Document Record

Creator

Great Britain. Foreign Office.

Title

Great Britain. Foreign Office fonds : records pertaining to British North America
Lord Elgin Special Mission 1854
Grande-Bretagne. Fonds du Foreign Office : Dossiers relatifs à l’Amérique du Nord britannique

Identifier

MIKAN: 158582
Reels/Bobines: C-12906
Archival Reference/Référence Archivistique: MG 16 F O, R14354-0-9-E
oocihm.lac_mikan_158582
lac_mikan_158582

Subject

Government
Canada-USA relations
Gouvernement
Relations Canada-États-Unis

Document source

Library and Archives Canada/Bibliothèque et Archives Canada

Notes

1709-1910
Copyright Not Evaluated/Droit d'auteur non évalué
https://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/

Language

English

Description

In 1782, certain administrative reforms in Great Britain led to the creation of the Foreign Office under the direction of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Initially, the staff of the Foreign Office was relatively small by modern standards, with the Secretary himself performing a wide variety of duties. Later in the 19th century, the demands of Victorian England required an expanding establishment. Its various departments may be divided more or less into political or non-political categories. The political departments conducted the diplomatic business of the office. The non-political departments comprised Consular, Commercial, Slave Trade and Africa, Chief Clerk, Treaty and Royal Letter, Library, Registry, and other miscellaneous departments. The Foreign Office of Great Britain merged into the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1968. It conducted British relations with nearly all foreign states between 1782 and 1968.
This collection consists of correspondence in two main categories: accessions, births, marriages, or deaths of royal families and heads of state, and, royal letters of accreditation or recall, commissions, and related papers of British diplomatic representatives.
En 1782, certaines réformes administratives en Grande-Bretagne ont mené à la création du Foreign Office placé sous la direction du secrétaire d’État pour les Affaires étrangères. À l’origine, le personnel du Foreign Office était relativement restreint par rapport aux normes modernes, d’autant plus que le secrétaire exerçait lui-même une grande variété des tâches. Plus tard au XIXe siècle, les contraintes de l’Angleterre victorienne ont exigé l’expansion de cette institution. Les divers départements du Foreign Office peuvent plus ou moins se répartir en deux catégories : politiques et non politiques. Les départements politiques s’occupaient des affaires diplomatiques du bureau, alors que les départements non politiques s’occupaient des affaires consulaires, du commerce, de la traite des esclaves et de l’Afrique, du greffier en chef, des traités et lettres royales, de la Bibliothèque, du Greffe et de divers autres départements. En 1968, le Foreign Office de la Grande-Bretagne est devenu le Bureau des Affaires étrangères et du Commonwealth. Le Foreign Office avait dirigé les relations entre la Grande-Bretagne et la majorité des États étrangers de 1782 à 1968.
La correspondance qui compose cette collection se divise en deux grandes catégories : les accessions, les naissances ou les décès au sein des familles royales et des chefs d’État, et les lettres royales d’accréditation ou de rappel, les commissions et autres documents se rapportant aux représentants diplomatiques britanniques.
List of Foreign Office classes included in the Public Record Office, comprising a complete shelf listing of volume titles and dates, entitled "List of Foreign Office Records to 1878", published in London, 1929.
Microfilm copy of list, B-1678.
List of Foreign Office classes, in "Guide to the Contents of the Public Record Office" (London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1963-1968).
List of Foreign Office classes in Charles O. Paullin and Frederic L. Paxson, "Guide to the Materials in London Archives for the History of the United States since 1783", (Washington, D.C.: Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1914). Includes a detailed volume by volume analysis of material in the Foreign Office groups which were deemed relevant to the history of the United States. Since the work was compiled before the present Foreign Office classification was completed, existing class numbers are not included, however the volume numbers are, for the most part correct.
A brief listing of the contents of the King's Letter Books, including volume number, outside dates, and geographical designator, are found in the publication, "List of Foreign Office Records to 1837 preserved in the Public Record Office" (London: 1914).

Persistent URL

https://n2t.net/ark:/69429/s0ht2g738629