The Foreign Service Journal, November 2020

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | NOVEMBER 2020 67 AFSA Memorial Plaques in the C Street lobby of the Truman Building. I realized that there are likely many others, especially those from the 19th century. The plaques were unveiled in 1933, and I was surprised to learn that the names on them were the result of research conducted by AFSA; the Department of State kept no records of the diplomats or consuls who had died in the line of duty. In most cases, the only way to learn if someone died while employed by the State Department was to look at the Card Records of Appointments Made, which show the dates of service of consuls or diplomats, organized by geographic location. Though at the time of the plaques’ creation AFSA had the advan- tage of closeness in time to the many diplomats and consuls who had died during the 19th century, it did not benefit frommodern research tools. My own research has primarily relied on Google Books and the ProQuest Historical Newspapers database, using search terms like “U.S. Consul Dead” or “U.S. Consul Died.” Unfortunately, a name often requires further research, as it was common for news- papers to misspell names or refer to people as consuls even if they never officially held that title. The Library of Congress’ online resource A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates is particularly helpful in finding Senate nomination and confirmation dates, as well as for its frequent references to replacing “deceased” consuls. The State Department’s consular cards have been retired to the National Archives; research- ers can consult them there (see Card Record of Appointments Made, 1776-1960 [RG 59 Entry A1-798]). Walter Burges Smith’s book, America’s Diplomats and Consuls of 1776-1865: A Geo- graphic and Biographic Directory of the Foreign Service from the Declaration of Independence to the End of the Civil War , also has a very useful list of consular posts for the early 19th century. The Ralph Bunche Library at the Department of State has been particularly helpful to this research. In addition to the The AFSA Memorial Plaques in the C Street lobby of the State Department, which were unveiled in 1933 and have been updated since, will be expanded to accommodate the names of diplomats, mostly from the 19th century, whose death in the line of duty was discovered recently. AFSA/SHAWNDORMAN