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Preferred Citation:

Agnes Dawson Letters, Special Collections Research Center, Swem Library, College of William and Mary.

Acquisition Information:

Purchase.

Processing Information:

Accessioned and processed in June and September 2009 by SCRC staff.

Biographical Information:

Agnes Balloch Bready married United State Diplomat William Dawson, Jr. (1885-1972) in 1926. William Dawson was one of the most important American diplomats of the first half of the 20th century. He served as a vice and deputy consul in Barcelona (Spain), Frankfurt (Germany), Rosario (Argentina), Montievedo (Uruguay), Danzig (Poland) and Munich (Germany) before serving as US consul-general of Mexico, Ecuador, Columbia, Uruguay and as US ambassador to Panama and Uruguay. At the end of his career, he was the first US Ambassador to the Organization of American States.

At the time the letters were written William Dawson was the US Ambassador to Uruguay and the Dawsons resided in Montevideo.

Scope and Contents

Letters, 1941-1946 written by Agnes Balloch Dawson from the American Embassy in Montevideo, Uruguay to her father and 'Omie' (mother?).  Agnes Balloch Dawson talks in detail about her and her husband William Dawson Jr.'s (1885-1972) life in Uruguay, describing their social and professional interactions, and commenting on politics and events. Some of the people she met and mentions in her letters are Walt Disney, Aaron Copland and Orson Wells.

The more detailed description below provided by the seller and has not been verified for accuracy:

"Letters of "Agnes Balloch Dawson, the wife of well-known US diplomat, William Dawson, and grand-daughter of Civil War General, George W. Balloch. Agnes Balloch Dawson, wrote to their family as her husband served as Ambassador to Uruguay during WWII. She was a highly educated and accomplished woman herself, well regarded in diplomatic circles and a well-known figure in the arts.

"The letters, most of them signed, detail the goings-on of her and her husband, giving a thorough account of their day-to-day business; her conversations with people she met, the art scene and performances she attended, etc. There is, for example, a two-page letter devoted almost entirely to her meetings and conversations with Walt Disney when he visited Montevideo for the opening of Fantasia.

"There are several pages of her discussions with American composer Aaron Copland, when he headed a musical conference in Montevideo, including material about music theory.

"She mentions having lunch with Orson Wells, meeting Andres Segovia and talks about her and her husband's close relationship with Col. de Basil, the leader of the Ballet Russe, and that troupe's dancers. There is material about meeting the two of Uruguay's leader and other Uruguayan dignitaries, as well as meeting officials and diplomats from around the world.

"There is a WW II component, in the mentionings about UK and US ships and soldiers passing through on their way to the Japanese front."

Arrangement

Arranged chronologically.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Dawson, William, Jr., 1885-1972
• Diplomat's spouses--Uruguay--Correspondence
• Diplomats--1940-1970
• Letters (correspondence)
• Uruguay--History--20th century--Sources
• World War, 1939-1945--Diplomatic history--Sources