Interwar Period and WWII (1919-1945)

Filter results
Reset

Showing 11–20 of 34 results

  • Item

    Lucy Barnard Briggs' Passport

    Shortly after her marriage to American diplomat Ellis O. Briggs in May 1928, Lucy Barnard Briggs received this diplomatic passport and traveled with him to his post in Lima, Peru. After the birth of her children, their photos and personal details were appended to pages in this passport — as was the…

  • Item

    Constance Harvey's Medal of Freedom

    Constance Ray Harvey, one of the first women to become a Foreign Service Officer, voluntarily put herself in danger while serving as a diplomat in France during World War II. For her extraordinary efforts, she earned this Medal of Freedom—the predecessor of today’s Presidential Medal of Freedom.

  • Item

    “A Job Worth Training For” Pamphlet

    This circa 1950 publication distributed to U.S. Department of State employees emphasizes the importance of training in achieving the overall goals of the agency. Required training included: introduction to the Department for new employees, formal class instruction at FSI, on the job training by supervisors, intern programs, and counseling for outside educational…

  • Item

    State Department Comic

    “The Story Behind the State Department” comic, from True Comics #75, published February 1949. True Comics was an educational comic book for children that portrayed government and historical figures rather than superheroes.

  • Item

    Edward Dudley's Commission as Ambassador to Liberia

    In 1948, President Truman appointed Edward R. Dudley to serve as U.S. Minister to Liberia. Dudley was a civil rights lawyer from New York who worked at the NAACP with Thurgood Marshall. At the time of Dudley’s appointment, the U.S. Government represented its interests through a legation in Monrovia. In 1949, Truman…

  • Item

    Germany Basic Handbook

    American diplomat Arthur Tienken used this handbook while serving in the Kreis Resident Officer Program in Germany after World War II. Resident Officers were U.S. representatives posted throughout Germany. They developed relations with the local populations and assisted in the transition from a post-war U.S.-occupied government to one under German control. Published…

  • Item

    Constance Harvey's Dog Tags

    These wartime dog tags belonged to Foreign Service Officer Constance R. Harvey, one of the first women in the Foreign Service. Harvey was awarded the Medal of Freedom in 1947 for her meritorious service with the French Underground from 1941-1942. Her citation reads, in part: “Despite close surveillance by Gestapo agents and…

  • Item

    Lester Schnare's German Diplomatic ID Card

    Diplomatic identification card issued to U.S. Consul Lester L. Schnare in Hamburg, Germany, 1935. Identification documents of various types are frequently issued by host governments to resident diplomats.

  • Item

    Chinese Language Training Flashcards

    All U.S. Foreign Service Chinese Language Officers were trained in Peking (Beijing) from 1902 until 1949, when U.S. diplomatic and consular representation on China’s mainland ceased. This set of over 2,000 handmade Chinese-English flash cards stored in a custom decorative box was used by a U.S. Foreign Service Officer assigned to Peking…

  • Item

    Henry White’s 1910 Exhibition Pass

    U.S. diplomat Henry White’s pass to visit the exhibition at the 1910 Pan-American Congress in Buenos Aires, Argentina. White, whose 30 year diplomatic career included serving as Ambassador to Italy and France, was once praised by President Theodore Roosevelt as “the most useful man in the entire diplomatic service.”