Beirut Consulate Post Records
Title
Beirut Consulate Post Records
Subject
Consulates--United States--Lebanon
Economic aspects of war
World War I
Description
This collection represents a selection of records from the United States Consulate in Beirut. In 2016, the Khayrallah Center digitized these records at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland while conducting research. The center targeted records pertaining to the World War I era and money (remittances) sent from immigrants in the United States to relatives in Lebanon, as well as correspondence from this time period. The center also digitized lists and records of passport applications from 1859-1939.
During the period covered by these records, the US Consulate in Beirut handled minor diplomatic matters such as issuing passports and visas, and serving the needs of American citizens residing in its jurisdiction through correspondence, inquiries, and assisting migrants, and tourists. The vast majority of the consulate’s records on American citizens refer to missionaries and emigrants who had become naturalized American citizens but returned to the Levant or required the consulate’s aid in communicating with relatives who remained there.
The original records are housed at the National Archives II in College Park, Maryland. To learn more about Records of the Foreign Service Posts of the Department of State, see the National Archives’ description of Record Group 84.
The Khayrallah Center plans to publish a series of databases of compiled names from the World War I era remittances, passport applications, and censuses of American citizens collected by the consulate. These will be available on the KCLDS website in 2019 and links will be added to the collection description.
Scope and Contents
Geographic Scope: During the period covered, the general jurisdiction of the Beirut Consulate included but was not limited to the cities of Beirut, Damascus, Sidon, Tyre, Haifa, Acre, Safad, Tripoli, Latakia, Homs, Aleppo, Zahle, and Aintab and the surrounding countryside in areas within modern-day Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Jordan, Palestine, and Southern Turkey.
Temporal Scope: The National Archives’ collection of Beirut Consulate records spans documents from 1833-1939. The Khayrallah Center’s digitized selection includes twenty-four books with records spanning the years 1859 to 1939. The heaviest concentration of records pertain to the years 1915 and 1916.
List of Record Books included in this collection:
Volume 0008 -- Miscellaneous Record Book, 1915-1916*
Volume 0018 -- Miscellaneous Record Book, 1916-1917*
Volume 0163 -- Morgenthau Williams Payments 151-400, 1916
Volume 0164 -- Morgenthau Williams Payments 401-700, 1916
Volume 0166 -- Morgenthau Williams Payments 1322-1813, 1917
Volume 0168 -- Relief Payments, 1915-1917
Volume 0170 -- Relief Payments, 1915-1923
Volume 0187 -- Correspondence 360-833, 1915
Volume 0189 -- Correspondence 000-300, 1916
Volume 0190 -- Correspondence 310, 1916
Volume 0191 -- Correspondence 320-851, 1916
Volume 0192 -- Correspondence 000-131, 1917
Volume 0194 -- Correspondence 000-865.86, 1918
Volume 0195 -- Correspondence 133-330, 1919
Volume 0198 -- Correspondence 130-300, 1920
Volume 0214 -- Correspondence 130-131, 1922
Volume 0235 -- Correspondence 130.7-320, 1925
Volume 0428 -- Passports, 1921-1924
Volume 0429 -- Passports, 1925-1932
Volume 0430 -- Passports, 1933-1939
Volume 0449 -- Passports, 1859-1920
Volume 0450 -- New French Relief, 1914-1915
Volume 0451 -- New French Relief, 1915-1916
Volume 0452 -- New British Relief, 1915-1916
*denotes a partial digitization of the book
During the period covered by these records, the US Consulate in Beirut handled minor diplomatic matters such as issuing passports and visas, and serving the needs of American citizens residing in its jurisdiction through correspondence, inquiries, and assisting migrants, and tourists. The vast majority of the consulate’s records on American citizens refer to missionaries and emigrants who had become naturalized American citizens but returned to the Levant or required the consulate’s aid in communicating with relatives who remained there.
The original records are housed at the National Archives II in College Park, Maryland. To learn more about Records of the Foreign Service Posts of the Department of State, see the National Archives’ description of Record Group 84.
The Khayrallah Center plans to publish a series of databases of compiled names from the World War I era remittances, passport applications, and censuses of American citizens collected by the consulate. These will be available on the KCLDS website in 2019 and links will be added to the collection description.
Scope and Contents
Geographic Scope: During the period covered, the general jurisdiction of the Beirut Consulate included but was not limited to the cities of Beirut, Damascus, Sidon, Tyre, Haifa, Acre, Safad, Tripoli, Latakia, Homs, Aleppo, Zahle, and Aintab and the surrounding countryside in areas within modern-day Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Jordan, Palestine, and Southern Turkey.
Temporal Scope: The National Archives’ collection of Beirut Consulate records spans documents from 1833-1939. The Khayrallah Center’s digitized selection includes twenty-four books with records spanning the years 1859 to 1939. The heaviest concentration of records pertain to the years 1915 and 1916.
List of Record Books included in this collection:
Volume 0008 -- Miscellaneous Record Book, 1915-1916*
Volume 0018 -- Miscellaneous Record Book, 1916-1917*
Volume 0163 -- Morgenthau Williams Payments 151-400, 1916
Volume 0164 -- Morgenthau Williams Payments 401-700, 1916
Volume 0166 -- Morgenthau Williams Payments 1322-1813, 1917
Volume 0168 -- Relief Payments, 1915-1917
Volume 0170 -- Relief Payments, 1915-1923
Volume 0187 -- Correspondence 360-833, 1915
Volume 0189 -- Correspondence 000-300, 1916
Volume 0190 -- Correspondence 310, 1916
Volume 0191 -- Correspondence 320-851, 1916
Volume 0192 -- Correspondence 000-131, 1917
Volume 0194 -- Correspondence 000-865.86, 1918
Volume 0195 -- Correspondence 133-330, 1919
Volume 0198 -- Correspondence 130-300, 1920
Volume 0214 -- Correspondence 130-131, 1922
Volume 0235 -- Correspondence 130.7-320, 1925
Volume 0428 -- Passports, 1921-1924
Volume 0429 -- Passports, 1925-1932
Volume 0430 -- Passports, 1933-1939
Volume 0449 -- Passports, 1859-1920
Volume 0450 -- New French Relief, 1914-1915
Volume 0451 -- New French Relief, 1915-1916
Volume 0452 -- New British Relief, 1915-1916
*denotes a partial digitization of the book
Creator
Department of State; U.S. Consulate General, Beirut
Source
National Archives
Publisher
Moise A. Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies
Date
1859-1939
Contributor
Collection description by Marjorie Stevens.
Rights
Donor retains full ownership of any and all copyright currently controlled in agreement with Khayrallah Center. Nonexclusive right to authorize all uses of these materials for non-commercial research, scholarly, or other educational purposes are granted to Khayrallah Center pursuant to Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA).
Format
Text/pdf
Language
English
Arabic
French
Type
Text
Coverage
Beirut, Lebanon
Rights Holder
Public Domain
Provenance
National Archives Record Group 84 Records of the Foreign Service Posts of the Department of State
Collection Tree
This collection is a part of a larger collection that has been divided into more specific collections.
Documents
Beirut Consulate Post Records
