Walter Hines Page
Walter Hines Page | |
---|---|
United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom | |
In office May 30, 1913 – October 3, 1918 | |
President | Woodrow Wilson |
Preceded by | Whitelaw Reid |
Succeeded by | John W. Davis |
Personal details | |
Born | |
Walter Hines Page (August 15, 1855 – December 21, 1918) was an American journalist, publisher, and diplomat. He was the
Page made important contributions to the fields of journalism and literature. He founded the State Chronicle, a newspaper in
Life and career
Page was born in
On November 15, 1880, Page married Willa Alice Wilson. They had a daughter and three sons including Arthur W. Page.
Page began his journalism career as a writer and then editor at the
Later in 1882, Page went to
Page returned to New York in 1883 and for four years was on the staff of the
From 1900 to 1913, Page was partner and vice president of
Page believed that a free and open education was fundamental to democracy. In 1902, he published The Rebuilding of Old Commonwealths, which emphasized that. He felt that nothing (class, economic means, race, or religion) should be a barrier to education.
Ambassador
In March 1913, Page was appointed United States ambassador to Great Britain by President Woodrow Wilson,[4]. In August 1915, Page's daughter, Katharine, wed Boston-based architect Charles Greely Loring in a ceremony at St James's Palace in London.[6]
Page was one of the key figures involved in bringing the United States into World War I on the Allied side. A proud Southerner, he admired his British roots and believed that the British were fighting a war for democracy. As ambassador, he defended British policies to Wilson and helped to shape a pro-Allied slant in the President and in the United States as a whole. One month after Page sent a message to Wilson, the president sought and received a declarations of war on Germany.
Page was criticized for his unabashedly pro-British stance by those who thought his priority should be defending American interests in the face of British rough handling of American shipping. He and his staff had to deal with the British claim of the right to stop and search American ships, including the examination of mail pouches; the commercial blockade (1915); and the "blacklist,"[7] the names of American firms with whom the British forbade all financial and commercial dealings by their citizens (1916).[4]
In 1918, Page became ill and resigned his post as Ambassador to the Court of St James's. He returned to his home in Pinehurst, North Carolina, where he died.[8] He is buried in Old Bethesda Cemetery in Aberdeen, North Carolina.
Legacy and honors
- A memorial plaque in his honor was installed in Westminster Abbey in Westminster, London, UK.[9]
- The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page (1923), by Pulitzer Prize for Biography, and Hendrick's The Training of an American: The Earlier Life and Letters of Walter H. Page was awarded the Pulitzer Prizefor Biography in 1929.
- The Walter Hines Page School of International Relations at Johns Hopkins University, in existence from 1930 to 1953, was named after him.
- Greensboro, North Carolina, the Walter Hines Page Research Professor of Literature chair (currently held by Ariel Dorfman) at Duke University, the Walter Hines Page (Now McGraw-Page) Library at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Va., and the London chapterof the Daughters of the American Revolution were named for him.
- Today, scholarships are awarded by the English-Speaking Union (ESU) in Walter Hines Page's name to teachers from the United Kingdom to study in the United States and Canada.[10]
- Page Hall at North Carolina State University was named in his honor.[11]
Publication
- A Publisher's Confession (1905)
References
- ^ Mary R. Kihl, "A Failure of Ambassadorial Diplomacy." Journal of American History 57.3 (1970): 636–653.
- ^ Janet B. Silber (n.d.). "Page-Walker Hotel" (PDF). National Register of Historic Places – Nomination and Inventory. North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office. Retrieved 2015-05-01.
- ^ https://northcarolinahistory.org/encyclopedia/walter-hines-page-1855-1918/
- ^ a b c d e f Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1922). Encyclopædia Britannica (12th ed.). London & New York: The Encyclopædia Britannica Company. .
- ^ "Rudyard Kipling". Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 2017-07-13.
- The Atlanta Journal. August 4, 1915. p. 9. Retrieved October 31, 2023 – via newspapers.com.
- S2CID 143608191.
- ^ "WALTER HINES PAGE DIES AT PINEHURST; Sacrificed His Health as America's Ambassador to Britain During War. SERVED NATION IN CRISIS As "President's Ear" Abroad He Also Conciliated Opinion There When Allies Sought Our Aid. Studies Sociological Problems. His Difficult Diplomatic Tasks" (PDF). The New York Times. 23 December 1918. Retrieved 2017-07-13.
- ^ "To Walter Hines Page". Time. 1923-03-24. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007.
- ^ "Walter Hines Page Scholarship" Archived 2011-07-17 at the Wayback Machine, Teachers.org
- ^ "Page Hall". projects.ncsu.edu. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
Further reading
- Cooper Jr, John Milton. Walter Hines Page: The Southerner As American, 1855–1918 (UNC Press Books, 2018). online
- Cooper, John Milton. "Walter Hines Page: The Southerner as American." Virginia Quarterly Review 53.4 (1977): 660–676. online
- Doenecke, Justus D. "Neutrality Policy and the Decision for War." in A Companion to Woodrow Wilson (2013): 241–269. online
- Gregory, Ross. Walter Hines Page: Ambassador to the Court of St. James's. (University Press of Kentucky, 2014). online
- Hendrick, Burton J. The Life and Letters of Walter H. Page (1922); vol 1 online see also vol 2 online
- Hendrick, Burton J. The Training of an American: The Earlier Life and Letters of Walter H. Page (1929). online
- Kihl, Mary R. "A Failure of Ambassadorial Diplomacy." Journal of American History 57.3 (1970): 636–653. online
- Sellers, Charles Grier. "Walter Hines Page and the Spirit of the New South." North Carolina Historical Review 29.4 (1952): 481–499. online