Call Number:

DG.127

Repository:

Swarthmore College Peace Collection

Extent:

.5 linear ft. (.5 linear ft.)

Preferred Citation:

[Identification of item], in the Dorothy Medders Robinson Papers (DG 127), Swarthmore College Peace Collection.

Date:

1946-1978 (inclusive)

Creator:

Robinson, Dorothy Medders, -1982, Baker, Adelaide N., Chalmers, Ruth, Graham, Jo Kreiner, and Polster, Elizabeth

Abstract:

Dorothy Medders Robinson was president of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, U.S. Section, from 1941 to 1946. She also served as the delegate to the WILPF International Congress in Luxembourg in 1946. Robinson was a chair of the Jane Addams Peace Association and the Jane Addams Hall of Fame Committee.

Dorothy Medders Robinson (1901-1982) attended Columbia University and graduated with a batchelor's degree in economics and social science. She studied in the graduate program at Johns Hopkins University in psychology and studied New Testament Greek at Westminster Theological Seminary. She married Dr. Orris Grovenor Robinson, who served as minister of Calvary Methodist Church in Washington. The couple had two daughters and a son.

Besides being active in church work, Dorothy Robinson was deeply interested in peace issues. She served as president of the Carroll County, Maryland, Board of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) from 1933 until 1936, and was president of the Maryland State Board from 1936 to 1939. Robinson served as National Vice President from 1939 to 1941 and as National President from 1941 until 1946. She subsequently served as Treasurer of both the United States section of Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and Women's International League for Peace and Freedom International.

Robinson travelled extensively for Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. In 1946, she was a delegate to the United States Section of the International Congress in Luxembourg and she attended International Executive Committee meetings in Geneva from 1946 to 1949 as Consultative Member.

In 1966, she accepted the general chairmanship of the Jane Addams Hall of Fame Committee which culminated in the the induction of Addams on May 19, 1968.

The papers of Dorothy Medders Robinson include correspondence (1946 1978) some of which she wrote to her family in 1948 when she attended the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom International Executive Committee Meeting in Geneva. There are articles, speech notes, and speeches by her.

There is a 77 page typewritten account of her trip to the 1946 Women's International League for Peace and Freedom International Congress in Luxembourg. A notebook she made contains Women's International League for Peace and Freedom printed material issued in 195l and 1952. There is also material (1966-1968) about the Jane Addams Hall of Fame Committee which Robinson chaired, including a program from the event (May 19, 1968), publicity, and organizational correspondence. Correspondents include Adelaide N. Baker, Ruth Chalmers, Jo Graham, and Elizabeth Polster.

Correspondence and other documents were placed in chronological order.