Physical Description

1 box

Physical Description

1 box

Physical Description

1 box

Physical Description

1 box

Physical Description

1 box

Junius Wilson MacMurray's personal correspondence includes, among others, exchanges with his mother and brother, the principals of his son's boarding schools, and general Nelson A. Miles, with whom MacMurray served at Vancouver Barracks, WA in 1884-1885. MacMurray's letters to his mother include two letters written while serving with the First Missouri Light Artillery during the Civil War. The majority of the correspondence with Miles consists of MacMurray's original letters, which include letters concerning the Indian prophet Smohalla (November 2 and 20, 1890) and the Mohawk Indians (October 21, 1891). Other than one perfunctory letter (1895), the correspondence does not include replies from Miles, but contains copies of letters of recommendation only. The A-Z file includes letters from and concerning Cornell University, where MacMurray was detailed from 1873-1875.

Correspondence about MacMurray's attempts to secure particular positions within the army or on detail may be found among the Army Records and Correspondence (boxes 2-4).

Physical Description

2 boxes

These records include correspondence and papers concerning the architectural iron firm "McMurray, Smith, and Judge" (after 1880 "MacMurray and Judge") of St. Louis, Missouri, of which MacMurray's father John Dennison MacMurray, who died in 1870, was a founder. The files contain financial statements and correspondence with Arthur J. Judge, Thomas C. Fletcher and others about business problems and legal matters, including correspondence about the firm's eventual bankruptcy (1893).

Physical Description

1 box

The correspondence and papers in this section document the army career of Junius Wilson MacMurray as a volunteer in the Army of the Republic during the Civil War, as well as his service at the regular army from 1866 to his death in 1898, during the Indian Wars. The papers include copies and drafts of MacMurray's reports concerning the Vicksburg campaign (1863) and the Powder River Indian expedition (June-November, 1865), as well as his investigation into land disputes of the Lower Columbia River Indians (1884). A detailed description of MacMurray's commissions and career, including a list of military engagements and battles during the Civil War, may be found in MacMurray's biographical papers in Series 1 (box 1, folder 6).

Physical Description

3 boxes

John Van Antwerp MacMurray's family correspondence includes correspondence with his parents Junius Wilson MacMurray and Henrietta Van Antwerp MacMurray, his sisters Edna and Ethel and their spouses, as well as his wife Lois, and his children Joan, Frank and Lois ("Bisi"). In addition, the subseries includes correspondence with his grandfather John H. Van Antwerp (1823-1903) and other members of the Van Antwerp family, as well as with his father-in-law Frank J. Goodnow and his wife, and other members of the Goodnow family. The files are alphabetically arranged, with maiden names used for the female members of the family, unless the correspondence started after they married. The majority of the series consists of the correspondence between John Van Antwerp MacMurray and his father Junius Wilson MacMurray, who died in 1898, and his mother Henrietta Van Antwerp MacMurray. The correspondence with both his parents documents MacMurray's life at boarding school in New Jersey (Captain Wilson's Collegiate Institute at Newton 1891-1895 and Lawrenceville School 1895-1898), which is supplemented by Junius Wilson's correspondence with the headmasters of both institutes (Subseries 2A).

The letters from John Van Antwerp MacMurray (a bachelor until he was 35) to his mother include extensive and often humorous descriptions of college life at Princeton University (1898-1902), his attempts to get a "footing" in the diplomatic service, and his subsequent diplomatic career. The correspondence is particularly rich for detail about his life and work at the American Legation at Bangkok, Thailand (1907-1908), the Embassy at St. Petersburg, Russia (1908-1911), and at the Peking Legation in China (1913-1917). The Peking correspondence includes interesting observations about the political situation in China and the position of Yuan Shikai. In China MacMurray started taking numerous photographs, many of which he sent to his mother (see series 8). MacMurray's postcards to his mother and sisters, which were printed from his negatives, often provide details that are not found with the photographs, and are therefore kept separately in a chronological arrangement (box 24-26). The correspondence for 1909-1914 includes entries that MacMurray copied from his diaries (see Series 4).

After 1916 MacMurray's letters to his mother include details about his family life, his time as counselor of the embassy in Tokyo (1917-1919) and as Minister to China (1925-1929), a position from which he resigned shortly after his mother's death in 1929. MacMurray's correspondence with his sisters Edna and Ethel complements his early letters to his mother, particularly his letters to Edna, with whom he could often be more frank. The later correspondence includes details about their respective family lives abroad (among other places, Edna MacMurray Robinson lived in Puerto Rico and the Philippines; Ethel MacMurray Wright lived in part in Indonesia).

Included in the series are MacMurray's letters to Lois Goodnow, whom he married in February 1916. A Bryn Mawr sophomore, Lois met MacMurray in Summer 1915 when she and her two cousins accompanied her father Frank J. Goodnow to China. Frank Goodnow was an advisor to the government of Yuan Shikai and had been MacMurray's professor at Columbia Law School. During their marriage the couple kept in close touch when work and family kept them separate. Of particular interest in this respect is the correspondence between April to November 1927, when Lois and the children were in the United States because it was not considered safe to stay in China.

Additional correspondence includes correspondence with the couple's children Joan, Frank, and Lois ("Bisi"), their life at boarding school and subsequent life. The correspondence with Frank Goodnow is not extensive, but includes correspondence about the offer to MacMurray to head the Walter Hines Page School of International Affairs at Johns Hopkins University, of which Goodnow was president until 1929.

Physical Description

24 boxes

The alphabetial correspondence contains John Van Antwerp's personal and professional correspondence, which was rearranged from chronologial into alphabetical order in 2009 and 2010. The majority of the correspondence spans MacMurray's years in the diplomatic service and at the Department of State (1908-1929, 1933-1944), as well as at the Walter Hines Page School of International Relations, Johns Hopkins University (1929-1933).

The correspondence is of particular interest for the time MacMurray served in China as Secretary to the Peking Legation (1913-1917) and as Minister to China (1925-1929). Descriptions of his experiences in 1913-1917 may be found in his letters to his mother and sisters (Family Correspondence, boxes 7-9, 19-20). MacMurray's correspondence for 1925-1929 documents the problems that he faced while the Nationalist Party was gaining control of the country, which led to increasing differences of opinion with his superiors at the State Department, ultimately leading to his resignation in 1929. His correspondence with Secretaries of State Frank Kellogg and Henry Stimson, as well as with Joseph Grew, Stanley Hornbeck, Nelson T. Johnson, and his assistants Willys Peck and Ferdinand Mayer are particularly informative for this period. Of note, too, is the correspondence from George Sokolsky about developments in the Nationalist Party. Related memoranda and notes may be found in the Additional Correspondence and Papers (box 76). Correspondence with Chinese politicians and acquaintances are filed according to the spelling used at the time.

An overview of MacMurray's directorship of the Walter Pines Page School of International Relations, established to support research into foreign relations and policy, may be found in the correspondence with, among others, Joseph S. Ames, President of Johns Hopkins University. This documents how MacMurray became the School's first director in 1930, but decided to relinquish his salary and reenter the Foreign Service in 1933, after economic circumstances prevented him from securing enough funding for the school. Additional correspondence may be found among the subject files in in the Additional Correspondence and Papers (box 80-81).

Information about John Van Antwerp MacMurray's reentry in the Foreign Service and subsequent positions as Minister to Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania (1933-1936) and ambassador to Turkey (1936-1942) may be found in the correspondence with president Franklin Roosevelt, Cordell Hull, and in the files for the Department of State. MacMurray's memoranda are most informative for this period (box 77). Much of the correspondence for these years concerns the International Wheat Advisory Committee, of which MacMurray was assistant chairman from 1933 to 1938, and the Joint Preparatory Committee on Philippine Affairs, which MacMurray chaired from 1937 to 1938. Additional papers concerning both committees may be found in Series 6 and in the subject files (box 77-78).

The correspondence to the respective Secretaries of State, to whom official correspondence was often addressed, may be supplemented by the correspondence filed under 'US Department of State,' as well as MacMurray's memoranda (boxes 76-77). Researchers looking for particular correspondents are advised check the additional correspondence and papers in box 73-82, in addition to alphabetical correspondence. Letters of introduction are filed under the name of he person introduced. Some correspondence is organized in rough chronological order only.

Physical Description

48 boxes