Americans and Queen Marie of Romania

Granddaughter of Queen Victoria of England and Tsar Alexander II of Russia, Marie (1875–1938) became Princess of Romania through her marriage to Ferdinand of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, Crown Prince of Romania, on 29 December 1892. She became Queen of Romania, her adopted country, on 11 October 1914, when Ferdinand assumed the throne following the death of King Carol I.

Queen Marie became known worldwide for her charitable efforts and her work nursing wounded soldiers on the front lines during World War I. She also took part in the political and diplomatic efforts that led to Romanian national unification in 1918. This collection of documents helps to reveal important aspects of the life and personality of this remarkable twentieth-century monarch.

This collection of documents, comprised of three parts, illustrates the queen’s relationships with two remarkable Americans. The first selection is the diary of George Huntington, an American professor who visited Queen Marie, together with his family, in 1925. The second part, compiled by the British writer Hector Bolitho, presents the correspondence between Queen Marie and an American admirer, Ray Baker Harris. This text contains extensive quotes from the queen’s letters to the young American. The final section is a selection of letters written by Ray Baker Harris to the queen.

Ray Baker Harris, later a librarian at the Library of Congress, compiled an extensive collection of materials relating to the Romanian queen and later donated them to the archives of Kent State University in Ohio.

Americans and Queen Marie of Romania is edited by Diana Fotescu, a researcher at the Cotroceni Museum in Bucharest, Romania—the former royal palace where Queen Marie lived. She compiled the materials presented in this volume during her work in the archives at Kent State University in Ohio and the National Central Archives in Bucharest, Romania.