Ceremony for the Diplomacy Center a museum scheduled to , open in 2019. Up next, we visit the artifact storage area to learn about the history of diplomacy. The curator and a historian selected key items from the 7000 artifacts to help tell the story. The Diplomacy Center is the 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 will tell the story of diplomacy is through the wonderful items we have in our collection. Absolutely. Lets jump right in. The 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 understand that americas independence was in 1776. And part of the recognition of these revolutionaries was not only did you need to 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 this new nation and something that was really on their minds. As students of adam smith, they understood that 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 a treaty of commerce. This was accomplished in 1778. The french werent quite sure the americans were going to be able to pull it off. But after the battle of saratoga, it was pretty clear that the americans could 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 sort of get into the economic trading war with Great Britain after the war was over, and this treaty would be in effect for several years afterwards. It really solidified our bilateral relations with france. The object we have here is a contemporary 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. John dunlap was also famous for printing broadsides of the declaration of independence. So, our new nation is emerging. With our first treaties and establishing bilateral relations. We started sending diplomats out abroad. There was some debate in the first half of the 19th century about what our diplomats should look like. Should they wear uniforms . Very serious. Should they dress more american . And what was american . Because this was a new nation emerging. Exactly. You dont 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 any real serious directives for these ministers going to European Countries until 1853. Jefferson, as secretary of state, had mentioned, you always need to conduct yourself in plain and simple dress. But it created a lot of confusion. Over the course of the next years, a lot of ministers had taken it upon themselves to glam themselves up, a little bling here and there. Until finally, in the 1850s, a secretary of state had had it. He said this is not appropriate. We need to have a full standard of dress. He gave a very specific circular, a directive about what you can and cannot wear. The problem was your simple dress had to be acceptable enough to appear before a king or a monarch. So 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 diplomatic uniform in our collection. It belonged to u. S. Minister john mason when he went to france in the 1850s. He had it specially designed. It was made as a compromise, what alison was just talking about. You had to be presentable at the monarchs court, but you did not want to get too elaborate. You can tell it is a very simple suit, modeled after an naval uniform, but not a military uniform. A hat made out of wool. Simple yet elegant is how i like to describe it. Very much so. Also it was his comfort zone because mason was secretary of the navy. He may have taken that and ran with it. What is interesting about the circular is how specific it really 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, our diplomats do not wear uniforms, but there are still ceremonial aspects 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. 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 very familiar icon, the eagle and the shield and holding the olive branch and arrows in its talons. And one place the great seal is found most often in diplomacy is nco in seal presses. And these are fantastic artifacts. 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 domestic duties associated with the department of state. A lot of people think about 1776. That is the establishment of america. But when countries fight for their independence, they dont unless otherion 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. So part of having the great seal is it is the signature of the United States. It does not matter which person writes the signature as long as the great seal is on the document read you present it internationally. You are representing the United States. This is the United States of america. Carries the weight of the sovereignty of the nation. The seals servicing purpose. Seals have been used since roman times, usually with wax. They had screws on them. These are a little more modern than those earlier presses. Alison right, these are called impression seals. The seal itself is the disk that is part of the overall mechanism. As you can see, the officer or whoever is operating this sticks the document in between here and to get the back and then press down and create a raised impression on the document. It could be a passport, a visa. For me, as a curator and one who collects things, these are great because they really can be markers in time. For example, there are various reasons why these seals needs to be retired. Was usedle, this one at the consulate in madras. It is now chennai. Madras andtanmp obviously needed to be retired. Katie that makes sense. Alison so, elsewhere in the collection, we have a rubber stamp that was used at the u. S. Embassy taipei. It is now u. S. Embassy beijing. You can see the changing relationship of 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. Katie yes, and we have some items here that the seal would be appropriate for. Alison absolutely. The great seal appears on passports. We love passports. We have many in the collection. They tell fantastic stories. We have a story about the owner of this passport. Katie we do. It is the second oldest passport we have in our collection, and unusual on many counts. It was issued to this gentleman. His name was samuel waller. 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 travel diary and accounting book. What is really interesting about him, americans did not need passports to leave the country. It was not required until 1941. So the fact that he felt the need that he had to have one, we had to figure out why he would feel like he really needed that. He was issued the passport in 1859. Back then they were were for , shorter term. So, there was the expectation that you were returning. Europewas going over to because his profession was that he was a jobber. He was in dry goods. In the early 20th century, a job buys things in bulk. For him, it was closing. If you think about new york city at this time, this is when you start to see immensely wealthy people emerging. There is a market for fine silk, beautiful gloves. That is what he would do. He would go over to paris most of the time and gather up dry goods. We have his accounting books showing very detailed accounting of who he owed, who owed him. It is so interesting. And he would bring that back to new york city, where he had a store in current tribeca. And that was the area where you would not go to shop, but if you were a person had a smaller shop you would go to the jobber and , then take it up to your boutique shop where the wealthier people would shop. We are fortunate to have his passport, which i think we should talk about more. Alison you were surprised when you first saw this that at the time, passports were huge sheets of paper. But he was able to fashion his passport into a handy booklet, very convenient for all the traveling he did. And he would unfold it, and you can see all of those stamps and the design. And this was such a unique design. The eagle and the pattern and the United States of america wording around it that was not , the great seal at the time, but it was a decorative element. That was applied to passports. It is much like today, your passport booklet might have a picture of the statue of liberty or Mount Rushmore katie something recognizable as american. Alison right, something that you folks evokes our nation in some way. Also unique at the time, the secretary of state signed the passport katie personally alison right. So the secretary of state has a signature right at the bottom. And one thing i always loved about these passports is that there were not photographs attached, so he had to describe his features. Katie himself, yes. Alison there were not standardized terms. Likest answered questions what is the shape of your , four head or the color of your eyes . What is the shape of your chin or your nose . He said he had a straight nose, a round chin, and oval face. Katie what was really interesting is show the photograph. Alison he had a beard. [laughter] katie for the official identifying him with your round mouth and chin, there you go. A big old beard. Alison very different time. Note photographs were required on passports until 1914. Alison so, the great seal appears on passports and on Foreign Service commissions. We have several Foreign Service commissions in the collection. They are fantastic items that tell so many stories and are great markers in time. You can see the 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 . Katie the first ambassador was the ambassador to Great Britain. Before that, people who held the post were called ministers. Alison ambassador crocker served as ambassador several times in his career, not only to syria, but to lebanon, kuwait, pakistan, iraq, afghanistan. Katie a new commission every time. Alison he was no stranger to the part of the world as well as conflict zones. An interesting story of what happened to ambassador crocker 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. And the protests grew to the degree that they ransacked the u. S. Embassy, the british embassy, as well as ambassador crockers residence, and did quite a lot of damage. This 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. Again, he experienced quite a lot serving in those countries, and we are honored to have his commission in our collection. Katie time for more interesting things. Alison i think we will get out a new set of artifacts to talk about. Katie great. We talked a little bit about the 19th century. Usually ministers and , ambassadors had very small staffs 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 diplomatic american Foreign Service. Congress passed the rogers act named after a representative. It combined the consular with the professional american Foreign Service officers who had become commissioned. That is when they had to take a rigorous test. Most diplomats before that time were political appointees. But this was now standardized. You had to pass this test. Interestingsts are because it shows you who they were looking for at the time. For many years, the professional Foreign Service in america was very white, ivy league, male, educated men who graduated from harvard. Why dont we talk a little bit of course, today, its an nline environment. Back then, there was one time of year and you had to show up. We have a great booklet from 1940 the talks 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 the 1940s 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. I went to warn all of you out there who might want to be a foreign officer, you really should go to college. But it shows you what education was like at the time. These were sample questions of someone taking the test. You still dont need to know a foreignlanguage now, but it efinitely helps. Some of these questions, i dont know if you could pass them, but i dont think i could, and i am an historian. Mostly politicians here, and they would give you a quote. The puritan hated bearbaiting not because it gave pain to the bare but because it gave pleasure to the spectators. Who said that . And it could be any one. So, this was a sample of the est folks would use. Very different from the 1940 version. It gives sample questions as well as list of colleges in different states where you can take the exam. But all so opening it up to more locations around the country. This is an interesting booklet. It doesnt have a sample exam. This was used by a woman named ary pendleton. She used it to apply to take the Foreign Service officer est. You can see that she ripped off and mailed it in. She did join the Foreign Service and she later became the first female ambassador to moldova in 1992. A nice use of history there. Things were changing for women. Very much so. Just as there was an evolution of wanting Foreign Service fficers to be more generalist. Women were not precluded from joining the Foreign Service, but there were caveats. They had to be single. The first officer to join was in 1924. Lucille tried to get married a few years later, so she had to decline the Foreign Service. And this was the case all the way to the 1970s, when you start to see a major change in departments to bring in more women, realizing thats a great restriction. 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. So women would take courses in etiquette and how to entertain roperly. And they were completely unpaid for all of that. That was a big problem. You were working for the United States, but 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 is still more work to be done as far as bringing more equality into the workforce, 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. A beautiful, customdesigned box and said with a chinese character on the front, and the english translation on the ack. And this set, as you can see, also includes seven boxes of cards and phrases. Which also has the chinese on the front and the english ranslation on the reverse. In this box was used by the u. S. Chinese language officer who was assigned to what we know as beijing in 1934. He used the set to master the hinese 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. So much so that even if you dont need to know a Foreign Language to join, you have to have a certain level of proficiency. There is an institute where Foreign Services officers will go to get Language Training before today go to the embassy to work. And they break it up into ifferent components. If you come in already speaking farsi, urdu, or arabic, youre going to do great. Language training is so important. Foreign Service Officers go through a level of promotion, and you have to demonstrate a level of proficiency before you go through your promotion. Depending on how difficult the languages, 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, the use flashcards in their studies. We have what we call tools of the trade of the diplomat. Flashcards, and a 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 in the slide projector. The light of the lantern then projects an image and its ortable. Very handy for areas that dont have electricity. This was transferred to us by our u. S. Embassy in singapore. They were literally doing 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 the depicted u. S. Politicians, events in u. S. History, scenery of the United States. 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. And it looks so antiquated because it was an adaptation of a magic lantern. Magic lanterns are used widely before film projectors, and that is exactly what they were. They were powered by kerosene and used by people in their homes to look at visual mages. So not only do Foreign Service fficers communicate in their own language, they use visuals to talk to the populace about america, 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 values of the United States of america, so the better you can communicate, the better. Diplomats can be deterred by a lack of electricity. They still have to go out and do their job. 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 instruction. 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, officers would go off to various parts of the world, but this class was unique. They all went to the same place. 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 real diplomatic efforts in germany. There is political instability in germany. There are forces for communism or for bringing democracy back to germany. So these officers were trained in a way to promote the american values, but also the values and benefit of having a democratic government as opposed to a communist overnment. And these officers were quite aware, by their own personal example. They were representing america as well. Representing quite clearly not just behave yourself, but recognize that people are watching you because you are an merican. 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. Religious affairs, community councils. In addition, education, refugees, finance programs. On the more bureaucratic side, officers were good bureaucrats, too. They had required reports that they were required to submit concerning transportation, classified material, and so forth. That is what interesting to me. When the United States is involved in a formal war or military conflict, when the military leaves and the diplomats go in, think about the state on the ground. You were just at war with this country. Its a country you want to maintain a strong, bilateral relationship with, establish an economic relationship with. I think this would help hem. Back in 2000, during secretary albrights tenure, this began, and since then, it has really grown. Its a Public Private partnership that raises money, garner support. On the state department side, he office came into being, the collection has come into being, and we are moving forward in partnership with the foundation to develop partnerships with the museum and continuing to collect artifacts. We are looking forward to opening to the public in a few
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