The majority of this series consists President George D. Woods' briefing papers for the annual meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund Boards of Governors. The briefing papers for each annual meeting are organized by geographical region and thereunder by individual countries. The country sections contain background information on each country's economic and political situation (including occasional economic reports), the country's relations with the Bank, and lists of each member country's delegates at the annual meeting and the topics they are likely to raise. In the case of Africa and Latin America, there are also memoranda concerning the caucuses held by the countries in these regions and texts of remarks the President intended to deliver to them.

Also part of the series is a briefing file on the 57th session of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development in July 1965. Two small files contain briefs for visits to Argentina and Brazil.

This series consists of copies of the outgoing letters and memoranda of George D. Woods and correspondence handled for President Woods by his personal assistants George C. Wishart and Rainer B. Steckhan. It includes correspondence sent on substantive issues of development assistance, memoranda to files, internal memoranda of the Bank and social and public relations messages.

Letters to foreign heads of state, government officials, banks, development institutions and academics regarding particular loans and projects, missions, technical assistance, bond issues and other sources of financing, and development policy issues are found in the series. Memoranda to files, usually written by Wishart, make a record of Woods' meetings with high-level government and business executives, focusing on important remarks and outcomes. Occasional Bank-internal memoranda, usually addressed to Vice Presidents and other high-level managers, concern such issues as staffing of the Economic Development Institute (EDI), defining the competencies of the technical operations and regional departments of the Bank with regard to project preparation, and procedures for establishing consultative groups.

The social and public relations letters express appreciation for invitations, hospitality, and for letters, publications and gifts received; express regret regarding invitations; offer congratulations; discuss arrangements for meetings and itineraries for travel; and provide letters of introduction.

When Conable became President, he appointed J. William Stanton to serve as Counselor to the President. Stanton held that post throughout Conable's term.

The records of Stanton's office focus on two of the major administrative issues of Conable's Presidency: the 1987 reorganization of the Bank, and the acquisition and retrofitting of the Bank's Washington buildings. They must be read in conjunction with the President's Administrative files and the files of Special Assistant Marianne Haug; for example, the Haug and Stanton records both have series on the 1987 reorganization, which does not appear in the President's files, but the President's Administrative files have the records of the 1989 fine-tuning of the reorganization. Taken together, the entire picture emerges.

Matthew F. McHugh joined the President's office staff in May 1993. His files reflect a strong interest in and responsibility for external affairs, in particular the Bank's relationship with the U.S. Government and the 50th anniversary celebration of the World Bank. These records are useful for insight into the liaison activities of the President's office because similar records do not exist in the President's own files.

McHugh also served as Counselor to the President during James Wolfensohn's first term as President. McHugh continued to use and add items to some of his files from the Preston period, particularly the country files. Those McHugh files are among the records of the Wolfensohn Presidency, and they should be consulted for further information on the Preston years.

Anapum Khanna was appointed as Special Assistant to the President in July 1989 and stayed through the end of Conable's term and into the first months of the Preston term. He succeeded Marianne Haug as the Secretary to the President's Council, and the primary series of records in this sub-fonds are the working files Khanna accumulated while handling Council business.

Marianne Haug served as Executive Assistant to the President and Secretary of the President's Council from May 1987 until May 1990. She was employed by various units in the Bank prior to joining the President's office; some of the records in this sub-fonds predate her service in the Executive Office.

Haug's files cover a mix of administrative and program topics. The series of subject files contains a very broad overview of topics that she handled for the President, as well as topics in which she was especially interested, such as the files of the Bank's Outside Interests Committee, 1981-1987, on which she served. The files on environment, forestry, and MIGA are very full; the series also contains copies of speeches by senior members of the Bank, showing that the President's staff was tracking the public statements. Several files, such as Centrally planned economies and Eastern Europe show the Bank's response to the changing situation in Eastern Europe.

The series on budget policy is useful to understand the internal development of budget packages from the point of view of the President's office. Haug's series on the Bank's 1987 reorganization is the fullest in the President's office, covering both the original reorganization and the fine tuning in 1989. Her extensive chronological file dates from July 1985 through May 1991.

Visvanathan Rajagopalan was the Vice President for Sector and Operations Policy when President Preston asked him to join the President's staff as Senior Adviser. Rajagopalan held this post for the year 1993, retiring at the end of December. During his time in the President's office, Rajagopalan had 2 principal tasks: manage the follow-up to the Portfolio Management Task Force report and chair the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research. In addition he spent a brief period in the summer of 1993 as the acting head of the Information, Technology and Facilities Department.

The most important records in this subfonds are those of the Portfolio Management Task Force. These records are essential to understanding the work of the task force and the controversy that followed its report.

The records of President McCloy consist of incoming and outgoing correspondence between President McCloy, the U.S. Executive Director of the Bank, U.S. political leaders, U.S. public officials, and prominent business leaders. The correspondence address topics of Bank operations and lending.

The records of the Presidency of George D. Woods (January 1963 until April 1968) primarily concern international relations, including both briefings and travel. The correspondence file, while small, has several unusually revealing items, as do the retained copies of outgoing letters and memoranda. The background papers on each country that are found in the annual meeting briefing files provide useful snapshots of the situation of that country at that time.

This series contains the records of Eugene R. Black as U.S. Executive Director at the World Bank, 1947-1949, and President, 1949-1962. They are arranged in five file categories: general correspondence, congratulatory correspondence, honorary degrees, speeches, and travel.

The general correspondence file contains exchanges with U.S. and foreign government officials (especially U.K. officials), private bankers, lawyers, foundation officials and friends, arranged alphabetically by surname of correspondent. Among the notable correspondents are U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower, U.S. Senators J.W. Fulbright and Hubert Humphrey, British Prime Minister Harold McMillan, and U.N. Secretary General Dag Hammerskjold. The alphabetical correspondence file is followed by one file marked personal action covering the period from September through December 1960; it contains letters congratulating Black on the publication of his book, The Diplomacy of Economic Development, and wishing him recovery from surgery.

The congratulatory correspondence concerns Black's appointment as Executive Director and subsequent appointment and reappointments as President of the World Bank.

A single file contains correspondence on honorary degrees awarded to Black.

The speech file contains letters of invitation and appreciation and, in some cases, the texts of the speeches. Speeches given include commencement addresses, lectures to professional associations and private organizations, and addresses to the UN Economic and Social Council.

Thetravel file contains correspondence relating to tours Black took as U.S. Executive Director and as Bank President to familiarize himself with present and future member countries' economic and political situations and to meet national leaders. It includes letters of invitation, itineraries, thank you notes, as well as letters and memoranda on the purposes and results of particular trips. Two files contain the records of Black's 1948 trip to Indonesia (then the Netherlands East Indies) shortly before it obtained independence, including background material on Indonesia's economy and recent political developments, newspaper articles, UN documents, photographs, and letters from government officials, business executives and Black evaluating the situation in Indonesia. Other travel files contain information on the Bank's role in the settlement of the Suez Canal dispute (1958-1959).

Lewis T. Preston became President of the World Bank on 1 September 1991 and resigned on 4 May 1995. Relatively few records from his term exist. One of Preston's first decisions was to suspend the President's Council, and as a result there are no formal records of the interaction of the highest levels of management. Furthermore, Preston was in ill health and retired before finishing his term. He continued to make speeches and undertook some business travel, but the files on those activities are noticeably fuller in the early years of his tenure. No subject files exist, nor do files on his liaison activities with United Nations organizations, non-government institutions, and international banks. The few files on liaison with the U.S. Government are thin, but there is additional information on this relationship in the records of the Counselor to the President, Matthew F. McHugh.

The most complete files are those on Member countries. These include information on Bank projects in the countries, reports of discussions with country representatives, agendas for meetings, and other representational matters. The files on the Annual Meetings have some unusually interesting briefings for Preston's meetings with financial and other institutions.

The important records of the Portfolio Management Task Force (Wapenhans Report) and the follow-up to it are part of the records of the Special Adviser to the President, Visvanathan Rajagopalan.

Note that a small portion of the Chronological File series contains correspondence and executive memoranda records from the period when Ernest Stern served as acting President. These date from February 1 to May 31 of 1995.

The records of cover the entire span of administrative and substantive activities of the Bank. Particularly useful is the documentation of public relations activities by the presidents and coordination efforts with outside partners. Briefing books for country visits and for meetings at the Bank's annual meeting often provide good overviews of issues as well as reports on the economic and political situation in a country. Unique materials on major Bank studies and commissions, such as the Pearson and Brandt Commissions and the Task Force on Portfolio Management (Wapenhans Report), are also found in the records of the president's office.

The McNamara, Conable and Preston records include both the records of the president and the records of his immediate staff. Some staff members had specific mandates and their files are key sources for those activities, while other presidential assistants played a more general role in handling topics for the president.