IMF Archives: Finding Aids
Bretton Woods Conference Collection:
Overview

Context

By March 1943, White was able to report to President Roosevelt on the progress on a "Stabilization Fund for the United and Associated Nations and an International Bank for Reconstruction and Development", a Treasury joint effort with the Department of State, the Board of Economic Warfare and the Export-Import Bank. By then, a draft had been prepared by representatives of the United States and United Kingdom and shared with technical experts from Russia and China. In June1943, White hosted a "Technical Experts Meeting" to discuss the Stabilization Plan. The meeting, attended by representatives of twelve nations — Belgium, Bolivia, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Ecuador, France, the Netherlands, Norway, Philippines, Poland, the United Kingdom, and the United States , brought about the underlying plans for the Bretton Woods Conference, which would convene a year later, in July 1944. By the spring of 1944, the "Joint Statement of Experts on the International Monetary Fund" was published simultaneously in eight consulting countries, reporting the views of experts for a more detailed plan.

The United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference opened on July 1, 1944 in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. Forty-four governments accepted the invitation of President Roosevelt to come together for the purposes of promoting international economic stability. U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau was elected president of the Conference. Three commissions were established to conduct the work of the Conference: Commission I was charged with formulating the Articles of Agreement of the International Monetary Fund, Commission II assumed the same responsibility with respect to the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and Commission III was to consider other means on international financial cooperation. The commissions were chaired respectively by Harry D. White (United States), Lord Keynes (United Kingdom) and Dr. Eduardo Suarez (Mexico). In addition, several subcommittees were created to handle more technical and controversial problems. By the end of the Conference, the Articles of Agreement of the IMF and the Articles of Agreement of the IBRD were ready for ratification by member governments. The Articles of Agreement for both organizations entered into force on December 27, 1945. The Inaugural Meeting of the Boards of Governors of the Fund and the Bank took place on Wilmington Island, Georgia, near Savannah, in March 1946. Many of the same individuals who had been involved in the planning and formation of the Fund and the Bank, who now held positions in the Fund and the Bank, or served as Governors for their respective countries attended this meeting.

Archival history: As early as 1952, Fund staff in the Records Division started gathering records in the Fund Archives relating to the establishment of the IMF and IBRD as well as developing a timetable of the events leading up to the Bretton Woods Conference. Presumably, it was during this project that the Records Division would have received records from former members of delegations or staff of the Conference Secretariat, such as those of Edward M. Bernstein, Alice Bourneuf, and Raymond F. Mikesell. As a result, these records were interfiled with the Conference's records (also known as the Bretton Woods Master Files) by subject, leading to the loss of provenance and original order. No attempt was made during the processing those records to reverse the situation. The papers belonging to Richard B. Brenner, Ansel F. Luxford, as well as a second group of records from Edward M. Bernstein were transferred to the Records Division upon their retirement.

Content and structure

Scope and content: The records relating to the Bretton Woods Conference in the IMF Archives are mainly files of former staff members of the U.S. Treasury or Federal Reserve Board who, as members of the U.S. Delegation at the Bretton Woods Conference or members of the Conference Secretariat, participated in the drafting of the Bretton Woods Agreement and the establishment of the International Monetary Fund. Evident in the Bretton Woods materials is the work, planning, and influence of British economist, John Maynard Keynes, U. S. Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, and Harry Dexter White, Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Treasury and Assistant Director of its Monetary Research Division who also served at the Conference as Executive Secretary of the American Delegation. The records cover the time from immediately prior to the Atlantic City Conference in June 1944 and run through the Savannah Conference, held in March 1946. The Collection also documents the efforts in both the United Kingdom and the United States to ratify the Bretton Woods Agreements in the two countries' legislatures, the House of Commons and the United States Congress.

The textual records are complemented by a series of images associated with the Bretton Woods Conference such as portraits of Harry Dexter White and Lord Keynes, group portraits of delegates and conference staff as well as pictures of the Mount Washington Hotel. The photographs were collected from several sources since news outlet photographers documented the Conference, as well as official photographers brought in by governments, particularly the United States.

The collection has been arranged into five series. The first three are based on the records of individuals present at the Conference: 1) Richard Brenner Files (boxes 1-6), 2) Ansel Luxford Files (boxes 7-25), and 3) Edward Berntein Files (boxes 40-46). The fourth series consists of the files of the Bretton Woods Secretariat: Bretton Woods Conference Files (boxes 26-39, 47-65). The fifth series is images specific to the Conference: Photographs (photo boxes 1-2).

Conditions of Access and Use

Conditions governing access and reproduction: The textual materials are open without restriction.

Language/script of material: English, French.

Associated Materials

Related units of description: (1) Associated material in the IMF and World Bank -(a) the Joint Bank-Fund Library holds a "Bretton Woods File" of resource material, as well as many published items on the Bretton Woods Conference. Both the archives and the library have the published proceedings of the Bretton Woods and Savannah Conferences; (b)The World Bank Group Archives holds a small collection of papers concerning the conference. (2) Associated material in other repositories — (a) The United States National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has papers on the Bretton Woods Conference and the American efforts to guide the proceedings. In the Treasury Department Record Group (RG 56) and the State Department Record Group (RG 59) are found correspondence, memoranda, reports, and minutes of meetings from prior to, during, and after the Bretton Woods Conference. (b) John Maynard Keynes' papers are located at Cambridge University; (c)Harry Dexter White's papers are held at Princeton University (MC #140), covering the years 1930-1948; (d) The United States National Archives and Records Administration also maintains papers concerning White's service in the United States Department of the Treasury (RG 56); (e)Edward M. Bernstein's papers covering the years 1927-1996 are held at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (#4502).