Converted to EAD3 : Encoded Archival Description (EAD), Version 3 : Release: 1.1.1 : Release Date: 2019-12-16. Validating against latest version of schema.
Contact information: https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mss.contact
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm79017392
Collection material in English
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the LC Catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically.
The papers of William Smith Culbertson, diplomat, lawyer, and professor of law, were given to the Library of Congress by Culbertson in 1958. Additions were made to the collection by Culbertson from 1961 to 1964 and by his wife, Mary J. Hunter Culbertson, in 1967.
The papers of William Smith Culbertson were arranged and described in 1963. Additional material was processed by Allan Teichroew in 1981 and by Patrick Kerwin in 1994. The finding aid was revised in 2012. The finding aid was updated in 2023 by Maria Farmer as part of a division-wide remediation project by the Inclusive Description Working Group.
In 1963, the Library published
One phonographic disc has been transferred to the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division where it is identified as part of these papers.
Copyright in the unpublished writings of William Smith Culbertson in these papers and in other collections of papers in the custody of the Library of Congress has been dedicated to the public.
The papers of William Smith Culbertson are open to research. Researchers are advised to contact the Manuscript Reading Room prior to visiting. Many collections are stored off-site and advance notice is needed to retrieve these items for research use.
Government regulations control the use of security classified items in this collection. Manuscript Division staff can furnish information concerning access to and use of classified material.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container number, William Smith Culbertson Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
The papers of William Smith Culbertson (1884-1966) span the years 1897-1965 and consist mainly of diplomatic and other public documents, diaries, lecture notes, correspondence, memoranda, and manuscripts of his speeches, articles, and books, including a copy of his unpublished memoir "Ventures in Time and Space." The collection is organized into seven series: Diaries; Correspondence; Book, Article, and Speech File; Subject File; Miscellany; Addition; and Classified.
Included in the collection are papers relating to Culbertson's work as a member and vice chairman of the United States Tariff Commission, 1917-1925. He formulated the statute on the flexible tariff and wrote Section 317 of the same act, which gave legislative sanction to the principle of equality of treatment in commercial policy.
Bound volumes contain Culbertson's correspondence, personal memoranda, and official dispatches for the years when he was minister to Romania, 1925-1928, and ambassador to Chile, 1928-1933. While serving in the latter country, he was active in the settlement of the long-standing controversy between Chile and Peru over the province of Tacna and Arica.
Other papers relate to Culbertson's services in World War II as chief of the military intelligence service in the War Department, as a member of the Planning Group of the Office of Strategic Services, as chairman, with the rank of ambassador, of the Special Mission to the Middle East, and as a member of the technological mission to Germany in 1945.
There are lecture notes prepared during the years 1919-1956 when Culbertson was a professor at Georgetown University and from 1922 to 1924 when he was leader of the round-table conferences at the Institute of Politics at Williamstown, Massachusetts.
The papers include records of his early career as a lawyer, 1913-1915, and his later practice in administrative and international law. There are also manuscripts relating to his church activities, including his teaching of Bible classes and his extensive work in helping to establish a national Presbyterian church and center in Washington, D.C.
Prominent correspondents represented in the papers are Calvin Coolidge, Henry Crosby Emery, John H. Finley, Theodore Roosevelt, Warren G. Harding, Herbert Hoover, Cordell Hull, Charles Evans Hughes, Edward N. Hurley, Charles Foster Kent, Robert M. La Follette, H. G. Wells, and William Allen White. There are also numerous family letters and scrapbooks covering all phases of his career.
The Addition to the collection spans the years 1900-1965 and focuses on Culbertson's activities during World War II. Other files relate to his career before and after the war. The correspondence in the Addition consists primarily of letters between Culbertson and various international acquaintances in South America and Asia. Writings include speeches and articles as well as a typescript of "Ventures in Time and Space." The subject file in the Addition dates principally from World War II and contains reports and correspondence relating to the Analysis Section, previously known as the Geopolitical Section, of the War Department. Also highlighted is the Special Economic Mission to the Middle East in 1944 that Culbertson headed. Of particular interest is a journal he kept while on the mission. Miscellany in the Addition includes biographical data, genealogical material, printed matter, and appointment books for the years 1959-1964.
The collection is arranged in seven series:
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm79017392
Diaries kept by Culbertson.
Arranged chronologically.
Letters sent and received.
Arranged chronologically by year.
Letters sent and received.
Arranged chronologically by year.
Handwritten, typewritten, and printed copies of speeches and articles as well as manuscripts of Culbertson's major writings.
Arranged by type of material.
Letters, memoranda, and printed matter.
Grouped by subject and in general chronological order therein.
Lecture notes, scrapbooks, appointment books, photographs, and printed matter.
Grouped by type of material and arranged chronologically thereunder where possible.
Letters sent and received by Culbertson with enclosed material.
Arranged chronologically.
A typescript of Culbertson's unpublished autobiography and printed and near-print copies of his court and committee briefs, speeches, articles, and other writings.
Arranged alphabetically by type of writing and chronologically therein.
Correspondence, reports, lists, orders, and other material.
Arranged alphabetically by topic or type of material and chronologically therein.
Appointment books, biographical and genealogical data, and miscellaneous near-print, printed, and typescript material.
Arranged alphabetically by topic or type of material.
Correspondence, memoranda, cables, reports, and other material.
Organized and described according to the series and folder from which the material was withdrawn.