801 K Street NW Washington, D.C. 20001 www.DCHistory.org SPECIAL COLLECTIONS FINDING AID Title: MS 0846, Clarence Hewes Scrapbook Collection, 1906-1962 Processor: David G. Wood Processed Date: April 2016 [Finding Aid last updated April 12, 2016] Clarence Bussey Hewes was born in Jeanerette, Louisiana, on February 1, 1890, to Harry Bartram and Nellie Bussey Hewes. The family also included Clarence’s two sisters, Amy (later Mrs. Robert Edmund Floweree) and Florence (later Mrs. Arthur Breese Griswold). Harry Hewes, a native of Texas, had come to Louisiana in the 1880s and made a fortune developing the local lumber industry. According to articles found in the scrapbooks, the Hewes were descended from a North Carolina family that included Joseph Hewes of Edenton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence who organized the first American naval force. Hewes attended the Dixon Academy in Covington, Louisiana; the University of Virginia (LL.B., 1914); and Tulane University (Bachelor of Laws in Civil Law, 1915). He came to Washington, D.C., in 1916, and in 1917-1918 served as private secretary to the Honorable Charles C. McChord, one of the commissioners heading the Interstate Commerce Commission. On February 10, 1919, he began a career at the Department of State, assigned as Third Secretary at the U.S. Legation in Panama. He then served at the U.S. embassies or legations in the Netherlands (1920-1922), and Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Guatemala (1922-1924), before being assigned as First Secretary at the embassy in Peking, China. He remained in China until 1930 when he was designated First Secretary at the embassy in Berlin, Germany. In 1932, he was assigned as First Secretary at the ministry in Riga, Latvia, his last post before resigning from the State Department in 1933. In October 1931, Hewes married the widowed Mrs. L.M. Josephthal (the former Edyth G. Guggenheim, daughter of Isaac Guggenheim of New York and niece of Senator Simon Guggenheim of Colorado and of Solomon R. Guggenheim.) The couple appear to have led largely separate lives. After leaving the State Department, Hewes remained in Washington, living at 2358 Massachusetts Avenue—where a nearby neighbor was friend Alice Roosevelt 1 Longworth—while Mrs. Hewes resided on E. 70 th Street in New York City. According to one of Alice Roosevelt’s biographers, “Buzzy Hewes was a curious character, married only in the legal sense—he lived in Washington, his wife in New York, and they had a pact never to exchange visits. For years he had served as an extra man at Alice’s dinner parties. … [He served in the Foreign Service] before retiring in 1933 to a life of attending and giving dinners and issuing opinions on matters of good taste and manners—for example, one must never answer an invitation with a ball-point pen and one must never attend a funeral unless one has dined in the dead person’s house at least twice.” 1 When Edyth Hewes died on March 26, 1960, in New York, a contemporary article in the New York Herald-Tribune reported that she left her estate of more than three million dollars to relatives, a friend, and charities, and “said in her will that provision for her husband had been made in an ‘ante-nuptial agreement.’” According to the scrapbooks, Hewes had two godsons. Munro Magruder was the son of Brigadier General John Magruder, a military attaché at the U.S. embassy in Peking from 1926 to 1930 (where Hewes was assigned at the time). Munro was born there in March 1927; he later attended St. Alban’s School in Washington and graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1949. He was killed in action in Korea in 1950. The other godson, Richard Nye, was the son of Gerald Prentice Nye, the Senator from North Dakota (from 1925 to 1945) who played a prominent role in exposing the Teapot Dome scandal. Hewes was politically active, serving on the Republican State Committee for the District of Columbia; he was an alternate D.C. delegate to the Republican National Conventions of 1948 and 1952 (among his social and political friends was Senator Robert Taft, who unsuccessfully sought the Republican presidential nomination in those years) and also attended the 1960 Republican Convention. Hewes was also an officer of the Washington chapter of the “America First Committee,” a group opposing U.S. entry into World War II, and editorials he authored (included in the scrapbooks) clearly state his opposition to racial integration of public schools. He was a member of the Sons of the American Revolution (his application is included in the records of the D.C. Chapter of that organization, which are among HSW’s collections--see MS 0799), the American Geographical Society, and Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity; and was listed for a number of years in Who’s Who in America. He was also an early member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Hewes’ background and position in the Foreign Service provided entrée into the world of Washington society, where he acquired the nickname “Buzzy,” probably a variation of his middle name (his mother’s family surname). His innumerable friends and acquaintances included U.S. and foreign diplomats, government officials, military officers, members of European nobility, and wealthy individuals who did not reside in Washington. In fact, while Washington was his “permanent” residence after 1933, Hewes traveled extensively; typically, he was away in January and February—usually Palm Beach followed by New Orleans to attend the Mardi Gras festivities—and again during the summer months—generally European locales, except for the World War II and immediate postwar years, when he chose New England or other American destinations. Accordingly, he was a frequent invitee to dinners, teas, luncheons, weddings, balls, theater parties, and charity events. He appeared regularly in the society columns 1 Felsenthal, Carol, Alice Roosevelt Longworth (G.P Putnam’s Sons; New York; 1988), page 200. (See E 757.3 .F45) 2 of newspapers; many articles attest to his prowess as a desired guest and an excellent host. He apparently was an avid horseman, as there are numerous pictures of him and others on horseback in the scrapbooks as well as tickets to the Royal Enclosure at the Ascot Races, a feature of his annual excursions to Europe; and a cat fancier, as the scrapbooks contain many dated photographs (apparently taken at Hewes’ Washington home) of named cats. Clarence Bussey Hewes died April 21, 1962. He is interred at Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans, Louisiana. Scope and Content Note: The 14 bound scrapbooks contain hundreds of engraved invitations and calling cards, personal notes, and pieces of correspondence. There are also newspaper and magazine clippings; original photographs; and dance cards, menus, performance programs, passenger lists, tickets, and other ephemera. (Many handwritten menus, most in French, appear to be from luncheons and dinners that Hewes hosted at his Washington home.) Many photographs are annotated, apparently by Hewes himself, identifying the people pictured, the locale, and/or the date; if included in the photograph, Hewes consistently identifies himself as “CBH." The scrapbooks’ contents are arranged generally in chronological order, with each volume covering a specified period of time, beginning with volume 1 (1906 to 1920) and ending with volume 14 (1959 to 1962). However, there is some overlap between volumes, and within each scrapbook, items do not follow strict chronological order. Size: 6 cubic ft. (14 volumes, 6 containers) Access Restrictions: The collection is open for research. Use Restrictions: Some material may be copyrighted or restricted. It is the patron's obligation to determine and satisfy copyright or other case restrictions when publishing or otherwise distributing materials found in the collection. Donor: Mrs. Oliver W. Hammond, 1962; 2015.030 Related Material: MS 0841 Adelaide Heath Doig scrapbook collection. Doig, one of Hewes’ Washington, D.C., social acquaintances, also compiled extensive scrapbooks chronicling some of the same events and persons represented in Hewes’ collection. 3 Processor’s Note: Researchers may find useful the following biographical information on Mr. Hewes’ Washington, D.C. friends, acquaintances, and professional and/or social contacts who are represented in the scrapbooks' contents, primarily on invitations to various social events and/or personal correspondence. (This is not an exhaustive list or index of names found in the scrapbooks). A • Dr. Ricardo J. Alfaro , diplomat from Panama who was involved in settling numerous disputes arising from the construction of the Panama Canal. From 1922 to 1930, and from 1933 to 1936, Dr. Alfaro was Panamanian "envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary" to the United States. • Mr. and Mrs. Larz Anderson . Anderson was a wealthy diplomat who served at U.S. embassies in London and Rome before being named Minister to Belgium (1911-1912) and Ambassador to Japan (1912-1913). His wife was the former Isabel Weld Perkins. The Anderson's magnificent Massachusetts Avenue mansion later became home to the Society of the Cincinnati. • Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Dudley Auchincloss . Hugh Auchincloss was a financier with the firm Auchincloss, Parker, and Redpath, whose offices were at 719 15 th Street NW; he resided at the "Merrywood" estate in McLean, Va. Auchincloss was married to the former Nina Gore, mother of author Gore Vidal; and after their divorce, to Janet Lee Bouvier, mother of future First Lady Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy and of Caroline Lee Bouvier (Lee Radziwill). B • Mr. and Mrs. Robert Low Bacon . Bacon was a banker who served as congressman from New York from 1923 until his death in 1938. The widowed Mrs. Bacon continued to reside in Washington. • Mr. and Mrs. David Sheldon Barry . Barry was a journalist who served as the Sergeant at Arms of the United States Senate from 1919 to 1933.