Claude Gernade Bowers papers, 1930-1977, bulk 1932-1953

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Summary

Abstract:
Materials related to writer Claude Gernade Bowers, the American ambassador to Spain from 1933 to 1939 and Chile from 1939 to 1953. The collection includes correspondence, book drafts and published volumes, and photographs.
Extent:
8.17 Linear Feet (7 boxes)
Language:
Materials are in English and Spanish.
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item]. Claude Gernade Bowers papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Background

Scope and content:

Primarily correspondence between Claude Gernade Bowers and lawyer Theodore Fred Kuper while Bowers was ambassador to Spain and Chile. Subjects covered include the Spanish Civil War, politics and government of the United States, and United States foreign relations. Also included are two typed manuscripts of Bowers's book My Mission to Spain (approximately 1939 and 1945); and a typed manuscript of My Life, published posthumously in 1962 as My Life: the Memoirs of Claude Bowers. There is also a small amount of publishing related correspondence, photographs, and two books by Spanish politician Manuel Azaña (1880-1940): Plumas y Palabras (1930) and Una Política 1930-1932 (1932).

The 2024 addendum contains correspondence from Claude Gernade Bowers to Terry Kuper Gray Kirker, the daughter of Theodore Fred Kuper. Also included are newspaper clippings, a photograph of Bowers, and autographed copies of Bowers' books Beveridge and the Progressive Era (1932), Pierre Vergniaud: Voice of the French Revolution (1945) The Young Jefferson (1945), and My Mission to Spain (1954).

Biographical / historical:

Claude Gernade Bowers (1879-1958) was born in Westfield, Indiana. He married Sybil McCaslin in 1911 and the couple had one daughter, Patricia. Bowers was an editorial writer for newspapers in Indianapolis, Terre Haute, and Fort Wayne in Indiana, and later in New York. He was the author of several books, including Party Battles of the Jackson Period (1922), Jefferson and Hamilton: The Struggle for Democracy in America (1925) and The Tragic Era: The Revolution after Lincoln (1929). He was appointed as ambassador to Spain from 1933 to 1939 and then to Chile from 1939 to 1953. After 1953 he and his family settled in New York.

Acquisition information:

Gift of Theodore Fred Kuper, February and June 1977.

Box 7 gift of Janet Kirker, December 2024.

Processing information:

Processed by Huntington staff in 2002. In 2025, Kelly Kress processed the addendum and created a finding aid.

Arrangement:

Organized in three series:

  1. Series 1. Correspondence and photographs, 1930-1953
  2. Series 2. Manuscripts, 1939-1950s
  3. Series 3. Accession CSmH_2024_174, 1943-1953
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open for use by qualified researchers and by appointment. Please contact Reader Services at the Huntington Library for more information.

Terms of access:

The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item]. Claude Gernade Bowers papers, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Location of this collection:
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108, US
Contact:
(626) 405-2191
reference@huntington.org
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