South American Colonial Silver, January 9-February 14, 1943

Robert Woods Bliss was an American diplomat, art collector, philanthropist, and co-founded the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection in Washington, D.C. with his wife, Mildred Barnes Bliss. Robert was born in St. Louis, Missouri on August 5, 1875. Mildred was born on September 9, 1879 in New York City. He attended J.P. Hopkinson's Private School in Boston in 1894 and 1895, and received his A.B. in 1900 from Harvard College. She was educated at Miss Porter's School in Farmington, Connecticut. Robert married his stepsister Mildred in 1908.

After graduating from college, Robert Bliss went to work in Puerto Rico, first in the office of the secretary of the U.S. civil government, then as private secretary to the governor of Puerto Rico from 1901 to 1903. In 1903, he passed the State Department qualifying examination and entered the diplomatic Foreign Service. As a career diplomat and Republican, Bliss served in Venice, Italy, St. Petersburg, Russia, Brussels, Belgium, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Paris, France, and The Hague, Netherlands.

The Blisses were living in Paris when World War I broke out. They helped found the American Field Ambulance Service (later the American Field Service) in France in 1914. They also opened and equipped a central depot in Paris for the distribution of medical and surgical supplies and clothing. In 1920, Robert became chief of the Division of Western European Affairs at the State Department in Washington, and was Third Assistant Secretary of State from 1921 to 1923 before becoming U.S. Envoy to Sweden from 1923 to 1927 and U.S. Ambassador to Argentina from 1927 to 1933, after which he retired from the Foreign Service. Robert returned to the State Department following the entry of the U.S. into World War II in 1941. He worked as a consultant, special assistant to the U.S. Secretary of State, and consultant to the Secretary of State. He was instrumental in arranging for a series of important diplomatic meetings to take place at his home, Dumbarton Oaks, in 1944. At these meetings, the delegates from China, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States established the United Nations Charter that was adopted in San Francisco in 1945. Robert Bliss retired a second time from government work in November 1945.

While living in Paris between 1912 and 1919, the Blisses had become reacquainted with Mildred’s childhood friend, the American historian and art connoisseur Royall Tyler. Tyler introduced the Blisses to important Parisian art dealers and nurtured their growing interest as art collectors, especially of Byzantine and pre-Columbian artworks. Robert Bliss was particularly enamored by pre-Columbian art. Between 1923 and 1933, they built their art collection, and upon retiring in 1933 to Dumbarton Oaks, began to lay the groundwork for a museum and research institute. In 1935, Robert traveled through the highlands and tropics of Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras to see Maya ruins with Frederic C. Walcott, a trustee of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. In 1940, the Blisses co-founded the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, which they endowed and gave to Harvard University. Afterwards, they moved to Washington, D.C. and their collection of pre-Columbian art, which had been exhibited at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. between 1947 and 1962, was installed in 1963 at Dumbarton Oaks in a new wing designed by Philip Johnson.

Robert Bliss was involved with many cultural and civic organizations, including the American Federation of Arts, American Foreign Service Association, Smithsonian Art Commission, National Trust for Historic Preservation, Washington Criminal Justice Association, American Academy of Political and Social Science, and Harvard Board of Overseers. He was trustee of several museums, including the American Museum of Natural History, New York, Carnegie Institution, Washington, D.C., Nelson Rockefeller's Museum of Primitive Art, New York, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, and member of the Advisory Committee on Art of the State Department's Division of Cultural Relations and the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs. He received honorary Doctor of Law degrees from the University of Missouri in 1933, Syracuse University in 1934, and Harvard University in 1951. Bliss was one of five retired diplomats who co-signed a 1954 letter protesting U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy's attacks on the Foreign Service. Robert died in Washington, D.C. on April 19, 1962. Mildred later died on January 17, 1969.

Fernando Berckmeyer y Payos was the Peruvian ambassador to the U.S. and worked under six American presidents, from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Gerald R. Ford. He was especially close to John F. Kennedy and even walked with Jacqueline Kennedy at her husband’s funeral. Beginning in 1975, he was Peru’s envoy to the United Nations for economic affairs and economic adviser to the Peruvian embassy in Washington D.C. He was an author, sportsman, art collector, and chairman of the board of Lima, Peru’s largest wholesale distribution import-export firm.

He graduated from Notre Dame University in South Bend, Indiana before first coming to San Francisco, California in 1930 as vice consul. He spent two years as consul general in Seattle, Washington, returning to San Francisco as consul in 1934 and was dean of the consular corps in 1939 when he married Claribel Rapp. They were married until her death in 1973. In 1974, he married Mrs. Philip Dalton Trumball. He was a member of the Pacific Union Club, the Brooks Club, New York, and the St. James, London, England. He died in Lima, Peru in July 1981.

Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Woods_Bliss
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mildred_Barnes_Bliss
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/50465079/obituary_for_fernando_berckemeyer_y/