Ernest and Mary Fisk Papers

The Ernest and Mary Fisk Papers span the years of Ernest's career as a journalist and in the foreign service. The great bulk of the material is from the Fisks' time in India, Pakistan, and Nepal with the State Department. The very few papers not from this time are mostly not of the Fisks' creation. The collection is mainly personal, but contains much information about their professional duties. There is little material of an expressly professional nature.

The Fisk Papers are organized in six series: 1. Correspondence, 1946-1950, 1953-1960 and undated; 2. Scrapbooks, 1946-1950, 1953-1957, 1959-1963, and undated; 3. Photographs, 1948 and undated; 4. Letters of Wilbur Fisk (Transcripts); 5. Miscellaneous Papers, 1937, 1942-44, 1953, 1964, and undated; and, 6. Certificates, 1950, 1954, 1961, 1964-66. The first series, Correspondence, is further divided into three subseries: 1. Outgoing Correspondence, Personal; 2. Outgoing Correspondence, Group Letters; and, 3. Incoming Correspondence.

The correspondence and the scrapbooks are the strongest points of the collection. These document the lives and activities of the Fisks in the Subcontinent while also describing the changing situation in the region. They record both large and small events in the Fisks' lives.

The Correspondence series, divided into subseries, shows three distinct views of the Fisks' lives. The first subseries, Outgoing Correspondence, Personal, contains a great number of letters from Mary to her mother. The bulk of this material is from the Fisks' tour in India from 1946 to 1950. These letters are a window in to the process of acclimation to a very different culture and into the lives of ambassadors to a new nation.

The second subseries, Outgoing Correspondence, Group Letters, contains the letters written by Ernest Fisk about life in the Subcontinent, vacations, events, and the political situation.  These letters are especially interesting as they examine the relationship between the Americans and the Indian government. The letters are also very well written and entertaining.

The third subseries, Incoming Correspondence, contains letters sent to the Fisks from, primarily, their family members. The letters are mostly from Ernest's sister Marion, with whom her and Ernest's mother was living. These letters are very personal and they document the Fisk family life.

The scrapbooks series contains five scrapbooks, "India, 1946-1950," "Pakistan Memorabilia, 1953-1957," "Nepal, 1959-1963," "Letters and Pictures of Famous People," and untitled. Four of the books have been completely disassembled to preserve the documents and photographs; one ("India, 1946-1950") has been kept partially assembled as a possible exhibition piece. These scrapbooks contain many photographs of places in South Asia, friends of the Fisks, the houses the Fisks and their servants, and political, social, and religious events. Especially interesting are the photographs of the 1948 Kumbh Mela in Ahmedabad, India, and of Mohandas K. Gandhi's funeral.  In addition to photographs, these scrapbooks contain many invitations and programs from social events, clippings of articles found interesting by the Fisks, and cards and letters from famous people. These books are especially interesting because they show the Fisks' range of activities and which experiences they found important.

Less complete is the Photographs series, which contains loose photographs of the Fisks' time in Katmandu, Nepal. There are two groups of photographs: one of a ceremony including the King of Nepal and one less cohesive group of outside shots. There is also one loose photograph of Ernest and Mary.

The Letters of Wilbur Fisk (Transcripts) series consists of transcribed Civil War dispatches by Wilbur Fisk, collected by Ernest Fisk, his grandson. The original letters, held by Ernest's sister Mildred, were transcribed, copied, and distributed to members of the Fisk family. The location of the originals is unknown. Wilbur was a soldier with the Second Vermont Regiment.  Almost all of his letters are addressed to "Editor Freeman," entitled "A Soldier's Letter," and numbered, and were published either in whole or in edited form as a series in the Daily Green Mountain Freeman, published in Montpelier, Vermont from 1862-1865. The series follows the "Anti-Rebel," as Wilbur signed them, from Virginia through the Chesapeake Bay into New York and back, in and out of the hospital, and on and off the battlefield. There are one hundred letters in the series with a few more unnumbered letters to "Editor Freeman" or "Brother Webster". These transcripts do not constitute the entire series, however. The letters, written virtually weekly, give a fascinating view of the Civil War from the Northern perspective.

The remainder of the material includes the Miscellaneous Papers series containing a small amount of clippings, a few household documents, and one beautifully bound card; and, the Certificates series consisting of certificates presented to Ernest Fisk for his achievements in foreign service.

There is very little information dealing with any time other than the Fisks' foreign service, which spanned fifteen years. Only in the clippings file is there material from before the Fisks left for India in 1946. The documentation of their foreign service is remarkably thorough, however.