William Walter Phelps papers

A collection of political, business, diplomatic, social, and family correspondence of William Walter Phelps, chiefly letters addressed to him. The collection numbers 199 items, including items related to American politics and the Republican party, Phelps' diplomatic service, his family, social life and literary interests. Correspondents include, among others, Herbert Nikolaus von Bismarck, James Gillespie Blaine, Benjamin Harrison, Eugene Field, Samuel Langhorne Clemens, and Joseph Pulitzer. Also included is the correspondence of John Jay Phelps, a poem by Eugene Field dedicated to Phelps, an 1882 letter containing an eye-witness account of the battle of Battle of Chapultepec, Mexico (1847), ephemera, photographs, and newspapers clippings. The collection also contains papers related to John Chester Eno's embezzlement from the Second Bank of New York (of which Phelps was a director) and Phelps' negotiations with Eno's father, Amos Richard Phelps, to make good the loss (1884).

Materials created by US presidents in this collection include: Rutherford B. Hayes autograph letters signed to William Walter Phelps, 1879 July and December (HM 27382-27383); James A. Garfield and James G. Blaine signed appointment of William Walter Phelps as minister to Austria Hungary, 1881 March 5 (HM 27376); Theodore Roosevelt autograph letter signed to William Walter Phelps, approximately 1888 April 10 (HM 27406); Benjamin Harrison and James G. Blaine signed appointment of William Walter Phelps as commissioner to Berlin Conference on Samoan Affairs, 1889 March 19 (HM 27450); Benjamin Harrison and James G. Blaine signed appointment of William Walter Phelps as minister to Germany, 1889 June and December (includes passport and letter of credit, HM 27484-27485); Benjamin Harrison letters to William Walter Phelps, 1888-1892 (HM 27480-27483); William H. Taft letter signed to Marian von Rottenburg Phelps, 1910 and 1911 (HM 27413-27414).