General Records of the Department of State. 1763 - 2002. Prints of Diplomatic Events and Facilities, and U.S. and Foreign Political, Economic, and Cultural Activities.
Title:
General Records of the Department of State. 1763 - 2002. Prints of Diplomatic Events and Facilities, and U.S. and Foreign Political, Economic, and Cultural Activities.
From the inception of the Department of State central photographic files in the early 1950's until the mid-1960's, the Visual Services Division's Photographic Branch took a comprehensive approach to print creation, classification, maintenance, and filing.
A print was generated for nearly every arriving negative, then mounted -- along with the prints that often arrived from outside sources without negatives -- and systematically classified by subject or personality. The mounted prints were filed accordingly in the general personalities file (Record Group 59, Series O, "Prints of Diplomatic Personalities and Other U.S. and Foreign Dignitaries"), or, more commonly, in the larger general subjects file. The latter, encompassing a variety of events coverages as well as wide-ranging documentation of places, structures, and processes holding significance for U.S. relations abroad, constitutes Series G.
Images by Department of State staff photographers and other U.S. government agency camerapeople are in the majority (roughly 60%) in Series G, although a very significant minority of the series entries were acquired -- directly, or often indirectly through copies from the U.S. Information Agency "Master File" -- from foreign government sources, such international organizations as the United Nations and NATO, corporate public affairs offices, and commercial news operations. Just over half the prints in Series G have corresponding negatives (original or copy) in Record Group 59, Series N, "Negatives and Proof Sheets Relating to U.S. and Foreign Diplomatic Officials, Events, and Facilities".
This series offers extensive coverage of the treaty-signings, conferences, summits, organizational sessions, and other diplomatic meetings that shaped the landscape of U.S. foreign relations from the end of World War II through the height of the Cold War. Among the milestone events represented are the Yalta and Potsdam Conferences of 1945; the signing of the United Nations Charter in 1945, the Rio Pact in 1947, the North Atlantic Pact in 1949, and the Manila Pact in 1954; the signing of the Korean War Armistice Agreement at Panmunjom in 1953; Japanese Peace Treaty conference and signing in 1951-1952; the 1955 Geneva Conference on Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy; the Big Four (U.S.-Britain-France-Soviet Union) Heads of Government and Foreign Ministers Conferences of 1946, 1954, and 1955; the Antarctic Treaty conference and signing in 1959; and the signing of the Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty in 1963.
Along with such important multilateral pacts and conferences, the print series includes numerous views of negotiations and signing ceremonies for a variety of bilateral agreements involving the U.S. and respective European, South American, Asian, Near Eastern, and African allies: defense treaties, military assistance pacts, mutual weapons development programs, as well as International Monetary Fund, lend-lease, tax convention, extradition, "Atoms for Peace," and cultural exchange agreements.
Considerable photographic attention is devoted, as well, to United Nations (UN) meetings, including regular and emergency sessions of the General Assembly and sessions of such constituent bodies as the Security Council. Images of the latter cover debates on North Korea's invasion of South Korea (1950), the Arab-Israeli conflict in the Suez (1956), Soviet suppression of the Hungarian uprising (1956), the French-Algerian struggle (1957), the India-Pakistan dispute over Kashmir (1957), insurrections in Lebanon (1958) and Laos (1959), the U.S.-Soviet U-2 incident (1960), the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962), and other high-profile issues. Also emerging prominently in Series G are coverages of meetings and field activities of such UN-sponsored agencies as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Health Organization (WHO), and United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Views of numerous economic and educational development projects funded by these UN agencies -- from shipyard reconstruction in Japan, to malaria control in the Philippines, to tin mining modernization in Bolivia -- reflect the scope and pace of technical assistance activity in the two decades following World War II. And so do the many photographs in Record Group 59, Series G showing similar projects supported by assorted Department of State foreign assistance entities, including the Economic Cooperation Administration (ECA) that first administered the Marshall Plan, and the later Foreign Operations Administration (FOA), International Cooperation Administration (ICA), and Agency for International Development (AID). In addition to the UN and State agencies, Series G encompasses coverage of meetings and activities of other organizations, such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), that played key roles in international relations.
Appearing frequently in this series are coverages of conferences, meetings, and other diplomatic encounters are U.S. Presidents Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and John F. Kennedy; Vice-Presidents Richard M. Nixon and Lyndon Johnson; Secretaries of State Dean G. Acheson, John Foster Dulles, Christian A. Herter, and Dean Rusk; and U.S. Representatives to the UN, Henry Cabot Lodge and Adlai E. Stevenson.
Among foreign figures represented are Soviet First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev and Foreign Ministers Andrei Vyshinski and Vyacheslav Molotov; Tunisian President Habib Bourguiba; Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru; Peruvian President Manuel Prado; British Prime Ministers Winston Churchill and Anthony Eden; French Premier Edgar Faure and Foreign Minister George Bidault; Canadian Representative to the UN, Lester Pearson; Ghanan Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah; Japanese Prince Akihito; NATO Secretary-General Paul-Henri Spaak; and UN Secretaries-General Trygve Lie and Dag Hammarskjold.
Another substantial portion of the subject print series is devoted to Department of State facilities, headquarters as well as field. Included are images, primarily exterior, of U.S. embassies and consulates in more than 70 countries around the world, from Paris, France to Tehran, Iran to Rangoon, Burma. On the domestic front, State headquarters is represented, in its various historical incarnations, through photographic reproductions of 18th and 19th Century graphic works, as well as through "live" 20th Century photographs.
The visual progression runs from State's first home (1781-1783), on South Sixth Street in Philadelphia, through the long-time headquarters (1875-1946) in the State, War, and Navy Building at 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, in the nation's capital, to the more modern (1961-on) Main State at 2201 C Street, NW in Washington, D.C. Coverage of Main State encompasses construction progress views from 1957-1960, along with numerous post-completion closeups of facades, entrances, lobbies, offices, lounges, reception rooms, dining rooms, and communications centers. Images of the Foreign Service Institute quarters in Washington, D.C. (2115 C Street, NW) and, later, in Arlington, Virginia (Arlington Towers Apartments), and images of the many State Annexes in office buildings throughout Washington, D.C., round out the documentation of headquarters area facilities.
Also figuring prominently in this series are views of day-to-day operations within the respective headquarters offices, as well as extensive coverage of official State and U.S. Information Agency exhibits, especially those erected to honor visiting foreign leaders. Like the U.S. Information Agency "Master File," from which it borrows liberally, the subject series incorporates considerable material emphasizing the scope of American economic, technological, and military might, and the richness of American cultural life: views range across topics as diverse as atomic bomb tests in Nevada, Air Force flight tests in California, Tennessee Valley Authority dams in Alabama, oil refinery operations in Texas, the Tanglewood Music Festival in Massachusetts, county fairs in Iowa, and 1960 Presidential Election ballotting in Maryland. There is similarly sweeping visual documentation of American monuments and memorials; of architectural, historical, and cultural landmarks in more than 60 cities and towns across the U.S.; and of American natural scenic highlights from the Great Smoky Mountains to Wakiki Beach.
Series coverage also extends to landscapes and cityscapes, street scenes and architectural closeups, farm life and factory life glimpses in more than 80 foreign countries. Additionally, there are views from abroad tied more directly, and often -- from an American propaganda standpoint -- more pointedly, to political and military events. Appearing, for example, are views highlighting anti-Communist agitation in East Germany in 1953; anti-Soviet risings in Hungary in 1956; American and UN assistance to refugees from the Korean War, Greek Civil War, and Suez War; and American, French, and British-supported military operations against Communist forces in Southeast Asia.
ArchivalResource:
70 linear feet,4 linear inches
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