Consular cards file

Question

I saw something recently about a "US Consular Cards file" that was supposed to contain all US diplomats and consular officials 1789-1960. I understood that these had been digitized (although most or all were handwritten so not OCRed). Can anyone tell me more? Are these online anywhere? I'm particularly interested in Paraguay, Brazil, and Mexico during the 1930s-40s.

Textual Reference Branch, Archives II · Answer

John D Thiesen 
 
 Thank you for posting your question on History Hub! 
 
 We searched the National Archives Catalog and located the series Lists of U.S. Diplomatic Officers by Country, ca. 1789-ca. 1939 and Lists of United States Consular Officers by Posts, ca. 1789-ca. 1939 in the General Records of the Department of State (Record Group 59). Both series have been digitized and are available online through the Catalog. For more information about these records, please contact the National Archives at College Park - Textual Reference (RR2R) at archives2reference@nara.gov . 
 
 You may also wish to consult the People page maintained by the Department of State&rsquo;s Office of the Historian. This webpage includes brief biographies of U.S. ambassadors, chiefs of mission, and other officials. 
 
 If you have not already done so you should consult Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) available on the same website. This is a Department of State publication of selected documents from the Department&rsquo;s files and other sources. Besides providing the text of the most important documents on U.S. foreign policy, FRUS also provides a source citation printed either as a header with the document or as a footnote). Those references to file numbers or other records identification are the keys to locating not only the printed documents but other documents on the same subject not selected for publication. Cited "Lot Files" may be difficult to identify among the records in the National Archives using just the Lot number. If you are interested in using any of those records, please contact the National Archives at College Park - Textual Reference (RR2R) via email at archives2reference@nara.gov . FRUS volumes are usually available at large universities or public libraries, and in the U.S. Government Depository Libraries . 
 
 We hope this assists you with your research! 
 
 Sincerely, 
 
 Textual Reference Archives II Branch (RR2RR) 
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