October 21, 1998
Contact:
Contact: Helen Dalrymple (202) 707-1940
Pamela Harriman Papers Given to Library of Congress
The personal papers of Pamela Digby Churchill Harriman,
who died in 1997 while serving as the U.S. Ambassador to
France, have been given to the Library of Congress by her
estate.
Ambassador Harriman was a prominent figure in national
politics in the 1980s and 1990s. She was on the board of
directors of the Commission on Presidential Debates (1987-
1993), chair and founder of the "Democrats for the 80s" and
"Democrats for the 90s," both major fundraising committees
for the national Democratic Party, as well as national co-
chair of the Clinton-Gore presidential campaign in 1992.
President Clinton named her ambassador to France in 1993.
Librarian of Congress James H. Billington called the
Pamela Harriman papers a "rich and highly valuable resource"
for the understanding of American national politics in the
1980s and early 1990s as well as for documenting the life of
an "extraordinary woman who has been involved in national
and international politics and diplomacy since the opening
days of World War II." He said he expected that the Pamela
Harriman papers would be consulted frequently by historians
and scholars after they are organized and made available for
research. (As a condition of the gift, the Harriman estate
will control access to the papers for 10 years.)
The Pamela Harriman papers are a large collection,
estimated to contain about 500,000 items. They cover all
aspects of her life but are most extensive regarding her
active involvement in civic, political, and governmental
matters in the last 20 years. In addition to her political
work, Ambassador Harriman was a trustee of Rockefeller
University and the Brookings Institution, served on the
Council of the National Gallery of Art, the Winston
Churchill Foundation, and the W. Averell Harriman Institute
for Russian Studies, as well as on the board of directors of
the Mary W. Harriman Foundation and as a vice chairman of
the Atlantic Council.
Born Pamela Digby in Farnborough, England, in 1920,
Mrs. Harriman studied at the Sorbonne in Paris (1937-1938).
In 1939 she married Randolph Churchill, the son of Britain's
wartime Prime Minister, Winston Churchill. She worked for
various British war agencies during World War II and as a
journalist for the Beaverbrook Press after the war. She
came to the United States in 1959 and married Leland Hayward
in 1960. She became an American citizen in 1971 and married
W. Averell Harriman in that year.
In addition to the gift of the Pamela Harriman papers,
her estate also donated to the Library of Congress
approximately 29,000 more items to supplement the Averell
Harriman papers. The Averell Harriman papers, approximately
300,000 items, are also held by the Library of Congress and
were the gift of Pamela Harriman in 1986.
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PR 98-165
10/21/98
ISSN 0731-3527