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/mm78042085
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.
Arthur Sweetser, public official and journalist, were given to the Library of Congress by his wife, Ruth Gregory, in 1968.
The Sweetser Papers were processed after receipt in 1968. The finding aid was revised in 2013. 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 select index of correspondence relating to the League of Nations is appended to this finding aid.
The status of copyright in the unpublished writings of Arthur Sweetser is governed by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S.C.).
The papers of Arthur Sweetser 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, Arthur Sweetser Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
The papers of Arthur Sweetser (1888-1968) span the years 1913-1961, with the bulk of the material from 1919 to 1947. The collection is focused on the Paris Peace Conference, the League of Nations, and peace plans following World War II, including the creation of the United Nations and other world organizations. The papers demonstrate the various means the author used to promote international cooperation and United States participation in international organization, especially the League of Nations. The collection is organized into eleven series: Diaries and Biographical Material ; State Department Correspondence ; Family Correspondence and Memoir ; Peace Conference Material ; General League Correspondence ; General Correspondence ; Subject File ; Speech, Article, and Book File ; Printed Matter ; News Clippings and Scrapbooks ; and Oversize .
Up to and including the Paris Peace Conference, much of the material deals with preparing information for publication or distribution to reporters and newspapers. Correspondence on league matters begins immediately after the 1919 conference and continues until after the Manchurian crisis of 1931-1932. From 1932 to 1937 the bulk of the correspondence— except for the Italo-Ethiopian War—is about the Rigot property, a donation to the league, rather than about international matters. Beginning with the New York World's Fair of 1939, the correspondence is again mainly concerned with league problems.
Correspondence from World War II deals with plans for educating the American people for postwar international organization. Correspondence in the postwar period is also focused on United Nations problems as well as the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, the Washington World Affairs Center, and the International Schools Foundation.
The most substantive material prior to the Paris Peace Conference is the correspondence with Herbert David Croly, Malcolm W. Davis, and Willard Dickerman Straight, and interviews with United States Secretary of State Robert Lansing. Of the League of Nations period, the correspondence with Sir Eric Drummond, Raymond B. Fosdick, Sean Lester, Pitman B. Potter, John D. Rockefeller III, and F. P. Walters is most substantive; during World War II and the United Nations period it is that with Pierre Comert, Elmer Holmes Davis, Benjamin Gerig, Huntington Gilchrist, Carl Joachim Hambro, Manley O. Hudson, Archibald MacLeish, Salvador de Madariaga, Philip Noel-Baker, Byron Price, William E. Rappard, Edward R. Stettinius, and Sumner Welles.
There are also significant letters from Dean Acheson; Bernard M. Baruch; Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, Viscount Cecil of Chelwood; Joseph Grew; Edward Mandell House; Cordell Hull; Trygve Lie; Franklin D. Roosevelt; Harry S. Truman; and Edith Bolling Galt Wilson.
The collection is arranged in eleven series:
Full diaries for the Paris Peace Conference, the early League of Nations, and the Manchurian crisis of 1931-1932. Also desk diaries and appointment books for 1913, 1948-1956, and biographical material by and about the author.
Organized by type of diary.
Letters sent and received, including memoranda, while with the
Arranged chronologically.
Family letters from the period of the Paris peace negotiations and outline and chapter drafts of "Birth of the World Era."
Letters, memoranda, press releases, and printed material.
Arranged by type of material with much of the file organized in a chronological file that includes day-by-day summaries of world press opinion.
Letters sent and received.
Organized by subject within five categories: topical file; Geneva files; speech, article, and book file; miscellany; and alphabetical name file. Inserted in each of the alphabetical name files is a cross index to the author's correspondence in other files in the collection.
Letters sent and received relating to the Office of War Information, United Nations Information Office, Washington Information Office, Washington World Affairs Center, and Woodrow Wilson Foundation.
Arranged chronologically, with some topical and alphabetical arrangement.
Typewritten, mimeographed, and printed matter collected by the author on special League and United Nations topics.
Arranged by topic.
A chronological arrangement of published and unpublished material most of which is typewritten or printed.
These are fairly complete series of publications by League of Nations and United Nations agencies.
There is also some subject arrangement.
Scrapbooks containing the author's stories as newspaper correspondent, press clippings while at the Paris Peace Conference, and articles and memorabilia during World War II. Includes news clippings about the League of Nations, especially during World War II, and photographs.
Organized by type of material or topic.
Photographs, news clippings, and scrapbooks.
Arranged by type of material and described according to the series and containers from which the items were removed.
These letters plus those in Container 49 about league matters are some of the author's more substantive letters about the league.