Sherwood, Sidney Papers

Secretary, Export-Import Bank, 1946-1959

The papers of Sidney Sherwood include correspondence, press clippings, diaries, speeches, reports, handwritten notes, and other items concerning his life, public career, and travels.

Size: 5 linear feet, 3 linear inches.
Access: Open.
Copyright: The donor gave to the U.S. government the copyrights in this material and in any other material received by the U.S. government and maintained in a depository administered by the National Archives and Records Administration. Documents created by U.S. government officials in the course of their official duties are in the public domain. Copyright interest in other documents presumably belongs to the creators of those documents, or their heirs.
Processed by: C.W. Ohrvall (1980); David Clark (2012).
Updated by: Haley Petersen (2019) as part of the Truman Library Internship Program.
Supervising Archivists: Randy Sowell and David Clark.

The papers of Sidney Sherwood include correspondence, press clippings, diaries, speeches, reports, handwritten notes, and other items concerning his life, public career, and travels. The collection is arranged in one series, a Subject File.

The collection contains more than two thousand pages of correspondence, as well as some transcripts of correspondence. Various recipients are represented, including Sherwood’s mother and his wife, Olita. Some of the letters are dated as early as 1887, before Sherwood was born.

The collection also includes various reports of the Export-Import Bank. Sherwood’s travels are well documented by brochures, postcards, and other printed materials from abroad. Many of the papers deal with Sherwood’s business activities, both in Washington, D.C. and outside the country. Many pages of handwritten notes and memorandums document his work with the Export-Import Bank.

Press clippings relating to Sherwood’s service with the Alcohol Tax Unit, and with other agencies, reflect his notoriety on a national level. The one scrapbook also contains personal letters, invitations, and cards dealing with the White House and upper level officials under President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Diaries are also part of the collection, along with speeches and articles that Sherwood wrote. Some of the articles were submitted to Harper’s Magazine and Reader’s Digest, but were ultimately not selected for publication.

More information concerning the Export-Import Bank can be found at the Truman Library in the papers of Harry S. Truman (Official Files 27-B and 2115), Daniel L. Goldy, and John W. Snyder.