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Women's Committee to Oppose Conscription Records
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Held at: Swarthmore College Peace Collection [Contact Us]500 College Avenue, Swarthmore 19081-1399
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Swarthmore College Peace Collection. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
This group was originally named the Committee to Oppose the Conscription of Women [WCOC], and then the National Committee to Oppose the Conscription of Women. It was formed to protest the Austin-Wadsworth legislative bills and similar measures, and as an independent committee with one objective it expected to educate and motivate a constituency no organized peace group could reach. At its height, the group had a governing committee of 150 members and a national mailing list of 3000. When the immediate threat of drafting women had passed, the group changed its name again, this time to the Women's Committee to Oppose Conscription, to reflect its stand against any conscription. Mildred Scott Olmsted served as Director, A.J. Muste as Treasurer, and Grace Rhoads as secretary. The Committee was headed by Katherine Pierce and Frances Chalmers of New York City.
The material in this collection came in 1948 from Grace Rhoads; in 1966 from Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (Mildred Scott Olmsted's files); and in 1969 from Mildred Scott Olmsted. It is difficult to know if this comprises all of the files kept by the Committee's office, though it is unlikely.
In 2001, the collection was rearranged and refoldered; because of time constraints, however, no attempt was made to do preservation photocopying (much of the paper in this collection is brittle), or to put into chronological order the material within the folders
Guide to the Swarthmore College Peace Collection, 2nd ed., p. 77.
Guide to Sources on Women in the Swarthmore College Peace Collection, p. 29.
Gift of Grace Rhoads, Mildred Scott Olmsted, and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, U.S. Section ; 1948, 1966, 1969.
Collection re-processed and checklist revised by Anne Yoder in April, 2001; This finding aid was prepared by Chloe Lucchesi- Malone in August, 2009.
Organization
Subject
- Publisher
- Swarthmore College Peace Collection
- Access Restrictions
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The collection is open for research use.
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All or part of this collection is stored off-site. Contact Swarthmore College Peace Collection staff at peacecollection@swarthmore.edu at least two weeks in advance of visit to request boxes.
- Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendents, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
- Use Restrictions
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None.
Collection Inventory
see also General Correspondence
includes texts of broadcasts
includes copy of booklet, which has an article by Annalee Stewart
see also General Correspondence
see also General Correspondence
see also General Correspondence
removed from DG 043
nurse at CPS camp #108, Gatlinburg, TN
formerly the Joint Strategy Board