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/mm79035949
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 John J. Pershing, army officer, were a gift and deposit converted to a gift from John J. Pershing and his son, Francis Warren Pershing, from 1919 to 1976. Other gifts, reproductions, purchases, and transfers were received between 1935 and 2019.
The papers of John J. Pershing were arranged and described in 1957 and 1965 by Katherine E. Brand, Alan Thompson, and other staff. Additions were processed between 1976 and 2022. The finding aid was revised in 1987 and later revised by Joseph K. Brooks in 2013 and Pang H. Xiong in 2022. The finding aid was updated in 2023 by Maria Farmer as part of a division-wide remediation project by the Inclusive Description Working Group.
A card index of the General Correspondence series is available in the Manuscript Division Reading Room.
Items have been transferred from the Manuscript Division to other custodial divisions of the Library. Some photographs, posters, paintings, postcards, and cartoons have been transferred to the Prints and Photographs Division. Some maps have been transferred to the Geography and Map Division. Sound recordings have been transferred to the Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division. Printed volumes and broadsides have been transferred to the Rare Books and Special Collections Division. Books have been transferred to the Library's general collections. All transfers are identified in these divisions as part of the John J. Pershing Papers. Patrons are encouraged to contact these divisions in advance of a research visit.
Copyright in the unpublished writings of John J. Pershing in these papers and in other collections of papers in the custody of the Library of Congress has been dedicated to the public.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 John J. Pershing 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.
A microfilm edition of part of these papers is available on ten reels. Consult reference
staff in the Manuscript Division concerning availability for purchase or interlibrary
loan.
Part of the papers of John J. Pershing is available on the Library of Congress website
at
https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/collmss.ms000048.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container or reel number, John J. Pershing Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
The papers of John Joseph Pershing (1860-1948) span the years 1882-1971, with the bulk of the material concentrated in the period 1904-1948. The collection consists of correspondence, diaries, notebooks, speeches, statements, writings, orders, maps, scrapbooks, newspaper clippings, picture albums, posters, photographs, printed matter, and memorabilia. The papers document nearly every phase of the general's career, beginning with his service as a young officer in the American West and continuing through his tours of duty in Cuba and the Philippines, as military attaché in Tokyo and Manchuria during the Russo-Japanese War, command of the punitive expedition sent into Mexico after Pancho Villa in 1916, service as commander of the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I, and presidency of the Comisión Plebiscitaria de Tacna y Arica in 1925-1926. Included also is material on his goodwill tours of Europe and Latin America. A noticeable gap is evident in the scarcity of papers relating to his tour of duty as chief of staff of the army, 1921-1924.
The papers are organized into fifteen series: Diaries, Notebooks, and Address Books; General Correspondence; Social Correspondence; Special Correspondence; Greetings from French Municipalities; Illness; Death of Pershing; Helen F. Pershing File; Subject File; Tacna-Arica File; Speeches, Statements, and Book File; Scrapbooks; Memorabilia; Addition; and Oversize.
Address books in the Diaries, Notebooks, and Address Books series date from 1905 when Pershing was a military attaché in Japan and from 1908 when he was stationed at Fort William McKinley in the Philippines. The typed diaries, organized into two sets, describe Pershing's command of the American Expeditionary Forces in France during World War I and his postwar service as army chief of staff until 1925. Set I, a ribbon copy, includes minor penciled notations and a clipping mounted into the text. Set II consists of a carbon copy of a separately typed version extracted from the first set of the entries for the World War I period, 1917-1919.
The notebooks mainly document Pershing's army career prior to 1917, with a few that overlap the World War I diaries. The first notebook, from 1882, Pershing's plebe year at the United States Military Academy, is identified as his "cadet check book," or account book. There are notebooks covering much of the rest of his time at West Point, 1883-1884, and 1886, the year he graduated.
Some of Pershing's notebooks are diary-like accounts focused on particular military or diplomatic assignments. A notebook dated 1897-1898 documents his service during the Spanish-American War as commander of Company A, probably the 10th Calvary. Notebooks from 1902-1903 cover his experiences in the Philippines, including the Lake Lanao campaign. One of the Lake Lanao notebooks also includes agreements with Muslim leaders in Arabic script. Other notebooks document his tour of duty as a military attaché in Tokyo and as an observer in the field during the Russo-Japanese War. Later ones relate to his expedition in Mexico against Pancho Villa just prior to the American participation in World War I. In the Addition series are more address books, notebooks and diaries, including of his wife, Helen F. Pershing, who died with three of their children in a fire in 1915, and personal jottings by him from 1900, 1904-1905, 1918, and 1934.
Pershing's early military career is well documented in an extensive Subject File that includes his experiences in the Spanish-American War, the Philippines, and as military attaché in Japan and Manchuria. Of biographical significance are memoirs materials in the Speeches, Statements, and Book File series with its background files and drafts dealing with his life prior to 1919. The Scrapbooks series (available only on microfilm) covers his career from 1900 until his death in 1948. In the Addition are six drafts of his autobiography.
This collection is arranged in fifteen series:
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm79035949
Notebooks, diaries, and address books. The diaries include one set of typed, single-spaced entries for 1917-1925, and a second set, extracted from the first and double-spaced in carbon, of entries covering only the World War I period, 1917-1919.
Arranged by type of material and chronologically therein.
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Letters sent and received (mainly received) and other papers.
Arranged alphabetically by name of correspondent and by subject or topic.
Mainly invitations.
Alphabetically arranged by state or country of origin.
Invitations; Christmas lists, cards, and letters; and birthday cards, letters and telegrams.
Arranged by type of material and therein chronologically.
Letters of congratulations; requests for photographs; poems, songs, and sheet music sent to Pershing; and other topical correspondence, including files pertaining to the Philippines, 1904-1914.
Arranged by subject.
Copies of "Extracts of Deliberations of Municipal Councils" expressing appreciation and gratitude to the United States and to Pershing.
Arranged alphabetically by municipality.
Letters received.
Arranged alphabetically by name of writer.
Condolences and press statements.
Arranged by type of material.
Diaries of Helen F. Pershing, condolence letters, and calling cards occasioned by her death in 1915.
Organized by type of material with the diaries arranged chronologically and the condolence letters arranged alphabetically.
Memoranda, reports, invitations, and correspondence relating to a variety of subjects mainly of a professional nature.
Arranged by subject and therein chronologically.
Reports, resolution, regulations, correspondence, memoranda, and personal journals pertaining to the plebiscite commission presided over by Pershing.
Arranged by type of material.
Speeches and background material; statements by Pershing, bound and indexed; miscellaneous unbound statements on a variety of subjects; and production material of Pershing's published and unpublished memoirs, including drafts, correspondence, photographs, maps, reviews, and other material.
Arranged by type of material or title of work.
Bound scrapbooks and material prepared for binding, 1900-1938, are chronologically arranged. Loose clippings, 1938-1949, are chronologically arranged by years. Miscellaneous material and scrapbooks sent as gifts conclude the series.
Available only on ten reels of microfilm, shelf no. 19,612, where they are cited as Containers 381-408. The numbering of the collection was revised after filming.
Certificates, diplomas, awards, commissions, and miscellaneous items.
Unarranged.
Correspondence between Pershing and his wife, Helen F. Warren, correspondence with others, diaries, drafts of Pershing's autobiography, and miscellaneous material. Also includes manuscript items removed from the Scrapbooks series after filming.
Correspondence arranged by name of author. Other material arranged by type of material.
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Oversize photographs, printed matter, and miscellaneous memorabilia.
Arranged and described according to the series, folder, and container from which the items were removed.