MS - 003: The Papers of Amos E. Taylor, Gettysburg Class of 1915

Processed by: Christine M. Ameduri
July 1999

Biography:
Amos E. Taylor (1893 - 1972) spent most of his fifty-year career in the field of international finance as an economist, educator and author. After graduating from Gettysburg College (then called Pennsylvania College) in 1915, he taught Science at East Stroudsburg High School, PA, and Latin and English at the Pennsylvania Military College before serving with the U.S. Army in France during WWI. After the war, he continued his studies at the University of Paris.

. It was during this period that he served as one of President Herbert Hoover's economic advisors and was appointed Director of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce by President Roosevelt a decade later, in 1943.

Between 1947 and 1958 he simultaneously held two high-level positions; that of Director of the Department of Economic Affairs for the Pan American Union and Executive Secretary of the Inter-American Economics and Social Council. He continued to teach in the Economics Department at American University until his retirement in 1964.

In addition to his many work-related responsibilities, he held the offices of president, vice-president and chairman of many associations and organizations such as the Cosmos Club of Washington, D.C., American Economic Association, and Gettysburg College's Board of Trustees. Some of his principal publications include Foreign Investments in the United States, 1937 and The 'Ten Per Cent' Fallacy, 1945.

Scope and Content Notes:
The Amos E. Taylor Collection is divided into eight Series. I. Biographical Information; II. Military Service; III. University of Pennsylvania; IV. U.S. Department of Commerce; V. Inter-American Economic & Social Council/Pan American Union; VI. American University; VII. Personal Memorabilia, and VIII. Publications.

SERIES I: BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Series I contains typed copies of personal diaries kept by Taylor between 1893 and 1916, which span much of his youth and four years at Gettysburg College.  Album #4 (1911-1915) is a scrapbook of Gettysburg College which also contains photographs.  Folder 1-1 contains biographical information on Taylor.  Folder 1-5 contains pocket diaries, daybooks and calendars, mostly from the 1960s and one from 1929.

SERIES II: MILITARY SERVICE

This Series contains typed copies of daybooks/diaries Taylor kept during his military service between 1917 and 1919. There are a large number of purchased photographs of different towns and battle scenes in France, German propaganda photos, and a number of personal photographs

of soldiers, camp life and other scenes in France.  In album #11 (1918 - I), there is a signed letter from Orville Wright to Amos Taylor in response to Taylor's request for a publication that gives the best account of the Wright brother's early experiments.

SERIES III: UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA

This Series contains typed copies of daybooks/diaries kept by Taylor while teaching and pursing his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania between 1920 and 1930.  Folder 3-1 contains publications written by Taylor while at U. Penn.

SERIES IV: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Series IV contains typed copies of diaries kept by Taylor while he was with the U.S. Department of Commerce from 1930 to 1947.  Folder 4-1 contains publications written by Taylor while with the Commerce Department.  Folders 8-1 and 8-2 contain photographs taken on a three-week industrial and export survey of parts of Germany in April and May 1947.  Folders 8-3 and 8-4 contain photographs taken on official business trips to Bermuda, The Azores and Berlin in 1947.

SERIES V: INTER-AMERICAN ECONOMIC & SOCIAL COUNCIL/PAN AMERICAN UNION

This Series contains typed copies of diaries Taylor kept while he was Director of the Department of Economic Affairs for the Pan American Union and Executive Secretary of the Inter-American Economic and Social Council from 1947 to 1958.

SERIES VI: AMERICAN UNIVERSITY

Series VI contains typed copies of diaries/daybooks Taylor kept while teaching at the American University in Washington, D.C. between 1958 and 1964.

 
SERIES VII: PERSONAL MEMOROBILIA
This Series contains typed copies of diaries/daybooks Taylor kept during his retirement from 1965 until his death in 1972.  Folders 13-1 through 13-4 contain personal photographs and ephemera such as Woodrow Wilson at the American Cemetery in Suresnes, France, 1919, Roosevelt Inaugural tickets and other miscellanea.

SERIES VIII: PUBLICATIONS
Series VIII contains a variety of publications on international finance and economics from 1919 through 1969 without gaps.