A collection of material related to the life and work of William Walter Phelps, American lawyer, politician, and diplomat.

William Walter Phelps (1839-1894), was a lawyer, businessman, arboriculturist, and diplomat. Phelps was born in New York, New York, and graduated from Yale University as valedictorian in 1860; in the same year he married Ellen Maria Sheffield. He was active in Republican politics and a good friend of James G. Blaine, Speaker of the House and Senator from Maine. Phelps represented New Jersey in the Forty-third (1873-1875), Forty-eighth, Forty-ninth, and Fiftieth Congresses (1883-1889). In 1881-1882, he served as Ambassador to Austria-Hungary, and from 1889-1893 Phelps served as United States Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Germany. In 1888 President Harrison appointed him as one of the commissioners to represent the United States at the Joint Conference on the Samoan Question, which met in Berlin in 1889. Phelps died in his home in Teaneck, New Jersey on June 17, 1894.

4.4 Linear Feet (2 boxes and 2 expansion folders)

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