The papers of Wesley Frost unevenly document his thirty-two-year career (1912-44) in the U.S. Foreign Service and Department of State.  A more complete record of Frost's ambassadorial service is held among the Department of State Records at the NationalArchives, Record Group 59, Decimal File 834.00 through 834.99.

The collection is arranged into five records series:  I. General Correspondence; II. Official Correspondence of Ambassador Frost; III. Writings; IV. Miscellany; and V. Photographs.  Within series, materials are arranged either chronologically or alphabetically by topic or type of material, or into subseries.  The correspondence of Series I and II is maintained as it was arranged by the archivist in 1969.

In this collection, Frost's diplomatic career is documented mainly by his outgoing correspondence (1917-44), housed in Series I, General Correspondence.  Included are several letters (1917) from Frost to American officials protesting his sudden recall from Queenstown (Cork), Ireland.  There is very little correspondence dating from the period of his residence in Washington, D.C. (1918-21) as Assistant Foreign Trade Adviser and Foreign Trade Adviser.  Several letters (1927) from Frost in Marseilles, France report on French protests against the trial, imprisonment, and impending executions in Massachusetts of Nicola Sacco (1891-1927) and Bartolomeo Vanzetti (1888-1927).  Letters (1928) written by Frost from Marseilles to his parents and to his wife and children in the United States offer a detailed, personal account of daily life as U.S. Consul.  Forty letters (file copies) date from his service in Montreal, Canada (1928-35), but there is no correspondence from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (1935-36).  Only two letters (1937, 1938) date from Frost's residence at Santiago, Chile.  Incoming correspondence (1917-43) includes several letters from Frost's three daughters, (1926-27), his father, William Goodell Frost, and colleagues attempting to assist Frost in obtaining academic employment following his retirement (1943-44).

Correspondence of an official nature relating to Frost's service as Minister (1941-42) and United States Ambassador (1942-44) to Paraguay consists of file copies of telegrams exchanged between Ambassador Frost and U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull (1871-1955) and Acting Secretary of State Sumner Welles (b. 1892).  Most communiques are accompanied by Spanish translations.  Topics covered include routine embassy business, such as personnel and equipment needs, as well as urgent matters relating to the conduct of the war and to economic and political relations between Latin America and the United States.  Several confidential, numbered reports by Wesley Frost to Secretary Hull (1944) describe Frost's efforts to expel Nazi leaders from Paraguay and the nature of the Paraguayan government and its relations with Argentina, Brazil, and the Axis powers.  Interfiled with the official communiques are letters (originals) from Frost's Department of State colleagues, Laurence Duggan and Norman Amour.

Frost's writings in the fields of German submarine warfare and Latin American economics are represented here by original and carbon drafts of articles and lectures (1916-30, 1942-44).  His book-length manuscript entitled Consular Practice (never published) is a compilation of lectures given by Frost at the Georgetown University of Foreign Service from 1919-20.  The manuscript of his book, German Submarine Warfare (1918), is not present in this collection.  Several drafts for talks are in Spanish, as they were presented to audiences in Paraguay.  Other materials relating to Paraguay include clippings (1937-44) from Paraguay newspapers and seven pamphlets (in Spanish) of a didactic nature on the land, people, and history of Paraguay (1940-44).

Among the Frost papers is a small group of personal items belonging to Wesley Frost.  These include birth certificates of his three daughters, memorabilia collected at his various diplomatic posts, clippings (photocopies) relating to his professional progress, and a notebook containing brief descriptions of his life at Oberlin College (January-October 1905).  Photographs, housed in Series V, are black and white group portraits of the consular and diplomatic corps at Frost's various posts.  The photographs are largely undated and unidentified.

Series I.  General Correspondence, 1891-1943 0.6 l.f.

Correspondence of Wesley Frost, in English, French, and Spanish, organized into three subseries:  1. Incoming Correspondence; 2. Outgoing Correspondence; 3. Miscellaneous Correspondence.  Subseries 1 includes letters received by Frost from his children (1926-29).  Subseries 3 includes correspondence of individuals other than Frost and his associates.  Correspondence is chronologically arranged.

Series II.  Official Correspondence of Ambassador Frost, 1941-44  .2 l.f.

File copies of telegrams exchanged between Ambassador Frost and the U.S. Department of State, organized into two subseries: 1. Incoming Messages and 2. Outgoing Messages.  Subseries titles preserve the folder headings established by the archivist in 1969. 

Series III.  Writings, 1916-44, n.d. 0.6 l.f.

Original and carbon drafts of articles and lectures with attached and related correspondence; one ms. draft of an unpublished book; and ms. notes and fragments of longer works.  Some writings in Spanish.  Arranged alphabetically by type of material.

Series IV.  Miscellany, 1884-1944, n.d.  0.6 l.f.

Arranged into two subseries: 1. Miscellany Pertaining to Diplomatic Service; and 2. Personal Miscellany.  Subseries 1 includes U.S. government publications (addresses), Department of State news releases, newspaper clippings, and printed materials.  Clippings in English, French, and Spanish.  Subseries 2 includes birth certificates, passports, identity cards, business cards, official invitations, menus, and a notebook or diary (1905).  A notebook of family genealogy, formerly filed in Subseries 2, was moved to the William Goodell Family Papers (RG 30/29) in May 2002.

Series V.  Photographs, ca. 1917, 1937, n.d.  0.1 l.f.

Black and white photographs of Wesley Frost (ca. 1917) and group portraits of diplomats in Santiago, Chile, and Montreal,  Quebec.  Photographs are largely undated and mounted on disbound album leaves.  Arranged chronologically.

The papers of Wesley Frost were transferred to the Oberlin College Archives from the College Library in 1969.  Wesley Frost gave them to the Library in 1960.

As noted above, the researcher is advised to consult the holdings of the National Archives, Records of the U.S. Department of State (RG 59), for additional materials relating to the diplomatic career of Wesley Frost.  In the College Archives, the Student Files (28) of Wesley Frost, William Goodell Frost, and Mary Priscilla (Clapp) Frost contain additional biographical information relating to Frost's family and career.  See also biographical essays on Wesley Frost in Who's Who in America (vol. 4) and the National Cyclopedia of American Biography (vol. 55).

Consult Record Group 30/29, the William Goodell Family Papers, for papers of reformer William Goodell (1792-1878), Wesley Frost's great-grandfather, and for legal documents of the Frost family.  For the papers of Wesley Frost's father, Berea College President William Goodell Frost (b. 1854), consult the Archives of Berea College in Berea, Kentucky.