Harris Whittemore

Identity:

He married Margaret Stuyvesant Rutherford (1857-1916). They had a son, John Campbell White (1884-1967), who was born in London on 17 March 1884.

Life:

He studied abroad and traveled widely. He was often called the first career diplomat in the United States. He first entered the foreign service as secretary (1883-1884) of the U.S. legation in Vienna. He served with the U.S. embassy at London from 1884-1893, and met Whistler during this time. In 1896 President McKinley appointed him First Secretary of the Embassy. He was later U.S. ambassador at Rome (1905-1907) and Paris (1907-1909). As head of the U.S. delegation to the Algeciras Conference in 1906, White helped in the settlement of the Moroccan Crisis between Germany and France. He was sent in 1910 as a special emissary to Chile and in 1918 was appointed a commissioner to the Paris Peace Conference by President Wilson. He was unfortunate enough to fall out of favour with Helen Herron Taft, wife of the President, which upset his career.

Bibliography:

Nevins, Allan, Henry White: Thirty Years of American Diplomacy, New York, 1930; http://politicalgraveyard.com (accessed 9 September 2003).