October 22, 2002
 

Highlights of Bruce Collection 
At Hornbake Library Showcase

A small exhibit containing highlights from the Libraries’ James Bruce Collection will be open to the public on Wednesday, October 30, from 2 to 4 p.m. in the Maryland Room at Hornbake Library. The exhibit is being presented in honor of Ambassador Bruce’s daughter, Louise Bruce, who donated and funded the processing of his collection.

The Bruce exhibit is the third activity in the Hornbake Showcase celebrating the Libraries’ Special Collections there. More information on other Showcase programs is available at: www.lib.umd.edu/HBK/showcase.

James Bruce (1892-1980) spent most of his life in the world of business and banking, working in both New York and Baltimore. He served variously as president of the Baltimore Trust Company, director of American Airlines, and vice president of the National Dairy Products Corporation. He and his family also had ties to diplomacy and early in his life, just prior to enlistment for World War I, Bruce served as private secretary to his uncle, Thomas Nelson Page, U.S. Ambassador to Italy. Several years later, from 1947 to 1949, Bruce himself served as U.S. Ambassador to Argentina. He subsequently became the director of the Foreign Military Assistance Program, forerunner of NATO, before returning to his career in business in 1950. 

Items in the exhibit include letters to Bruce from President Harry Truman, Secretary of Defense James Forrestal and Argentina President Juan Peron;, literature from his 1958 campaign for a U.S. Senate seat from Maryland; and documentation of his distinguished military and diplomatic service.
 

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