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Edwin D. Mead and Lucia Ames Mead Papers, 1876-1938 (inclusive)

Extent:

5.7 linear ft. (5.7 linear ft.)

Abstract:

Edwin D. Mead (1849-1937), and Lucia Ames Mead (1856-1936), were both leading pacifists, writers, and social reformers of the U.S. and international peace movement. Edwin Mead directed the work of the World Peace Foundation and participated in many international peace congresses. He was an American delegate to the International Peace Bureau. Mead helped found the School Peace League and was a prominent member of the American Peace League. Lucia Ames Mead was a leading member of many feminist and pacifist organizations, including the Woman's Peace Party. Mead was a delegate to the founding conference of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom in 1919 and served as a vice-president on the board of the National Council for Prevention of War. She was also an officer of the National Council of Women of the United States, and was a member of many U.S. feminist associations.

Held at: Swarthmore College Peace Collection [Contact Us]

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Women's International League for Peace and Freedom Records, 1915- (inclusive)

Extent:

392 linear ft.

Abstract:

Includes minutes, resolutions and general historical records; anniversary celebrations, committee minutes, literature and releases; office files from the legislative office, the finance and the executive director; includes miscellaneous records from branches, including New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, among others; a large correspondence file includes general office correspondence as well as that of the National Organizational Secretary, the Washington Legislative Secretary, and others; also contains approximately 2150 photographs and/or negatives, periodicals, posters, banners, scrapbooks, postcards, graphics, audiovisual material, campaign buttons, lapel ribbons and pins, bumperstickers and other stickers, and other memorabilia.

Held at: Swarthmore College Peace Collection [Contact Us]

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Mohandas K. Gandhi Collected Papers, 1919- (bulk)

Extent:

0.25 linear ft. (3 inches)

Abstract:

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born in 1869 in Porbandar in Gujarat, India. He trained as a barrister and worked in Durban, South Africa. Influenced primarily by Hinduism, but also by elements of Jainism and Christianity as well as writers including Tolstoy and Thoreau, Gandhi developed the satyagraha ('devotion to truth'), a new nonviolent way to redress wrongs. Gandhi returned to India and in 1919, he announced a new satyagraha which attracted millions of followers. By 1920, Gandhi was a dominant figure in Indian politics. He transformed the Indian National Congress, and his program of peaceful non-cooperation with the British included boycotts of British goods and institutions, leading to arrests of thousands. For the next 20 years he led nonviolent protests against British policies and colonial power in India. In 1945, the British government began negotiations which culminated in the Mountbatten Plan of June 1947, and the formation of the two new independent states of India and...(see more)

Held at: Swarthmore College Peace Collection [Contact Us]

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American Union Against Militarism Records, 1915-1922 (inclusive)

Extent:

1.75 linear ft.

Abstract:

In 1915 a group of New York pacifists and near-pacifists organized the "Anti-militarism Committee" to combat the war spirit of the time. Activities included lobbying, publishing, a lecture campaign, and the establishment of a Civil Liberties Bureau. The most notable achievements were the work in the successful effort to avert war with Mexico in 1916 and the encouragement of opposition to peacetime conscription following World War I. The office was raided by the government and American Union Against Militarism publications were sometimes stopped by the postal authorities but the organization continued unintimidated.

Held at: Swarthmore College Peace Collection [Contact Us]

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Anna Melissa Graves Papers, 1919-1953 (inclusive)

Extent:

8.5 linear ft. (8.5 linear ft.)

Abstract:

Anna Melissa Graves was a writer, teacher, world traveler, and internationalist. From the 1920s to the 1940s Graves traveled through Africa, Central and South America, China, Europe, and the Middle East. She taught school in many of these places and maintained a voluminous correspondence with the teachers, acquaintances, and former students she met on her travels.

Held at: Swarthmore College Peace Collection [Contact Us]

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Hannah Clothier Hull Papers, 1889-1958 (inclusive)

Extent:

3 linear ft. (3 linear feet.)

Abstract:

Hannah Clothier Hull (1872-1958), was one of the founders of the Woman's Peace Party and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. She served as a national officer of the WILPF for nearly forty years. Hull was also active in other social reform movements. A member of a well-to-do Quaker family, Hannah Clothier graduated from Swarthmore College in 1891. She first worked at a Philadelphia settlement house and then entered the graduate program in social work at Bryn Mawr College. In the following year Hannah Clothier married William Isaac Hull, a fellow pacifist and professor of political science at Swarthmore. Hannah Clothier Hull worked in the woman suffrage campaign and women's rights, had some interest in temperance, was a member of the Friends Peace Committee of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, and was on the board of the American Friends Service Committee (1928-1947).

Held at: Swarthmore College Peace Collection [Contact Us]

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Peoples Mandate Committee Records, 1935-1975 (inclusive) 1935-1956 (bulk)

Extent:

17.5 linear ft. (17.5 linear ft.)

Abstract:

Peoples Mandate to Governments to End War was an international campaign begun on September 6, 1935, by the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom to express such overwhelming opposition to war that governments would not dare resort to it as a means of solving disputes between nations. By the end of the decade the Peoples Mandate became an independent organization, headed by Mabel Vernon, and focused on peace and connections between women and women's organizations in the Americas.

Held at: Swarthmore College Peace Collection [Contact Us]

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Biddle family Papers, 1793-1951 (inclusive)

Extent:

4 linear ft. (8 boxes)

Abstract:

This collection contains the papers of Philadelphia Quaker Owen Biddle (1737-1799), his son, Clement Biddle (1778-1856), and numerous descendants. Owen Biddle, a scientist and merchant, was a member of Philadelphia Monthly Meeting and helped in the establishment of Westtown School (1799). Owen Biddle's papers, 1772-1793, (Series 1) include correspondence, and journals, some of which relate to his Revolutionary War activities. Three of his letterbooks, 1778-1779, have been microfilmed. The collection contains correspondence, journals, letterbooks, and account books, together with other manuscript material reflecting the social and cultural life and religious activities of a prominent Quaker family of Pennsylvania and Delaware. Papers of Lucy Biddle Lewis (1861-1941) are important for association with the women's suffrage movement and for early activities of the American Friends Service Committee. Other names represented in the collection are Jane Addams, Emily Greene Balch, Clement...(see more)

Held at: Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College [Contact Us]

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Emily Greene Balch Papers, 1842-1961 (inclusive) 1875-1961 (bulk)

Extent:

25.75 linear ft. (58 boxes)

Abstract:

Emily Greene Balch (1867-1961) was the second U.S. woman to have won the Nobel Peace Prize. Balch embarked on her academic career in the economics and sociology department at Wellesley College. Balch's extracurricular work with the Women's Trade Union League and opposition to World War I resulted in dismissal from Wellesley, and thereafter she helped lead the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. Called a "Citizen of the World," Balch worked for peace throughout her life--through disarmament; internationalization of important waterways, aviation, and the polar regions; drug control; and the elimination of the causes of discontent and conflict among peoples.

Held at: Swarthmore College Peace Collection [Contact Us]

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Women's Peace Union: U.S. Branch Records, 1921-1940 (inclusive)

Extent:

11.25 linear ft. (11.25 linear ft.)

Abstract:

The Women's Peace Union was founded in August 1921 to encourage the formation of a peace group to encompass all the women of the western hemisphere, to work for complete disarmament and the abolition of all constitutional and legal sanctions for war. Records in the Swarthmore College Peace Collection are those of the United States branch.

Held at: Swarthmore College Peace Collection [Contact Us]