Call Number:

C0031

Repository:

Princeton University Library: Manuscripts Division

Extent:

1 box

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Selected Papers of John W. Foster, Box and Folder Number; Special Collections, Princeton University Library.

Date:

1892-1916 (inclusive)

Creator:

Foster, John W. (John Watson), 1836-1917

Form:

Correespondence -- 19th century., Diaires -- 19th century., Diplomatic documents -- China -- 19th century., Diplomatic documents -- Japan -- 19th century., Diplomats -- United States -- 19th century., and Passports -- United States -- 19th century.

Abstract:

Consists of diplomatic and personal papers relating to the Treaty of Shimonoseki and the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895), documenting John Watson Foster's role as consultant to the Chinese commissioners in the negotiations.

John Watson Foster was an American military man, journalist, and diplomat. He served as U.S. Secretary of State under President Benjamin Harrison in 1892 and 1893. He also helped the Qing Dynasty in drafting the Treaty of Shimonoseki of 1895 as a legal consultant and commissioner. His grandchildren included John Foster Dulles, who also became a U.S. Secretary of State, Allen Welsh Dulles, a director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and Eleanor Lansing Dulles, an economist and diplomat.

The collection consists of diplomatic and personal papers relating to the Treaty of Shimonoseki and the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895), documenting Foster's role as consultant to the Chinese commissioners in the negotiations. Included are the diary (1/30-6/8/1895), begun at Kobe, which Foster kept during his mission; letters to his wife (12/1894-5/1895) from Japan and China; his copies of the Chinese and Japanese diplomatic papers--drafts of the treaty, counter-drafts, memoranda--of the plenipotentiaries (Li Hung-Chang and Ito Hirobumi) involved in the treaty negotiations; passports and other personal papers; and his souvenirs from Japan.

An additional accession includes correspondence of Foster with Hamilton Hull, Paul R. Hickok, Russell Radford, a "Mr. Butler," and a passport signed by Foster for John H. Bloss (1892-1916).