Museum and Education Center currently under development at the department of state. It will be a multimedia, publicly accessible, engaging space with Public Programs that help the general public understand a little bit more about what is diplomacy. What is diplomacys relevance to their lives today and how, possibly, they could become involved. We are actively collecting artifacts, researching history, and developing Public Programs. We are very busy. We have a very active Public Program already for students. One of the ways we tell the story of diplomacy is through the wonderful items we have in our collection. Absolutely. Lets jump right in. First object we would like to show is the oldest in our collection. It is the first treaty that the United States entered into, in 1778. Most americans and International Folks understand that american independence in 1776. Part of the recognition was not only did you have friends and allies that were going to fight your enemies in Great Britain, but also, the establishment of economic security. This was vital to the new nation and something really on their minds. Much thatstood very poor nations were weak nations. Part of the negotiations with france had to do not only with getting funding and military support, but also establishing this treaty of commerce. This was established in 1778. The french were not quite sure the americans would be able to pull it off to but after the battle of saratoga, it was pretty clear that americans could actually do this. Americas first professional diplomats conducted these two treaties. The treaty of commerce was essential. It granted france most favored nation trading status and the french were very excited about being able to get into the economic trading war with Great Britain after the war was over, and this treaty would be in effect for several years after. It really solidified our bilateral live relations it really solidified our bilateral relations with france. The object we have here is a printing of the treaty. A famous printer at the time, john dunlap of philadelphia, created about 300 copies of these treaties. Very few remain today. We are lucky and privileged to have this item in our collection. He is also famous for printing the declaration of independence. So, our new nation is emerging. We started sending diplomats abroad. There was some debate in the first half of the 19th century about what our diplomats should look like. Should they wear uniforms . Should they dress more american . And what was american . Because this was a new nation emerging. Exactly. You do not want to show up like a farmer if you are a minister to the courts of europe. That was a real problem. There was not a real serious directive for these ministers going to European Countries until 1853. Jefferson, as secretary of state, mentioned you always need to conduct yourself in plain and simple dress as an american citizen. But it created a lot of confusion. Over the next few years, a lot of ministers had taken it upon themselves to glam themselves up, a little bling here and there. Finally in the 1850s, the secretary of state had it. He said this is not appropriate. We need a standard. He gave a very specific circular, a directive about what you can and cannot wear. Was your simple dress had to be acceptable enough to appear before a king or a monarch. That was a little tough. So the uniform we have in our collection which i think it would be good for you to speak to and then i think we can go into its significance. We have an image of the uniform in our collection. It belonged to u. S. Minister john mason when he went to france in the 1850s. It was specially designed. It was a compromise of what she was just talking about. You had to be presentable at monarchs court, but you did not want to get to elaborate. So, this is a very simple suit model after a naval uniform, yet it is not a military uniform. Ool. T made out of wil simple yet elegant is how i like to describe it. And mason was secretary of the navy. He may have taken that and polished it a little bit. What is interesting about the circular is how significant it is. Once you had the uniform on, you were permitted when you went before court to put an ostrich feather in your hat. Exactly. Today, obviously, we do not wear uniforms, but there are aspects that are ceremonial to diplomacy. Sometimes diplomats or ambassadors do present themselves in a monarchs court. Sometimes part of the ceremony might be arriving to present your credentials in a royal carriage. A male ambassador might be expected to wear black tie formal attire for the event. Other than that, there are not too many formalities as far as uniforms or dress. We are still simple americans. We are very much still simple americans. So, along the theme of an emerging nation, one of the first things our Founding Fathers did was create a great seal the symbol of our nation. , it is a familiar icon, the eagle and the shield holding the olive branch and arrows in its talons. One place the great seal is found most often in diplomacy is in these steel presses. And these are fantastic artifacts, i think. Also, one thing most people might not know is that the department of state is the custodian of the official great seal. That might be surprising. There are still some domestic duties associated with the department of state. A lot of people think about 1776 as the establishment of america. But when countries fight for independence, they dont have recognition unless other countries recognize them. You can say what you want about who you are, but until you are recognized by the international community, you dont really exist. Part of having the great seal is the signature of the United States. It does not matter which person writes their signature as long as the great seal is on that document. Ou present it internationally i am a representative area im telling you this is the United States of america. This seal says this carries the weight of the state of the nation. Seals have been used since roman times or before, usually with wax. They had screws on them. These are a little more modern than those earlier presses. Right, these are called impressions seals. Obviously, the seal itself is this disk that is part of the overall mechanism. Officersee the consular or whoever is operating this would stick the document in between to get the front and back and press down and create a raised impression on the document. It could be a passport or visa. For me, as a curator and one who collects things, these are great. They really can be markers in time. For example, there are various reasons why the seals need to be retired. For example, this one was used at the u. S. Consulate in madras. Which is now chennai. It obviously needed to be retired. So, elsewhere in the collection, we also have a rubber stamp that was used at the u. S. Embassy in taipei. It is now u. S. Embassy beijing. You can see the changing relationships with Something Like that. This was from a consulate in england that eventually closed down. You can see changing national economies, political priorities with openings and closings of consulates as well. So, fantastic items. Yes. And we have some items here that the seals would be appropriate for. The great seal appears on passports. We have many in the collection. They tell fantastic stories. And we have a fantastic story about the owner of this passport. We do. It is the second oldest passport we have in our collection, and unusual on many counts. It was issued to this gentleman, samuel wallace, he was born in connecticut. He was a businessman who spent most of his time in new york city, but he traveled back and forth to bridgeport quite frequently. We know that because we have his diary and accounting book. What is really interesting about him is americans did not need passports to leave the country. It was not required until 1941. The fact that he felt the need to have one, we had to figure out why he would feel he really needed that. Passport in back 1859. Then, they were for shorterterm. So, there was the expectation that you were returning. He was going to europe because his profession was he was into dry goods. Even in9th century and the early 20th century, a job or with someone who would buy things in bulk. For him, it was clothing. This is when you start to see immensely wealthy people emerging. There is a market for fine silks beautiful gloves. , he would go over to paris most of the time and gather up dry goods. We have his accounting book showing a very detailed accounting of who he owed, who owed him. It is so interesting. He would bring that back to new new york city where he had a store in tribeca. And that was the area where you would not go to shop, but if you were a person who had a smaller shop uptown you would go to the , jobber and then take it up to your boutique shop where the wealthy people would shop. We are fortunate to have his passport. I think we should talk about it more. You were surprised when you first saw this. At the time, passports were huge sheets of paper. But he was able to fashion his passport into a handy booklet, very convenient, and he would unfold it, and you can see all of the stamps and the design, and this was such a unique design. The eagle, the wire, and the pattern of the United States of america, the wording around it. That was not the great seal at the time, but it was a decorative element applied to passports. It is much like today. Your passport booklet might have a picture of the statue of liberty or Mount Rushmore something recognizable as american. It evokes our nation in some way. Also unique at the time, the secretary of state signed the passport personally right. You have the secretary of states signature right at the bottom. And one thing i always loved about these old passports is that there were not photographs attached, so he had to describe his features. Himself, yes. There were not standardized terms, so he just answered questions, what is the shape of ehead or the color of your eyes or the shape of your chin or knows. He said he had a straight nose, a round chin, and oval face. Interesting about him is, show them the photograph. He had a beard. Its interesting he was talking about around mouth and a chin, and there you go, a big old beard. Very different times. Very different times. Photographs were not required on passports until 1914. People continued describing themselves for a long time. Quite a while. So, the great seal appears on passports and also on Foreign Service commissions. We have several Foreign Service commissions in the collection. They are fantastic items and tell so many stories and are great markers in time. With theee the wafer great seal that was adhered to this commission. This commission belonged to ambassador ryan crocker when he was appointed to serve as u. S. Ambassador to syria in 1998. Do you want to talk about commissions and credentials . Quick sure. The First Official ambassador was thomas perez who was ambassador to Great Britain. Before that people who held the , post were called ministers. Ambassador crocker served as ambassador several times in his distinct career. Distinguished career. Not only to syria, but to lebanon, kuwait, pakistan, iraq. A new commission every time, so he was no stranger to that part of the world as well as conflict zones. An interesting story of what happened when he was serving in syria, in december of 1998, syrians were protesting u. S. And British Military actions that were ongoing in iraq at the time. The protest grew to the degree that they ransacked the u. S. Embassy, the british embassy, as well as ambassador crockers residence. And they did quite a lot of damage. His commission made it out unscathed, did not suffer any damage, although we do have another one of his commissions in the collection which was on his wall at the time that was significantly damaged. It was his commission from 1991, promoting him to the rank of minister counselor. He experienced quite a lot countries those during that time, and we are honored to have his commission in the collection. It is time for more interesting things. I think we will get out a new set of artifacts to talk about. We talked a little bit about the 19th century. Usually ministers and ambassadors have very small staff overseas. But the issues of counselors and diplomats were not combined. There was an effort after world war i to make sure we had a professional american Foreign Service. In 1924, Congress Passed the rogers act. It combined the consular with the professional american Foreign Service officers and that is when they started to become commissioned. That is when they had to take a rigorous test. Most commissioners at that time were political appointees. This was now standardized. You had to pass the test. Early tests were interesting, because it shows you who they were looking for at the time. And for many years, the professional Foreign Service was very white, ivy league, male, educated men who graduated from harvard. Why dont we talk a little bit about the evolution of the testing process. Of course, today, its an online environment. There are various tests offered throughout the year. That was not always the case. There was one time you had. There was one time of year you had and you had to show up. We have a great booklet from 1940 that gives information about applying to join the american Foreign Service and gives some sample exam questions. Allison, maybe you want to give an idea of what someone applying in 1940 might have to know . The interesting thing, katie, when they first established the idea of professional testing, you did not need to have a college diploma. You you just needed a high school diploma. And that is true today. I have to warn all of our want to be aou foreign officer, you really should go to college. You should get your degree. This is interesting because it shows you what education was like at the time. These were sample questions of someone taking the test. You also did not need to know a Foreign Language. You still dont need to know a foreignlanguage now, but it definitely helps. There are some questions in the back in french and spanish because those were the most popular languages in 1940. But some of these questions, i dont know if you could pass them, but i dont think i could, and i am an historian. You were expected to be able to look at quotes from famous people over the 19th and 20th century. On the test they would give you , a quote such as this. The puritan hated bearbaiting not because it gave pain to the bear but because it gave pleasure to the spectators. Who said that . You have a list of names on the side and have to match it. Fromis could be anyone Abraham Lincoln to patrick henry. And so, that changed. This is the 1996 version of the application and Foreign Service officer sample test folks would use. Obviously very different from , the 1940 version. It gives sample questions as well as lists of colleges in different states where you can sit to take the exam. Much like the sat at that time. But also opening it up to more locations around the country. In 1940, you had to come to washington. It was not as widely offered. This is an interesting booklet. It doesnt have a sample exam. But it is an application. This was used by a woman named mary pendleton. 1969 to applyin to take the Foreign Service officer test. You can see that she ripped off and mailed it in. And she did join the Foreign Service and she later became the first u. S. Ambassador to moldova in 1992. It is a nice piece of history there. While the personnel force is professionalizing, there also changes afoot for women. Very much so. Just as there was an evolution of wanting Foreign Service officers to be more generalists. And then they had specialized training. Women were not precluded from joining the Foreign Service, but there was a caveat. You had to be single. The first professional american join wasice officer to in 1924. Her name was lucille addison. Lucille tried to get married a few years later, so she had to resign from the Foreign Service. And this was the case all the way to the 1970s, when you start to see a major change in the department of state wanting to bring in more women, realizing thats a great restriction. We also have the interesting story about foreign officer wives. Men who were married who entered the Foreign Service went with their families, and the wife was very much expected to be the hostess, and a representative of the United States of america, because ambassadors would entertain at their homes. And so, these american women were offered courses in etiquette and how to entertain properly. And they were completely unpaid for all of that. That was a big problem. You were working as a representative of the United States, but you were not officially an employee of the United States of america. And we have changes in 1971 in 1972 that state in no Uncertain Terms that this tradition of two for the price of one, as they called it, some women might enjoy that and like that, others find it to be exploitative of their time and talents. These were steps in the right direction. There was still a lot more work to be done as far as bringing more equality into the workforce. And of course, theres still work to be done today. But these were important steps in the right direction. So, i think we will bring out another set of artifacts to talk about. Great. So you are looking at a flash card set. It is a beautiful, customdesigned box set of over 200 cards with a chinese character on the front, and the english translation on the back. And this set, as you can see, also includes seven boxes of cards and phrases. Sentence cards and phrases which also have the chinese on the front and the english translation on the reverse. Stand this box was used by the u. S. Chinese language officer who was assigned to what we know as beijing now in 1934. He used the set to master the chinese language. Back then, Foreign Services had to master language, as they do today. Language training is a vital component to becoming a Foreign Service officer. Very much so. That even if fact you dont need to know a Foreign Language to join, you have to have a certain level of proficiency. There is the Foreign Service institute in arlington, virginia, where Foreign Services languagewill go to do training before they go to the embassy to work. And they break it up into different components. If you come in already speaking farsi, urdu, or arabic, youre that is considered to be great. Language training is so important. Foreign Service Officers go through a level of promotion, and you have to demonstrate a certain level of proficiency before you go through your promotion. They can continue Language Training at the embassies abroad. But depending on how difficult the languages are it could take , upwards of 10 months to a year for Foreign Service officers if they are studying what is considered one of the super hard languages. Even today, they use flash cards in 1934. The items we have on the table we like to call tools of the trade of the diplomat. Flashcards. And we have this very curious object here. It looks like a kerosene lantern. It was a kerosene lantern. It still functions as a lantern. But you can see the protrusion is a slide projector. The light of the lantern then projects an image and its portable. And very handy for areas that dont have electricity. This was transferred to us by our u. S. Embassy in singapore. And they were quite literally doing some cleaning out of closets and came across this. I am so glad they did not toss this in the garbage. Back in the mid20th century, Public Diplomacy officers in singapore would use this slide projector lantern, and the embassy had a stash of slides that depicted u. S. Politicians, events in u. S. History, scenery of the United States. And so, the Public Diplomacy officer would go out and engage communities, most often Rural Communities that did not have electricity, and give presentations and have discussions about what is america, what are american ideals, american history, and really try to promote america abroad. Really trying to promote American Values abroad. And it looks so antiquated because it was an adaptation of a magic lantern. Magic lanterns were used widely before film projectors, and that is exactly what they were. They were powered by kerosene and they would put the slides in. But they were used by people in their homes to look at visual images. When you come to the Diplomacy Center, you will see not only do Foreign Service officers communicate in their own language, they use visuals to talk to the native populace about america and its values. That really helps with the mission of the department of state, and the mission of the department of state has been since its inception to promote the interests of the United States of america. So the better you can communicate with locals and politicians the better. , diplomats can be deterred cannot be deterred by a lack of electricity. They still have to go out and do their job. I think this is a fine example of going out and doing it despite your environment. Absolutely. Sometimes, they have to make calls on the ground. Sometimes, they get some instructions on how to do it. Absolutely. Every Good Government job has a handbook, right . This is called a resident officer handbook. It was used by a unique class of newly minted foreign officers in 1950. Normally, a new class of officers would go off to various parts of the world, but this class was unique. They all went to the same place. In 1950, they all went to germany. Why would they all go to germany in 1950 . Well, there was world war ii. What we are looking at here are really diplomatic efforts in germany because of the political instability in germany. Betweeneting forces communism and bringing democracy back to germany. So these officers were trained by using the handbook in a way to promote the American Values, but also the values and benefit of having a democratic government as opposed to a communist government. And these officers were quite aware that by their own personal example they were representing , america as well. They were instructed quite to not necessarily behave yourself, but recognize that people are watching you because you are an american. The handbook does go into some detail on different programs they were supposed to implement as well as the more bureaucratic parts of their job. For example, in the table of contents, the handbook covers things like citizen participation in government. Women in public affairs. And other things like religious affairs, community councils. In addition, there were programs for education, refugees, finance type programs. On the more bureaucratic side, resident officers were good bureaucrats, too. Reports anduired were required to submit them concerning transportation, classified material, and so forth. What is interesting about this piece is when the United States is involved in a formal war or conflict, if the military leaves and the diplomats go in, think about the state on the ground the american Foreign Service officer is dealing with. You were just at war with this country. This is a country you want to maintain a strong, bilateral relationship with and establish an economic relationship with. I think this book was designed to help them. Exactly. The Diplomacy Center began back in the year 2000, during secretary albrights tenure, and since then, it has really grown. It is a publicprivate partnership. There is a foundation that has been raising money, garnering support. On the state department side, the office came into being, the collection has come into being, and we are moving forward in partnership with the foundation to develop exhibitions and Public Programs for the museum and continuing to collect artifacts. And we are looking forward to opening to the public in a few years. This year, cspan is touring cities across the country exploring american history. Next, a look at a recent visit to springfield, missouri. You are tc