Call Number:

CDG-B.Great Britain.Pickard, Bertram and Irene

Repository:

Swarthmore College Peace Collection

Extent:

1.25 linear ft. (15 linear in.)

Preferred Citation:

[Identification of item], in the Bertram Pickard and Irene Pickard Collected Papers (CDG-B Great Britain), Swarthmore College Peace Collection.

Date:

1918-1972 (inclusive)

Creator:

Pickard, Bertram, 1892-1973, Pickard, Irene, Clark, Roderick, Howie, Joseph B., Innes, Kathleen Elizabeth Royds, Kamensky, Anna, Libby, Frederick J. (Frederick Joseph), 1874-1970, Richardson, Hugh, 1864-1936, and Sheepshanks, Mary, 1872-1958

Abstract:

Bertram Pickard was an internationalist; peace leader; Quaker; official for Society of Friends and United Nations organizations, including the Friends Peace Committee of the London Yearly Meeting, the Friends' Service Council, the Friends Geneva Centre, and the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations; and founder of the Quaker Press Service, later called the World Outlook Press Service.

Bertram Pickard (1892-1973) was Secretary of the Friends Peace Committee of the London Yearly Meeting of the Society of Friends from 1921-1926. This interest in peace motivated Pickard and his wife, Irene, to go to Geneva, Switzerland as representatives of the Friends' Service Council in 1926. There he served as Secretary of the Friends Geneva Center until 1940, and Chair of the International Consultative Group on Peace and Disarmament from 1935-1940; the Pickards also acted as hosts of the Quaker Student Hostel, which Irene had been chiefly responsible for founding. Bertram Pickard was much interested in the work of the League of Nations, and he was active in promoting its work. In that regard, he wrote careful interpretations of its actions and meetings, some of which were published in Quaker Press Service and World Outlook Press Service (which he helped establish). The Pickards became quite active in the Geneva Quaker Meeting, orienting its focus on the League of Nations rather than on simply being a home-away-from-home for elderly displaced persons.

Bertram Pickard was a Fellow at Woodbrooke, Selly Oak Colleges, Birmingham, England from 1940-1941. The Pickards moved to the United States in 1941, where he lectured that year at Pendle Hill, near Swarthmore, Pennsylvania; later he edited Washington Commentary, a news sheet circulated among American Quaker peace leaders from 1942-1944. Pickard was also an associate of the American Friends Service Committee from 1941-1942.

Following the war, the family moved to England and eventually back to Geneva. There Pickard was a liaison officer with the Economic and Social Council (?) of the United Nations. In addition, Pickard became the Chair of the Advisory Committee of the Quaker Center, and Chair of the Board of Directors of the International School, where he was instrumental in establishing the International Schools Association, which set up a chain of international schools throughout the world. The Pickards left Geneva in 1954 (1955?) after Bertram's retirement from the United Nations. Further information about their lives is unknown.

Ellen Starr Brinton, Curator of the Swarthmore College Peace Collection until 1951, visited the Pickards in Geneva in 1948 and selected some of his files for preservation at the SCPC. These make up the bulk of this collection, and reflect Pickard's wide range of interests and deep concern for peace and goodwill on an international level.

This collection includes reports, writings of Bertram Pickard, reference files, releases of the Quaker Press Service and the World Outlook Press Service, some items by or referring to Irene Pickard, and correspondence of Bertram Pickard with Hugh Richardson, Frederick Libby, Joseph B. Howie, Mary Sheepshanks, Dr. Anna Kamensky, Albert Wigniolle, Carl Heath, Roderick Clark, Kathleen Innes, and others.

The 2nd accession to this collection was given by the Pickards' daughter in 2001, from photocopies she made of material at the Quaker House in London (Great Britain). No attempt was made to compare this material with what had been received earlier from Bertram Pickard (in boxes 1 and 2).