| Title: | Berry mss. |
| Collection No.: | LMC 1080 |
| Dates: | 1925-1971 |
| Quantity: |
Quantity: 14 Boxes Quantity: 9 standard, 5 custom |
| Quantity: | Quantity: 17 bound |
| Abstract: | The Berry mss., 1925-1971, consists of the papers of diplomat Burton Yost Berry, 1901-1985. |
| Location: | Lilly - Stacks; ALF (Auxiliary Library Facility) (Box 10) |
| Language: | English . |
| Repository: | Lilly Library 1200 E. Seventh St. Bloomington, Indiana 47405-5500 Business Number: 812-855-2452 liblilly@indiana.edu URL: https://libraries.indiana.edu/lilly-library |
Burton Yost Berry was born on August 31, 1901, in Fowler, Indiana. Berry studied at Indiana University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in 1923 and a master's degree in 1927, and began his career as an American diplomat in 1928. Berry served as Vice-Consul to Istanbul, 1929-1931; Consul to Athens, 1938; Consul to Istanbul, 1943; Minister to Rumania, 1944; director of the State Department's Office of African, South Asian and Near East Affairs, 1947; and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Iraq, 1952-1954. He also held diplomatic positions in Iran, Italy, Egypt, and Colombia. During his consulship in Greece at the start of World War II, Berry notably negotiated with the Axis powers to allow for food distribution. He retired after his ambassadorship to Iraq in 1954, but continued to live abroad in Istanbul, Beirut, and Cairo until the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975. He briefly returned to the United States with a short stay in San Diego before moving to Zurich, Switzerland, where he spent the rest of his life. In his personal life, Berry was an avid numismatist and art collector with a particular interest in Middle Eastern jewelry, coins, textiles, gems, and other antiques. He donated his collection of Greek and Turkish textiles to the Art Institute of Chicago; his collection of ancient jewelry and other artifacts to the Eskenazi Museum of Art (formerly, the Indiana University Art Museum); and a large portion of his coin collection to the American Numismatic Society. Berry passed away in Zurich, Switzerland, on August 22, 1985, at the age of 83.
The Berry mss., 1925-1971, are the papers of Burton Yost Berry, 1901-1985, diplomat. They consist of correspondence with diplomats, foreign service officers, army officers, statesmen, educators, congressmen, senators, editors, governors, lawyers, businessmen, numismatists, bankers, museum curators, government officials, and archaeologists; reports on Turkish life and civilization; diaries; pictures; newspaper clippings; and memorabilia. The letters to and from his parents give a good account of daily happenings and travels. Reports and correspondence of a diplomatic nature are concerned with African affairs, Albania, Arabs, Bulgaria, Crete, Egypt, Greece, Near Eastern affairs, persecution of Jews, Rumania, U.S. foreign relations; World War II; and the account of Samuel Insull's conversations with Berry aboard the S.S. Exilona and during the ensuing trip to Chicago in 1934. There are also letters and articles which deal with the patterns, stitchings, decorations, and embroidery work of old Turkish towels; Turkish gardens; oriental rugs; gems; coins; Turkish door furnishings; old Turkish silver snuff boxes; Anatolia; and Iran.
Among the correspondents represented in the collection are Baron Abernant; Dean Gooderham Acheson; Theodore Carter Achilles; Garret G. Ackerson; Mehmet Aga-Oglu; Christine Alexander; Charles Edward Allen; George Venable Allen; Paul Humiston Alling; Laird Archer; Athenagoras; John DeForest Barker; Robbins Wolcott Barstow; Jacob Dyneley Beam; Floyd Henson Black; William McCormick Blair; Jacob Blaustein; Charles Eustis Bohlen; Chester Bowles; George Louis Brandt; Ellis O. Briggs; Edward Henry Buehrig; William Carter Burdett; James Francis Byrnes; Henry Alfred Byroade; Harold Anthony Caccia; Jefferson Caffery; Jon Coert Campbell; Cavendish Welles Cannon; Homer Earl Capehart; Wilbur John Carr; William Richards Castle; Ivy Leone Chamness; Selden Chapin; James Rives Childs; William Wendell Cleland; Horace Merle Cochran; Robert Douglas Coe; William Robertson Coe; Francis Patrick Corrigan; Earl Thomas Crain; Edward Savage Crocker; William Smith Culbertson; John Paton Davies; Homer Woodhull Davis; Monnett Bain Davis; Arthur Stone Dewing; Paul Franklin Douglass; Gerald Augustin Drew; Allen Welsh Dulles; John Foster Dulles; Donald Carl Dunham; James Clement Dunn; George Howard Earle; Abba Solomon Eban; William Alfred Eddy; Walter Evans Edge; Dwight David Eisenhower; Eliahu Elath; John George Erhardt; Feridun Cemal Erkin; Melih Esenbel; Mark Foster Ethridge; Charles Raymond Everitt; Herbert Granville Fell; Bert Fish; Henry Holcomb Ford; Andrew Brisbin Foster; Peter Fraenkel; Andrew David Fritzlan; Daniel Gaudin; Guy Mark Gillette; Henry Francis Grady; Everett Dwight Graff; Joseph Coy Green; Joseph Clark Grew; Dwight Palmer Griswold; Charles Abraham Halleck; Orville Harden; Raymond Arthur Hare; William Averell Harriman; Parker Thompson Hart; L. Douglas Heck; Loy Wesley Henderson; John Dewey Hickerson; Henry Albert Hill; Julius Cecil Holmes; Henry Radford Hope; John Evarts Horner; William Harrison Hornibrook; Harold Boies Hoskins; Charles L. House; Frederick Lawson Hovde; Frank Leland Howard; John Brigham Howard; Cordell Hull; John Edwin Hull; Carlisle Hubbard Humelsine; Cloyce Kenneth Huston; Charles S. Hyneman; Samuel Insull; 1859-1938; Samuel Insull; 1900- ; Philip W. Ireland; Kenneth Ross Iverson; Cornelius Comegys Jadwin; Philip Brutton James; William Ezra Jenner; John Durnford Jernegan; Ellis Adolph Johnson; George Lewis Jones; Thorsten Kalijarvi; James Hugh Keeley; Charles Fabens Kelley; Robert Francis Kelley; George Frost Kennan; Donald Dwight Kennedy; Homer Eaton Keyes; Foy David Kohler; Carl Hermann Kraeling; Harold Albert Lamb; Frederick Larkin; Frederick Palmer Latimer; Harold Francis Linder; James Alexander Linen; Boaz Walton Long; Robert Fresnel Loree; Donald Bradford Lourie; Cecil Burton Lyon; Douglas MacArthur; John Van Antwerp MacMurray; Chauncey McCormick; James Grover McDonald; Ernest William McFarland; George Crews McGhee; William McNeir; Lincoln MacVeagh; John Henry Madonne; Elbert George Mathews; H. Freeman Matthews; Gordon Henry Mattison; Roy Malcolm Melbourne; George Strausser Messersmith; Robert Graham Miner; Harold Bronk Minor; Paul Monroe; James Sayle Moose; DeWitt Schuyler Morgan; Leland Burnette Morris; Wallace Murray; George Hewitt Myers; John Nuveen; Sir Francis D'Arcy Godolphin Osborne, Duke of Leeds; Thomas Rossman Palfrey; Ely Eliot Palmer; Joseph Palmer; Jefferson Patterson; John Emil Peurifoy; Christian Magelssen Ravndal; Leslie Edgar Reed; George Frederick Reinhardt; Daniel Catton Rich; Arthur Raymond Robinson; Edward Stanley Gotch Robinson; James Jaquess Robinson; Frederic Gordon Roe; Lewis Henry Rohrbaugh; Franklin Delano Roosevelt; William Manning Rountree; Alexander Grant Ruthven; Joseph Charles Satterthwaite; Cortlandt Van Rensselaer Schuyler; Harold Shantz; John Shapley; Gardiner Howland Shaw; Charles Hitchcock Sherrill; Ruth (Bielaski) Shipley; John Farr Simmons; Robert Peet Skinner; Donald William Smith; Lawrence Henry Smith; Ray Winfield Smith; Walter Bedell Smith; Harold Edward Stassen; Laurence Adolph Steinhardt; Edward Reilly Stettinius; Gorham Phillips Stevens; Harold Hilgar Tittmann; Gerald Toulmin; George Crosby Towner; Sir John Monro Troutbeck; Arthur Gilbert Trudeau; Harry S Truman; Cornelius Clarkson Vermeule; Alan John Bayard Wace; George Wadsworth; Jay Walker; Avra Milvin Warren; Herman B Wells; Edward Gordon Wenham; E. Wynham White; Thomas Whittemore; Sir Charles George Wickham; Thomas Murray Wilson; John Garrett Winter; Frank Gardiner Wisner; William Witman; Charles Anderson Wolverton; William Robert Wood; Sam Edison Woods; Ruth Frances Woodsmall; Jerauld Wright; Henry Merritt Wriston; Cyril Wynn; Charles Woodruff Yost; Rodney Stuart Young.
In the first box of the collection is a folder containing biographical information.
Among other materials is a bound volume of letters received in response to a gift copy of A Numismatic Biography (privately printed, 1971) written by Burton Yost Berry. Bound in blue, having 328 pages, the volume contains letters dated 1970-1976 from figures in the numismatics field, friends, relatives, and personalities such as Julie Nixon Eisenhower, Lyndon Baines Johnson, Patricia Nixon, Jacqueline Onassis, Harry S. Truman, and Herman B Wells. A partial inventory of names is filed with the volume.
An additional volume is Turkish Fountain Notes compiled by Burton Yost Berry during his foreign service tour of duty in Istanbul during the 1930s. Ninety-one photographs are mounted in the 156-page work. The text offers the Turkish inscription on the fountain, the transliteration and English translation, with commentary and location of fountain. One of the photographs was taken by Ambassador Joseph Clark Grew.
Note on Indexing Term - "Art": Included are letters and articles which deal with the patterns, stitching, decorations, and embroidery work of old Turkish towels; Turkish gardens; oriental rugs; gems; coins; Turkish door furnishings and old Turkish silver snuff boxes. Material pertaining to numismatics and Turkish fountains is also included.
Note on Indexing Term - "Slavs": Some reports and correspondence of a diplomatic nature are concerned with Albania, Bulgaria, and Rumania.
Note on Indexing Term - "World War, 1939-1945": World War II reports and correspondence with diplomats, military officers, statesmen, congressmen, senators and governors are included, some deal with war atrocities and some deal with occupied territories.
This collection is organized into six series: I. Bound Reports & Volumes, II. Correspondence, III. Writings & Printed Materials, IV. Pictures, V. Other Personal Papers & Items of Burton Yost Berry, VI. Oversized Items.
This collection is open for research.
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[Item], Berry mss., Lilly Library, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.
Gift: 1976, 1981
Physical Description: (2 copies)
Physical Description: (3 parts)
Scope and Contents: Includes letters received for the biography, 1970-1976.
Scope and Contents: These materials have been separated and grouped into smaller containers because of their size. Therefore, a replication in box numbering occurs with the addition of "s."
Scope and Contents: This series consists of a variety of items. Included are an assortment of official documents, including certificates, maps, and blueprints, as well as photographs and art.