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Owen W. and Janet K. Roberts Papers
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Held at: Princeton University Library: Public Policy Papers [Contact Us]
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Princeton University Library: Public Policy Papers. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
Owen W. Roberts was born in Ardmore, Oklahoma in 1924. He served in the United States Army from 1943-1946 and graduated from Princeton University (A.B., 1948) and from Columbia University (M.A., 1952; Ph.D., 1955). In 1955 he entered the Foreign Service as consular officer in Cairo and was commercial officer in Leopoldville in 1958-1960. In the Department he was desk officer for Africa in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research (1961-1962) and in the Bureau of International Organization Affairs (1963-1964). He was political officer in Lagos from 1964-1965, and deputy chief of mission in Ouagadougou from 1966-1968. He attended the Air War College from 1969 to 1970. In the Department he was staff director of the Board of Examiners for the Foreign Service (1970-1971), Deputy Director for Cultural Affairs for Africa (1971-1972), a member of the policy planning staff (1973), and Executive Director of the Office of Inspector General (1974-1975). From 1976-1978, he was Deputy Director of the Sinai Field Mission, Sinai Desert. He was Director of the African Office at the Department of Defense (on detail) from 1978-1979, and deputy chief of mission in Addis Ababa from 1979-1982. In 1983 he served as African adviser at the United Nations General Assembly. From 1982-1984, he was roving Charge in Victoria, Banjul, and then N'Djamena. In May 1984 Roberts was appointed Ambassador to the Republic of Togo, and held that post through September 1986. Owens retired in 1989.
Biography of Janet K. Roberts
Janet Read Kiehel Roberts was born in Philadelphia in 1926. She attended Vassar College, graduating in 1947 with a focus on creative writing and social anthropology. She married Owen Roberts in 1949.
The Owen W. and Janet K. Roberts Papers document the Roberts' time in Cairo, the Congo and Nigeria while Owen Roberts was a member of the Foreign Service. The papers consist of nearly two hundred original letters written between 1955 and 1957, describing the Roberts' life in Cairo, as well as transcriptions of a majority of the Cairo letters, bound and titled "Letters from Cairo, 1955-1957." The Roberts Papers also include bound transcripts of letters from Roberts' Foreign Service in Africa, entitled, "Letters from the Congo, 1958-1960," and "Letters from Nigeria, 1964-1966," as well as "Letters from Jerusalem and the Sinai, 1976-1978." In addition, the bound transcripts contain Owen Roberts' remarks on the Congo and Nigeria for Georgetown University's Oral Diplomatic History program in 1991.
Gift of Owen W. and Janet K. Roberts in December 2006, January 2008, January 2009, and April 2011. Accession numbers associated with this collection are ML.2006.019, ML.2008.003, ML.2009.001 and ML.2011.013.
For preservation reasons, original analog and digital media may not be read or played back in the reading room. Users may visually inspect physical media but may not remove it from its enclosure. All analog audiovisual media must be digitized to preservation-quality standards prior to use. Audiovisual digitization requests are processed by an approved third-party vendor. Please note, the transfer time required can be as little as several weeks to as long as several months and there may be financial costs associated with the process. Requests should be directed through the Ask Us Form.
Four accessions were combined to form this collection. Collection-level MARC and EAD finding aid created when first two accessions were combined to form the collection (December 2006 and January 2008 accessions). The finding was updated when subsequent accessions were acquired in January 2009 and April 2011.
No material was separated from this collection during accessioning in 2008, 2009 or 2011.
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Organization
Subject
- Publisher
- Public Policy Papers
- Finding Aid Date
- 2007
- Access Restrictions
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The collection is open for research.
- Use Restrictions
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Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. For quotations that are fair use as defined under U. S. Copyright Law, no permission to cite or publish is required. For those few instances beyond fair use, researchers are responsible for determining who may hold the copyright and obtaining approval from them. Researchers do not need anything further from the Mudd Library to move forward with their use.
Collection Inventory
2 boxes