Bureau of Insular Affairs

The Bureau of Insular Affairs was a division of the United States Department of War that oversaw civil administration aspects of several U.S. territories from 1898 until 1939.

The bureau was created 13 December 1898 as the Division of Customs and Insular Affairs within the Office of the Secretary of War.

[1] This followed the Spanish–American War, which resulted in the transfer of several areas from Spain to the United States, including the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Cuba.

In 1939, the bureau was replaced by the Division of Territories and Island Possessions in the Department of the Interior.

Future Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter served briefly as a law officer for the bureau beginning in 1911.