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/mm78015768
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 Joseph Hodges Choate, lawyer, author, and diplomat, were deposited in the Library of Congress in 1930 and 1931 by his daughter, Mabel Choate. In 1946 the deposit was converted to a gift. An additional letter was purchased in 1981 to add to the collection.
The papers of Joseph Hodges Choate were arranged and described in 1962. A letter was added to the collection in 1984, and the finding aid was revised in 2011.
Copyright in the unpublished writings of Joseph Hodges Choate in these papers and in other collections of papers in the custody of the Library of Congress has been dedicated to the public.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 Joseph Hodges Choate 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.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container number, Joseph Hodges Choate Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
The papers of Joseph Hodges Choate (1832-1917) span the years 1745-1929, with the bulk of the material dating from 1852-1917. The papers are in English and are arranged into the following series: Family Correspondence , General Correspondence , Letterbooks , Subject File , Legal File , Addresses , Miscellany , Scrapbooks and Albums , and Oversize .
The papers relate primarily to Choate's family, 1745-1925; his attendance at Harvard University, 1848-1855; his law practice in New York, 1855-1917; his association with the American Museum of Natural History, 1869-1917, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1870-1917; his service as president of the New York Constitutional Convention, 1894; his work with New York charities, 1895-1917; his service as United States ambassador to Great Britain, 1899-1905; First Delegate to the International Peace Conference at the Hague, Netherlands, 1907; and his chairmanship of the New York committee for the 1917 reception of British and French commissions headed by Arthur James Balfour, Earl of Balfour, René Viviani, and Joseph Jacques Céesaire Joffre.
In the Family Correspondence series, Choates's wife, Caroline Sterling Choate, received and sent correspondence under the name of "Carrie." Choate also had a sister who received and sent correspondence under the name of "Carrie." Letters sent and received by Mabel Choate, daughter of the Choates, are filed with Caroline Sterling Choate's correspondence. Other correspondents included in the Family Correspondence are Choate's parents, George F. Choate and Margaret Manning Choate, and his brother, William Gardner Choate.
The papers pertaining to Choate's service as ambassador to Great Britain, especially the correspondence between him and John Hay and with President Theodore Roosevelt, indicate the diplomatic inter workings connected with the two Hay-Pauncefote treaties, the Open Door policy of the United States in the Far East, and the final settlement of the Alaskan boundary dispute. The papers include correspondence between Choate and President Roosevelt about the Algeciras Conference in Spain in 1906, concerning France's relationship to the government of Morocco. Other topics featured in the collection are the Union League of America, the Boxer Rebellion in China in 1900, the American Bar Association, and Choate's work with Harvard University alumni.
Correspondents include Charles Francis Adams; Arthur James Balfour, earl of Balfour; James M. Beck; James Bryce, viscount Bryce; John R. Carter; Grover Cleveland; George Nathaniel Curzon, marquis of Curzon; Charles William Eliot; William Maxwell Evarts; John Watson Foster; F. V. Greene; John Hay; Henry Charles Keith Petty-FitzMaurice, marquess of Lansdowne; Edwin T. Morgan; Henry K. Oliver; William Phillips; Robert S. Rantoul; Whitelaw Reid; Theodore Roosevelt; Elihu Root; William V. Rowe; Thomas Henry Sanderson, baron Sanderson; William H. Taft; Sir George Otta Trevelyan; Henry White; Woodrow Wilson; and Lothrop Withington.
This collection is arranged in nine series:
Letters sent and received.
Arranged into two groups: Caroline Sterling Choate and Joseph Hodges Choate. Correspondence to and from Caroline Choate is arranged chronologically. Correspondence to and from Joseph Hodges Choate is arranged alphabetically.
Letters sent and received.
Arranged alphabetically.
Three volumes of letterpress and letter copy books of letters sent and received.
Arranged chronologically and indexed.
Correspondence, memoranda, reports and clippings.
Arranged alphabetically by topic and therein chronologically.
Correspondence, memoranda, and printed matter.
Arranged by type of material.
Manuscript, typescript, and printed copies of addresses delivered by Choate. There is considerable correspondence filed with his more important speeches, particularly those delivered in England while serving as ambassador to Great Britain.
Arranged alphabetically by title or subject.
Printed matter and memorials to Choate.
Arranged by type of material.
Scrapbooks, containing newspaper clippings and printed matter, and albums, containing autographs of friends in London, England, and memorial volumes of newspaper clippings and citations.
Arranged by type of material and the scrapbooks are further arranged chronologically within each volume.
Diplomas and citations.
Arranged chronologically.