Call Number:

DG.076

Repository:

Swarthmore College Peace Collection

Extent:

0.83 linear ft. (10 inches)

Preferred Citation:

[Identification of item], in the Albert Bigelow Papers/(DG 076), Swarthmore College Peace Collection

Date:

1956-1961 (inclusive)

Creator:

Bigelow, Albert, 1906-, Bigelow, Sylvia, Clark, Joseph S., Dye, Arthur M., Herter, Christian Archibald, 1895-1966, Huntington, William R., Langston, Beach, -1979, Reynolds, Barbara (Barbara Leonard), Reynolds, Earle L., and Whitney, Norman J. (Norman Jehiel), 1891-1967

Abstract:

Albert S. Bigelow (1906-1993) was an artist, architect, former Navy commander, and Quaker. He served as captain of Golden Rule, a thirty foot ketch which he and colleagues attempted to sail into the Eniwetok Proving Grounds, the U.S. nuclear test site in the Marshall Islands of the Pacific in February 1958. The action was sponsored by the Committee for Non-Violent Action Against Nuclear Weapons.

Albert S. Bigelow (1906- ) an artist, architect, former Navy commander, and Quaker, was captain of the Golden Rule, a thirty foot ketch which he attempted to sail into the Eniwetok Proving Grounds, the U.S. nuclear test site in the Marshall Islands of the Pacific. Bigelow and his crew sailed from San Pedro, California, in February 1958. At the time of Golden Rule's departure, it was legal to sail into the test site zone. While the small boat was under sail to Hawaii, however, the Atomic Energy Commission issued a regulation making it a crime for a U.S. citizen to sail into the Eniwetok Proving Grounds. In Hawaii, Bigelow and his crew were summoned to court. At this hearing, the U.S. government was granted a temporary injunction: if Golden Rule tried to sail to the testing site, the action would be considered in criminal contempt of court. Twice, on May 1 and again on June 4, Golden Rule tried to sail from the Honolulu harbor, but both times it was stopped soon after departure. Bigelow was arrested ten minutes before the second attempt; his crewmates, James Peck, George Willoughby, William R. Huntington, and Orion W. Sherwood, were arrested later the same day while under sail, and all were sentenced to sixty days in the Honolulu jail. The trip was sponsored by the Committee for Non-Violent Action Against Nuclear Weapons, the antecedent organization of the Committee for Non-Violent Action (CNVA). The yacht Phoenix, skippered by Earle and Barbara Leonard Reynolds, made the journey to the Eniwetok Proving Grounds later that same year, resulting in the arrest and trial of Earle Reynolds. His conviction was finally overturned in l961.

Albert Bigelow also took part in other peace demonstrations and civil rights actions described in his papers. He and his wife Sylvia resided in Cos Cob, Connecticut.

The papers of Albert Bigelow include correspondence (1956-1961), writings by Bigelow about his participation in various acts of civil disobedience, manuscripts of his book Voyage of the Golden Rule (Doubleday, 1959), original sketches made aboard Golden Rule and in prison, newsclippings, publicity releases, and the logbook from Golden Rule and Phoenix. Golden Rule's barometer is also in this collection.

Bigelow describes both the voyage itself and his reasons for making it in the book named above and in a shorter 19-page narrative titled "Golden Rule." Personal statements by both Bigelow and crewmate William Huntington also describe their reasons for making the trip aboard the Golden Rule. There is a description by Bigelow of conditions in the Honolulu jail where he and his crew were incarcerated for sixty days. There is publicity by the sponsoring organization, the Committee for Non-Violent Action Against Nuclear Weapons (which soon became the Committee for Non-Violent Action,) as well as by other peace organizations. While most of Bigelow's papers are about his attempt to sail the Golden Rule into the Eniwetok test site waters in1958, there is also material about other peace and civil rights efforts in which he took part: the Mercury Project Vigil in Nevada in 1957, the trip to Geneva by the crews of the Golden Rule and the Phoenix in late 1958, the Alabama Freedom Rides in 1961, and the production of "Which Way the Wind," a DocuDrama sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee in 1959.

Since this was a small collection and was well organized by Bigelow when he gave it to SCPC, it needed little rearrangement. Materials were put into chronological order and newsclippings were copied onto acid-free paper. An additional accession was given by George Willoughby in 1992. It included mostly correspondence to Bigelow and the crew of the Golden Rule from supporters. Correspondence from this accession addressed to George Willoughby and/or Lillian Willoughby may be found in DG 236.

Note: The collection was mostly reprocessed and refoldered in May 2016.