Philip C. Jessup

A Register of His Papers in the Library of Congress

Prepared by Allen H. Kitchens and Audrey Walker
Revised and expanded by Connie L. Cartledge with the assistance of Michael W. Giese and Susie H. Moody

Manuscript Division, Library of Congress

Washington, D.C.

2003

Contact information: http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/mss/address.html

Finding aid encoded by Library of Congress
Manuscript Division, 2004

2004-07-09 converted from EAD 1.0 to EAD 2002

Table of Contents

Collection Summary

Selected Search Terms

Names:

Subjects:

Occupations:

Administrative Information

Provenance:

Processing History:

Transfers:

Copyright Status:

Security Classified Documents:

Preferred Citation:

Biographical Note

Scope and Content Note

Organization of the Papers

Description of Series

Container List

Collection Summary

Selected Search Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Library's online catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically therein.

Administrative Information

Parts I and II of the papers of Philip C. Jessup, author, diplomat, educator, jurist, international lawyer, and statesman, were given to the Library by Jessup in several installments between 1960 and 1977. Part III of the papers was given by Jessup's son, Philip C. Jessup, Jr., in 1995.

Part I of the papers of Philip C. Jessup was arranged and described in 1961. Material received between 1965 and 1977 was processed as Part II in 1978, and the register was completed in 1981. Part III, consisting of items received in 1995, was processed in 1996. The finding aid was revised in 2003. The Philip C. Jessup Papers are partially described in the Library of Congress Quarterly Journal of Current Acquisitions, vol. 18, May 1961.

Items have been transferred from the Manuscript Division to other custodial divisions of the Library. Sound recordings have been transferred to the Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division. Sheet music has been transferred to the Music Division. Some photographs have been transferred to the Prints and Photographs Division. All transfers are identified in these divisions as part of the Philip C. Jessup papers.

Copyright in the unpublished writings of Philip C. Jessup in these papers and in other collections of papers in the custody of the Library of Congress has been dedicated to the public.

Government regulations control the use of security classified items in this collection. Manuscript Division staff can furnish information concerning access to and use of classified material.

Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Roman numeral designating the Part followed by a colon and container number, Philip C. Jessup Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Biographical Note

Scope and Content Note

Part I

Part I of the personal papers of Philip Caryl Jessup (1897-1986) relating to international law and diplomacy includes correspondence, reports, memoranda, manuscripts of articles, books, and speeches, newspaper clippings, and near-print and printed matter extending from 1600 to 1959, with the bulk of the papers falling within the period 1925-1955. The amount of official government papers is small since Jessup did not retain copies of such papers when he left government service. Only a few biographical sketches relate to Jessup's family background.

Nearly two-thirds of Part I of the papers concerns Jessup's work with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; his teaching career at Columbia University; his membership in the Pacific Council, Institute of Pacific Relations; his service as assistant director, Naval School of Military Government and Administration; his service as chief of the Division of Personnel and Training, Office of Foreign Relief and Rehabilitation Operations, Department of State; his tenure as the secretary of the council and assistant secretary-general of the First Council of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration; and his tenure as a United States representative and delegate to the United Nations and as United States ambassador-at-large. Material on these topics is widely scattered throughout the collection but concentrated in the Subject File. The remainder of Part I relates to subjects ranging from Jessup's biography of Elihu Root (1845-1937) to the charges made against him by Senator Joseph McCarthy (1908-1957).

Prominent among Jessup's correspondents are Dean Acheson, Edwin Montefiore Borchard, Nicholas Murray Butler, Frederic René Coudert, Francis Deák, Allen Welsh Dulles, George Augustus Finch, Green Haywood Hackworth, Manley Ottmer Hudson, John Bassett Moore, Lindsay Rogers, James Thomson Shotwell, Frederic C. Smedley, and Henry Merritt Wriston.

Part II

Part II of the Jessup Papers spans the period 1878-1976, with most of the material concentrated between the years 1955 and 1970. Part II consists of Family Papers, General Correspondence, Subject File, Legal File, and Speeches and Writings series. A series of Miscellany includes papers of Jessup's wife, Lois Walcott Kellogg Jessup.

Most of the family correspondence in the Jessup Papers is located in Part II. Family letters covering travels of the Jessups abroad were edited for publication by Lois Walcott Kellogg Jessup. The idea was an outgrowth of round-robin letters which the Jessups, particularly Lois Walcott Kellogg Jessup, wrote to the family following Philip C. Jessup's appointment as deputy United States representative to the United Nations Security Council, beginning with his first trip to a diplomatic conference in Paris in 1948. The letters, interspersed with running commentary and explanations, were transcribed into an unpublished volume entitled “At Large With My Ambassador: Notes From the Diplomatic Sidelines.” Letters written during earlier and later trips were subsequently collected and edited in a similar manner and grouped and titled by trip. Some were transcribed or excerpted into volumes; others remain consecutively paginated or numbered in the groups as assembled by Lois Walcott Kellogg Jessup for editorial purposes. In some instances, the original letters are attached to the pages of the volumes where they were to be inserted by the typist. The letters contain comments, observations, impressions, and descriptions related to the social and personal phases of the trips. The family correspondence also includes a small group of letters which Jessup wrote to his family in 1917 and 1918 while he was a private in Company K, 107th Infantry, Twenty-seventh Division of the American Expeditionary Force during World War I. Written from Spartanburg, South Carolina, and later from France, the letters describe life and conditions in the military.

The General Correspondence, Subject File, and Speeches and Writings File supplement material found in Part I of the papers. The General Correspondence and Subject File are closely related and reflect Jessup's interest in promoting the growth and development of international law in America and abroad. His support of American law school programs, participation in law societies, concern for the Hague Academy of International Law, and his trips to the countries of Africa, Asia, and the Middle East for the purpose of encouraging legal education are well documented in Part II.

The most extensive subject file in Part II pertains to the International Court of Justice on which Jessup served from 1961 to 1970. This file contains personal correspondence with other judges and officers of the court, proposals for improvements in operations, and other papers relating to the work of the court, including the Southwest Africa case. In addition a file on the court is also located in the American Society of International Law subject file. Other topics reflected to a lesser degree in Part II are international cooperation between countries, the Democratic party and national politics, and the war in Vietnam.

Most of the cases found in the Legal File involve international disputes for which Jessup was asked to prepare an opinion based on his expertise in international law. All but two of the cases were prior to his appointment to the International Court of Justice. A Nicaraguan case is the only one which he personally argued before the court.

A group of Lois Walcott Kellogg Jessup's papers in the Miscellany series includes some of her work on behalf of the American Friends Service Committee, reports relating to children in Europe during World War II which she prepared under the auspices of the Children's Bureau of the Labor Department, her activities in support of the United Nations, and notebooks covering trips to Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East where she made special efforts to see conditions, meet the people, and examine the activities of women in Third World countries.

Individuals prominent in the fields of international law in America and in foreign countries, diplomatic service, education, and politics are represented in Part II. A sample listing of correspondents includes Dean Acheson, Richard Baxter, William W. Bishop (1906- ), Chester Bowles, Jasper Yeates Brinton, Frede Castberg, Chirakaikaran Joseph Chacko, Andrew W. Cordier, Francis Deák, Hardy Cross Dillard, Sir Gerald Fitzmaurice, Wolfgang Gaston Friedman, André Gros, Leo Gross, Paul Guggenheim (1899- ), Edvard Isak Hambro, Edwin C. Hoyt, James Nevins Hyde (1909- ), George Frost Kennan, Sir Muhammed Zafrulla Khan, Eelco Nicholaas van Kleffens, Sir Hersch Lauterpacht, Sir Louis Mbanefo, Lord Arnold Duncan McNair, Dean Rusk, Blaine Sloane, Harry S. Truman, Bethuel Matthew Webster, and Charles Woodruff Yost.

Part III

Part III of the Jessup Papers spans the years 1574-1983, with the majority of the papers concentrated in the period 1955-1983. The papers supplement files in Part I and Part II and pertain principally to Jessup's advocacy of international law and interest in international affairs. The Papers in Part III are organized largely according to the arrangement of Parts I and II and include four series: General Correspondence, Subject File, Speeches and Writings File, and Legal File.

Papers in the General Correspondence series, 1958-1983, consist of incoming and outgoing correspondence concerning Jessup's interest in international law and foreign affairs. Among the more prominent and frequent correspondents in the series are Richard Baxter, Jonathan B. Bingham, William P. Bundy, Everett Needham Case, Alan MacGregor Cranston, Hardy Cross Dillard, Robert H. Estabrook, Richard N. Gardner, Leo Gross, W. Averell Harriman, James Nevins Hyde (1909- ), Warren F. Kuehl, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Carl Milton Marcy, Louis H. Pollak, Charles S. Rhyne, Elliot L. Richardson, Dean Rusk, Stephen M. Schwebel, and Earl Warren (1891-1974).

The Subject File, 1806-1983, consists mainly of correspondence, memoranda, legal papers, reports, background material, and printed matter reflecting Jessup's activities with various organizations and his interest in topics relating to human rights, world peace, and international law. The majority of the Subject File pertains to his service as a judge on the International Court of Justice and his work as a member of an advisory committee to the United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea. Most of the court files document his work as a member of the International Court of Justice's rule revision committee. Also included in this series are notebooks and course material chronicling his academic career as a student at Columbia and Yale universities and his teaching duties while a professor at Columbia.

The Speeches and Writings File, 1926-1981, contains speeches, articles, book reviews, and book drafts and related material. Printed articles constitute the bulk of the series.

The Legal File, 1574-1981, one of the larger series in Part III, comprises almost half of this addition. It includes correspondence, memoranda, orders, briefs, opinions, motions, depositions, background material, and printed matter. The majority of the Legal File pertains to three cases, the Power Authority of New York, United States v. California, and United States v. Maine. Jessup served in an advisory capacity on these cases and testified as a witness.

Organization of the Papers

The collection is arranged in three parts composed of twenty series:

• Part I
  • General Correspondence, 1919-1958, n.d.
  • Subject File, 1924-1959, n.d.
  • Miscellaneous Subject File, 1902-1958, n.d.
  • Elihu Root Material, 1600-1938
  • Articles and Books, 1922-1957, n.d.
  • Speech File, 1932-1957, n.d.
  • Miscellany, 1912-1956, n.d.
  • Classified, 1950
  • Oversize, 1919-1958
• Part II
  • Family Papers, 1917-1972, n.d.
  • General Correspondence, 1915-1974, n.d.
  • Subject File, 1933-1976, n.d.
  • Speeches and Writings File, 1938-1974, n.d.
  • Legal File, 1927-1976, n.d.
  • Miscellany, 1878-1969, n.d.
• Part III
  • General Correspondence, 1958-1983, n.d.
  • Subject File, 1806-1983, n.d.
  • Speeches and Writings File, 1926-1981, n.d.
  • Legal File, 1574-1981, n.d.
  • Classified, 1962-1980

Description of Series

Container List