contributions of family to support the diplomatic life of the Crockers. After leaving Tokyo in 1942, Crocker had further postings in Lisbon, Warsaw, and served as ambassador to Iraq (1948-1952), but there is very little material in the collection dating after 1941. The papers focus on Edward and Lispenard, but other prominent family members include her parents, Katharine Emerson Hovey Seabury and William Marston Seabury, his mother, Marion Crocker, and their daughter, Lispenard ("Lisa") Crocker, who married the future ambassador and assistant secretary of state, Marshall Green, in 1942. The papers include a folder of correspondence, some photographs, and film footage of Marshall Green.
The Crockers were in Japan from 1934-1941/1942 where Edward served as first secretary at the American embassy. The papers include two volumes of 1941 memoranda of conversations of embassy officials and the ambassador with Japanese officials. Their time in Japan is documented throughout the papers and include letters with firsthand accounts of events during the attempted coup of February 1936, letters home discussing the invasion of China, photographs, and letters and clippings documenting social events within the diplomatic corps and at the Imperial Palace. Edward Crocker was the American official who accepted the declaration of war from the government of Japan on December 8, 1941. He, along with the other embassy staff, were then held captive inside the embassy compound for six months. Edward Crocker's descriptions of these events along with the memoranda are in the United States Embassy, Tokyo, Japan series.
The papers are organized into seven series:
The Digital Files consist of motion pictures, primarily ones made by the Crockers with a home camera, but also include several newsreels. The original films were digitized on September 27, 2008 by the donor, stored on a DVD, and organized into seven "chapters." Each chapter runs about an hour in length, except the last which is thirty-three minutes long. Each chapter includes several or many individual films. The chapter descriptions have estimated dates for the original films and a skeletal contents description. A partial listing of contents was provided by the donor and is in box 1 of the paper collection.
Family Correspondence is the largest series and is primarily composed of letters written by Edward and Lispenard to their parents and to each other while serving abroad at various embassies and legations. The correspondence is organized by the name of the family member who wrote the letter. Edward's correspondence begins with letters from his college days at Princeton University and during his service in the U.S. Navy in Europe during World War I. In addition to letters about his various foreign service posts, he also writes frequently about family vacations in rural Maine. Lispenard's letters begin with her youthful European travels followed by her courtship and marriage to Edward Crocker.
General Correspondence contains both professional and non-family personal correspondence. The State Department folders include both official letters and letters from colleagues at various embassy and consulate postings and is often personal in nature. This series also has a folder of letters from the writer Julian Street, a friend of Edward Crocker.
The Miscellany series draws together biographical material, printed matter, and writings. Of note is the self-published book produced by Lispenard ("Lisa") Green in 1985. Transcripts of many of the letters in these papers as well as additional biographical information can be found in her book. The news clippings file pertains to both the Crocker and the Seabury families.
The Photographs series has folders of lose photographs organized by place or person and original photograph albums. Most of the photographs and albums are annotated.
The United States Embassy, Tokyo, Japan series holds documents relating to embassy events in the lead up to and directly following the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. In addition to the two volumes of 1941 embassy memoranda concerning conversations with Japanese officials, the series includes a copy of an eight-page "diary" by Edward Crocker for December 8, 1941 and a description of living conditions during his incarceration.
The Oversize series houses those photographs and photograph albums removed from the Photograph series that required oversize containers.