Consists of the papers of Claude Gernade Bowers, 1878-1958, ambassador. They consist of correspondence with diplomats, politicians, literary figures, artist, government officials, historians, orators, journalists, editors, publishers, lawyers, bankers, and educators; diaries, speeches, and newspaper clippings. The earliest letters in the collection are from prominent orators in answer to letters he had written asking for advice on oratory. The correspondence for the first thirty years of the twentieth century relates primarily to Indiana and United States politics. Between 1933 and 1939, the correspondence deals with events in Spain. At the time of the Spanish Civil War, Bowers wrote long and detailed letters to Cordell Hull about the situation in Spain. From 1939 to 1953, he was ambassador to Chile. Soon after his arrival, war was declared in Europe and "South America became a diplomatic battlefield." The letters during this period reveal the activities of the Germans and communists in South America, the influence Juan Domingo Peron exerted in the Latin American countries, the demands of the laboring classes, the problems of the copper industry, as well as the economic and political situation in Chile. After Bowers returned to the United States in 1953, most of the letters are requests for speeches.
