Correspondence, reports, and photographs relating to economic conditions in the Balkans and Near East, to American commerce with Turkey, and to the American war economy during World War II.

Eliot Grinnell Mears was born in 1889 in Worcester, Massachusetts. He attended Harvard College, receiving his BA in 1910 and an MBA from the Harvard Graduate School of Business in 1912. From 1916 to 1920 Mears worked for the United States Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, serving as the Chief of the Foreign Service Division, the American Trade Commissioner in the Near East, and the US Trade Commissioner in Turkey. During this time, he operated primarily out of Constantinople and Athens and focused on capital flow in the defeated Ottoman Empire, particularly the Mediterranean and the Balkans. In 1921, Mears came to Stanford University as a professor of geography and international trade, working at the Stanford Graduate School of Business when it was established in 1925 and remaining in that position until his death. He also served as the director of the Hoover Library on War, Revolution, and Peace starting in 1924. Mears died from a heart attack in 1946 while on sabbatical from the University.

2 manuscript boxes, 3 oversize boxes (4.55 Linear Feet)

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The collection is open for research; materials must be requested in advance via our reservation system. If there are audiovisual or digital media material in the collection, they must be reformatted before providing access.