Carnegie Endowment for International Peace pamphlet and microfilm collection

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace was founded in 1910 by Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919), who transferred to 28 selected trustees the sum of $10 million in bonds, the revenue of which was to be used to "hasten the abolition of international war." Two of the trustees, Elihu Root and Nicholas Murray Butler were very important figures in the formation of the Endowment. Elihu Root (1845-1937) served his country as Secretary of War, Secretary of State, and United States Senator. He is best remembered for his efforts to ensure international peace. He received the Nobel Peace prize in 1912 and was President of the Board of Trustees of the Carnegie Endowment from 1910 to 1925. Nicholas Murray Butler (1862-1947) served as President of Columbia University from 1902 to 1945 and shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Jane Addams in 1931. He succeeded Root as President of the Endowment, a post he held until 1945. The efforts of these men established the direction of the Endowment which for eighty-five years has encouraged peace through educational enterprises that promote international understanding and the codification of international law.

The Carnegie Endowment was headquartered in Washington, D.C., until it moved to New York City in 1950. Prior to its move, the Endowment sought an institution to purchase its library to ensure that its materials would continue to be available to researchers. The library collection was sold to The George Washington University in the year of the Endowment's move. This constituted a major acquisition for the University considering that in the fiscal year 1949/50 the University provided a total of $15,000 for the purchase of library books. The 60,000 volume collection of books, pamphlets, and documents was at that time one of the finest assembled for the study of international relations and world peace, according to an official from the Library of Congress who appraised the collection.

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, which since 1983 has again been headquartered in Washington, D.C., continues the work begun by its founders. Elihu Root and Nicholas Murray Butler were activists in a segment of a larger peace movement both in the U.S. and abroad that had its roots in the later years of the nineteenth century. The men and women who founded societies devoted to world peace were generally the elite of society: educators, business leaders, clergymen, journalists, etc. Periods of domestic and political turmoil and uncertainty, both at home and abroad, spurred these people to work for the cause of peace, since the promise of lasting peace meant economic and social stability. Peace societies served as forums for a national elite who held themselves responsible for molding public opinion on a wide range of issues, among them the promotion of a foreign policy that would establish a peaceful means of arbitrating international disputes. This collection of pamphlets reflect these aims and is thus a very useful research source for scholars.