Title: Wesley Frost Papers, 1884-1944

ID: RG 30/030

Extent: 2.1 Linear Feet

Wesley Frost was born in Oberlin, Ohio on June 17, 1884. His father was William Goodell Frost (1854-1938; A.B. Oberlin 1876, B.D., M.A. Oberlin 1879), Professor of Greek at Oberlin College (1879-92) and President of Berea College in Berea, Kentucky (1892-1920). His mother, Louise Raney Frost (enr. Oberlin 1875-77) died in 1890; the following year, Professor Frost married Eleanor Marsh (d. 1950; A.B. Oberlin 1891).

Wesley Frost entered Oberlin College in the fall of 1904 after completing his freshman year at Berea College. At Oberlin,Frost was editor-in-chief of the Oberlin Review and of his class yearbook, Hi-O-Hi. He graduated in 1907 with honors in debate and oratory, receiving the M.A. in Economics from George Washington University in 1910. In 1944, he received the honorary LL.D. from the University of Paraguay.

Frost's government career began in Washington, D.C. He served from 1907 to 1908 as literary secretary to Ohio State Senator Theodore E. Burton (1852-1929; A.B. Oberlin 1872); clerk at the Department of Commerce (1908-09); and Economic Statistician for the Department of State (1909-12). His first consular post came in 1912, when he was named U.S. Consul at Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada. After two years, he was appointed U.S. Consul to Queenstown, Ireland, near Cork. During his service there (1914-17), he coordinated relief operations for the survivors of the S. S. Lusitania, the British steamship torpedoed by a German submarine on May 7, 1915. Frost interviewed the survivors and included their stories in his official report to the United States government, which was published in 1918 as German Submarine Warfare.

In 1917, Frost was recalled from his post in Ireland after the British Admiralty at Queenstown complained of his handling of his investigations of German submarine movements. He returned to America and remained there four years. He lectured widely on the Lusitania disaster for the Under Committee on Public Information and was admitted to the bar in Lexington, Kentucky after completing private study. He served as Assistant Foreign Trade Adviser (1918-19) and Foreign Trade Adviser (1919-21) at the Department of State in Washington D.C. and taught consular practice for three semesters at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service (1919-21).

From 1921 to 1944, Frost held several diplomatic posts overseas. As U.S. Consul (1921-24) and U.S. Consul General (1924-28) in Marseilles, France, he developed trade reporting and immigration procedures. From 1928 to 1935, he was U.S. Consul General at Montreal, Canada, where he lectured frequently in French and English on economic and literary subjects. He served as Charge d'Affaires and Counselor of the American Embassy at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (1935-36), where he helped to bring about the ratification of the Hull trade agreement, a key economic agreement between the United States and Paraguay. From 1936 to 1940, he served as Charge d'Affaires and Counselor at Santiago, Chile(1936-40). There, he negotiated and signed the Gutierres-Frost "Modus Vivendi" pact, which regulated U.S. trade with Chile. In 1941, he was named U.S. Minister at Asuncion, Paraguay, and in 1942, he became U.S. Ambassador to Paraguay. As Ambassador, he secured Paraguayan collaboration with the Allies in the Second World War. He served in Paraguay until his retirement at age 60 as Senior Career Ambassador on December 1, 1944.

During his twenty-four years in retirement, Frost taught International Relations and American and Latin American history at Denver University (1944-45), the New York State Teachers College at Oswego (1945-47), the American Institute for Foreign Trade at Thunderbird Field, Arizona (1947-51), and Hamilton College in Clinton, New York (1951-52). In 1950, he and Mrs. Frost moved to Oberlin, Ohio, where he lectured frequently and authored numerous articles on Latin America for the Encyclopedia Britannica as well as for Nation's Business, This Week, and National Geographic Magazine. In 1954, the Frosts settled permanently in Winter Park, Florida. Wesley Frost died on January 9, 1968 at age 83.

On December 21, 1909, Wesley Frost married Mary Priscilla Clapp (1886-1965; A.B. Oberlin 1907) of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. The Frosts had three children: Nuala Anne (b. 1914; A.B. Oberlin 1936), Phyllis Priscilla (b. 1918; A.B. Oberlin 1940), and Sophie Jeanne (b. 1925; A.B. Swarthmore 1952).

SOURCES CONSULTED

National Cyclopedia of American Biography (New York: J. T. White, 1898- ), vol. 55.

Student Files of William Goodell Frost, Mary Priscilla (Clapp) Frost, and Wesley Frost (28).

Author: Valerie Komor

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Administrative Information

Scope and Contents:

The collection is arranged into five records series: I. General Correspondence; II. Official Correspondence of Ambassador Frost; III. Writings; IV. Miscellany; and V. Photographs. Within series, materials are arranged either chronologically or alphabetically by topic or type of material, or into subseries. The correspondence of Series I and II is maintained as it was arranged by the archivist in 1969.

In this collection, Frost's diplomatic career is documented mainly by his outgoing correspondence (1917-44), housed in Series I, General Correspondence. Included are several letters (1917) from Frost to American officials protesting his sudden recall from Queenstown (Cork), Ireland. There is very little correspondence dating from the period of his residence in Washington, D.C. (1918-21) as Assistant Foreign Trade Adviser and Foreign Trade Adviser. Several letters (1927) from Frost in Marseilles, France report on French protests against the trial, imprisonment, and impending executions in Massachusetts of Nicola Sacco (1891-1927) and Bartolomeo Vanzetti (1888-1927). Letters (1928) written by Frost from Marseilles to his parents and to his wife and children in the United States offer a detailed, personal account of daily life as U.S. Consul. Forty letters (file copies) date from his service in Montreal, Canada (1928-35), but there is no correspondence from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (1935-36). Only two letters (1937, 1938) date from Frost's residence at Santiago, Chile. Incoming correspondence (1917-43) includes several letters from Frost's three daughters, (1926-27), his father, William Goodell Frost, and colleagues attempting to assist Frost in obtaining academic employment following his retirement (1943-44).

Correspondence of an official nature relating to Frost's service as Minister (1941-42) and United States Ambassador (1942-44) to Paraguay consists of file copies of telegrams exchanged between Ambassador Frost and U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull (1871-1955) and Acting Secretary of State Sumner Welles (b. 1892). Most communiques are accompanied by Spanish translations. Topics covered include routine embassy business, such as personnel and equipment needs, as well as urgent matters relating to the conduct of the war and to economic and political relations between Latin America and the United States. Several confidential, numbered reports by Wesley Frost to Secretary Hull (1944) describe Frost's efforts to expel Nazi leaders from Paraguay and the nature of the Paraguayan government and its relations with Argentina, Brazil, and the Axis powers. Interfiled with the official communiques are letters (originals) from Frost's Department of State colleagues, Laurence Duggan and Norman Amour.

Frost's writings in the fields of German submarine warfare and Latin American economics are represented here by original and carbon drafts of articles and lectures (1916-30, 1942-44). His book-length manuscript entitled Consular Practice (never published) is a compilation of lectures given by Frost at the Georgetown University of Foreign Service from 1919-20. The manuscript of his book, German Submarine Warfare (1918), is not present in this collection. Several drafts for talks are in Spanish, as they were presented to audiences in Paraguay. Other materials relating to Paraguay include clippings (1937-44) from Paraguay newspapers and seven pamphlets (in Spanish) of a didactic nature on the land, people, and history of Paraguay (1940-44).

Among the Frost papers is a small group of personal items belonging to Wesley Frost. These include birth certificates of his three daughters, memorabilia collected at his various diplomatic posts, clippings (photocopies) relating to his professional progress, and a notebook containing brief descriptions of his life at Oberlin College (January-October 1905). Photographs, housed in Series V, are black and white group portraits of the consular and diplomatic corps at Frost's various posts. The photographs are largely undated and unidentified.

SERIES DESCRIPTIONS

Series I. General Correspondence, 1891-1943 0.6 l.f.

Correspondence of Wesley Frost, in English, French, and Spanish, organized into three subseries: 1. Incoming Correspondence; 2. Outgoing Correspondence; 3. Miscellaneous Correspondence. Subseries 1 includes letters received by Frost from his children (1926-29). Subseries 3 includes correspondence of individuals other than Frost and his associates. Correspondence is chronologically arranged.

Series II. Official Correspondence of Ambassador Frost, 1941-44 .2 l.f.

File copies of telegrams exchanged between Ambassador Frost and the U.S. Department of State, organized into two subseries: 1. Incoming Messages and 2. Outgoing Messages. Subseries titles preserve the folder headings established by the archivist in 1969.

Series III. Writings, 1916-44, n.d. 0.6 l.f.

Original and carbon drafts of articles and lectures with attached and related correspondence; one ms. draft of an unpublished book; and ms. notes and fragments of longer works. Some writings in Spanish. Arranged alphabetically by type of material.

Series IV. Miscellany, 1884-1944, n.d. 0.6 l.f.

Arranged into two subseries: 1. Miscellany Pertaining to Diplomatic Service; and 2. Personal Miscellany. Subseries 1 includes U.S. government publications (addresses), Department of State news releases, newspaper clippings, and printed materials. Clippings in English, French, and Spanish. Subseries 2 includes birth certificates, passports, identity cards, business cards, official invitations, menus, and a notebook or diary (1905). A notebook of family genealogy, formerly filed in Subseries 2, was moved to the William Goodell Family Papers (RG 30/29) in May 2002.

Series V. Photographs, ca. 1917, 1937, n.d. 0.1 l.f.

Black and white photographs of Wesley Frost (ca. 1917) and group portraits of diplomats in Santiago, Chile, and Montreal, Quebec. Photographs are largely undated and mounted on disbound album leaves. Arranged chronologically.

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