Papers of Caroline Drayton Phillips, 1893-1970

The papers of Caroline Drayton Phillips consist primarily of diaries and correspondence documenting Phillips's life as a wife of career diplomat William Phillips and mother of six children. The library received the bulk of Phillips's diaries in 1979. Her diaries are arranged chronologically. Loose items have been removed from the diaries and filed separately.

Family correspondence, a portion of William Phillips's diary, a friend's diary, and photographs were added to the collection in March 2024. This correspondence includes letters sent between Caroline and William during his time working in The Hague as minister to the Netherlands, as well as letters describing his diplomatic work in Europe during World War II. These materials are found in #29.6-31.10 and #PD.47. All other files remain in the same order.

The bulk of the collection consists of sixty-four diaries that originally included a variety of loose material: letters from family and friends; clippings, telegrams, and printed material (e.g., theater programs, seating charts, and social calling cards); and photographs. Some of the letters are in French and Italian. Phillips occasionally included lists of books she hoped to read and people she had met. She appears to have edited her work; there are pages that seem to have been intentionally pasted together, as well as individual pages or whole sections of the diaries that have been cut out and removed. In addition, it appears that someone else has read and marked the pages of the diaries, adding dates, comments, and underlining.

The early diaries recount the life of a young woman from a socially prominent family: Phillips tells of attending lectures, plays and concerts, touring museums, visits with family and friends, and traveling throughout Europe. She also describes her family life, particularly her strained relationship with her mother, her yearning for marriage and family, and deep religious faith. In addition, the diaries contain her reflections on politics and national events, such as the Spanish American War and her trip to the inauguration of President William Howard Taft in 1909.

Caroline Drayton married William Phillips in 1910, and while the diaries do not contain a significant account of their courtship, Phillips describes their wedding and subsequent family life in great detail. She writes of pregnancies, miscarriages, childbirths and recoveries, as well as her life as a mother and eventual grandmother. Phillips's first baby died in infancy. The diary pages from this period, however, appear to have been removed. Phillips also writes frequently of her emotional health, a recurring theme throughout the diaries; she refers to her feelings as "the black depression," calling it "the curse of my life" (January 13, 1923).

In addition to becoming a wife and mother, Caroline's marriage to William bestowed upon her the role of diplomatic spouse. Her diaries record her observations of Washington, DC, politics and gossip, particularly during the Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt administrations. The diaries also recount her involvement in numerous international diplomatic events, such as attending the coronation of King George V (1911), visits with Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands while William was minister to the Netherlands and Luxembourg (1920-1922), and an audience with Pope Pius XII (1940). The diaries from the years William was ambassador to Italy (1936-1940) reflect the tensions of pre-war Italy and describe William's diplomatic work with the Italian government and his efforts to dissuade Mussolini from allying with Germany, as well as his interactions with the Vatican.

In addition to the diaries, there are a significant number of letters which also document Phillips's private and social life. Included are letters from her family, in particular her mother, father, and brothers Billy and Harry; her husband William Phillips and their children; her cousin Waldorf Astor; and William's sister Anna Phillips Bolling. In addition, there are short letters from both Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, many sent during Roosevelt's presidency. Other close friends represented include members of the Cutting family: Olivia Cutting, Sybil Cuffee Cutting, and her daughter, Iris Cutting Origo. Many of her letters from Olivia Cutting reference the early death of Olivia's son and Caroline Phillips's close friend, William Bayard Cutting, Jr., and Olivia's attempts to contact him after his death. With these letters are samples of Olivia's "automatic" or "spirit writing" (March 12, 1916, and December 16, 1919); the diaries from this period also reveal Caroline's attempts to contact Bayard by means of automatic writing.

Most of the photographs in this collection are or will be digitized and available online.