Home > Research > Archives > Personalities and Other Collections
Personalities and Other Collections
Eric Drummond
(1919–1933)
The personal papers of Sir Eric Drummond – other than
those incidentally held at the League of Nations Archive in Geneva – were
unfortunately destroyed by fire in World War II. Drummond was the first
Secretary-General of the League, in office from 1919 to 1933.
Joseph Avenol
(1933–1940)
Joseph Avenol replaced Jean Monnet as Deputy
Secretary-General of the League of Nations in 1923, becoming Secretary-General
in 1933 upon Sir Eric Drummond’s resignation. Avenol was widely criticised at
the time for failing to protect the League against the manoeuvres of Germany
and Italy, and of using the League as an extension of the French Foreign
Ministry.
Avenol’s papers are split between the Private Papers
of the League of Nations Archive in Geneva, and the archives of the French
Foreign Ministry. The papers held at the League’s Archives number only
seventeen files. The papers held in Paris extend to 43 volumes, and are now
held not at the traditional home of the French Foreign Ministry’s archives at
the Quai d’Orsay, but at a new facility in La Courneuve, in the Paris suburbs.
Address:
Ministère des Affaires étrangères et
europénnes
Direction
des Archives
3, rue
Suzanne Masson
93126 La
Courneuve Cedex
France
Phone:
(00) 33
1 43 17 70 30
(00) 33 1 43 17 70 48
(00) 33 1 43 17 70 36
(00) 33 1 43 17 42 42
Email:
lecture.archives@diplomatie.gouv.fr
Hours:
Monday – Friday, 9.30am – 5pm
Transport:
RER B, Aubervilliers/La Courneuve
An annual reading pass will be granted to researchers
on presentation of valid photo ID. It is probably best to contact the archive
before visiting.
Archives (en):
http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/ministry_158/archives-and-heritage_3562/index.html
Archives (fr):
http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/ministere_817/archives-patrimoine_3512/index.html
La Courneuve (fr):
http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/ministere_817/archives-patrimoine_3512/colonne-droite_5491/salles-lecture_11548/courneuve_22488.html
List of private papers (fr):
http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/ministere_817/archives-patrimoine_3512/fonds-collections_5143/entrees-exceptionnelles-collections_11595/papiers-agents-archives-privees_12688/liste-fonds-consultation-2006_49299.html
Séan Lester (1940–1947)
Séan Lester was appointed the representative of the
Irish Free State to the League of Nations in 1929, and seconded by the League
itself to become High Commissioner of the League of Nations to the Free City of
Danzig in 1933. He became Deputy Secretary-General in 1937, and Acting
Secretary-General in 1940 after the departure of Joseph Avenol to Vichy France,
a position in which Lester remained until the League was shut down and its
activities transferred to the United Nations. Lester was retroactively
appointed Secretary-General in 1946.
Lester’s papers are split between University College,
Dublin, and the League of Nations Archive in Geneva. The League of Nations
papers are split between private papers in the ‘Private Archives’ sub-fonds,
and the Secretariat files listed as the ‘Office of the Secretary-General (1939
(c) – 1947 (c))’. Both can be found by searching the online catalogue of UNOG
(see above).
The Séan Lester papers at UCD consist of private and
League files, as well as files relating to Lester’s other activities. There is
a descriptive catalogue available at the library.
Address:
UCD
Archives
James Joyce
Library
University
College Dublin
Belfield
Dublin 4
Ireland
Phone:
(00) 353 1 716 7555
Fax:
(00)
353 1 716 1146
Email:
archives@ucd.ie
Hours:
Monday – Thursday, 10am – 5pm
The UCD Archives operate by appointment only, and
researchers should contact the library in advance. A reader’s ticket valid for
one year will be issued. Researchers are advised to use public transport,
either the 39A or 46A buses.
Collection:
http://www.ucd.ie/archives/html/collections/lester-sean.html
Information:
http://www.ucd.ie/archives/html/planningyourvisit.htm#admission
The archives of the Secretaries-General of the UN are
surprisingly scattered and haphazard. This comes as a direct result of historic
archival procedure, which meant that Secretaries-General were, essentially, in
control of their own papers and not required to give them to the United Nations
archive. The guide here cannot, of course, be counted as containing everything,
and further research will obviously be required.
Researchers should, in the first instance, use
UNARMS’s dedicated page on the Secretaries-General (with the exception of
Jebb).
UNARMS:
https://archives.un.org/content/secretaries-general
Scholars should also note the published public
papers of several Secretaries-General, edited by Andrew Cordier, amongst
others. These should be available in academic libraries, or over the internet.
These editions are available for Secretaries-General from Trygve Lie to U
Thant, covering eight volumes, and all released by Columbia University Press.
Charles Hill has also edited the public papers of Boutros Boutros-Ghali,
running to 2400 pages on Yale University Press.
Gladwyn Jebb (1945–1946)
Baron Gladwyn, a distinguished British diplomat, was
the Acting Secretary-General of the United Nations from 24 October 1945 to 2
February 1946, having previously been the Executive Secretary of the
Preparatory Commission of the United Nations from August 1945. He returned to
the United Nations as Great Britain’s Ambassador between 1950 and 1954.
Baron Gladwyn’s papers are held in two locations: his
personal papers at the Churchill Archives Centre in Cambridge, and his
official papers at The National Archives at Kew, Richmond, both in
Britain:
Address:
Churchill Archives Centre
Churchill College
Cambridge
CB3 0DS
Phone:
(00) 44 1223 336087
Fax:
(00) 44
1223 336135
Email:
archives@chu.cam.ac.uk
Hours:
Monday – Friday, 9am –
5pm
Finding aid:
http://janus.lib.cam.ac.uk/db/node.xsp?id=EAD%2FGBR%2F0014%2FGLAD
Two forms of photo ID are required for use of the
Churchill Archives Centre, and contact with the Centre is required before
scheduling a visit. The files contain mostly personal correspondence and speech
files. There is also an index to Baron Gladwyn’s papers at the National
Archives.
Address:
The National Archives
Kew
Richmond
Surrey
TW9 4DU
United
Kingdom
Phone:
(00) 44 20 8876
3444
Hours:
Tuesday
– Saturday, 9am – 5pm (Tuesday, Thursday, 9am – 7pm)
Prior ordering of files is unnecessary at the
National Archives, but scholars looking to start work immediately at the
beginning of the day should consult the NA’s ‘Ordering
Documents in Advance’ page. The Jebb files
are listed as FCO 73/254 to FCO 73/268. There is no easy way to extract finding
aids of the 15 volumes of his papers, but the appropriate search is provided here.
Trygve Lie (1946–1952)
Trygve Lie was Secretary-General – the UN’s first –
between February 1946 and November 1952.
UNARMS holds
very few files relating to Lie. The Lie fonds itself holds only some General
Assembly meeting files. Further files, though
not many, are held in the Dag Hammarsklöld papers, mostly concerning Lie’s meetings with Undersecretaries-General.
UNARMS:
https://archives.un.org/sites/archives.un.org/files/files/Finding Aids/SG/AG-013_Trygve.pdf
The Andrew Cordier Papers at Columbia
University (see below) hold some of Lie’s files in Boxes 116, 117, and 130,
relating to trips and other subjects.
UNARMS suggests that Lie donated further papers to the Norwegian Foreign Ministry, held at the National Library of Norway. These seem, however, to be held by the National Archives of Norway, and contain papers relating to World War II, to Lie's time as Secretary-General, and to his memoirs.
Address: Riksarkivet PO Box 4013 Ulleval Stadion N-0806 Oslo Norway
Phone: (00) 47 22 02 26 00
Fax: (00) 47 22 23 74 89
Email: riksarkivet@arkivverket.no
A finding aid is available on request by email, in Norwegian and English.
Dag Hammarskjöld
(1953–1961)
The Swedish diplomat Dag Hammarskjöld was the UN’s
second Secretary-General, taking office in April 1953. He was killed in a plane
crash in the Congo on 18 September 1961, whilst supervising UN military
operations there.
As is the case with Trygve Lie, UNARMS holds
few of Hammarskjöld’s files. Further fonds of note, relating solely to the
Congo crisis, are to be found in, and together with, U Thant’s papers.
Finding Aid:
https://archives.un.org/content/un-secretary-general-dag-hammarskjöld - Finding Aid DagH
The rest of Hammarskjöld’s papers are split between
the Andrew Cordier Papers at Columbia University and the National
Library of Sweden. The files at Columbia deal with trips, miscellany,
various subjects, and peacekeeping and/or military matters (see below on
Cordier).
The Swedish files contain memorabilia and
correspondence, country files, photographs, trip files, and files relating to
the Middle East and the Congo.
Address:
The National Library of Sweden/Kungl.
Biblioteket
Box 5039
SE–102 41 Stockholm
Sweden
Phone:
(00) 46 10 709 30
00
Fax:
(00)
46 10 709 39 25
Email:
kungl.biblioteket@kb.se
Hours:
http://www.kb.se/english/visits/hours/ (varies by season)
It is best to contact the library in advance, though
it may be strictly unnecessary. A list of files, through the library’s
‘Eddifah’ search engine for manuscripts, is available, and is split between
Swedish and English.
List:
http://www.ediffah.org/search/present.cgi?id=ediffah:kb:753647:1302174833&termlist=dag+hammarskjöld&boollist=and&fieldlist=set%3Bany&number=10&start=1&script=search.php
U Thant (1961–1971)
U Thant was unanimously elected Secretary-General a
short time after the death of Dag Hammarskjöld, having previously been Burma’s
representative to the UN. Having guided the UN through the Cuban Missile
Crisis, the civil war in the Congo, the admission of dozens of states into the
UN during the period of decolonization, and the establishment of agencies such
as the UNDP, the UNEP, and the UN University, Thant retired in 1971. His death
in 1974 caused a major political crisis in Burma – by then ruled by a military
junta – which involved thousands rioting in Rangoon and the deaths of
protestors.
The vast majority of U Thant’s files – there may be
others in strictly private and closed hands – are held by UNARMS. UNARMS
has also used U Thant’s files in the first step of its digitisation efforts.
Many if not most of his files are therefore available online, through a simple
search using the UNARMS website. It is strongly advised that the archival
description on Thant’s UNARMS biography page are used in conjunction with this,
as the search engine is rather sprawling.
Finding Aid:
https://archives.un.org/content/un-secretary-general-u-thant - Archival Fonds UT
Kurt Waldheim
(1972–1981)
Kurt Waldheim, after an unsuccessful attempt to
become President of Austria in 1971, was elected Secretary-General of the UN at
the end of the same year. Having been re-elected in 1976, the People’s Republic
of China vetoed his attempt to serve a third term. Running for President of
Austria once again in 1985/6, Waldheim’s activities as an officer in the
Wehrmacht during the Second World War caused an international furore, which some
argued heavily diminished the integrity of the office of the Secretary-General.
Waldheim’s past led him – despite a successful election to the Presidency, an
office he held until 1992 – to be declared persona non grata by the
United States of America in 1987. Waldheim’s term at the UN is notable mostly
for his travelling, as well as heavy involvement in Middle East politics.
Waldheim’s papers are mostly split between his
Austrian and UN service. UNARMS holds nearly 500 boxes relating to
Waldheim’s time as Secretary-General, including his personal files and his
correspondence with heads of state. A full archival description is available.
Many files are also online through UNARMS’s search function.
Finding Aid:
https://archives.un.org/content/un-secretary-general-kurt-waldheim - Archival Fonds KW
Another large collection of Waldheim’s papers is held
at the Austrian National Library, the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek in Vienna. There appears to be no finding aid for these papers, and potential
researchers absolutely must contact the archive before arrival.
Address:
Österreichische Nationalbibliothek
Department of Manuscripts and Rare Books
Josefsplatz
1
1015 Wien
Austria
Phone:
(00) 43 1 534 10
288
Fax:
(00)
43 1 534 10 296
Email:
had-slg@onb.ac.at
Collections (de):
http://www.onb.ac.at/sammlungen/hschrift/handschriften_bestaende_archive.htm
Collections (en):
http://www.onb.ac.at/ev/collections/manuscripts/9904.htm
Javier Pérez de Cuéllar
(1982–1991)
Javier Pérez de Cuéllar was elected Secretary-General
of the UN in 1981, taking over from Kurt Waldheim, and having been active both
as Peru’s representative to the UN and for the UN itself during the 1970s.
During his tenure – he was re-elected in 1986 – he was prominent in mediation
between Great Britain and Argentina after the Falklands War, in the
negotiations for Namibia’s independence, and the Cyprus dispute.
The papers of Cuéllar that relate to his time at the
UN are held by UNARMS: others remain in private hands and/or have yet to
be released. UNARMS currently permits access up to 1989, though the period up
to the end of 1991 will soon be opened.
UNARMS:
https://archives.un.org/content/un-secretary-general-javier-p%C3%A9rez-de-cu%C3%A9llar#Archival%20Fonds%20JPDC
Photocopies of the papers that Cuéllar used to write
his memoirs, Pilgrimage for Peace, are held at Yale University Library.
Yale also holds various miscellaneous papers of Cuéllar’s.
Address:
Manuscripts and Archives
Sterling Memorial
Library
128 Wall Street
P.O. Box
208240
New Haven
CT 06520
Phone:
(00) 1 203 432 1735
Fax:
(00)
1 203 432 7441
Finding aid:
http://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/mssa.ms.1768
FA (.pdf):
http://drs.library.yale.edu:8083/fedora/get/mssa:ms.1768/PDF
Boutros Boutros-Ghali
(1992–1996)
Boutros Boutros-Ghali was elected to replace Cuéllar
in 1991, and is the only Secretary-General to have served a single term: his
bid for a second term was vetoed by the United States, largely over his
performances relating to Rwanda, Angola, and Bosnia. Perhaps his greatest
contribution to the history of the United Nations – besides his repeated
failure to act – was the writing of An Agenda for Peace in 1992, which
introduced the concept of ‘post-conflict peacebuilding’ and firmed ideas of
peacekeeping. Prior to his UN role, Boutros-Ghali was Egypt’s Foreign Minister
for fourteen years.
UNARMS will
open many of Boutros-Ghali’s papers in 2013, as restrictions are gradually
lifted.
Finding Aid:
https://archives.un.org/content/un-secretary-general-boutros-boutros-ghali - FR Archival Fonds BB-G
More of Boutros-Ghali’s papers are held at the Hoover
Institution Archives at Stanford University in California. These papers
especially refer to Boutros-Ghali’s time as Egyptian Foreign Minister, but also
include UN details, as well as some papers of Charles Hill, a special advisor
to Boutros-Ghali at the UN. No finding aid seems available online.
Address:
Carol Leadenham
Hoover
Institution Archives
Stanford
CA
94305-6010
United
States of America
Phone:
(00) 1 650 723 3563
Fax:
(00) 1 650 723 3445
Email:
carol.leadenham@stanford.edu
Hours:
Monday – Friday,
8.15am – 4.45pm
Hours:
http://www.hoover.org/library-and-archives/hours-and-directions
Kofi Annan (1997–2006)
Previously an Assistant Secretary-General from the
late 1980s onwards, including responsibility for peacekeeping between 1993 and
1996, as well as being Undersecretary-General from 1994, Kofi Annan was elected
Secretary-General in late 1996. Annan’s two-term tenure saw the instigation of
the Millennium Development Goals, the Oil-for-Food scandal, and difficulties in
asserting the UN’s role in the face of an increasingly unilateral United States
of America.
Annan’s papers are not yet declassified, but UNARMS is
undertaking a large declassification project and access should be more open
soon. The declassification project is being undertaken in association with the
publication of his public papers by Jean Krasno at Yale.
Finding Aid:
https://archives.un.org/content/un-secretary-general-kofi-annan - Archival Fonds KA
Ralph Bunche (1903-1971) began his association with
the UN at the Dumbarton Oaks conference discussing its foundation. He was also
key in drafting the UN Declaration of Human Rights. In 1948 he became the chief
UN mediator in the Arab-Israeli conflict, his work in which gained him the
Nobel Peace Prize in 1950. Bunche was Undersecretary of Special Political
Affairs between 1958 and 1967, and Undersecretary-General from 1968. Also a key
figure in the American civil rights movement and a distinguished professor,
Bunche died in 1971. He was the subject of a biography, Ralph Bunche: An
American Life (1993), by Sir Brian Urquhart, perhaps the UN’s most eminent
international civil servant.
Most of the Ralph Bunche papers are held in the
Special Collections of UCLA in California, USA:
Address:
A1713 Charles E.
Young Research Library
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575
United States of America
Phone:
(00) 1 310 825 4988
Fax:
(00) 1 310 206 1864
Email:
Contact
form
Hours:
Monday – Friday, 10am – 5pm
Potential researchers should contact the library via
the contact form at least five days in advance of a visit, as files may be held
offsite. Photo ID will be required for a UC library card.
Some files are held online, and are viewable through
the general, and highly detailed online finding aid.
Finding aid:
http://archives.nypl.org/scm/20652
Also held at UCLA are the papers of Sir Brian
Urquhart specifically relating to his Bunche biography. These files contain a
wealth of further information on Bunche, and have been made available to the
public.
Finding aid:
http://www.oac.cdlib.org/view?docId=kt409nb02d;style=oac4;view=dsc#c01-1.3.6.84
Further, more private papers (correspondence with
family, etc.) are held at the Schomburg Center in New York. Though more
private, the archive does contain significant papers relating explicitly to
Bunche’s UN work, including correspondence with Secretaries-General:
Address:
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
515 Malcolm
X Boulevard
New York,
NY 10037–1801
United
States of America
Phone:
(00) 1 212 491 2224
Email:
scmarbref@nypl.org
Hours:
Tuesday – Thursday,
12am – 5pm; Friday – Saturday, 10am – 5pm (by appointment only)
Introduction:
http://www.nypl.org/archives/3521
Finding aid:
http://www.nypl.org/ead/3521
Andrew W. Cordier
Andrew Cordier (1901-1975) was Executive Assistant to
the Secretaries-General between 1946 and 1962. He was also, variously,
Undersecretary in Charge of General Assembly and Related Affairs, and often a
special representative of the Secretary-General (in Korea, during the Suez
crisis, and in the Congo). He was forced to resign in 1962 after the USSR
accused him of acting with too much independent authority. After Cordier left
the UN he became Dean of the Columbia University School of International
Affairs and President of Columbia University.
The Cordier files are emblematic of the confusing
archive system left by United Nations files. His papers included many of the
papers of Trygve Lie and Daj Hammarskjöld, either simply because he kept them
or because they were used in the preparation of Corder’s published editions of
their public papers. They also include Cordier’s files, correspondence, nearly
80 boxes of administrative folders, and memoranda on a wealth of topics,
including Dumbarton Oaks, subject files relating to his time at the UN, and the
setting up of the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation.
The files are held at Columbia University Rare
Book & Manuscript Library. For further information on contacting the
library, opening hours, procedures, etc., see the entry above on the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace.
Online catalogue:
http://clio.cul.columbia.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBRecID=4078651&v2=1
Full finding aid:
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/libraries/inside/projects/findingaids/scans/pdfs/ldpd_rbml_4078651.pdf
Julian Huxley (1946-1948)
Jaime Torres Bodet (1948-1952)
John Wilkinson Taylor (acting
1952-1953)
Luther Evans (1953-1958)
Vittorino Veronese (1958-1961)
René Maheu (1961-1974)
Amadou-Mahtar M’Bow (1974-1987)
Federico Mayor Zaragoza
(1987-1999)
Koïchiro Matsuura (1999-2009)
Irina Bokova (2009- )
UNESCO itself holds the archives of its
Directors-General, at least for when they worked at UNESCO. The requisite files
are located in two fonds, the ‘Documents
of the Director-General’
and the ‘Secretariat
Records’ which contain many
personal files.
Other files are less simple to find, but the personal
papers of perhaps the two most prominent Directors-General can be found in the
United States. Help finding the other archives might be provided by UNESCO.
Julian Huxley
(1946-1948)
Julian Huxley was the first Director-General of
UNESCO, and was a prominent biologist and scientific humanist. His papers are
held at the Woodsen Research Center at Rice University, Texas, and run to 91
linear feet. They include private correspondence.
Address:
Woodson Research Center
Fondren
Library – MS 44
Rice
University
P.O. Box
1892
Houston
TX
77251-1892
Phone:
(00) 1 713 348 2586
Fax:
(00)
1 713 348 6172
Email:
woodsen@rice.edu
Hours:
Monday – Friday, 9am – 4pm
Huxley’s papers are open to the public, but
researchers are advised to contact the library before a visit.
Finding aid:
http://library.rice.edu/collections/WRC/finding-aids/manuscripts/0050
Guide to Huxley's papers:
http://scholarship.rice.edu/handle/1911/27446
Luther Evans (1953-1958)
Luther Harris Evans was the American Librarian of
Congress under President Harry S. Truman (1945-1953), and then the
Director-General of UNESCO. In 1952 he helped draft the Universal Copyright
Convention at Geneva in 1952. His papers cover mostly the period 1945-1958, and
are held at the Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas
at Austin.
Address:
Dolph Briscoe Center for American History
The University of Texas at Austin
Sid Richardson Hall
1 University Station D1100
Austin
TX
78712-0335
United
States of America
Phone:
(00) 1 512 495 4532
Email:
Reference
Request Form
Hours:
Hours
Researchers wishing to view Evans’s papers are best
served by checking with the library in advance, though they are all open to the
public.
Finding aid:
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/utcah/00289/cah-00289.html
Maurice Pate (1947-1965)
Henry R. Labouisse (1965-1979)
James P. Grant (1980-1995)
Carol Bellamy (1995-2005)
Ann M. Veneman (2005-2010)
Anthony Lake (2010- )
Some of the papers of UNICEF Executive Directors are
held at the UNICEF archives. However, further papers of the first two Executive
Directors are held at the Mudd Manuscript Library at Princeton University, New
Jersey, in the United States of America.
Address:
Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library
Princeton University
65 Olden Street
Princeton, NJ 08540
United States of America
Phone:
(00) 1 609 258 6345
Fax:
(00)
1 609 258 3385
Email:
mudd@princeton.edu
Hours:
Monday – Friday,
9am – 4.45pm
It is best to contact the Mudd before visiting, but files are held onsite and
do not require prior ordering or registration.
FAQs:
http://www.princeton.edu/~mudd/research/
Maurice Pate (1947-1965)
Finding aid:
http://findingaids.princeton.edu/collections/MC103
Henry R. Labouisse
(1965-1979)
Of further interest to scholars is that the papers of
Labouisse also contain documentation of his time as director of the United
Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East
(UNRWA).
Finding aid:
http://findingaids.princeton.edu/collections/MC199
Carol Bellamy
(1995-2005)
Though no papers are publicly available for Carol
Bellamy relating to her time at UNICEF, personal papers up to 1985 are
available via New York University. These are unlikely to be of great interest
to students of internationalism, however.
Finding aid:
http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/fales/bellamy.html
Albert Thomas (1919-1932)
Harold Butler (1932-1938)
John G. Winant (1939-1941)
Edward Phelan (1941-1948)
David A. Morse (1948-1970)
C. Wilfred Jenks (1970-1973)
Francis Blanchard (1974-1989)
Michel Hansenne (1989-1999)
Juan Somavia (1999- )
The ILO Archives hold many papers pertaining to the
activities of all their Directors-General, plus the private papers of Albert
Thomas and C. Wilfred Jenks.
John G. Winant
(1939-1941)
Many of the papers of John G. Winant, including those
relating to his time at the ILO, are held in the Franklin D. Roosevelt
Presidential Library, though there is no finding aid.
Address:
Archives Department
Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum
4079 Albany Post Road
Hyde Park, NY 12538
United States of
America
Phone:
(00) 1 845 486 1142
Fax:
(00)
1 845 486 1147
Email:
archives.fdr@nara.gov orAsk
the Archivist
Hours:
Monday – Friday,
8.45am - 5pm
David A. Morse
(1948-1970)
The papers of David A. Morse, under whom the ILO won
the Nobel Peace Prize in 1969, are held at the Mudd Manuscript Library at
Princeton University. For details on the Mudd, see the entry in this guide on
UNICEF Executive Directors.
Finding aid:
http://findingaids.princeton.edu/collections/MC097
Eugene Meyer (1946-1946)
John J. McCloy (1947-1949)
Eugene R. Black, Sr. (1949-1963)
George Woods (1963-1968)
Robert S. McNamara (1968-1981)
Alden W. Clausen (1981-1986)
Barber Conable (1986-1991)
Lewis T. Preston (1991-1995)
Sir James Wolfensohn (1995-2005)
Paul Wolfowitz (2005-2007)
Robert B. Zoellick (2007- )
The papers of the Presidents of the World Bank are scattered: before Alden W. Clausen, each President took most of his papers with him upon his departure. The World Bank archive itself (see the institution entry above) holds the relevant papers of Presidents from Clausen onwards, and some of the papers of Presidents from McCloy to McNamara, in the 'Records of the Office of the President' fonds. Other papers may be found in the Central Files. Eugene Meyer, the first President, appears to have no accessible public papers, but his four successors have left papers open to researchers. The World Bank website contains a section on all the World Bank Presidents which may provide helpful background information.
John J. McCloy
(1947-1949)
McCloy’s presidency of the World Bank forms only part
of a long and distinguished career in public service. His papers – containing
six folders relating to World Bank work – are held at Amherst College, of which
McCloy was a trustee, though there may be further papers of interest in the
National Archives of the United States, the Truman Presidential Library, and
the Ford Foundation.
Address:
Amherst College Archives and Special Collections
Robert Frost Library
PO Box 5000
Amherst
MA 01002-5000
United
States of America
Phone:
(00) 1 413 542 2299
Fax:
(00) 1 413 542 2692
Email:
Contact
form
Hours:
Monday – Friday,
9am – 4pm
Files may need to be requested 24 hours in advance,
so it is probably best to check in advance with the library.
Information:
https://www.amherst.edu/library/archives/generalinfo
Finding aid:
https://www.amherst.edu/media/view/393545/original/McCloy%20Papers.pdf
Eugene R. Black, Sr.
(1949-1963)
Black stayed at the World Bank for so long – three
terms of office – that it began to be caricatured as ‘Black’s Bank’. His papers
are held at the University of Georgia.
Address:
Hargrett Library
Main Library
320 S. Jackson St.
University
of Georgia
Athens
Georgia
30602-1641
United States
of America
Phone:
(00) 1 706 542 7123
Fax:
(00)
1 706 542 0672
Hours:
Monday – Friday,
8am – 5pm; Saturday, 1pm – 5pm
Closed:
University holidays;
University of Georgia home football games
Researchers should contact the library before
visiting via the ‘Reference
Request Form’ online. A ‘Researcher
Application Form’ will need to be
brought to the library, along with valid ID.
Finding aid:
http://hmfa.libs.uga.edu/hmfa/view?docId=ead/ms1108-ead.xml;query=eugene
black;brand=default
George Woods (1963-1968)
The papers of George Woods are held at Columbia
University. For details on the Rare Book & Manuscript Library Collections,
see the entry in this guide for the Carnegie Endowment. The Woods papers, as
they are rarely accessed, are held offsite, and at least 24 hours’ notice is
required to view them. For some files (the Country Economic Briefs), permission
from the World Bank is required for use.
Finding aid:
http://findingaids.cul.columbia.edu/ead/nnc-rb/ldpd_4078355/summary
- scope_content
Robert S. McNamara
(1968-1981)
The papers of Robert McNamara, formerly US Secretary
of Defense for Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, largely begin in 1968 with the
start of his tenure at the World Bank.
Address:
The Library of Congress
101
Independence Avenue, SE
Washington,
D.C. 20540
United
States of America
Phone:
(00) 1
202 707 5000
Hours:
Monday – Saturday, 8.30am
– 5pm
Finding aid:
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms011085
FA (.pdf):
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms011085.3
Camille Gutt (1946-1951)
Ivar Rooth (1951-1956)
Per Jacobsson (1956-1963)
Pierre-Paul Schweitzer (1963-1973)
H. Johannes Witteveen (1973-1978)
Jacques de Larosière (1978-1987)
Michel Camdessus (1987-2000)
Horst Köhler (2000-2004)
Rodrigo de Rato (2004-2007)
Dominique Strauss-Kahn (2007-2011)
Christine Lagarde (2011- )
The papers of the Managing Directors of the IMF are
largely held in the ‘Office of the Managing Director Fonds’ at IMF headquarters.
The fonds has a 900-page finding aid, and covers most of the office’s
activities from 1951 onwards. Other fonds at the IMF will also cover the
Managing Directors’ activities.
Finding aid:
http://www.imf.org/external/np/arc/eng/fa/OMD/fa-omd.pdf
Camille Gutt (1946-1951)
Though there is not a great deal of interest to
students of the IMF besides his correspondence from the time, the papers of the
IMF’s first Managing Director, Camille Gutt, are held at the Centre for
Historical Research and Documentation on War and Contemporary Society
(Ceges-Soma) in Brussels.
Address:
CEGES-SOMA
Square de
l’Aviation
1070
Brussels
Belgium
Phone:
(00) 32 2 556 92 11
Fax:
(00)
32 2 556 92 00
Email:
cegesoma@cegesoma.be
Hours:
Monday – Friday,
9am – 12am, 1pm – 5pm
A reading room card at CEGES-SOMA can be purchased
for €1 (one week) or €2.50 (one year). Papers are orderable at various points
of the day.
Contacts:
http://www.cegesoma.be/cms/contacts_en.php
Finding aid (Fr):
http://www.cegesoma.be/docs/Invent/Gutt_AA1624.pdf
Per Jacobsson
(1956-1963)
Along with those papers held by the IMF, Per
Jacobsson has left an unusually large documentary trail, including a private
diary. His papers are kept in Basel, split between the archive of the Bank of
International Settlements (see above), and Basel University.
Address:
Universitätsbibliothek Basel
Schönbeinstrasse
18-20
CH-4056 Basel
Switzerland
Phone:
(00) 41 61 267 31
00; (00) 41 61 267 31 30
Fax:
(00)
41 61 267 31 03
Email:
Contact
form (De)
Hours (De):
Öffnungszeiten
Fonds (De):
http://aleph.unibas.ch/F/?local_base=DSV05&con_lng=GER&func=find-b&find_code=SYS&request=000049876
The archive of Basel University maintains a website
that is in German only, but should provide the necessary details for potential
researchers.
Homepage:
http://www.ub.unibas.ch/ub-hauptbibliothek/
Private archives:
http://www.ub.unibas.ch/ub-hauptbibliothek/recherche/historischer-bestand/nachlaesseprivatarchive/
Brock Chisholm (1948-1953)
Marcolino Gomes Candau (1953-1973)
Halfdan T. Mahler (1973-1988)
Hiroshi Nakajima (1988-1998)
Gro Harlem Brundtland (1998-2003)
Lee Jong-wook (2003-2006)
Margaret Chan (2007- )
Other than any collections held at the WHO, few
indeed of the Directors-General appear to have private papers held by archives.
Brock Chisholm
(1948-1953)
Chisholm was the Executive Secretary of the Interim
Commission of the World Health Organization (1946-1948), and then the WHO’s
first Director-General. The small collection of Chisholm’s papers is held by
Library and Archives Canada. The archive contains mostly speeches, lectures,
articles, and correspondence.
Address:
Library and Archives Canada
395 Wellington Street
Ottawa, ON
K1A 0N4
Canada
Phone:
(00) 1 613 996 5115
(00) 1 866 578 7777
Fax:
(00) 1 613 995 6274
Hours:
Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 9am – 4pm; Tuesday, Thursday,
10am – 5pm
Potential researchers must first request
a user’s card online, and then order a
retrieval of documents remotely via an online
form.
Description:
http://collectionscanada.gc.ca/pam_archives/index.php?fuseaction=genitem.displayItem&lang=eng&rec_nbr=98041&back_url=%28%29
Szeming Sze (1908-1998)
Sze was an important Chinese diplomat and an instrumental figure in the development of the WHO into a UN agency. Sze proposed the "Draft Declaration" for an international health organization on the joint behalf of Brazil and China at the San Francisco Conference. He also coined the name of the organization as the "World Health Organization." Sze later became chief of specialized agencies for the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. In 1948, he became the medical director of the United Nations. The collection held at University of Pittsburgh mainly contains Sze’s papers in English between 1945 and 1988. The bulk of the material covers 1945 to 1947. Much of the content is digitized at this link.
Address:
ULS Archives Service Center
University of Pittsburgh Library System
7500 Thomas Boulevard
Pittsburgh, PA, 15260
Phone:
(00) 1 412 648 3232
E-mail:
archives-ref@mail.pitt.edu
Description:
http://digital.library.pitt.edu/cgi-bin/f/findaid/findaid-idx?c=ascead&cc=ascead&rgn=main&view=text&didno=US-PPiU-ua90f141
There are several large archival collections that
related to the United Nations and internationalism more generally. This section
of the guide is a far from complete miscellany that might be of use to
scholars.
United Nations Oral
History Project (Yale University, New Haven)
Sponsored by the Institution for Social and Policy
Studies of Yale University, the United Nations Oral History Project interviewed UN officials, ambassadors from various countries, and other
participants in events including the San Francisco conference on the founding
of the UN, the founding of Israel and subsequent Middle East wars, the Congo,
Korea, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and many other topics.
The tapes and transcripts are available at the
Sterling Memorial Library at Yale University. For more information, see the
entry for Javier Pérez de Cuéllar in this guide.
Finding aid:
http://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/mssa.ms.1703
FA (.pdf):
http://drs.library.yale.edu:8083/fedora/get/mssa:ms.1703/PDF
Further oral histories are available (at cost) as the
result of the efforts of the United Nations Intellectual History Project.
The transcripts are available as a book, UN Voices, or CD. Interviewees
including Kofi Annan and other highly important officials.
UNIHP Orals:
http://www.unhistory.org/oralhistory/
Interviewees:
http://www.unhistory.org/CD/list_of_interviewees.html
UN Voices:
http://www.unhistory.org/CD/un_voices.html
United Nations Career
Records Project (Bodleian Library, Oxford)
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/scwmss/modpol/uncrp.htm
The UNCRP at the Bodleian Library brings
together the private papers, memoirs, and interviews of many, mostly British
people intimately associated with the United Nations of NGOs working closely
with it. The collection includes papers of workers affiliated with the FAO,
WHO, UNHCR, UNESCO, and ILO, as well as papers relating to UNDP, UNCTAD,
UNICEF, UN Statistics, and personal papers of officials. There is a large
collection on peacekeeping, including papers of workers and observers of the UN
operation in the Congo in the 1960s, as well as the UN Force in Cyprus.
Address:
Bodleian Library
Broad
Street
Oxford
OX1 3BG
Phone:
(00) 44 1865 277162
Fax:
(00)
44 1865 277182
Hours:
Monday – Friday,
9am – 5pm; Saturday, 9am – 4.30pm; Sunday, 11am – 5pm
Scholars requiring more information should email modern.papers@bodley.ox.ac.uk. The papers of the UNCRP are in addition to the vast holdings
of the Bodleian itself, including innumerable collections of interest to the
international historian.
Aletta, Institute for
Women’s History (Amsterdam)
http://www.atria.nl/atria/eng/library_and_archive
Aletta is an
international archive of the women’s movement and other gender issues, located
in Amsterdam. It contains the papers of over 600 individuals and organizations,
and may be of use for scholars, though a lot of the collection relates to Dutch
matters.
Address:
Aletta, Institute for Women’s History
Vijzelstraat
20
1017
Amsterdam
The
Netherlands
Phone:
(00) 31
20 5611281
Email:
archief@aletta.nu
Hours:
Monday, 12pm – 5pm; Tuesday – Friday, 10am – 5pm
Overview:
http://www.atria.nl/atria/eng/library_and_archive/archieven_naam
Herbert H. Lehman
Collections (Columbia University, New York)
http://library.columbia.edu/indiv/rbml/units/lehman.html
The Herbert H. Lehman Collections at Columbia
University’s Rare Book & Manuscript Library mostly concentrate on the
papers of Lehman himself (a partner of Lehman Brothers, Governor of New York,
US Senator, and director of UNRRA), but also contain microfilms of the UNRRA
papers held at UNARMS, and the papers of four UNRRA officials other than
Lehman: Hugh R. Jackson, Sir Robert G. A. Jackson, Marshall McDuffie, and Richard
B. Scandrett. The correspondence files of Lehman himself cover a great deal of
the most important politicians and other notables around and after the Second
World War. The collection as a whole is therefore an indispensable tool in
looking at the UN’s early reconstruction efforts in Europe.
Address:
Columbia University Rare Book &
Manuscript Library
Butler
Library, 6th Floor
Columbia
University
535 West
114th Street
New York,
NY 10027
United
States of America
Phone:
(00) 1 212 854 5153
Fax:
(00)
1 212 854 1365
Email:
rbml@libraries.cul.columbia.edu
Hours:
http://hours.library.columbia.edu/?library=rbml
Finding aids:
http://library.columbia.edu/indiv/rbml/units/lehman/guides.html
The National Archives
(London)
This guide has not attempted to delve into the
innumerable papers on international organizations held in national archives.
However, the British National Archives have made two especially useful research
guides on their primary materials. As an example of what might be found, and what
can be achieved by national archivists for international historians, they are
included here.
League of Nations:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/research-guides/league-of-nations.pdf
Britain in Europe:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/records/research-guides/international-organisations.htm
IO BIO - Biographical Dictionary of Secretaries General of International Organizations
Edited by Bob Reinalda, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands, and Kent Kille, The College of Wooster, Ohio, USA.
The IO BIO Project is designed to create a biographical dictionary with short biographies of Secretaries-General (SGs), or other executive heads with different titles, of International Organizations (IOs). IO BIO is designed to give a more complete picture of SGs and their interactions. It focuses on those SGs of intergovernmental organizations who have left a mark for any reason, whether good, bad or unusual. IO BIO includes deceased SGs and those who have been out of office for five years or more and most probably will not return in office as SG. The Project excludes non-governmental organizations for practical size reasons.
IO BIO has a set of initial biographies in place on the website and will add more. Among them are Joseph Avenol (League of Nations), Eugene Black (World Bank), Harold Butler (ILO), George Chisholm (WHO), Julian Huxley (UNESCO), René Maheu (UNESCO), Gerrit Jan van Heuven Goedhart (UNHCR), George Woods (World Bank Group) and Eric Wyndham White (GATT).
IO BIO is looking for experts willing to write an entry, but also for people willing to support the Project with their comments, ideas, and suggestions for potential authors for entries. Please see the website for further details.