None Swifter Than These: 100 Years of Diplomatic Couriers

In wartime and peacetime, the U.S. Diplomatic Courier Service carries the sensitive materials, equipment and information that make diplomacy possible. The U.S. Diplomatic Courier Service traces its origins to the U.S. Army courier detachment, established at the U.S. Embassy in Paris in December 1918 to support the American Commission to Negotiate Peace at the end of World War I. A century later, the Department of State's 100 badged diplomatic couriers travel the globe safeguarding our nation's most sensitive information and materials. Today's diplomatic couriers constantly trouble-shoot and innovate to ensure secure logistic supply chains while supervising the delivery of classified equipment and documents, as well as secure construction materials to nearly every nation where U.S. diplomats work. The exhibition was developed by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security, Diplomatic Security Service.