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/mm81011874
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 Barrett, journalist and diplomat, were given to the Library of Congress by his nephew and wife, John Walton Barrett, and Mary X. Ferguson Barrett, between 1939 and 1964.
The collection was processed in 1940 and revised or expanded in 1948, 1960, 1978, and 1987. The finding aid was revised in 2011.
A card index to correspondence in the collection is available in the Manuscript Reading Room. Consult reference staff for information.
Items have been transferred from the Manuscript Division to other custodial divisions of the Library. Maps have been transferred to the Geography and Map Division. Photographs have been transferred to the Prints and Photographs Division. All transfers are identified in these divisions as part of the John Barrett Papers.
Copyright in the unpublished writings of John Barrett in these papers and in other collections of papers in the custody of the Library of Congress has been dedicated to the public.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 Barrett 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, John Barrett Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
The papers of John Barrett (1866-1938) span the period 1861-1943, with the bulk of the material between 1907 and 1933. They include diaries, journals, notebooks, letterbooks, family correspondence, general correspondence, subject files, speeches, articles for publication, drafts of manuscripts for books, financial papers, notes, memoranda, reports, listing of names and addresses of correspondents, scrapbooks, clippings, and other items. The collection also contains an unpublished biography of Barrett by his niece through marriage, Mary X. Ferguson Barrett, as well as her research materials, and it also contains a study of Barrett's Pan Americanism, by Roger L. Headrick, a Williams College student. The papers fully document Barrett's long public career as a journalist, diplomat, director general of the Pan American Union, and as counselor and international arbiter of Pan American commercial relations. The material is organized in eight series: Diaries, Journals, and Other Record Books; Correspondence; Subject File; Speeches and Writings File; Financial Papers; Biographical File; Miscellany; and Oversize.
The correspondence and writings of Barrett are extensive. The early part of the correspondence relates to his activities while minister to Siam, where he presided over the settlement of some longstanding claims against Siam, renegotiated a treaty, and secured an expansive definition of American extraterritorial rights that reinforced American practice in Far Eastern diplomacy. During his tenure as minister to Siam, Barrett made extensive trips throughout Burma, China, Eastern Siberia, India, Japan, Java, Korea, and the Philippines in order to study the commercial and political opportunities of the United States in Asia. His papers contain numerous reports and articles to newspapers and magazines and special letters to businessmen, chambers of commerce, congressmen, senators, educators, and others advancing the theory that America should take greater interest in Asia and in the Pacific.
There are many letters and articles relating to Barrett's resignation from his mission in Siam. He later become a war correspondent and special adviser to Admiral George Dewey during the Spanish American War and subsequent Philippine American War. Barrett believed that full independence for the Philippine Islands was not in the best interest of the islands or the United States and that American interests required that it compete for friends, coaling stations, and bases in the Pacific with Great Britain, France, Germany, and other European nations.
The bulk of Barrett's correspondence, as well as his numerous articles and speeches, relates to Latin America. His duties as minister to Argentina, Panama, and Colombia were a prelude to his work as director general of the International Bureau of the American Republics, later to become the Pan American Union. There are documents relating to his influence in the settlement of the Colombia-Panama dispute, the Venezuelan controversy, the need for invoking the Monroe Doctrine, the building of the Isthmian Canal, the Panama Canal tolls, the flow of ships through the canal, and most importantly, the establishment of commerce and comity between Latin America and the United States.
There are papers documenting Barrett's influence in changing the name of the International Bureau of the American Republics to that of the Pan American Union, and it was under his administration that a new building housing the organization was built and completed in Washington, D.C., in 1910.
As director of the Pan American Union, Barrett sponsored several conferences on hemispheric cooperation and Latin American conditions, prepared speeches and articles on a vast array of problems, organized the Pan American Society for interested citizens, encouraged the exchange of people and ideas, and promoted trade. The Speeches and Writings File series in the collection reveals the development of his ideas, as does the Correspondence series.
Family correspondence in the papers consists chiefly of letters between Barrett and his mother, Caroline Sanford Barrett, for most of his career. The letters provide useful information on his experience as a diplomat, newspaper correspondent, lecturer, and counselor, and document such continuing interests as his lifelong enthusiasm for the development of new markets. There are also numerous letters exchanged with his brother, Charles Sanford Barrett, his nephew, John Walton Barrett, and his wife, Mary X. Ferguson Barrett, as well as extensive correspondence with many other relatives. This correspondence relates mostly to family and personal affairs and is a source of genealogical as well as biographical material.
The collection is arranged in eight series:
Catalog Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/mm81011874
Diaries, journals, guest book, address book, military record book, and code book.
Arranged by type of volume.
Letterbooks, family correspondence, general correspondence, and related material, including letters sent and received, memoranda, miscellaneous attachments, fragments, and drafts.
Arranged chronologically within types of correspondence.
Memoranda and printed and near-print material.
Arranged alphabetically by subject.
Handwritten and typewritten drafts, proofs, printed and near-print copies, notes, and research material relating to speeches and articles published by Barrett, manuscript drafts of books, reports, and articles and speeches by others.
Arranged alphabetically by title within each file.
Account books, correspondence, bills and receipts and expenditures, canceled checks and checkbooks, and miscellaneous financial papers.
Arranged primarily chronologically within each file.
Two biographies of Barrett, a typewritten manuscript draft and a typewritten ribbon copy of an undergraduate thesis, plus correspondence, notes, and excerpts relating to Barrett's papers.
Broadside, notes and cards, certificates, lists of names and addresses, clippings, scrapbooks, and other items.
Organized by type of material.
Photocopies of articles published in the
Arranged chronologically. Also a Gridiron Club, Washington, D.C., seating arrangement.