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The person in title and office of the "Goodwill Ambassador" was first designated by President Calvin Coolidge to Col. Charles Lindbergh in 1927 when his Goodwill Tour (civilian) was endorsed and supported by the United States Government.
The idea of the day in the late 1930s well into the 21st century in America was that of the goodwill ambassador who has been a major component of the World's Fair since Chicago in 1933, they really needed the Goodwill Ambassador during the Great Depression. Most countries had their goodwill ambassadors demonstrating culture, customs, industry and technology at the World's Fair of 1939 and 1964. The goodwill ambassador is not an invention of the US government or the United Nations, it was spontaneous evolution and has become deeply embedded in American culture.
Many say the first ambassador of good-will was Ambassador Benjamin Franklin on his mission to France in December 1776, when the United States was just a few months old and embroiled in the Revolutionary War. Others might say it was pioneer Daniel Boone who was hired as a civilian colonel to help Col. Judge Richard Henderson build the Wilderness Road and negotiate with good-will the Treaty of Watauga with the Cherokee to establish the Transylvania Colony on May 23, 1775. At its time, the Transylvania Colony was the first democratic government free of British Monarchy calling for a "manly government", Boonesborough had both indigenous and free slaves as civil participants.
Benjamin Franklin in colonial times was also known as Silence Dogood (a pen name) who wrote a series of letters that were published and widely read. Almost 50 years before the American Revolution Franklin adapted; Bonifacius: Essays to Do Good, by the Puritan preacher and family friend Cotton Mather, which Franklin often cited as a key influence throughout his life. His work preached the importance of forming voluntary associations to benefit society. While Franklin learned about forming do-good associations from Cotton Mather, his benevolence, humility and organizational skills made him the most influential force in making voluntarism an enduring part of the American ethos.
The word "good-will" first appears in American newspapers as early as 1789 in the Gazette of the United-States[6] where the term was associated synonymously with words like benevolence, charity, compassion, delight, divinity, grace, honor, humanity, humility, mankind and virtue all in a single thought.
The term "ambassador of good-will" appears in 1920 discussing a delegation of government supported business people from Texas visiting Mexico and establishing friendly business relationships. The article called for "increasing the ranks of ambassadors of good-will" by inviting other businesses and states to their commission.[7] The term "goodwill ambassador" finally emerges into the international landscape as a highly defining and descriptive term in the early 20th Century through a public figure who later proves to be a controversial one. In December 1927 it was applied to aviator and ambassador, Col. Charles Lindbergh by the international news media when he scheduled an International Goodwill Tour visiting Mexico, Central America, Colombia and Venezuela in the Spirit of St. Louis.[8][9]
The idea was effectively merged from the public domain creating the new term in an article from the Indianapolis Times; "Doll Ambassadors from Japan Viewed by Capital: School Children's Babies Enter U.S. on Mission of Good Will; Washington, December 20, 1927 - Japan's "Doll Ambassadors of Goodwill" received a national welcome..."[10] In subsequent years the idea is used by its commissioners to create an honorary ex-officio civilian post or use the role of goodwill ambassador as an actual representative substitute for the honorary duty of an iconic historical figure, like the Kentucky Colonel. In the 1930s the Kentucky and Tennessee Colonel titles were awarded to people that would make goodwill ambassadors (ambassadors of goodwill) for the state.[11] Elvis Presley, well known as a Goodwill Ambassador for many causes and ideas, was both a Kentucky and Tennessee Colonel, receiving special commissions from various governors all over the United States.
The United States, the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Nations, Latin America, African Nations were all engaged in commissioning goodwill ambassadors to address public relations issues, create soft power, or promote cultural understanding selecting high profile celebrities that are popular within their own society during and after World War II. The entertainers in the USO were all considered to be Goodwill Ambassadors of the United States. Today Goodwill Ambassador has become a legal title, it is against the law to impersonate a goodwill ambassador.