The first part of this reel covers the period White and his wife were shopping in Europe for their St. Petersburg household. Wurts wrote lengthy letters arranging for the apartment and furniture and advising in detail the clothing Mrs. White would need for her official social life. White commissioned copyists to paint portraits of famous jurors to hang in the new law school at Cornell. He received letters from Huffcut, Schurman, and Thurston as well as reports from the librarians and Ulysses Grant Weatherly, who was conducting research for White's Warfare of Science chapters. There are letters concerning gifts of American grain and loans made the Russian government for famine relief. Early reports show White discouraged by his inability to effect any change in the plight of the Russian Jews. The agreement on extradition being negotiated with the Russians is referred to, but there is little mention of the Bering Sea negotiations, which were conducted through official diplomatic channels. Several writers mention preparations for the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago, and Holls reported on American political matters.