The Limits of Public Domain: Challenges Researching Historical Figures Online

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By: Natasha Sharnoff
Published: April 26th, 2026

Cassius Marcellus Clay’s trip to St. Petersburg as Minister to Russia was a small, but highly interesting chapter in the life of Kentucky abolitionist. Clay spent two terms, from 1861 to 1869 as Minister to Russia. Although a period as scant as this can produce hundreds if not thousands of primary documents, in research, accessibility is everything, and lack of public resources regarding Clay’s time abroad brought me great difficulty during my research. At such a low point, I reluctantly consulted ChatGPT for help and discovered that when dealing with vast and often difficult to navigate government archives, AI can be a valuable research partner and should be a part of even skeptical students’ toolkits.

My research began in the library, in the same section where I had found my secondary sources, which appeared to focus on Russo-American affairs. I searched for relevant dates and terms on the spines of books and read through them until I found a winner. The American Image of Russia, 1775-1917, by Eugene Anschel was a chronological collection of American views on Russia through primary sources such as essays from political figures. One such essay from Clay was included, titled “No Nation More Charitable and Humane”, it was written to an editor from the Kentucky Herald, Clay’s home state, defending the character of Russians and their country after harsh criticisms from the paper. This source does well to highlight Clay’s innate character and willingness to represent those who are voiceless.

I then turned to the Library of Congress, one of the less intimidating databases owned by the US government, and put in Cassius Clay’s full name. I was immediately inundated with sources, one of the largest being Clay’s memoir, The Life of Cassius Marcellus Clay. While I was thrilled at first to find his memoir, I knew it wasn’t considered a high level source and continued searching. I continued scrolling and found an address Clay had written for a global audience titled, Appeal of Cassius M. Clay to Kentucky and the World, and knew it would provide a well rounded context to how those outside the US might perceive Clay. My luck promptly ended there.

Afterwards, I prompted ChatGPT, asking it to find primary sources for Cassius Marcellus Clay as Minister to Russia, dates included. It generated a page from the Office of the Historian containing dispatches between Secretary of State Seward and Clay from 1861 that highlighted his duties as Minister and got into the technicalities of his role, something that was lacking from secondary sources. From there, I had to figure out how to find the dispatches from the next 8 consecutive years. Eventually, I found my way around the site and was able to obtain dispatches for each year.

ChatGPT then recommended me a site which contained personal letters to and from Clay. The site, ArchiveGrid, claimed to contain over “554 letters and documents”, that were only listed by title, and whose sole physical copies were housed in the Lincoln Memorial University Library, making them impossible to materialize for my use. I was frustrated that I couldn’t access them in  whole, but the titles and short descriptions were actually somewhat helpful in getting an understanding for what Clay’s day-to-day correspondences looked like, even if I couldn’t use them as proper sources.

Concerned about the diversity of my sources, I mulled through my secondary sources and found something notable from “Cassius Clay’s Glimpse into the Future” by Albert Parry. It was an address to students of Berea College, where Clay proudly credited himself with orchestrating the purchase of Alaska. I frantically searched on Google for more sources, but only came across one final source from Rutgers University containing a personal correspondence between Clay and his acquaintance Moritz Pinner, that highlighting how men of his era conducted networking when abroad.

While the scarcity and inaccessibility of certain resources proved frustrating, the sources ranging from public addresses, private letters, and diplomatic dispatches offered a fragmented yet meaningful picture of Clay’s role abroad. As a researcher, this experience highlighted the need for adaptability and the willingness to use new tools like AI to enhance my search and bridge the gaps I could not cover with traditional methods. Though I was skeptical, I found that incorporating an AI model helped me move over the learning curve of navigating large databases faster, giving me more confidence and a large pool of resources that I likely would not have reached otherwise.

 

Bibliography:

1. Anschel, Eugene. The American Image of Russia, 1775-1917. Frederick Ungar Publishing, 1974.
2. “Cassius Marcellus Clay Papers, 1810-1903.” researchworks.oclc.org. OCLC Inc. Accessed April 27, 2026. [WEB]
3. Clay, Cassius Marcellus, and True American. Appeal of Cassius M. Clay to Kentucky and the World. J. M. Macomber & E. L. Pratt, 1845. [LOC]
4. “Cassius M. Clay, Integral U.S. Minister to Russia, Signed CDV.” universityarchives.com. Accessed April 27, 2026. [UA]
5. Clay, Cassius Marcellus. The Life of Cassius Marcellus Clay. J.F. Brennan & Co. 1886. [WEB]
6. “Minister to Russia Cassius Marcellus Clay.” loc.gov. Library of Congress. [LOC]
7.  “Mr. Seward to C. M. Clay. No. 4,” history.state.gov. May 21, 1861. [HIST] Suggested by ChatGPT.
8. “Oration of Cassius Marcellus Clay before the Students and Historical Class of Berea College” Berea College. October 16, 1895. [WEB]
9. “Transcript of a Letter from Moritz Pinner to Cassius Marcellus Clay.” Rutgers.edu. Accessed April 27, 2026. [WEB]
10. “Untitled” Unknown [WEB] Illustration of Mariinsky Theatre. Accessed April 27, 2026.

When I started researching primary sources for my biographical paper on William Henry Seward, I was initially very optimistic about finding such sources. Seward, as President Abraham Lincoln’s Secretary of State, stood out to me as a paper topic due to his role in both wartime diplomacy and in the early stages of American expansion. Further, his close interactions with diplomats from the Russian Empire marked a generally friendly relationship between the two countries. As a goal, I chose to specifically search for historical examples of nuances in Seward’s behavior as a diplomat to better understand his complex nature. Due to the research which I had already done while looking for secondary sources, I believed that I was well-positioned to find a variety of letters, diaries, newspapers, and other accounts for my essay before I started working.

Firstly, I headed to the Waidner-Spahr library to review the encyclopedias on the relevant time period. During my search for secondary sources, the tertiary sources typically relied on primary sources, making them highly probative and an excellent starting point for this essay. I started by consulting the 1607-1896 volume of Who Was Who in America. Although this book had a very short entry on William Henry Seward, it did point me to Seward’s autobiography, titled Autobiography of William H. Seward, from 1801 to 1834. With a Memoir of His Life, and Selections from His Letters from 1831 to 1846. I was able to find a digital copy of this book using the Library of Congress’s database. Unfortunately, as demonstrated by the title, this account only provided me with insight into the early stages of Seward’s life. Still, the intricate, first-hand description of the early stages of Seward’s career, culminating with his work during the Mexican-American War in Chapter 65, especially stood out to me for its description of the then-ongoing tension with England, as well as the internal politics which were affecting diplomatic relations abroad.

I also reviewed the Abraham Lincoln Encyclopedia by historian Mark E. Neely, Jr. Here, I found a series of primary sources which I was able to access using the Library of Congress’s online database once again. The earliest document I reviewed was the famous 1861 April Fools’ Memorandum. During the prelude to the America Civil War, Seward demonstrated a final attempt to stop the Union from dissolving by proposing mobilizing against France and Spain, thus uniting the country against a common enemy. He also suggested preparing for a blockade of Southern ports. I specifically found this memorandum interesting due to Seward’s role as an early proponent and scholar of international law. Thus, his suggestion of a naval blockade, which would render the Confederacy a legitimate foreign nation pursuant to the customs of the time period, calls into question Seward’s own interpretation and applications of international law. I knew that this would be a topic which I would seek to further address during my biographical paper, so I began looking for more evidence of Seward speaking on similar topics.

At this point, still consulting the Abraham Lincoln Encyclopedia, I reviewed two letters using the Library of Congress. One, written by Seward’s political advisor, New Yorker Thurlow Weed, detailed Weed’s successful attempt to convince Seward to release Confederate diplomats James Mason and John Slidell and to formally apologize to the British. This letter from late 1861 contained references to laws of neutrality, an appeasement to the principles of freedom of navigation. I believed that it would be probative to discuss Seward’s correspondence with his own advisor during my essay, but I still wanted to find definitive evidence of Seward’s own work with international law. Indeed, I found such an example when I accessed a written opinion by Seward from May 5, 1864, addressed to President Lincoln. Here, Seward spoke on the Fort Pillow Massacre, an incident during which Confederate soldiers were reported to have killed surrendering Union soldiers, many of whom were African-Americans. In this short essay, Seward made an early appeal to human rights law and to the rules of war, calling for fair treatment of prisoners of war. Furthermore, he argued in favor of consequences for not adhering to such practice. This stood out to me, as I will utilize this example to better understand the early foundations of international law.

I was also able to access “Remarks on the Occasion of the Fall of Atlanta”, a speech by William Seward in regard to Southern peace initiatives in 1864. In this speech, Seward noted his perspective that peace must only come with the restoration of the Union. Elaborating, Seward explained that the citizens of the South themselves must want to make peace; indeed, he emphasized doubt that Confederate politicians would surrender, instead arguing that the average Southerners would en masse look to rejoin the Union. Since I had never heard this point of view before, I knew that I wanted to include it in my essay, as it would explain in depth the steps which are taken towards peace, as well as Seward’s own opinions on potential compromises with the rebelling government.

At this point, I returned to the secondary sources to which I already had access. I started with an article by historian Joseph A. Fry titled, “The Messenger to Garibaldi: Henry S. Sanford and the Offer of a Union Command to Giuseppe Garibaldi.” Using this article, I was able to find a letter from Seward to diplomat Henry Sanford dated July 27, 1861. In this specific secret letter, Seward instructed Sanford how to proceed with retaining the services of Italian military general Giuseppe Garibaldi. After listing the other American diplomats with whom Sanford was to consult, Seward writes that Garibaldi is to be offered the rank of Major General upon commission in the Union Army. As I had learned while researching secondary sources, Seward’s typical attempts to keep foreigners from intervening did not apply in this instance, when Seward instead invited a foreigner to participate in the American Civil War. By using this letter in my paper, I aim to better explain the complexities of Seward’s character.

Similarly, while reading George Herring’s From Colony to Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations Since 1776, I made note of an article by Civil War historian Thomas Schoonover titled, “Misconstrued Mission: Expansionism and Black Colonization in Mexico and Central America during the Civil War.” Gaining access to this article through JSTOR, I was able to use this secondary source to finally find a series of primary sources. Notably, a dispatch addressed from American diplomat Elisha Crosby to Seward highlighted the U.S. plan to use African-Americans to colonize Latin America. Although this would grant land to freed slaves, this plan was also attractive to policymakers because it would remove them from the country altogether. Furthermore, it would promote U.S. influence abroad, strengthening American presence and combatting European intervention in the Western Hemisphere. This was one of the most interesting examples of nuance which I researched while searching for primary sources; on the one hand, for Seward, as a fervent opponent of slavery and as the Secretary of State for the Union during the American Civil War, trying to remove African-Americans from the mainland U.S.A. appears to be highly contradictory to his values. On the other, due to Seward’s stalwart beliefs in American expansionism, this is entirely consistent with his policies. As such, this simultaneous inconsistency and highly characteristic behavior underlines the true complexity of William Henry Seward.

My next step in researching primary sources was searching online for accounts from people who were closely related to Seward. Using this method, I was able to find and access a book from Seward’s own son, Frederick Seward. Frederick Seward recounts his father’s work in his book, Seward at Washington, as Senator and Secretary of State: a Memoir of His Life, with Selections from His Letters. Although I plan on using many parts of this book, as it covers fifteen years, between 1846 and 1861, I was especially interested in Chapter 45, which discussed Seward’s work on the first Trans-Atlantic Cable. This early method of communicating via electrical signals was promoted by William Seward during his time in Congress. Frederick Seward describes how his father recounted the story of Congressional authorization for the Cable. This early technological advancement in international communication is something which I will further research in preparation for my biographical essay, as I hope to learn more about the diplomacy which Seward conducted prior to his role as Secretary of State.

Lastly, I wanted to find primary sources regarding the famous Alaska Purchase. In this case, I was hoping to better define the intricacies of Russian-American relations during this period while also giving recognition to the relevance of personal diplomacy between William Seward and Russian envoy Eduard de Stoeckl. I started by searching the library and the Internet primarily for Russian-language sources that would highlight the friendship between de Stoeckl and Seward. Due to the limited number of historical books written in Russian in the Waidner-Spahr library, I realized after many attempts at research that I was unable to find such examples. Still, thanks to my large collection of Russian books at home, I plan on reviewing my own collection in order to potentially find a secondary source to lead me to a letter or to a diary entry.

Instead, I was able to find insight into the background of Russian policymakers who were authorizing this sale. According to a letter from the Tsar’s brother to Russian Foreign Minister Aleksandr Gorchakov, the Russian Empire already had plans to cede its holdings in North America in 1857. In this letter, dated the 22 March of that year, the brother, Grand Duke Konstantin Romanov referenced the difficult state of Russian finances following the Crimean War and recognized the inevitable U.S. desire to control the entire North American continent. Although relations were generally favorable between the two nations during this time, Romanov understood that the United States would eventually become capable of establishing control of Alaska by force. Although this letter does not speak on Seward, it is highly probative in establishing necessary background information for the Alaska Purchase for the Russian negotiators, something which could not be achieved with an American source. As I prepare to write my biographical essay, I plan to translate this letter, as well as any other Russian sources which I find, to better understand the motivations of both parties and how each may have exploited the other.

While I was unable to find primary sources regarding de Stoeckl’s values and personal beliefs regarding the Alaska purchase, I did find a speech from William Henry Seward that outlined his expansionist ambitions. In his “Destiny of America” speech on the 14 of September, 1853, Seward described his vision of a country which “shall be extended so that it shall greet the sun.” Using this source, I will highlight Seward’s central attributes as an expansionist and how they helped lead to the Alaska Purchase.

Having set out to find primary sources regarding William Henry Seward’s career, I was able to identify a range of letters, speeches, and memorandums which I could use for my biographical essay on him. I believed that I had succeeded in finding a range of examples of nuanced behavior, especially with the plans to colonize Latin America with freed African-Americans. However, during my research efforts, I also learned the difference between researching primary and secondary sources, with the former being significantly harder and oftentimes less fruitful. There were many instances which I encountered where I was unable to find any adequate sources, seemingly leaving me with nothing. Still, using the encyclopedias available at the Waidner-Spahr Library, as well as a number of secondary sources which I had researched, I was able to research a range of topics. While I prepare to write my essay, I will continue referring to these sources to understand the complexities of Seward’s work as a foreign policy specialist.

 

Bibliography

 

Edward Thurlow Weed to William Henry Seward, November 22, 1861, from the Library of Congress, the Abraham Lincoln Papers, 1833-1916. [WEB]

Elisha Oscar Crosby to William Henry Seward, May 6, 1862, from the U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian. [WEB]

Konstantin Nikolaevich Romanov to Aleksandr Mikhailovich Gorchakov, 22 April, 1857, Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Russian America. [WEB]

Seward, Frederick W. Seward at Washington, as Senator and Secretary of State: a Memoir of His Life, with Selections from His Letters. Derby and Miller, 1891. [WEB]

William H. Seward to Abraham Lincoln, April 1, 1861. Some Thoughts for the President’s Considerations. Library of Congress, the Abraham Lincoln Papers, 1833-1916. [WEB]

Seward, William H. Autobiography of William H. Seward, from 1801 to 1834. With a Memoir of His Life, and Selections From His Letters From 1831 to 1846. D. Appleton and Company, 1877. [WEB]

Seward, William H. “Destiny of America.” Capitol University, September 14, 1853. [WEB]

William H. Seward to Abraham Lincoln, May 5, 1864. Fort Pillow Massacre Opinion. Library of Congress, the Abraham Lincoln Papers, 1833-1916. [WEB]

Seward, William H. “Remarks on the Occasion of the Fall of Atlanta.” Auburn, September 3, 1864. [WEB]

William H. Seward to Henry S. Sanford, July 27, 1861, from the U.S. Department of State, Diplomatic Instructions.

I went into this research process with fairly low expectations about how many primary sources I would find. I assumed I would mostly come across Hollander’s academic writing and not much informal, personal, or opinion-based material that could help me understand his thinking and decision-making. In some ways, that expectation was accurate, but it also changed as I worked through the sources. While I did not find much in the way of personal correspondence or diaries, I did find a wide range of primary sources beyond his own writing such as newspapers and congressional documents. These sources helped fill in gaps and provided context for his work. At the same time, I found that even his academic writing could be useful for identifying elements of his personal perspective. By doing close reading and paying attention to context, I was able to pull out some of his underlying opinions, even when he was trying to write in a more objective and factual way. I also saved a lot of time by returning to sources I had already bookmarked during my secondary source research, which made this phase more efficient.

I began my research with a structured brainstorming process. Drawing on Herring’s From Colony to Superpower as well as prior knowledge of Hollander, I identified several broad themes that might frame his life and work. I also compiled a list of outstanding questions, key figures associated with him, and relevant topics from class discussions, with particular attention to the first decade of the twentieth century. This step proved incredibly helpful in the long-run. Not only did it prepare me to thoughtfully analyze the sources as I read them, but it also made my research more productive by shaping the direction of my final paper.

The next stage involved reviewing the primary sources I had previously collected from databases such as JSTOR, Jumpstart, the New York Times archives, and Google Books. Although I initially expected this process to be relatively quick, I was pleasantly surprised at the value I found in many of the 15 sources I had saved. Among them was Hollander’s article, “Mandeville in the Twentieth Century: A Correction,” which, while not directly related to my central topic, offered revealing insight into his personality and the way in which he responds to critique. Another significant source was the House and Senate document Debt of Santo Domingo, a roughly 200-page report prepared by Hollander in 1905. It contains a lot of the preparatory work that was needed in order to move forward with legislation and eventually reach the 1907 Convention between the Dominican Republic and the U.S. I also examined a 1907 article in which Hollander directly analyzes this convention, as well as a later piece titled “Dominican Republic.” These last two sources revealed his vision for the Dominican Republic and demonstrated how U.S. intervention was framed as neutral, scientific assistance rather than regional dominance and control.

I was unable to find relevant materials through The Avalon Project at Yale Law School, and a closer examination of FRUS did not provide sources of particular significance for my project. However, I did find the Jacob Harry Hollander Papers housed in the Johns Hopkins University libraries. I was super excited to find this collection when I saw it contained correspondence between Hollander and significant people I had noted prior such as his secretary, Otto Schoenrich, and President Theodore Roosevelt. It also contains a handful of writings, speeches, and subject files. Unfortunately, the materials are stored off-site and require advance notice for access, which prevented me from consulting them during this phase of research. I intend to look further into this collection as I continue developing my paper.

Finally, I turned to newspaper databases, including those of the Library of Congress and ProQuest. Through keyword searches for “Hollander” and “Santo Domingo,” I identified several particularly useful articles, including “PROF. HOLLANDER SUCCEEDS,” “PROFESSOR HOLLANDER REPORTS,” and “NEW DOMINICAN PACT.” These sources revealed patterns in coverage, with frequent attention to Hollander’s travel, his negotiations with European creditors, and a minor controversy regarding his pay. The reporting on his interactions with European creditors was especially interesting, as it highlighted the complex diplomatic juggling he managed and the range of stakeholders he was dealt with, including the U.S. government, European powers, and Dominican officials.

Overall, while some gaps remain, this research process has deepened my understanding of how Jacob Hollander thought about his work, his personality, and the kinds of challenges he was facing. I would have liked to find more personal, private writing, other than what he wrote publicly that might have given more insight into his personal beliefs and decision-making. Still, I was surprised by how useful the sources I had already set aside turned out to be, and I can already see my paper beginning to take shape.

Bibliography

Debt of Santo Domingo. Congressional Document. 1905. [PROQUEST]

Hollander, Jacob H. 1907. “The Convention of 1907 Between the United States and the Dominican Republic.” The American Journal of International Law (New York, USA) 1 (2): 287–96. [JSTOR]

Hollander, Jacob H. 1916. “Dominican Republic.” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science(Los Angeles, CA) 68 (1): 176–176. [JSTOR]

Hollander, Jacob H. 1918. “‘Mandeville in the Twentieth Century’: A Correction.” The American Economic Review(Nashville) 8 (2): 338–39. [JSTOR]

“NEW DOMINICAN PACT: Signed by Minister Dawson at Island Capital. Will Be Rushed to Senate State Department Hopes Convention, Designed as Substitute for That Pending, Will Be Confirmed at Present Session. Provides for Issue of Bonds to Santo Domingo’s Creditors.” The Washington Post (1877–1922), February 5, 1907. [PROQUEST]

“PROF. HOLLANDER SUCCEEDS: Foreign Creditors of Santo Domingo Agree to Adjustment Plan.” New York Times(1857–1922), November 8, 1906. [PROQUEST]

“PROFESSOR HOLLANDER REPORTS.” Boston Advocate (1905–1909), May 26, 1905. [PROQUEST]

When I initially did research on William Eaton, I found that there was much more information about him than I had previously expected. When I first encountered his name in Herring’s book, his lack of focus on Eaton seemed like a bad omen, but I found that he is a prominent figure when analyzing the U.S.’s relationship with the Middle East and North Africa. I was even more excited to see that, based on my secondary-source research, many of the footnotes were from letters Eaton himself had written. It was even clearer to me, upon further digging, that his correspondence was extensive, especially during his time as the U.S. consul in Tunis, leading up to and during the Tripolitan War. 

I initially encountered this information when looking at the footnotes of a publication by Louis B. Wright and Julia H. Macleod. In these footnotes, it not only revealed that much of their information came from Eaton’s letters, but it also told me exactly where to find them – the Huntington Library. Upon further inspection of both the footnotes and the actual Huntington Library site, I found that they have an entire collection dedicated to Eaton’s letters, records, journals, and reports during his time as consul. This was also backed up by a quick search on ChatGPT about where I could find Eaton’s letters, the first recommendation of which was to look into the Huntington site. Unfortunately, venturing onto the extensive Huntington Library site seemed to be a bit of a dead end; that, or I just was not using it correctly. I was able to find Eaton’s name and catalog in the database, and it took me to listings with the document locations and call numbers. I was determined to try all I could to get access to these materials, so I found a link where I could request the materials I was searching for. This involved making an entire account with the library, but once that was done, I simply put in my request and explained my situation. Since the physical library is located in California, I requested a session to look at the documents through the Virtual Reading Room. As I am writing this, however, I have yet to hear back from them, so, naturally, I had to do a lot more digging. 

 

I ran into a similar issue with my next attempt as I did with the Huntington Library. I found that the New York Public Library also had a collection of Eaton’s letters, and though not as extensive as Huntington’s, I was hoping to come out with something. But just like I had encountered before, I found myself sending an email to the Library asking for digital access to the materials if possible. I was lucky enough to get a response back the next day, but was disappointed to find out that the materials I was hoping to look at would not be available for 6-8 weeks if I continued with the request. At the end of the email, however, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the reference archivist who had responded to me was actually a Dickinson alum named Tal Nadan. In his email to me, he added links to other digital resources that might be helpful, including the New York Public Library’s Digital Collections, which I had previously missed. Here, I was able to find portraits of Eaton, as well as a scan of an original letter from Eaton to a Mr. Cathcart. It might take some time for me to decipher what exactly the letter says, but I was pleased to have something to work with.

I decided, then, to go back to the list of sources that ChatGPT had recommended to me, since I had already examined the first two recommendations to the best of my ability. It said that I might have some success looking at Dartmouth College’s Rauner Library’s databases. As I suspected, while I did find that they had quite a few letters, I ran into the same problem as before: they were not easily accessible online without explicitly requesting them. Before deciding whether or not I wanted to reach out again, asking for access, I decided to see if I could explore other primary source options that would be more successful. I figured that, since the Tripolitan war was the U.S.’s first foreign war, there must have been some domestic newspaper coverage of it. I started by simply searching up newspaper articles on William Eaton from the Tripolitan War and stumbled upon an article in the Kaplan Collection, originally published by the Political Observatory on January 21, 1806. In it was a letter from Eaton to the United States Committee on Claims. This was very exciting to discover, as it felt like my first successful attempt at finding a solid source from the period that could better inform my research. After this, I was really determined to find at least one other piece of correspondence from Eaton during his time in Tunis. I chose to search this up in Google to see what I could find (since other databases like the American National Biography did not have primary sources). After some digging, I found the Founders Online Archives, which had a letter from Eaton to Madison from June 1, 1801. This then took me to a link that gave me access to the full correspondence between the two. The last source that I was able to come up with was also very fruitful; the entire correspondence between Eaton and a man named Isaac Hull (whom I will need to do more research on), between 1804 and 1805, spanning 25 pages in length, which I found in a journal called the American Antiquarian.

Overall, I felt as though this round of research was substantially harder than my first time looking for secondary sources. It required much more technical ability and patience, especially since I struggled a lot with finding places where I could actually access the material. That being said, because of how long it took and how difficult the process was, it felt extremely rewarding when I finally found what I was looking for.

 

Bibliography:

“William Eaton to James Madison, 1 June 1801,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Madison/02-01-02-0323. [Original source: The Papers of James Madison, Secretary of State Series, vol. 1, 4 March–31 July 1801, ed. Robert J. Brugger, Robert A. Rutland, Robert Rhodes Crout, Jeanne K. Sisson, and Dru Dowdy. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1986, pp. 247–248.]

William Casey died in May 1987 with most of his secrets intact. He suffered his first seizure on December 15, 1986, the day before he was scheduled to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee about Iran-Contra. He never gave that testimony. Lawrence Walsh, the independent counsel who spent seven years investigating the scandal, devoted an entire chapter of his Final Report to Casey alone, and most of that chapter is about what could not be proved. Reading it was the moment I understood what this stage of the research was going to feel like. There is more material on Casey than I expected. There is also a permanent gap where his own testimony should have been.

This is my second journal on William Casey, who served as CIA director under Ronald Reagan from 1981 until his death in 1987. My final paper will argue that Casey used the directorship to make foreign policy rather than just carry it out. That unusual freedom of action is what made the Afghan covert program reach a scale large enough to force the Soviet retreat, while also creating the conditions for the Taliban’s rise a decade later. The first journal handled biographies and scholarly literature. This one covers what Casey wrote himself, what investigators wrote about him and what reporters were saying as he died.

I assumed Casey had written almost nothing publicly. I was wrong. A search for his name and the word “speeches” turned up Scouting the Future, a 1989 collection of his speeches as CIA director, edited by his former assistant Herbert Meyer. Casey rarely sat for interviews, so the speeches are one of the few places he chose his own words about Afghanistan, Soviet strategy and terrorism. They will matter for my paper because they show how Casey wanted his work to be understood, which is something the biographies and the investigations cannot fully recover.

Casey also wrote a book. The Secret War Against Hitler is his memoir of running spies for the Office of Strategic Services in Europe during World War II. He died before finishing it, and his widow Sophia oversaw publication in 1988. The book is technically about events from forty years before Afghanistan, but reading it changed how I understood his approach to the 1980s. Casey describes the OSS as proof that small, well-supported irregular forces could change the outcome of a major war. In the preface, he writes that clandestine intelligence and covert action “may be more important than missiles and satellites in meeting crises yet to come.” That sentence was published in 1988, but he had been acting on it since 1981. The mujahideen program was the same theory applied to a different empire.

After Casey’s own writing, the richest material came from the official investigations of Iran-Contra. I had originally planned to focus only on documents about Casey himself, but I realized after my first journal that I was thinking too narrowly. The investigations of the Reagan administration’s foreign policy as a whole are filled with evidence about Casey, even when his name does not appear in the title. The Tower Commission Report, released in February 1987, walks through the arms sales to Iran step by step in its Appendix B and names Casey at every point where he was driving the operation. The Walsh Final Report, which took seven years to produce, devotes a full chapter to him. Walsh found that Casey had directly encouraged senior CIA officers to merge their work with Oliver North’s contra-resupply network, in violation of the Boland Amendment that Congress had passed to prevent exactly that kind of aid. Walsh had subpoena power. Tower had sixty days and witnesses who could refuse to appear. Reading the two reports in sequence shows how the official record on Casey hardened between 1987 and 1993, even though he had been dead the whole time. The third investigation is the joint congressional committee report from November 1987, which contains the testimony of Oliver North and others who worked under Casey.

For sources from people who worked alongside Casey, the most useful was The Reagan Diaries, edited by Douglas Brinkley. Reagan calls him “Bill” in dozens of entries. The two most revealing fall on consecutive days in September 1987. On September 28, Reagan wrote that Bob Woodward had appeared on 60 Minutes claiming to have interviewed Casey on his deathbed, and Reagan called Woodward “a liar.” The next day’s entry is more striking. Reagan recorded that Ed Meese and Don Regan, who had actually visited Casey in the hospital, confirmed that by the end he “was incapable of understanding or communicating.” That second entry is the cleanest piece of evidence I have found for the central problem of researching Casey. The president of the United States, writing for himself in his own diary, shows that the witness everyone wanted to question could no longer answer. I also read the New York Times obituary that Eric Pace wrote the day after Casey died. Pace had covered him for years, and the obituary lingers on the Iran-Contra hearings he never attended in a way most obituaries would not.

The hardest call was what to do with Bob Woodward’s Veil. I used it as a secondary source in the first journal because it is published as a book of reporting. But Woodward’s text contains long passages of direct quotation from Casey that exist nowhere else, including the disputed deathbed scene Reagan called a lie. Those quotations are primary source material even when they sit inside a secondary source. For my paper, I will cite them only where another source confirms them, and flag them as Woodward’s account when none does.

What this stage taught me is the difference between volume and certainty. I expected the primary record on a CIA director to be thin. It is not. Casey’s speeches, his memoir, three official investigations, contemporary press, and Reagan’s own diaries add up to thousands of pages of usable material. What is harder to come by is direct testimony from Casey himself. Tower could not subpoena him because he was sick. Walsh could not question him because he was dead. Reporters could only print what others were willing to say on the record. My final paper will have to work around that absence rather than pretend it can be filled, but the surrounding record is rich enough to build a real argument from.

 

Bibliography

Casey, William J. Scouting the Future: The Public Speeches of William J. Casey. Edited by Herbert E. Meyer. Washington, DC: Regnery Gateway, 1989. [GOOGLE BOOKS]

Casey, William J. The Secret War Against Hitler. Washington, DC: Regnery Gateway, 1988. [GOOGLE BOOKS]

Pace, Eric. “William Casey, Ex-C.I.A. Head, Is Dead at 74.” New York Times, May 7, 1987. [PROQUEST]

Reagan, Ronald. The Reagan Diaries. Edited by Douglas Brinkley. New York: HarperCollins, 2007. [GOOGLE BOOKS]

Tower, John, Edmund Muskie, and Brent Scowcroft. The Tower Commission Report: The Full Text of the President’s Special Review Board. New York: Bantam Books and Times Books, 1987. [INTERNET ARCHIVE]

U.S. Congress. Report of the Congressional Committees Investigating the Iran-Contra Affair. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1987. [WEB]

Walsh, Lawrence E. Final Report of the Independent Counsel for Iran/Contra Matters. Washington, DC: U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, 1993. [WEB]

Woodward, Bob. Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA, 1981–1987. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987. [GOOGLE BOOKS]

When I was considering subjects for this paper the figure of Sophonisba Breckinridge stuck out to me because in Herring’s over 900-page book, her name was only mentioned once. I knew that she must have accomplished something remarkable to be included, even if it was only briefly.

After my initial search for secondary sources, I pinpointed the Montevideo Conference as the key event from Breckinridge’s life I wanted to center in my research. However, I did not want to limit myself to sources only about the conference. So, I divided my search into different periods: before the conference, during and after the conference. This way, I would be able to spend my time wisely while not excluding sources that may be helpful down the road.

Throughout my search, including both primary and secondary sources, I found the software Zotero to be especially helpful. As a student with dyslexia, Zotero is a great resource as it organizes my sources in one place and has many features such as being able to access sources with reverse white on black print. Additionally, the annotation and note features allow me to color code and organize information in one document, which helps me to manage some of the difficulties I experience as a student with dyslexia.

I used Zotero to look back at my secondary sources, anticipating that they would help me find primary sources. I first consulted the bibliography found in Anya Jabour’s biography of Breckinridge. Jabour’s bibliography cited a collection of letters and other documents from Breckinridge that were housed in the Library of Congress. However, when I attempted to access the documents, I found that they were only available in person and through special request. Next, I tried locating the letters and documents through another source. I searched the Dickinson Library catalogue and the data base JSTOR with no results. Then, I found the archives from the University of Chicago, where Breckinridge studied and taught. I was excited to see that the University of Chicago archive not only included letters from Breckinridge, but also her autobiography. However, I encountered the same problem I did with the Library of Congress: the archives were not digitized and only available in person.

Next, I returned to Jabour’s bibliography, as I knew she had referenced the letters in her book, and looked for quoted material from the Breckinridge papers. This search was successful, and I found several places in her book where Jabour directly quoted material from letters and other primary sources from Breckinridge. These sources provided added context, however I found that the quotes Jabour selected did not yield all the information I wanted to include.

However, I was not ready to give up on the letters yet, so I went to the library circulation desk and asked for help using the Inter Library Loan (ILL) system to try and locate copies of the letters, documents and autobiography. The ILL department got back to me the next day, with the unfortunate news that it would not be possible to get access to the documents online, and that my only option would be to go in person, which I was not able to do.

Next, I turned to the databases found through the Dickinson College Library. I searched for databases focused on Latin America, due to the location of the Montevideo Conference in Uruguay.  Additionally, I speak Spanish and did not want to restrict my search to only English sources. I identified Confidential Print as the most helpful database. By searching for the Montevideo Conference, I identified the book South and Central America: Further Correspondence from 1933, which included letters and details about the Montevideo Conference and the involvement of Breckinridge.

Next, I looked to JSTOR, a data base that had been helpful in the past, for more primary sources that focused on both Breckinridge and the conference. My search was successful and I identified a newspaper article discussing both the conference and Breckinridge’s involvement. Next, I found an obituary of Breckinridge, also published in a newspaper, that provided insight into her work at the conference, but also her goals and aspirations.

After finding these sources, I decided to follow the advice of Professor Pinsker and cast my focus towards other prominent figures at the Montevideo Conference, namely Secretary of State Cordell Hull and Assistant Secretary of State Sumner Welles. I repeated the same process that I had begun with Breckinridge and first searched the footnotes from Herring’s book citing the historian, Irwin F. Gellman. Then, I took the mentions I found, in works by Herring and Gellman, input them into the library catalogue, and then the databases. This searched produced the memoirs of Cordell Hull, which I was able to access through the legal database Hein Online.

I then stored the primary sources I had found into Zotero and organized them by project and source type. This allowed me to reference them and access my materials easily as I began to look for gaps in my research. After I have identified these gaps, I plan to use the same methods I used before to find sources to fill them.

Throughout my research I was able to explore many of the resources at Dickinson that I had not known about before such at the ILL network, which will continue to serve me throughout my time here. Before this research project I had the false perception that primary sources were easier to find than secondary sources, and I dedicated less time to them. However, this experience taught me that they need just as much time, if not more because often primary sources are difficult to access, even if they are easier to find.

 

Bibliography

Cox, George Howland. “Was the Seventh Pan American Conference a Success?” World Affairs 97, no. 1. 1934: 38–44. [JSTOR]

Breckinridge, Sophonisba P. Papers, [Box 1, Folder 19], Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library. [U Chicago]

Breckinridge, Sophonisba P. Papers, [Box 1, Folder 23], Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library. [U Chicago]

Breckinridge, Sophonisba P. Breckinridge Papers, Aug.-Dec. 1933, [Box 749, Reel 10], Breckinridge Family Papers, MSS13698. Manuscript Division. [Congress]

Hull Cordell. Memoirs of Cordell Hull. New York Macmillan, 1948. [Hein]

“International Conference Delegates.” The Compass 15, no. 3. 1933: 1–2. [JSTOR]

Lenroot, Katharine F. “Sophonisba Preston Breckinridge, Social Pioneer.” Social Service Review 23, no. 1. 1949: 88–92. [JSTOR]

Roadblocks and Resources: How Dead Ends Led to Primary Sources While Researching Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

When I selected Jacqueline Kennedy as my biographical subject, I expected the search for primary sources to be simple. She is well known, well-liked, and well documented. I anticipated the hardest part of my research to be finding sources related to my case study: the 1961 Kennedy visit to Paris and Jacqueline’s use of personal and cultural diplomacy. However, the research process involved numerous roadblocks and dead ends before relevant primary sources were identified. This process demonstrates that roadblocks are a necessary part of research, as dead ends eliminate unproductive paths and help refine the direction of investigation. Recognizing what you don’t know is an important part of discovering where to search for primary sources.

I started my pursuit of primary sources by further researching a potential lead I found while looking for images to add to my first journal post: Mark Shaw, a photographer who developed a close relation to the Kennedy family. The photos I found were taken domestically, but I hoped to find evidence that he accompanied the Kennedy family abroad – specifically to Paris – and that he published writing about those experiences. Sadly, after a Google search that led me to Shaw’s Wikipedia page and the Mark Shaw Photographic Archive, there was only evidence that the photographer accompanied the Kennedy family abroad once, on a vacation to Italy. Dead end #1.

Slightly disappointed but determined, I followed Professor Pinsker’s advice from class and created a list of source types I’d like to find to better narrow my focus and research efforts: letters or diary entries from Jacqueline Kennedy, government documents or notes about Jacqueline Kennedy’s diplomacy, French newspaper articles, domestic newspaper articles, interviews with Jacqueline Kennedy, and, if possible, material from people who disliked Jacqueline Kennedy. To hold myself accountable to the research process, I booked an appointment in the Writing Center with my friend Parker Lengle, a History major and research extraordinaire. 

During the appointment, Parker helped me search databases such as Newspaper Source Plus and ProQuest. According to the Dickinson College Library website, Newspaper Source Plus has access to international newspapers, and TV and radio transcripts. However, despite using various search term combinations (“Jacqueline Kennedy” AND “Paris,” “Jackie Kennedy” AND “France,” etc.), I couldn’t find any French or American sources covering the First Lady’s European visit. Dead end #2. ProQuest proved more useful, specifically because it included an article that discussed Kennedy’s use of celebrity and quoted close personal friends. While I had found domestic newspaper articles, French sources proved more difficult to locate. Regrettably, I decided to use ChatGPT to aid my search. Despite my personal feelings about the use of AI in the writing process, I found ChatGPT’s results useful. The most useful source turned out to be an article by Claude Sarraute. Although half of the source is behind a pay wall (something I am trying to work around and currently labeling dead end #2.5), the half that is free to read still provides compelling insights. 

Arguably, the greatest area where Parker and I saw success was in the bibliographies of my secondary sources. While tedious, this allowed me to see which sources – primary and secondary – were cited multiple times across different scholarly works, giving me the chance to discover primary sources. One of the most interesting sources I found using this technique was “An Evening with Jackie Kennedy,” an Esquire Magazine article by Norman Mailer. While the citation didn’t have a link, a Google search provided a digitized copy on the Esquire Magazine Archives website. This source is intriguing because Mailer calls Kennedy “a royal phony,” compares her to “a wooden horse,” and writes that her voice is “manufactured.” This is the first source I’ve encountered that pushes back against the idea that Kennedy was a naturally charismatic figure. Considering the article was published after Kennedy’s Paris visit, it’s interesting to see it in conversation with already-obtained sources.

Searching through bibliographies also led me to a source I am very surprised I hadn’t used yet, the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. In hindsight, this is a no-brainer digital source with a large quantity of primary sources. One website page is dedicated to a special exhibit titled “In Her Voice: Jacqueline Kennedy, The White House Years,” which features information and quotes from a 1964 interview Kennedy did with historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. The interview discusses her visit to Paris and how members of the public thought she hated politics.  The library also has an audio transcription of a news conference President John F. Kennedy did in Paris, where he famously said: “I am the man who accompanied Jacqueline Kennedy to Paris, and I have enjoyed it.” This source highlights Jacqueline Kennedy’s role in the Paris trip, but President Kennedy also contextualizes their visit, which will prove vital to my final paper. 

I continued my research after my appointment, searching the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum website, but I still encountered roadblocks. While searching for the full documents referenced in the aforementioned museum exhibit, I learned that the items could only be viewed in person. Dead end #3. Eventually, I found the second-best alternative to letters by Kennedy: letters addressed to her. The most relevant letter was from a collection of correspondence between White House counsel Clark Clifford and Kennedy. In one of his letters, Clifford says, “You have rendered the most magnificent service to your country,” referring to the success the First Lady had in Paris. He further sings her praises, ending the letter by calling Kennedy’s skill an “asset to this nation.” This is when I began to feel a sense of achievement with my research; despite the tedious work I was doing, I was getting results. 

By this point, I had received draft feedback from Professor Pinsker, who recommended that I examine the Foreign Relations of the United States, a diplomatic book series that contains documents from presidential libraries, the Department of State, the Department of Defense, and other foreign affairs agencies. A quick Google search led me to a digitized copy on the Office of the Historian website. I found a folder dedicated to French relations from 1961-1963 that had 54 telegrams, memorandums, etc. I searched each document using the Command+F function to find terms such as “Jacqueline,” “Jackie,” and “First Lady.” However, none of the sources mentioned Jacqueline Kennedy. Dead end #4. However, the effort did produce some results. I skimmed through the documents and found several that contextualized US-France relations during the period, such as documents 223 (a memorandum from the Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs), 228 (presidential talking points and visitation schedules), 230 (a memorandum between Presidents John F. Kennedy and Charles de Gaulle), and 268 (a telegram from the French embassy).

The most potent lesson I learned while searching for primary sources was that roadblocks are essential to the research process. Each dead end I encountered – whether it was that Mark Shaw didn’t go to Paris with the Kennedy family, unsuccessful database searches, or inaccessible archival materials – forced me to rethink my approach and refine my strategy. These challenges clarified which paths were unproductive, providing redirection toward available avenues, such as examining bibliographies. The setbacks I initially found frustrating became the most instructive moments of my research. Roadblocks revealed gaps in my knowledge and limitations in my approach, pushing me to ask better questions, use new resources, and think more critically about where and how to find evidence.

 

Bibliography 

“120. Letter From Jacqueline Kennedy to Chairman Khrushchev.” Office of the Historian, 1 Dec, 

1963. [WEB]

Birmingham, Stephen. “The Public Event Named Jackie: ‘Better than any Other Famous Woman 

in History (Including Garbo), She has Mastered the Art of Managing Her Celebrity.’.” New York Times (1923-), Jun 20, 1976. [ProQuest]

Bohlen, Charles E. “268. Telegram From the Embassy in France to the Department of State.” 

Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961–1963, Volume XIII, Western Europe and Canada, 16 Feb, 1963. [WEB] 

“Correspondence with Jacqueline Kennedy, 1961-1965.” John F. Kennedy Presidential 

Library and Museum, 1961-65. [WEB] 

Department of State. “228. Talking Points.” Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961–1963, 

Volume XIII, Western Europe and Canada, 27 May, 1961. [WEB] 

“In Her Voice: Jacqueline Kennedy, The White House Years.” John F. Kennedy Presidential 

Library and Museum, 1964. [WEB]

Kohler, Foy D. “223. Memorandum From the Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs 

(Kohler) to Secretary of State Rusk.” Foreign Relations of the United States, 1961–1963, Volume XIII, Western Europe and Canada, 24 Jan, 1961. [WEB] 

Mailer, Norman. “An Evening with Jackie Kennedy.” Esquire Magazine, July 1, 1962. [Esquire 

Classics] 

McBride. “230. Memorandum of Conversation.” Foreign Relations of the United States, 

1961–1963, Volume XIII, Western Europe and Canada, 2 Jun, 1961. [WEB] 

“News Conference 12, June 2, 1961.” John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Jun 2, 

1961. [WEB] 

“President’s trip: Europe, 1961: May-June: De Gaulle briefing book: Volume I (3 of 3 folders).” 

John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, 1961. [WEB] 

Sarraute, Claude. “When Mrs. Kennedy throws a “party” for the press.” Le Monde, Jun 3, 1961 

(Translated by Google Translate). [WEB] 

Virginia Hall, the legendary spy who operated during WWII under the auspices of the Office of Strategic Services, caught my attention as a biographical research topic. Hall’s brief, one-line mention in George Herring’s From Colony to Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations Since 1776 led me to compile a more complete background on Hall through my secondary-source research. Now shifting to primary sources, I began to look for materials that detail Hall’s successful covert activities and demonstrate why they were so effective. I decided that, in order to focus my research, I would orient it toward Hall’s time during WWII under the OSS instead of focusing on her work in the Cold War under the CIA.

While my initial search for sources in the American National Archives left me with no results, I tried again—this time searching for the term “Virginia Hall” enclosed in quotation marks to ensure that the database returned relevant results. It returned 12 results, one of which was a record group titled “Personnel Files of the Office of Strategic Services, 1942–ca. 1962,” containing 23,735 files. Opening the collection, I utilized the same search method for “Virginia Hall” and found three files, two of which were available digitally. I found a photograph from Virginia Hall’s Distinguished Service Cross award ceremony and the accompanying citation from President Harry Truman, which detailed her accomplishments under the OSS in France.

Searching through another record group titled “Record Group 226: Records of the Office of Strategic Services Series: Central Files,” with 276 subgroups, I input the same search term and uncovered other documents relating to Virginia Hall. I found a recommendation letter written by William J. Donovan, the director of the OSS, recommending Hall for the Distinguished Service Cross, in which he details more specifically the successes of her espionage. I learned that Hall went by Diane Heckler, utilizing the code name “Heckler.” I also found an activity report written by Virginia Hall detailing firsthand her activities from her landing in France on March 21, 1944, to her noted “Left Field” on September 26, 1944. Section V of the activity report explicitly details Hall’s sabotage activities against the Germans, highlighting specific railways destroyed and other sabotage acts committed with the French Forces of the Interior (FFI).

Additionally, Hall’s activity report refers to a person by the name of “Aramis,” who accompanied her when she returned to France. Aramis is also the name of the illustrator of a 1944 sketch drawing of “Heckler,” or Virginia Hall, within the file group. Intrigued to learn more about her fellow agent and to encounter another activity report detailing their time together, I searched for “Aramis” in both aforementioned file groups but found no further information on this person. Nevertheless, the information I uncovered from Hall’s OSS files and firsthand report will greatly aid me in detailing Hall’s work throughout her time operating under the OSS. Hall’s OSS files, especially her activity report, will be integral to my biographical profile.

To situate Hall’s WWII work within the context of the time period from March 21, 1944, to September 26, 1944, I looked for sources to better highlight why Hall’s work was so integral to the war effort.

In the run-up to Operation Overlord in 1944, the strain between the Big Three had reached a boiling point. Herring mentions how the three allies were deeply divided on grand strategy, with the Soviet Union pleading for the opening of a second front to alleviate pressure on the Red Army, as well as differences in “British versus U.S. military doctrines” when it came to the execution of a cross-strait invasion (551). Interested in seeing how the conflict between the Big Three was represented in the media, I looked through the databases section of jumpstart on the library website. There I found a database titled “New York Times – Historical Newspapers” which led me to ProQuest. I searched the database for news articles using the search term “Operation Overlord.” I found a series of articles written by Winston Churchill detailing firsthand his decision-making. In the article titled Installment 22: Preparations for Operation Overlord, Churchill makes clear the divisions and differences of opinion regarding the execution of Operation Overlord. This series of installments from Churchill himself will allow me to explore the British point of view and emphasize why the execution and success of Operation Overlord was integral to keeping the alliance together—a feat greatly aided by Virginia Hall.

Looking through the Office of the Historian’s historical documents section, I found, under the Foreign Relations of the United States collection in the Diplomatic Papers, a collection covering the conferences at Cairo and Tehran. In this section, I searched for the terms “Operation Overlord” and “second front.”

Looking up “second front,” I found a message sent from Stalin to Roosevelt in June 1943 expressing his anger over the postponement of the second front, highlighting the sacrifices of the Red Army and beginning to question the support of the British-American armies. Another document, titled Bohlen Minutes, records the meeting between Roosevelt and Stalin in November 1943, in which Stalin expresses that the Soviet front was not faring well. The Combined Joint Chiefs of Staff Minutes, dated November 29, 1943, detail the discussion between American, British, and Soviet military leaders in planning Operation Overlord. Several other documents, such as minutes from the Tripartite Dinner and additional Bohlen Minutes, all record the high tensions in the lead-up to the Tehran Conference, where the three powers finalized Operation Overlord in the final Military Agreement issued on December 1, 1943. Throughout the documents, leaders from all sides emphasized the risks and how much depended on the successful execution of this operation. The Combined Chiefs of Staff Minutes, detailing a meeting between Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin, make most clear the urgency placed on the opening of a second front, as well as the key issues surrounding how the powers would invade France considering the German forces in the country.

These primary sources greatly detail the atmosphere in which Hall’s WWII operations took place: a splintering alliance focused on the execution and success of a second front. The documents I found on the Office of the Historian detail military planning and relationships between leaders, while Hall’s files outline her role in on-the-ground sabotage efforts against German forces. Her location in south-central France and attacks against transit infrastructure as well as arming of the FFI helped undermine German ability to successfully counter Operation Overlord.

This research process was challenging but highly rewarding. Initially delving into her time at the CIA, I learned to refocus my research efforts on a different time period, allowing for a more complete account of Hall’s work. My research on that front, however, will help me create a stronger general biography of Hall, while my focused research will allow me to demonstrate Hall’s integral role in the lead-up to Operation Overlord. Alongside the primary sources from the Office of the Historian and the OSS I am better able to trace Hall’s accomplishments and demonstrate, in context, why Virginia Hall was a key figure in the diplomatic history of the United States.

---

Bibliography

Library of Congress. “Image Record 96522736.” Prints and Photographs Online Catalog. Accessed April 26, 2026. https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/96522736/.

National Archives Catalog. “Record 595660.” Accessed April 26, 2026. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/595660.

National Archives Catalog. “Record 595661.” Accessed April 26, 2026. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/595661.

National Archives Catalog. “Record 595672.” Accessed April 26, 2026. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/595672.

National Archives Catalog. “Record 595152.” Accessed April 26, 2026. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/595152.

“The New York Times. ‘By Winston Churchill: The Second World War: Installment 22—Preparations for “Overlord”.’” New York Times, October 30, 1951. Accessed via ProQuest. https://www.proquest.com/docview/112133435/9393EF7A86EB47F0PQ/4?accountid=10506&sourcetype=Newspapers.

U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian. “Foreign Relations of the United States: The Conferences at Cairo and Tehran, 1943, Document 358.” Accessed April 26, 2026. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1943CairoTehran/d358.

U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian. “Foreign Relations of the United States: The Conferences at Cairo and Tehran, 1943, Document 361.” Accessed April 26, 2026. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1943CairoTehran/d361.

U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian. “Foreign Relations of the United States: The Conferences at Cairo and Tehran, 1943, Document 364.” Accessed April 26, 2026. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1943CairoTehran/d364.

U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian. “Foreign Relations of the United States: The Conferences at Cairo and Tehran, 1943, Document 7.” Accessed April 26, 2026. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1943CairoTehran/d7.

U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian. “Foreign Relations of the United States: The Conferences at Cairo and Tehran, 1943, Document 424.” Accessed April 26, 2026. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1943CairoTehran/d424.

 

Although I would consider my research efforts largely successful, they were by no means efficient. While I have experience in qualitative research and source analysis, this exercise served as a valuable reminder that adhering too rigidly to established habits can result in unnecessary work. Beginning with American National Biography as my point of departure, I learned to focus my research on Jacob H. Hollander’s time in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. As a professor of economics and a dedicated scholar of the history of economic thought who occupied numerous roles throughout his career, Hollander produced an extensive body of work. The sheer volume of available sources ultimately proved to be my greatest challenge, as it was both time-consuming and difficult to identify those most relevant to the objectives of this project.

At the outset, I found myself overly focused on primary sources. While reviewing the American National Biography page, I noted several individuals, such as President McKinley, President Theodore Roosevelt, and Hollander’s wife, Theresa G. Hutzler, whose correspondence with Hollander I began planning to investigate. However, I soon realized that pursuing these materials would mostly lead to primary sources, prompting me to shift my attention to Dickinson’s JumpStart library catalog. In conducting searches related to diplomatic history, I consciously decided to include both “Santo Domingo” and “Dominican Republic,” as well as “Porto Rico” and “Puerto Rico,” in order to account for historical variations in spelling and maximize search results. Although this approach produced numerous sources, I found relatively few secondary works and instead compiled a list of primary materials for potential future use.

JSTOR proved to be the most productive database I searched in. I focused on modern scholarship published after Hollander’s lifetime, now specifically searching for works published between 1940 and 2026. Despite this refinement, relevant sources remained limited, requiring careful, laborious review to identify those aligned with my research interests. Periodically, however, I identified particularly relevant works, which I saved for later examination. My chosen method of saving any possible sources in a document before closely reviewing their contents ultimately contributed to the inefficiency of my process. After assembling an extensive list of potential materials, I reviewed each source using keyword searches (“control + f”).

While Hollander’s work in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic is significant, I found that many secondary sources condense it into only a few sentences within broader discussions of U.S. history and imperialism. Many sources only mentioned him in footnotes or in a paragraph or two of writing. Still, I was able to find a handful of solid secondary sources. This journal article, Foundations of United States International Financial Power: Gold Standard Diplomacy, 1900–1905 (1985), primarily focused on figures such as Charles Conant, Jeremiah Jenks, and Edwin Kemmerer who held similar roles to Hollander. However, the article provides important contextual analysis and does include a substantial discussion of Hollander’s work in both regions. Additional sources I found included Inventing Dollar Diplomacy: The Gilded-Age Origins of the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine (2003) and The Roosevelt Corollary and the Dominican Model of 1905 (2003), both of which emphasize Hollander’s role in the Dominican Republic. During this phase of research, I also discovered that certain legislation associated with Hollander in Puerto Rico was referred to as the “Hollander Act” or “Hollander Bill,” which helped me to create more targeted and specific searches going forward.

The database America: History and Life yielded relatively few useful results when employing similar search strategies. Google Books, however, proved to be more productive, despite some limitations of accessibility. During this stage, I briefly attempted to use ChatGPT to identify additional sources, but the results were largely unhelpful, consisting of broken links, repeated results, or primary sources. Through Google Books, I identified several important secondary sources, including Constructing a Colonial People: Puerto Rico and the United States, 1898–1932 (2018), which examines U.S. governance in Puerto Rico following the War of 1898. Additionally, A World Safe for Capitalism (2002) by Cyrus Veeser expanded on the role of the Santo Domingo Improvement Company (SDIC) in managing the Dominican Republic’s foreign debt and infrastructure. Throughout my research, it quickly became clear how central the SDIC was to Hollander’s work. Finally, Intervention and Dollar Diplomacy in the Caribbean, 1900–1921 (2015) offered further in-depth analysis of his activities in the Dominican Republic.

Throughout the research process, I frequently encountered frustration with sources that devoted only minimal attention to Hollander. They were often repetitive, clearly rephrasing the words of another author who had themselves summarized Hollander’s work into a short piece. Despite these challenges, I was able to assemble a collection of secondary sources while also identifying many primary sources for future research. Although Hollander’s scholarly output is significant, much of it was not directly relevant to my research focus and required considerable time to sift through. In retrospect, a more narrowed and targeted approach to database searching might have improved the overall efficiency of my research.

Bibliography

Cabán, Pedro A. Constructing a Colonial People: Puerto Rico and the United States, 1898–1932. United States: Taylor & Francis, 2018.

“Jacob Harry Hollander: Twenty-Third President of the American Economic Association, 1921.” The American Economic Review 38, no. 3 (1948). http://www.jstor.org/stable/1810623.

Munro, Dana Gardner. Intervention and Dollar Diplomacy in the Caribbean, 1900–1921. United States: Princeton University Press, 2015.

Rosenberg, Emily S. “Foundations of United States International Financial Power: Gold Standard Diplomacy, 1900–1905.” The Business History Review 59, no. 2 (1985): 169–202. https://doi.org/10.2307/3114929.

Rosenberg, Emily S. “The Roosevelt Corollary and the Dominican Model of 1905.” In Financial Missionaries to the World: The Politics and Culture of Dollar Diplomacy, 1900–1930. Duke University Press, 2003. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv1220kxb.6.

Veeser, Cyrus. A World Safe for Capitalism: Dollar Diplomacy and America’s Rise to Global Power. United States: Columbia University Press, 2002.

Veeser, Cyrus. “Inventing Dollar Diplomacy: The Gilded-Age Origins of the Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine.” Diplomatic History 27, no. 3 (2003): 301–26. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24914415.