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JAMES S. MOOSE, JR., PAPERS

Papers, 1928-1984
Manuscript Collection MC 1031
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JAMES S. MOOSE, JR.

James S. Moose Jr. was born on October 3, 1903 in Morrilton, Arkansas, attended Kentucky Military Institute and after graduating from the University of Missouri in 1922 he spent the next five years in Morrilton, Arkansas. In 1928 he successfully passed the Foreign Service entrance examination and was appointed a foreign service officer with U.S. Department of State. His first post was a vice consul to Saloniki, Greece, followed by the assignment at the National School of Living Oriental Languages in Paris where he studied French, Turkish, Arabic, and Amharaic languages. He left Paris in 1933 for Baghdad, Iraq, followed by Tehran, Iran in 1937. He remained in Tehran for five years, and here his first son, James III, was born. In 1942 Moose was assigned to the first American Legation in Saudi Arabia. He remained in Saudi Arabia during World War II after which he was assigned to Iraq again, then to Damascus, Syria as a charge d`affairs. In the late 1940s and early 1950s Moose spent several years traveling around Africa, South Asia, and Europe as a foreign service inspector of U.S. Embassies overseas. In 1952 he was appointed ambassador to Syria, and to Sudan in 1958. Moose retired from the State Department in 1962, taught international relations at the University of Massachusetts for one year, and finally retired to Morrilton, Arkansas in the late 1960s to farm and work as a merchant. James S. Moose, Jr. died in 1989.

THE COLLECTION

Papers pertaining to James S. Moose, Jr., diplomat, were donated to Special Collections on October 18, 1989 by his son, James S. Moose, III of Annandale, Virginia.

The collection has been arranged in five series. Contained are the professional papers pertaining to James S. Moose's career as a diplomat to Greece, France, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Sudan between 1928 and 1962; appointment books containing diary entries, 1942-1984; personal papers generated as a result of his research during his teaching career and his interest in early Arkansas history and the Civil War era; genealogy material; and photographs.

Processed by Vera Ekechukwu, January 1994. Special Collections Division, University of Arkansas Libraries, Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Series 1. Professional Papers, 1928- 1960. Box 1.

Correspondence includes letters, memoranda, reports, newspaper clippings, legal papers, official printed information collected by James S. Moose, Jr., ca. 1928-1960, and passports and other documents of identification for James S. Moose, Jr. and his family collected in his capacity as a diplomat.
Box 1
  1. Saloniki, Greece.
  2. Cairo, Egypt.
  3. Baghdad, Iraq.
  4. Saudi Arabia.
  5. Damascus, Syria.
  6. Legal correspondence.
  7. Correspondence, 1928-1947.
  8. Newspaper clippings.
  9. Passports.
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Series 2. Appointment Books, 1942-1984. Boxes 2-7.

Detailed daily acounts of Moose's activities from 1942 to 1984.
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Series 3. Personal Papers and Genealogy, 1962-1984. Boxes 8-11.

Includes class lectures; speeches; notes on scholarly research pertaining to foreign policy in general, United States foreign policy with a special focus on aid, administration of State Department and foreign service; notations from leading national newspapers and magazines; recipes; and other academic writings of James S. Moore, Jr. Also contained are manuscript articles pertaining to early Arkansas history with a closer focus on Conway County, Arkansas and Moose's birthplace, Morrilton; newspaper clippings about Arkansas; maps; brochures; pamphlets; postcards; letters of inquiries to National Archives, Library of Congress, and Arkansas History Commission seeking information about various historic places in Arkansas. This series also includes genealogy of Wood and allied families compiled by Eleanor Wood Moose, wife of James S Moose, Jr., as well as several other genealogical documents of unrelated families. More genealogical information about the Moose family can be found in Series 5, Civil War Papers.
Box 8
  1. Speeches.
  2. Speeches.
  3. Writings.
  4. Writings.
  5. Writings.
  6. Writings.
  7. Princeton University Policy Memoranda.
Box 9
  1. Lecture Notes.
  2. Lecture Notes.
  3. Lecture Notes.
  4. Lecture Notes.
  5. Lecture Notes.
  6. Lecture Notes.
Box 10
  1. Notes on Arkansas history.
  2. Brochures and pamphlets.
  3. Newspaper clippings.
  4. Newspaper clippings.
  5. Newspaper clippings.
Box 11
  1. Morrilton, Arkansas.
  2. Conway County, Arkansas.
  3. Maps and blueprints.
  4. Genealogy--Wood and allied families.
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Series 4. Photographs. Box 12.

Contains original and copy images of James S. Moose, Jr. and his family and portraits of Moose family ancestors. NOTE: Some original photographs of Moose family ancestors have been removed and replacted with copy prints. Negatives of these photographs are also available.
Box 12
  1. Photographic album.
  2. Images 1-9. Group photographs.
  3. Images 10-16. James S. Moose Jr. portraits and the family.
  4. Images 17-26. Portraits of Moose family ancestors.
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Series 5. Civil War Papers, 1843-n.d. Box 13.

Contains transcript letters written by Pompey Breeden in 1861 and 1862 from various encampments and battlefields; original receipts, bounties, notes of permission, promissory notes, safeguard passes, oath of allegiance of Benjamin F. Howard from 1843 to 1864; and manuscript article about the life and business endeavors of Benjamin F. Howard during the Civil War and the Reconstruction period.
Box 13
  1. Pompey Breeden copy letters.
  2. Benjamin F. Howard original documents.
  3. Manuscript article.
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