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Donald B. Easum 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
Donald Easum was an American diplomat. Raised and educated in Madison, Wisconsin, Donald B. Easum later served in the Air Force in the Pacific in WWII and went on to earn both a master's degree (1950) and a Ph.D. (1953) from Princeton University. Easum served 27 years in the U.S. Foreign Service in a number of posts, including Ambassador to Upper Volta from 1971-1974, and Ambassador to Nigeria from 1975-1979. Easum also served as Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs from 1974-1975. From 1980-1988 Easum was president of the Africa-America Institute. After teaching a seminar at Princeton University in 1991, Easum was Vice President and Senior Program Consultant of the River Blindness Foundation from 1991-1995.
The Donald B. Easum Papers consist of correspondence, speeches, interview transcripts, cables between the State Department and US embassies in Africa, Congressional testimony and statements, news clippings, and handwritten notes. Documents cover the 1960s-2000s, but the main focus is on Africa in the 1970s, when Easum served as US Ambassador to Upper Volta/Burkina Faso (1971-1974), Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs (1974-1975), and US Ambassador to Nigeria (1975-1979).
The collection was donated by Susan Easum Greaney in 2022. The accession number associated with this donation is ML-2022-005.
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 was processed by Will Clements in 2025. Materials were rehoused into acid free folders but otherwise no physical arrangement was done at this time.
A small number of duplicate publications and some damaged optical media were removed during 2025 procesing, but no other materials were separated.
- Publisher
- Public Policy Papers
- Finding Aid Author
- Will Clements
- Finding Aid Date
- 2025 July 2
- Access Restrictions
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The 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. The Trustees of Princeton University hold the copyright for materials in this collection that were created by Donald Easum. When copyright is held by Princeton University, researchers will not need to obtain permission, complete any forms, or receive a letter to move forward with non-commercial use of materials from Mudd Library. 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
Correspondence (State Dept.); foreign aid research; Foreign Service Institute; clippings; research materials; speeches; state dept. cables; policy documents on Africa from United Nations; President Carter; visit to Nigeria; meetings with Fidel Castro; includes some audiovisual formats containing speeches and events.
Physical Description3 boxes
Policy papers; mostly State Dept. cables; some clippings and speeches. Includes one piece of born-digial media (DVD-R), processed and available for download.
Physical Description2 boxes
While a lecturer at Princeton, Easum took students to South Africa, where they met Nelson Mandela.
Physical Description1 box
1 box