Call Number:

DG.011

Repository:

Swarthmore College Peace Collection

Extent:

0.83 linear ft. (10 linear in.)

Preferred Citation:

Cite as: [Identification of item], in the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Dana Papers (DG 011), Swarthmore College Peace Collection.

Date:

1914-1950 (inclusive)

Creator:

Allinson, Brent D. (Brent Dow), Balch, Emily Greene, 1867-1961, Baldwin, Roger N. (Roger Nash), 1884-1981, Browning, Hilda, Dunn, Robert W. (Robert Williams), 1895-, Eastman, Crystal, 1881-1928, Florence, Lella Secor, 1887-1966, Goldman, Emma, 1869-1940, Lochner, Louis Paul, 1887-1975, Mead, Lucia True Ames, 1856-1936, Nearing, Scott, 1883-1983, Shelley, Rebecca, 1887-1984, Smith, Rennie, b. 1888, and Thomas, Norman, 1884-1968

Abstract:

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Dana was a writer and pacifist who taught comparative literature at Columbia University from 1912 until 1917. Dana lost his teaching post as an opponent of American participation in World War I. Dana continued to advocate civil liberties and the rights of conscientious objectors.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Dana, grandson of the poet, Longfellow, was a teacher, lecturer, and writer. He received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from Harvard University and taught there from 1908 to 1910. From 1912 to 1917 he taught at Columbia University. Dana was fired by Columbia for his anti-war stance. After he retired, his home, Craigie House (Brattle Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts), became a center of intellectual and liberal activities. He was interested in both the international struggle for peace and in the effort to protect civil liberties at home. His sympathies with the conscientious objector position led him to corrrespond with C.O.s in jails and prisons. In June 1917 he put up the bail for three Columbia University students charged with "conspiracy to dissuade men from registering."

In addition to those list above as related collections, Dana was involved with the following organizations: American Friends Service Committee Association to Abolish War Bill of Rights Conference Citizens' Union of Massachusetts Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts Collegiate Anti-Militarism League Emergency Foreign Policy Conference National Committee on the Churches and the Moral Aims of the War National Popular Government League New History Society Socialist Party World Patriots

The Dana papers came to the Peace Collection in two lots, one sent by Dana in the 1940s, and a smaller shipment received in 1951, one year after his death. The material includes correspondence with Lucia Ames Mead, Emily Greene Balch, Norman Thoms, Roger Baldwin, Rennie Smith, and other liberals and pacifists in the United States and abroad. Also included are folders containing newsclippings, literature and correspondence on subjects such as freedom of speech, conscientious objectors, and economic problems growing out of war. Another set of folders includes material from and about organizations in which he was interested. These organizations are not represented in the Peace Collection and for this reason their papers are of especial interest in creating a background for the acitivities of Henry Dana.

The Dana papers are contained in two boxes. Box 1 contains correspondence and writings. Box 2 contains material about various organizations with which Dana was involved.