20-24 septembrie 2009 - Biblioteca Metropolitana Bucuresti

490 Alicia Campiway back to Peking to be a foreign adviser to the new Chinese Republicangovernment of Yuan Shih-k’ai.ROCKHILL’s personal papers are located in the Houghton Library atHarvard University. 39 He corresponded with Sir Henry Yule and HenriCordier (translators of Marco Polo’s Travels), early well-known BritishMongolists Sir Henry Hoyle hOWORTh, John F. Baddeley, and JeremiahCurtin, and the Sain Noyan Khan Souroun [Namnantseren] 40 in1913 in Chinese. Many of his writings are among the public papers of JohnHay and Theodore Roosevelt in the Manuscript Division of the U.S.Library of Congress. ROCKHILL’s official dispatches and letters, writtenduring his diplomatic service, are in the Department of State Records inthe U.S. National Archives. His entire personal 6000-volume collectionof Chinese, Tibetan, and Mongolian books was donated to the Library ofCongress in Washington, D.C. 41In conclusion, the early travel accounts of William ROCKHILLprovided much new, concrete information about the Mongol tribes alongChina’s border in the late 1800's that can be of value to anthropologists,historians, and sociologists of Northern Asian and Chinese cultures. Hissociological commentary on Mongol customs and political analysis laid thefoundation for the attitudes of successive American diplomats serving in thePeking Legation who encountered Mongolian diplomats in the World WarI era. Even more significant for researchers of diplomatic history was hismeticulous account of his 1913 trip to Urga. Thus, William ROCKHILL,scholar, explorer and diplomat, as well as Ambassador to Romania, deservesthe credit of founding Mongolian Studies in the United States.39ROCKHILL, William Woodville 1854-1914. “Papers: Guide. (bMS Am 2121)”,Houghton Library, Harvard College Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.ROCKHILL’s personal papers (in English, French, Chinese, Tibetan) at Harvard arenumerous – there are 34 boxes, 6 card file boxes, and 18 linear feet of bound volumeswhich include materials dating from 1826-1941.40The Sain Noyan Khan Namnantseren, President of the Council of Ministersof the Autonomous Government of Mongolia, signed the Protocol Annexed to the Russo-Mongolian Agreement of October 21-November 3, 1912 at Urga.41Hwa-Wei Lee, “Building a World-Class Asian Collection in the Library ofCongress for Area Studies, Culture Preservation, Global Understanding, and KnowledgeCreation”, Library of Congress, Asian Division, paper.