Scope and Content Note
The records of the American Foreign Service Association span the years 1940-1964 and consist of editorial correspondence, articles, memoranda, editorials, essays, photographs, newspaper clippings, and printed matter pertaining to the publication of the American Foreign Service Journal issued in Washington, D.C., by the American Foreign Service Association, also known as the Foreign Service Association.
The Correspondence series features letters with foreign service officers of all ranks, State Department officials, publishing houses, advertisers, and contributors. Correspondents include Ellis Ormsbee Briggs, Gordon Alexander Craig, Francis Colt De Wolf, Robert H. Estabrook, George F. Kennan, Lewis Rubenstein, Robert Peet Skinner, Henry Serrano Villard, James Russell Wiggins, and Henry M. Wriston.
The Essay Contests series relates to writing contests sponsored by the association in 1940 and 1944. The contest in 1940 asked officers to describe unusual or amusing events and incidents they had witnessed or an experience of an extraordinary or dramatic character. Essays in 1944 were submitted under the title "Suggestions for Improving the Foreign Service and Its Administration to Meet Its War and Postwar Responsibilities."