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H. Freeman Matthews Sr. 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.
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Harrison Freeman Matthews Sr. (1899-1986) was an American diplomat and career ambassador. He entered Princeton University in 1917 and returned there in 1921, after serving in the U.S. Navy. After obtaining his BA in 1921 and an MA in history in 1922 he decided to pursue a career in the diplomatic service. He attended the Ecole des Science Politiques in Paris, France in the following year, and passed his diplomatic examinations in 1923, entering the diplomatic service in 1924. In the following year, during his first assignment as 3rd Secretary of the Legation in Budapest (1924-1926), he married Elizabeth "Frisk" Luke of Tarrytown, New York, whom he had met prior to his departure. Matthews was transferred to Bogota, Colombia, in 1926, and to the State Department in 1930, where he became Assistant Chief of the Latin American Division (1930-1933). His son Harrison Freeman Matthews Jr. ("Free") was born in Bogota in 1929, followed by Thomas Luke ("Tim") in 1933.
Matthews was appointed 1st Secretary of the Embassy in Havana, Cuba (1933-1937), where he joined Ambassador Jefferson Caffery, under whom he had already served in Columbia in 1928-1930. He was transferred to Paris, France as First Secretary in 1937. After a brief interlude in Spain in 1939, where he served as the first US representative to the Franco government after the Civil War, he stayed in Paris until June 10, 1940, when Italy declared war on France, a week after the capital had been bombarded by Germany. After the resignation of the Reynaud government and the signing of the armistice with Germany and Italy, Matthews spent the following two years in Vichy, where the French regime under Marshal Pétain was based. Matthews' wife and children had stayed in the United States since 1939, but Frisk Matthews visited her husband in Vichy between late November 1940 and May, 1941. After Pearl Harbor Matthews was transferred to London as counselor and minister under Ambassador John Winant (1941). Because of his knowledge of France, he was designated as political advisor to General Eisenhower in the summer of 1942, and was with him during the landings in Gibraltar in November 1942. In the autumn of 1943 Matthews reunited with his family in Washington, where he served for the next four years, first as Chief, then Director of the Office of European Affairs. During this time he attended the Yalta and Potsdam Conferences (1945), the Paris Peace Treaty negotiations (1946) and the Moscow Conference with General George Marshall (1947).
Matthews served as Ambassador to Sweden from 1947 to 1950. Two days before the Korean War broke out, he was appointed Deputy Under Secretary of State, serving under Dean Acheson (1950-1953). In 1955, during his subsequent appointment as ambassador to the Netherlands (1953-1957), his wife Frisk died of a brain tumor. In 1957, Matthews remarried Mrs. Helen Skouland, a secretary he had worked with during the war. He spent his last years of diplomatic service with her as ambassador in Vienna from 1957 until 1962, when he retired and returned to Washington. He served as a member of the Board of National Estimates at the CIA from 1963 to 1969 and as the American Chairman of the American-Canadian Permanent Joint Board on Defense from 1963 to 1969. A widower again in 1966, he married Mrs. Elizabeth Bluntschli in 1967, the widow of an old friend. Matthews died at 87 in 1986.
The H. Freeman Matthews Sr. Papers contain correspondence, photographs, miscellaneous papers and family films, as well as a draft of the memoirs that Matthews wrote after his retirement and published privately under the title "Memoirs of a Passing Era" (circa 1972). The majority of the papers were kept for personal reasons, including the correspondence between Matthews and his first wife Elizabeth "Frisk" Matthews (1900-1955) and his sons Freeman ("Free") and Thomas ("Tim") Matthews.
When Matthews was approached by Boston University Libraries in 1964 he declined to deposit his papers, writing that they would only be of interest to his family but not to historians or research students. "I kept no diary or journal during my forty years in the Foreign Service, and all my reports whether in the form of official dispatches, memoranda, telegrams or personal letters to individuals officials (sic) on subjects of possible "national" interest or bearing are in the archives of the Department of State and in very rare cases have I retained any copies." (Matthews to Richard Gotlieb, Boston University Libraries, 10 December 1964)
When writing his memoirs, however, Matthews was aware of their historical value. He used his correspondence with his wife, sons, his father-in-law Thomas Luke, friends, and superiors for reference in his memoirs. In addition, the correspondence series includes exchanges with researchers and students who sought Matthew's help and recollections for research about World War II, as well as the Cold War.
As indicated by correspondence with the donor in the process of acquiring this collection, some correspondence of a sensitive or personal nature were removed from the collection by the donor before the materials came to Princeton.
Gift of Nancy Matthews in 2010 [ML.2010.010] and in 2015 [ML.2015.018].
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.
The collection contains three 16mm film reels.
This collection was processed by Helene van Rossum on August 17, 2011. A MARC record and finding aid were created at this time. Materials in the 2015 Accession were added by Rachel Van Unen in June 2015.
No material was separated during accessioning in 2011. During accessioning of the materials donated in 2015, an earlier draft of the Vichy diary kept by Elizabeth Luke "Frisk" Matthews in Series 3 was returned to the donor.
- Publisher
- Public Policy Papers
- Finding Aid Date
- 2011
- Access Restrictions
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This collection is open for research.
- Use Restrictions
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Single copies may be made for research purposes. To cite or publish quotations that fall within Fair Use, as defined under U. S. Copyright Law, no permission is required. For instances beyond Fair Use, it is the responsibility of the researcher to determine whether any permissions related to copyright, privacy, publicity, or any other rights are necessary for their intended use of the Library's materials, and to obtain all required permissions from any existing rights holders, if they have not already done so. Princeton University Library's Special Collections does not charge any permission or use fees for the publication of images of materials from our collections, nor does it require researchers to obtain its permission for said use. The department does request that its collections be properly cited and images credited. More detailed information can be found on the Copyright, Credit and Citations Guidelines page on our website. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us through the Ask Us! form.
Collection Inventory
This series is arranged alphabetically. The letters from Frisk to his wife are arranged chronologically by the period during which Matthews served in a particular country.
This series includes some letters to Frisk Matthews, contains personal and official correspondence with family, friends, researchers and others. The family correspondence includes letters from Matthews mother Bertha Matthews ("Mother Matthews") and exchanges with his wife Elizabeth "Frisk" Luke, his sons Freeman and Thomas, and his parents-in-law "Father and Mother Luke" in Tarrytown, NY. Matthews' letters to Frisk, Freeman Jr., and "Father Luke" include personal insights and observations about political situations and World War II. The correspondence with his wife Frisk after they married is chronologically arranged by the period during which Matthews served in a particular country, while Frisk and the children stayed in Tarrytown for periods of time. During the outbreak of the war and Matthews' service in France, Frisk and the children stayed in Tarrytown as well, apart from a five months trip by Frisk to Vichy (November 26, 1940 to May 10, 1941).
The series includes extensive correspondence with Ambassador Jefferson Caffery from 1932 until Caffery's death in 1974, and with Stella Isaacs, Dowager Marchioness of Reading, chair of the Women's Voluntary Service (WVS) in London, from 1947 until her death 1971. The files includes correspondence from all five presidents under whom Matthew served since Harry Truman, but other than thank you letters from John and Jackie Kennedy after staying at their residence in Vienna in 1961, this correspondence is perfunctory. The scholars who consulted Matthews for their research include, among others, Henri Amouraux, Jon L. Boyes, Ellis Briggs, Philip Dur, Arthur Funk, William Langer, and William Shirer.
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Materials are arranged as two general groups of files, the first being typescripts of drafts for Matthews book "Memoirs of a Passing Era", and the second being notes, memoranda and speeches..
This series includes a few memoranda, addresses and speeches, handwritten notes, and a typescript of the complete third and probably last draft of the memoirs that Matthews published privately under the title "Memoirs of a Passing Era" (circa 1972). According to his foreword, Matthews chose for private publication because he did not wish the memoirs to be subject to a commercial publisher's changes, omissions, or additions. In addition, he wanted the book to be a full account of his life as he remembered it, and to contain his "frank opinion of those, both great and small, with whom I was associated in public life. In a few instances my opinions would be less than complimentary and I have no wish to make them public."
The memoirs include many details of his private and family life, which Matthews included for his family's sake. To facilitate research, a list of Matthew's chapter headings, which is not present in the typescript, is provided below. When chapter headings are missing in the typescript they are given in square brackets.
Childhood and early youth (1)
College years - Princeton University 1917-1922, A.B., M.A., '22, L.L.D. '62 (40)
A diplomat at last – Budapest (79)
Bogota, The Athens of America, 1927-1930 (125)
First tour of duty in the State Department, 1930-1933 (187)
[Cuba] (225)
[France] (259)
Spanish interlude (286)
The beginning of World War II (311)
[Vichy] (436)
Assigned to London (485)
Pearl Harbor and "gymnast" (491)
Back to Washington; Director – Office of European Affairs (557)
Yalta Conferences (590)
Sweden, 1947 to 1950 (681)
Deputy Under Secretary of State, June 1950-November 1953 (717)
Eisenhower becomes President, January 20, 1953 (741)
The Hague, 1956 (792)
Vienna, September 1, 1957 – May 24, 1962 (823)
The Kennedy-Krushchev Meeting in Vienna (879)
Retirement from the foreign service, 1962 (899)
I join the CIA (911)
The Permanent Joint Board on Defense – Canada-United States (919)
The happy epilogue and farewell to arms (954)
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Materials in this series are arranged in general categories according to the type of record the material represents: miscellaneous documents and papers, personal records and certificates, diplomatic appointments and related correspondence, telegrams, personal records and memorabilia, clippings, diary, biographical information, guest lists, and correspondence.
The records in this series are of a miscellaneous nature. In addition to a facsimile copy of The Baltimore American of August 20, 1773, the first two folders contain printed materials and memorabilia on various topics, including the Second World War and subsequent peace conferences. Other records in the series are of a personal nature, and include a typescript diary by Frisk Matthews when she visited her husband in Vichy, France, from November 26, 1940 to March 2, 1942. Matthews quotes the pages from February 6 to her departure in his memoirs (pp 462-481).
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The order in which these materials were sent to Princeton has been maintained.
The photographs in this section include formal portrait and group photographs, mainly of H. Freeman Matthews and his wife Elizabeth Luke Matthews. The photos include a portrait of Jefferson Caffery, 1934. The miscellaneous photographs include what appears to be a series of photos, taken in April 1941, of staff members of the American Embassy at their temporary location in Vichy. The photographs include Ambassador Leahy, secretaries, and a code clerk. Matthews describes the accommodation at "Villa Ica" where he chose to live himself, in his memoirs (pp 437-438).
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The order in which these materials were sent to Princeton has been maintained.
The three 16mm films in this section all seem to be family films, shot around the time of Freeman Jr.'s birth in 1929, while the family lived in Bogota, Colombia. The films (400ft long) have not been digitized.
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The order in which these materials were sent to Princeton has been maintained.
This series is mostly composed of photographs taken at events H. Freeman Matthews attended, namely the Potsdam Conference, the Vienna summit meeting between John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev, and meetings of the Canada-United States Permanent Joint Board on Defense. The series also contains materials related to H. Freeman Matthews's family, including the daybook kept by his wife, Elizabeth Luke "Frisk" Matthews, and correspondence to H. Freeman and Elizabeth, mostly from Matthews's mother, Mrs. Henry C. Matthews, and his sister-in-law, Polly.
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