United Nations, 1959-63

Component identifier:

Series 13

Content Summary:

Plimsoll took up his post as Australian Permanent Representative at the United Nations in New York in July 1959. The series contains a small number of official documents and a larger number of photographs, cuttings, invitations and programs documenting many of his social and cultural activities. As well as a group of letters on miscellaneous subjects, there are programs, invitations, tourist literature and other items collected during his visits to West Africa in May 1962 and East Africa in May-June 1962, and his attendance at the Inauguration of Chung Hee Park as President of South Korea in December 1963. The correspondents include Adlai Stevenson, Sir Hugh Foot, Rohan Rivett, Harry Belafonte, and William Sebald. Among the large number of official photographs are several showing Plimsoll addressing the General Assembly and the Disarmament Commission, meetings with other diplomats and Australian parliamentary delegations, and some photographs of Sir Garfield Barwick. A number of the printed items relate to the death of the United Nations Secretary-General, Dag Hammarskjold, in September 1961.

Immediate source of acquisition:

Sir James Plimsoll, who died on 8 May 1987, bequeathed his papers and books to the National Library. Following intervention by the Department of Foreign Affairs, the executors were informed that some of the papers were Commonwealth records and others were records of the Tasmanian Government. Consequently, the papers were transferred to the Australian Archives for detailed examination. It was finally determined that 149 boxes would come to the National Library, four boxes would be sent to the Tasmanian State Archives, and the remaining boxes would be retained by the Australian Archives. The papers were received by the National Library in March 1990.

Names:

Sir James Plimsoll

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