William Hepburn Buckler papers

The Buckler collection, given to the Yale University Library by Mrs. V. H. Seymer in 1957 and 1958, comprises the personal papers of her father William Hepburn Buckler (1867-1952) - diplomat and archaeologist, son of Dr. Thomas Hepburn Buckler, and half-brother of Henry White (United States Ambassador to Italy and France, 1907-1909, and a member of the American Commission to Negotiate Peace in Paris in 1918-1919). The collection spans the period 1909-1937, with the bulk of the material falling within the years 1910-1930.

Buckler was born in Paris and spent most of his early years in England and France. As a youth he was educated by private tutors at home; subsequently he matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1892 Buckler married Georgina Grenfell Walrond (later a distinguished Byzantine scholar), and for the next thirteen years the couple lived primarily in Baltimore, where Buckler practiced law and took a serious interest in the civic affairs of the city. In 1906, almost as a lark, Buckler passed the newly-established entrance examinations for the Foreign Service in the Department of State; and although today Buckler is chiefly remembered as an archaeologist of some note¹his earlier, diplomatic career appears to have been just as interesting.² Indeed it seems likely that, had it not been for Buckler's disillusionment with the postwar peace settlement, the Foreign Service would have remained his principal professional occupation.

Buckler first served as Secretary at the American Legation in Madrid (1907-1909). Then, after participating in the American-sponsored archaeological expeditions to Sardis (1910-1914) and doing volunteer work with the ambulance corps in France during the first months of the World War, he was appointed Special Agent at the United States Embassy in London (December 1914), where he remained posted for the duration of the conflict.

While living in London Buckler acted ostensibly as "director" of the embassy's "Austro-Hungarian division" and - later - as its resident "expert" on Balkan and Turkish affairs; but his principal role was that of a confidential reporter having direct lines of communication with Colonel E. M. House and the White House. As Buckler himself noted shortly before his death, his wartime reports from England, "transmitted to Colonel House, and by him to President Wilson, aimed at giving the views of the Liberal and Labour M. P.'s and Press which the Ambassador [W. H. Page] and the overworked Counsellor and Secretaries could not supply. Ramsay MacDonald and many others who were never seen at the Embassy were thus enabled to keep in touch with Washington. [Buckler's] ability to avoid censorship by means of the Embassy pouch gave [him] facile contact with [Colonel] House, and with [his] half-brother Henry White."

After the Armistice, and for the better part of 1919, Buckler served in various capacities as a special staff member of the American Commission to Negotiate Peace. He was thus involved in many of the debates and discussions amongst American and Allied "experts" over questions pertaining to Russia, the Balkans, and the Near East. Buckler retired from the Foreign Service in 1920 and established his permanent residence at Oxford; from that time on he devoted his energies almost exclusively to archaeological matters.

For the student of political and diplomatic history the most interesting sections of the Buckler collection are to be found in the files of the Buckler-House correspondence (Series I), covering the period August 1916-August 1918. But one should not overlook Buckler's letters written from the Paris Peace Conference, some of which were addressed to his family, others to Colonel House with whom he had continued to correspond throughout this period. With regard to the peace conference special mention must also be made of Buckler's notes on his meetings with Maxim Litvinoff at Stockholm (mid-January 1919) which laid the groundwork for the ill-fated Prinkipo conference on the Russian question.

Apart from Buckler's correspondence with House, the bulk of the collection contains letters from Buckler addressed to his wife and daughter. These have been divided into five sub-categories: (a) letters written from Madrid (1909); (b) letters written between September and November 1914, when Buckler was working as an orderly in a military hospital in France; (c) letters describing Buckler's continental tour with Samuel Gompers (1918), and mission to Stockholm (1919); (d) general correspondence of the Peace Conference period; and (e) correspondence describing in detail the excavations which took place at Sardis (1910-1914) and Anatolia (1922-1930).

¹ See the memorial notice on Buckler by W. M. Calder in The Proceedings of the British Academy, XL(1954).

² It is reviewed, all too briefly, by W. C. Dunning in his (unpublished) M. A. thesis submitted to George Washington University in 1957.