2.2 Biographical history   Orvis A. Schmidt was an economist who specialized in South American economics, with an emphasis on Brazil.  He received his M.A. degree from the Department of Sociology and Economics of Tufts College in 1935 with a thesis titled “The examination of the international trade of Brazil, 1926-1934, with special reference to forces operating during boom and depression.”  He then enrolled as a Ph.D. candidate in economics at the University of Chicago with a proposed thesis on the history of Brazilian monetary policy, working under Jacob Viner.  Despite a nearly completed draft, he did not finish the dissertation.

In 1936 the United States Department of the Treasury hired Schmidt, and he was stationed in Brazil during 1937-1938.  He then returned to the US and worked in the Treasury’s international financial field, including six months as the acting director of the Division of Monetary Research, which became the Office of International Finance.  According to an oral history interview with Schmidt, he attended some of the early inter-American financial conferences, particularly the First Meeting of the Ministers of Finance of the American Republics.  During the Second World War he worked on foreign funds control and attended the Bretton Woods conference as the secretary to Commission III. 

Schmidt joined the World Bank in November of 1947, shortly after John J. McCloy became President.  He initially served in the Loan Department as chief of its western European subdivision and then as the assistant to the loan director.  In 1951 he became Assistant Director of the Western Hemisphere Department and in 1956 he became its Director.  Described by William Bennett as “one of the ablest people the Bank had,” Schmidt became Special Adviser to the President in 1964.  He died in November 1967 at the age of 55.

2.4 Source   Donated to the World Bank by Elizabeth M. Schmidt, the widow of Orvis A. Schmidt.       

3.1 Scope and content    The papers cover the period of Schmidt’s service with the US Treasury and include his files on his dissertation.  Both the Treasury and the dissertation materials include subject files; some topics overlap; all concern Brazil exclusively.  The files do not include materials on either the Bretton Woods conference or his work at the World Bank. 

Schmidt obtained and translated many official Brazilian government documents for the Treasury Department.  These translations are found both in a general translation file and in subject files.

The files are of interest primarily to students of the economic history of Brazil. 

3.2  Appraisal, destruction, scheduling  Duplicate copies of translations and writings and publications from the statistical office of the Government of Brazil and the Pan American Union were destroyed.                    

3.3 Accruals     Accruals are not expected. 

3.4 Arrangement       Arranged in five sections:

                                             Reporting and writings for the Treasury Department

                                             Subject files for Treasury work

                                             Ph.D. dissertation drafts

                                             Background for dissertation chapters

                                             Subject files for dissertation

4.1 Conditions of access       Unrestricted

4.2 Conditions of reproduction     No copyright in U.S. Treasury documents.  Copyright of 50 years after death for other unpublished materials, or until 2017; held by the heirs of Orvis A. Schmidt.  Fair use copying permitted.

4.3 Language/scripts     English; Portuguese

4.5  Finding aids       File unit list

                                  Chapter outline, Ph.D. dissertation

5.3 Related units of description    WB IBRD/IDA 44-01, Oral histories, Orvis A. Schmidt; see also interview with William Bennett

7.2 Rules or conventions      Internal World Bank Group Archives rules
7.3 Date(s) of descriptions     2003-09-16