Permanent URL: http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/n870zq81v
Norman Armour Papers, 1913-1983: Finding Aid
MC028
Princeton University Shield
65 Olden Street
Princeton, New Jersey 08540 USA
Phone: 609-258-6345
Fax: 609-258-3385
mudd@princeton.edu
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Published in 1997
©2006 Princeton University Library
Summary Information
- Creator:
- Armour, Norman, 1887-1982.
- Title and dates:
- Norman Armour Papers, 1913-1983
- Abstract:
- The Norman Armour Papers are comprised primarily of Armour's correspondence with State Department officials, American presidents, and foreign leaders.Reports, telegrams, transcripts of speeches and newspaper clippings documenting Armour's diplomatic career, and personal correspondence are also preserved in the collection.
- Size:
- 0.84 linear feet (2 boxes)
- Call number:
- MC028
- Location:
- Princeton University Library. Department of Rare Books and Special Collections.
Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library.
Public Policy Papers.
Princeton, New Jersey 08540 USA - Language(s) of material:
- English.
- Storage note:
- This collection is stored onsite at the Mudd Manuscript Library.
Biography of Norman Armour
Norman Armour, career diplomat and Assistant Secretary of State, was born October 14, 1887 in Brighton, England to American parents.He received his B.A. from Princeton in 1909 and graduated from Harvard Law School in 1913.Armour returned to Princeton to obtain an M.A. in 1915, whereupon he joined the State Department and was immediately posted to the U.S. Embassy in Paris.This was the first in a long series of assignments, placing Armour in the heart of revolutionary Russia (1916-1919), fascist Spain (1924), post-revolutionary Chile (1938), and Haiti during the withdrawal of American troops (1933).Among his other posts were: Tokyo, Rome, Uruguay, Argentina and Canada.
Armour married Russian princess Myra Koudacheff in 1919, after he helped her to flee her homeland.(Armour himself crossed the border to Finland disguised as a Norwegian courier.) Through witnessing the upheavals and perpetual instability of Russia and other countries, Armour came to loathe rebellion and to esteem and promote the dependability of the American system. The Washington Post reported, “Unlike many emissaries, he represented his country, not the country to which he was posted and certainly not himself.”For his considered approach, polished manner and patriotism, Armour earned promotions quickly, rising from 3rd Secretary of the U.S. Embassy in Petrograd, to Ambassador to Chile, to Assistant Secretary of State (1947-48).
He was reputed to be the “ideal” diplomat: straightforward, communicative, and aristocratically old-fashioned.As one paper explained upon Armour's retirement: “The need nowadays is for men who know this or that expertly....the wide-ranging knowledge which Mr. Armour acquired from his rich experience and which his natural gifts tempered into ripe judgements would not come amiss amid the seething and striving and self-centeredness of the specialists.”
Princeton awarded Armour the Woodrow Wilson Award in 1957.After retiring, he continued to advise the State Department and give lectures at Princeton and elsewhere.He died in 1982.
Description
The collection contains approximately 145 letters to Armour, somewhat affectionate and personal in nature, from Presidents Hoover, Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower and Nixon.Other notable correspondents include John Foster Dulles, Dean Acheson, Henry Stimson, George Kennan and other State Department figures, various U.S. Senators, and J. Edgar Hoover, as well as heads of state and officials from foreign posts such as Haiti, Canada and Argentina.Many of the letters express appreciation for individual speeches or Armour's work in general, approval of a promotion or reassignment, or regret for his retirement.Thus, the correspondence documents periods of transition in the diplomat's career, and illustrates the respect and friendship he inspired among officials in both his assigned and home countries.The collection also contains approximately 55 carbons and hand-written drafts of letters from Armour to the aforementioned people and others.
In his letters, speeches and official reports, Armour often refers to his experiences in revolutionary Russia, which helped shape his more conservative and considered manner of diplomacy.In 1919, while stationed at the American Embassy in Petrograd, he wrote to Robert McElroy: “Bolshevism, with its appeal to all that is basest, and a programme which holds out as bait to ignorant workingmen the immediate satisfaction of all their wishes and desires, is...capable of wrecking every country, as it has already wrecked Russia....I believe it has in it the germs capable of destroying civilization itself.” President Nixon later referred to the prediction in a letter to Armour: “You proved, unfortunately, to be an extremely accurate prophet at a time when very few in this country recognized the dangers ahead.”
Long letters between Armour and some of his more unusual acquaintances, such as writers James Thurber, Rudyard Kipling and W. Somerset Maugham, reveal Armour's more jocular side as well as his own story-telling abilities.Letters to his father describe his new surroundings in Paris and the mundane details of making travel arrangements and renovating the flat (“We are meeting the electricians, painters, plumbers, etc. at the apartment on that day and they will then ‘take possession’ for another five or six weeks....”).
Arrangement
The correspondence in this collection is arranged alphabetically by the sender.
Access and Use
Access
Collection is open for research use.
Restrictions on Use and Copyright Information
Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from the Curator of the Public Policy Papers. Researchers are responsible for determining any copyright questions.
Acquisition and Appraisal
Provenance and Acquisition
Myra Armour, wife of Norman Armour, donated the paper in 1984.
Processing and Other Information
Processing Information
This collection was processed by Laura E. Burt in 1994. Finding aid written by Laura E. Burt in 1994.
Descriptive Rules Used
Finding aid content adheres to that prescribed by Describing Archives: A Content Standard.
Encoding
Machine-readable finding aid encoded in EAD 2002 by Techbooks and Cristela García-Spitz on October 13, 2006.
Finding aid written in English.
Preferred Citation
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Norman Armour Papers, Box and Folder Number; Public Policy Papers, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library.
Subject Headings
These materials have been indexed in the Princeton University Library online catalog using the following terms. Those seeking related materials should search under these terms.
- United States.Dept. of State -- Officials and employees -- 20th century.
- Canada -- Foreign relations -- United States -- 20th century.
- Haiti -- Foreign relations -- United States -- 20th century.
- Soviet Union -- History -- Revolution, 1917-1921.
- United States -- Foreign relations -- Canada -- 20th century.
- United States -- Foreign relations -- Haiti -- 20th century.
- United States -- Foreign relations -- 20th century.
- United States -- Presidents -- 20th century.
- Correspondence.
- Diplomats -- United States.
Browse other finding aids related to the following terms:
Contents List
Acheson, Dean, 1945-1949
[Comments on Franco, Korea]
Box 1, Folder 1 Appointment as Political Advisor for the Delegation of the United States of America to the Inter-American Conference for the Maintenance of Continental Peace and Security, Petropolis, Brazil, 1947
[George Marshall letter]
Box 1, Folder 2 Appointment as Delegate of the United States to the Ninth International Conference of American States, Bogota, Columbia, 1948
[George Marshall letter]
Box 1, Folder 3 Argentina, 1939-1955
[clippings, John P. Harrison]
Box 1, Folder 4 Castillo Armas, Carlos, 1955
[President of Guatemala]
Box 1, Folder 5 Armour, George, 1928
[father of Norman Armour]
Box 1, Folder 6 Armour, Norman, Biographical sketch from Current Biography, 1945
Box 1, Folder 7 Assistant Secretary of Political Affairs, Resignation of Norman Armour as, 1948
[Harry Truman, clipping from Washington Post]
Box 1, Folder 8 Award conferred by Haiti, 1934-1935
Order of Honor and Merit, in the grade of Grand Cross, silver plaque
Box 1, Folder 9 Award Conferred by Princeton University: Woodrow Wilson Award, 1957
[includes letter by F. Redpath to “Princetonians” from 1974]
Box 1, Folder 10 Award (tribute) from Foreign Service, 1969
[extract from DACOR Bulletin]
Box 1, Folder 11 Beck, James M., 1953
Box 1, Folder 12 Belgian Embassy of the United States, Norman Armour, Secretary, 1919-1920
Box 1, Folder 13 Berenson, Bernard, 1945
Box 1, Folder 14 Brewster, Owen, 1951
Box 1, Folder 15 Bruce, Rev. Douglas W., St. Andrew's Scots Church, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1941
Box 1, Folder 16 Byrnes, James F., 1946
Box 1, Folder 17 Cahan, C.H., 1938
Box 1, Folder 18 Canada, 1938
Box 1, Folder 19 Chadwick, Robert Burton, 1941
Box 1, Folder 20 Clay, Lucius D., 1975-1976
Re: George C. Marshall Research Foundation
Box 1, Folder 21 Darrow, Whitney, 1938
Box 1, Folder 22 Dario, Ruben, 1944
Box 1, Folder 23 Documents, Two in Russian, 1917-1918
Box 1, Folder 24 Drake, E. Willington , 1941
[British Legation in Argentina]
Box 1, Folder 25 Dulles, John Foster, 1947-1955
Box 1, Folder 26 Eisenhower, Dwight D., 1955
Box 1, Folder 27 Elbrick, C. Burke, 1976
Box 1, Folder 28 Finley, John, undated
Box 1, Folder 29 Fleming, Lord, 1937
Box 1, Folder 30 Foreign Aid, Statement by Former Ambassador Norman Armour before the Special Committee to Study the Foreign Aid Program, United States Senate and Report on United States Foreign Assistance Programs prepared by Armour, 1957
Box 1, Folder 31 Foreign Policy , 1959
[J. William Fulbright correspondence]
Box 1, Folder 32 Foreign Service, 1954-1969
including “Toward a Stronger Foreign Service,” Report of the Secretary of State's Public Committee on Personnel
Box 1, Folder 33 Fox, Frederick, 1977
[A.L.S. with piece of silver]
Box 1, Folder 34 Francis, David R., 1917
Box 1, Folder 35 French Embassy in Russia , 1918
[ALS in French, unidentified signature]
Box 1, Folder 36 French Institute/Alliance Francaise, 1983
Box 1, Folder 37 Fulbright, J. William, 1959
Box 1, Folder 38 Fullerton, Morton, 1932
Box 1, Folder 39 Gourand, General, 1932
Box 1, Folder 40 Guatemala, 1954-1955
[resignation as ambassador]
Box 1, Folder 41 Haiti: Article about Norman Armour in The New York Times, 1934
Box 1, Folder 42 Haiti: Carre, A.V., 1956
Box 1, Folder 43 Haiti: Charles, Joseph D., 1956
Box 1, Folder 44 Haiti: Davis, Roy Tasco, 1956
Box 1, Folder 45 Haiti: Domond, Jules, 1955
Box 1, Folder 46 Haiti: Hull, Cordell, 1933-1934
Box 1, Folder 47 Haiti: Lanier, Clement, 1933
Box 1, Folder 48 Haiti: Phillips, William, 1934
Box 1, Folder 49 Haiti: Roosevelt, Franklin D., 1933-1934
Box 1, Folder 50 Haiti: Vincent, Stenio, 1929-1941
Box 1, Folder 51 Haiti: Zephirin, Mauclair, 1956
Box 1, Folder 52 Harkness, Edward S., 1935
Box 1, Folder 53 Harvard Law School Association, 1913
Box 1, Folder 54 Henderson, Loy, 1975
Box 1, Folder 55 Herrick, Myron T., 1928
Box 1, Folder 56 Herring, Hubert , 1951
(letter re: Armour to The New York Times)
Box 1, Folder 57 Herriot, M., undated
Box 1, Folder 58 Holland, Henry F., 1955
Box 1, Folder 59 Hoover, Herbert, 1947
Box 1, Folder 60 Hull, Cordell, 1947
Box 1, Folder 61 Jusserand, Jules J., 1932
Box 2, Folder 1 Kellogg, Frank B., 1928?
[subject, writer unidentified]
Box 2, Folder 2 Kennan, George, 1975
[nomination for Woodrow Wilson Award “The Legacy of Woodrow Wilson” by Kennan, tearsheet]
Box 2, Folder 3 Kerensky, Alexander, 1917
[xerox of “Recollections of Norman Armour of the Russian Revolution”]
Box 2, Folder 4 King, W. L. Mackenzie, 1935-1949
Box 2, Folder 5 Kipling, Rudyard, 1932
Box 2, Folder 6 Literary Gazette, 1947
[Moscow]
Box 2, Folder 7 MacLeish, Archibald, 1965-1975
Box 2, Folder 8 Marshall, George C., 1947-1955
Box 2, Folder 9 Maugham, W. Somerset, undated
Box 2, Folder 10 McCully, Newton A., 1919
Box 2, Folder 11 McDonald, Nina M., 1975
Box 2, Folder 12 McElroy, Robert McNutt, 1919
Box 2, Folder 13 Morison, Samuel Eliot, 1938
Box 2, Folder 14 New York Times, 1954
Letter to the editor by Norman Armour and others
Box 2, Folder 15 Nicholas II and Chicherin Telegram Report by John David Spangler, 1968
re: Search for the Chicherin Telegram
Box 2, Folder 16 Nixon, Richard M., 1955
Box 2, Folder 17 Ney, Esmond, 1943
Box 2, Folder 18 Palestine, 1947
[xerox letter by Loy Henderson from 1975]
Box 2, Folder 19 Pershing, John J., 1932
Box 2, Folder 20 Phillips, William, 1933-1934
Box 2, Folder 21 Princeton University, 1937-1960
Box 2, Folder 22 Princeton University Gift of etching “Ship of Fortune” by Rembrandt, 1969
Box 2, Folder 23 Princeton University Gift of bronze plaque by Augustus Saint-Gaudens of bas relief of Jules Bastien-Lepage, 1949-1979
Box 2, Folder 24 Report of Norman Armour and others, Member of Secretary of State's Public Committee on Personnel, entitled “Toward a Stronger Foreign Service”, 1954
Box 2, Folder 25 Reston, James, 1962-1974
Box 2, Folder 26 River Plate Import and Export Corporation Peyrouton Matter, 1946
Box 2, Folder 27 Roberts, Kenneth, 1949
Box 2, Folder 28 Roosevelt, Franklin D., 1932-1941
Box 2, Folder 29 Roosevelt, Henry L., 1934
Box 2, Folder 30 Rout, Leslie B., Jr. Re: Strictly Confidential #2848, 1976
Box 2, Folder 31 Russia, 1916-1918
Includes recollections of the Russian Revolution and Russian travel permits
Box 2, Folder 32 Schoen, Wilhelm von, 1946
Box 2, Folder 33 Schott, William, 1929-1947
Box 2, Folder 34 Secretary of State's Public Committee on Personnel Report: “Toward a Stronger ForeignService”, 1954
Box 2, Folder 35 Smith, H. Alexander, 1954
Box 2, Folder 36 Speech to British Society of Argentina on British-American Relations, 1941
Box 2, Folder 37 Speech to Saint Andrew's Society of the State of New York, 1947
Box 2, Folder 38 Statement at 45th Princeton Reunion, 1953
Box 2, Folder 39 Statement before Special Committee to Study the Foreign Aid Program, 1957
Box 2, Folder 40 Stimson, Henry L., 1933
Box 2, Folder 41 Sulzberger, C.L., 1974
Box 2, Folder 42 Taussig, Charles William, 1934
Box 2, Folder 43 Thurber, James, 1941-1952
Box 2, Folder 44 Truman, Harry S., 1948-1951
Box 2, Folder 45 Vandenberg, Arthur H., 1949-1959
Box 2, Folder 46 Venezuela: Resignation as Ambassador, 1951
Box 2, Folder 47 Vincent, Stenio, 1934
[President of Republic of Haiti]
Box 2, Folder 48 Vishinsky, Andrei, 1947
Box 2, Folder 49 Welles, Sumner, 1934
Box 2, Folder 50 West, Andrew F., 1935
Box 2, Folder 51 Whitehouse, Sheldon, 1918
Box 2, Folder 52 Whitlock, Brand, 1919-1930
Box 2, Folder 53 Williams, William A., 1950
Box 2, Folder 54 Wilson, Woodrow, 1917
Box 2, Folder 55
Permanent URL: http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/n870zq81v