Guide to Federal Records

Records of the Bureau of Insular Affairs


(Record Group 350)
1868-1945

OVERVIEW OF RECORDS LOCATIONS

Table of Contents

  • 350.1 ADMINISTRATIVE HISTORY
  • 350.2 GENERAL RECORDS OF THE BUREAU OF INSULAR AFFAIRS AND ITS PREDECESSORS
    1898-1945
  • 350.3 RECORDS RELATING TO THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 1898-1939
  • 350.4 MISCELLANEOUS RECORDS 1899-1936
  • 350.5 LIBRARY RECORDS OF THE BUREAU OF INSULAR AFFAIRS 1868-1940
  • 350.6 CARTOGRAPHIC RECORDS (GENERAL)
  • 350.7 STILL PICTURES (GENERAL)

350.1 ADMINISTRATIVE HISTORY

Established: In the War Department, by an act of July 1, 1902 (32 Stat. 712).

Predecessor Agencies:

In the War Department:

  • Division of Customs and Insular Affairs (1898-1900)
  • Division of Insular Affairs (1900-2)

Functions: Administered the customs and supervised the civil affairs of the Philippine Islands, 1898-1939; Puerto Rico, 1898- 1900, 1909-34; and Cuba, 1898-1902, 1906-9. Supervised the Dominican Customs Receivership, 1905-39, and Haitian Customs Receivership, 1920-24. Responsibility for Puerto Rico transferred to Division of Territories and Island Possessions, Department of the Interior, by EO 6726, May 29, 1934, effective March 2, 1935.

Abolished: By Reorganization Plan No. II of 1939, effective July 1, 1939.

Successor Agencies: Division of Territories and Island Possessions, Department of the Interior, 1939-50.

Finding Aids: Richard S. Maxwell, comp., Records of the Bureau of Insular Affairs, Inv. 3 (1971). Kenneth Munden, comp., Records of the Bureau of Insular Affairs relating to the Philippine Islands, 1898-1935, A List of Selected Files, SL 2 (1942); Kenneth Munden, comp., Records of the Bureau of Insular Affairs relating to the United States Military Government of Cuba, 1898-1902, and the United States Provisional Government of Cuba, 1906-1909, A List of Selected Files, SL 3 (1943); Kenneth Munden and Milton Greenbaum, comps., Records of the Bureau of Insular Affairs relating to Puerto Rico, 1898-1934, A List of Selected Files, SL 4 (1943); and Kenneth Munden, comp., List of Records of the Bureau of Insular Affairs relating to the Dominican Customs Receivership, 1905-1940, SL 5 (1943).

Related Records: Record copies of publications of the Bureau of Insular Affairs in RG 287, Publications of the U.S. Government. Records of the Office of the Secretary of the Interior, RG 48.
Records of the Office of the Secretary of War, RG 107.
Records of the Office of Territories, RG 126.
Records of the Dominican Customs Receivership, RG 139.
Records of the Military Government of Cuba, RG 140.
Records of the Provisional Government of Cuba, RG 199.

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350.2 GENERAL RECORDS OF THE BUREAU OF INSULAR AFFAIRS AND ITS PREDECESSORS
1898-1945

History: Division of Customs and Insular Affairs established in the Office of the Secretary of War, December 13, 1898, to administer customs and civil affairs in the islands acquired by the United States in the Spanish-American War. Name changed to Division of Insular Affairs by War Department order, December 10, 1900. Became Bureau of Insular Affairs, 1902. SEE 350.1.

Textual Records: General subject files (1,148 ft.) relating to the Philippines, 1898-1945; Puerto Rico, 1898-1900, 1909-34; Military Government of Cuba, 1898-1902; Provisional Government of Cuba, 1906-9; Dominican Customs Receivership, 1905-39; Haitian Customs Receivership, 1920-24; U.S. Virgin Islands, 1917-45; and Panama Canal, 1904-5, with indexes and record cards. Confidential file, 1914-35. Subject files relating to customs matters, 1898-1941 (74 ft.); and to the Dominican Customs Receivership, 1905-35. Letters sent, 1899-1913 (99 ft.), with endorsements, 1901-12. Personal name file, 1914- 45 (316 ft.).

Microfilm Publications: M24.

Maps (55 items): Philippine Islands, showing radio, telephone, and telegraph facilities; roads; trails; railroads; constabulary stations; hospitals; and suggested projects for the port of Manila, 1911-34 (49 items). Harbor developments, San Juan, PR, and swamp areas east of the city proposed for reclamation, 1911- 34 (6 items). SEE ALSO 350.6.

Photographic Prints (388 images): Puerto Rico, including governors, census enumerators, police, schools, and roads, 1901- 35; and China, Cuba, Dominican Republic, French Indochina, Guam, Haiti, New Zealand, Panama, and the Virgin Islands, 1898-1935 (PR). SEE ALSO 350.7.

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350.3 RECORDS RELATING TO THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS
1898-1939

Textual Records: Executive orders and proclamations of the Governor General of the Philippine Islands, 1898-1935, and the President of the Commonwealth of the Philippine Islands, 1935-36. Correspondence of the Philippine (Taft) Commission, 1900-6. Acts of the Commission, 1900-7; the Philippine Legislature, 1907-35; and the Philippine National Assembly, 1936-37. House and Senate bills of the Philippine Legislature, 1928-35. Galley proofs of A History of the Philippine Insurrection against the United States, 1899-1903, 1906, with related records of the War Department project to publish the history, 1898-1916. Correspondence and reports relating to Gen. Mariano Noriel and Apolinario Mabini, 1916. Records of the Philippine Exposition Board, 1904-5, and the Manila Railroad Company, 1905-17.

Microfilm Publications: M719.

Maps (2 items): Philippine Islands, showing schools, military posts, telegraph lines, ports, lighthouses, and territorial boundaries between Christian provinces and Moro and other non- Christian provinces, 1902, 1904. SEE ALSO 350.6.

Photographic Prints (12,059 images): Philippine Islands, including agricultural and industrial activities, native peoples, public roads and facilities, Emilio Aguinaldo, soldiers, public officials, and general scenes, 1898-1935 (P, BS; 10,200 images). Group portrait of the Philippine Commissioners in Washington, DC, 1904 (C, 1 image). Philippine Islands, some views taken by Lt. C.F. O'Keefe of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 1899-1928 (PC, 436 images). Manila railroad, Philippine Islands, and notables including William H. Taft and Gen. Leonard Wood, 1907-16 (MR, 1,208 images). Public works projects in the Philippine Islands, 1909-12 (PW, 39 images). Portraits of Philippine officials, 1900-35 (O, 94 images). Palm plants, Bureau of Education, in album, ca. 1910 (E, 81 images). SEE ALSO 350.7.

Photographic Negatives (171 images): Philippine Islands, 1900-36 (N). SEE ALSO 350.7.

Lantern Slides (852 images): Philippine Islands, 1900-36 (GS). SEE ALSO 350.7.

Poster (1 image): "Baguio Summer Resort," issued by the Manila Railroad Company, ca. 1930 (PO).

Finding Aid: Index to Photographic Series P.

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350.4 MISCELLANEOUS RECORDS
1899-1936

Textual Records: Executive orders relating to island possessions, 1903-32. Code translation volume, n.d. Records relating to the Spanish Treaty Claims Commission, 1910. Correspondence between Gen. Leonard Wood and the Secretary of War relating to Cuba, 1899-1902. Notes on Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson's trip to the West Indies and Panama, 1911. Laws, ordinances, decrees, and military orders effective in Puerto Rico, 1900-34. Records relating to sugar production, 1930-33. Records of the Statistical Branch relating to the occupation of Cuba, 1901-2. Scrapbooks relating to bureau activities, 1905-17. Summaries of newspaper articles published in the Dominican Republic, 1905-6, and of newspaper and magazine articles about territorial affairs, 1931- 36. Abstracts of newspaper and magazine articles published in the Philippines, 1929-35. List of periodicals received by the bureau, 1918-34.

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350.5 LIBRARY RECORDS OF THE BUREAU OF INSULAR AFFAIRS
ca. 1868 ca. 1941

Textual Records: Printed collection, ca. 1868-ca. 1941 (563 ft.), mainly of official documents relating to all noncontiguous U.S. territory, including reports issued by the U.S. Government and the Bureau of Printing at Manila relating to the administration of U.S. insular possessions, 1900-34; and copies of the Gaceta de Manila, 1868-98, and the Official Gazette of Manila, 1902-32; with finding aids. Manuscript reports of the Philippine Commission, 1900-15; the Governors General of the Philippines, 1916-35; the U.S. High Commissioner to the Philippine Islands, 1936-40; and the Governors General of Puerto Rico, 1909-31. Card indexes, to library holdings, 1898-1935.

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350.6 CARTOGRAPHIC RECORDS (GENERAL)

SEE UNDER 350.2 and 350.3.

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350.7 STILL PICTURES (GENERAL)

SEE Photographic Prints UNDER 350.2 and 350.3.
SEE Photographic Negatives UNDER 350.3.
SEE Lantern Slides UNDER 350.3.


Bibliographic note: Web version based on Guide to Federal Records in the National Archives of the United States. Compiled by Robert B. Matchette et al. Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Administration, 1995.
3 volumes, 2428 pages.

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This Web version is updated from time to time to include records processed since 1995.


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