Collection is open to the public. Collection must be used in Special Collections and University Archives Reading Room. Collection or parts of collection may be stored offsite. Please contact Special Collections and University Archives in advance of your visit to allow for transportation time.
Paper finding aid with additional information is available in Special Collections & University Archives.
Robert Louis Buell (1898-1966) was born in Rochester, New York, and educated at Harvard.
He served in World War I as an ambulance driver, first with the American Field Service on the Western Front, then with the American Red Cross on the Italian Front. He then became an officer in the French Artillery and served from 1918-1919.
From 1925 to 1952, Buell served as a career foreign service officer, and was often posted in the Far East, frequently in British dominions and colonies. His primary field of interest was economics and foreign trade.
Correspondence files in the collection are organized alphabetically, and incoming and outgoing letters are intermixed.
The correspondence with Lancelot Oliphant and Peter Scarlett details conditions under which the British diplomatic corps were kept under house arrest in Germany in 1941.
Francis B. Sayre correspondence relates to British ideas concerning independence for India (1942-1943)
The Loy Henderson letters discusses problems with cooperation among the allied forces during WWII.
There is a section of papers dealing with Buell's service in WWI that include visas, maps, service records, correspondence, and a manuscript titled, "The Harvard Reconstruction Unit."
The collection also contains speeches, reminiscences, and other manuscript material. Many of the speeches include drafts or revisions, and were given to Rotary Clubs or other receptions between 1934-1946. The reminiscences consists of a series of short anecdotes regarding domestic servants proposed as a book, but never published. The material is organized by servant name, and includes locations of employment and dates.
Other papers include memoranda (1940-1953) regarding French workers and Nazi Germany; Scotland inviting American investment; the Belgian Congo; and the disposal of the British fleet in an event of a defeat for Britain. Also available is a list of members of the American consulate in Leipzig; photographs; publications; and photographs and clippings regarding a visit of US Marines to Edinburgh in 1958.