Call Number:

DG.148

Repository:

Swarthmore College Peace Collection

Extent:

10.1 linear ft. (10.1 linear ft.)

Preferred Citation:

[Identification of item], in the SCI International Voluntary Service (U.S.) Records (DG 148), Swarthmore College Peace Collection.

Date:

1954-1976 (inclusive)

Creator:

SCI International Voluntary Service (U.S.), Day, Dorothy, 1897-1980, Dellinger, David T., 1915-2004, Gaebler, Robert, Muste, Abraham John, 1885-1967, Stowell, Robert Frederick, 1920-, and International Voluntary Service

Abstract:

This organization was stablished around 1956 by Robert Stowell and others as an American affiliate of Service Civil International with the goals of voluntary service, self-discipline, and international friendship. The group operated approximately 87 workcamps between 1954 and 1974. SCI provided placements and alternative service for conscientious objectors. SCI suspended operation in the mid-1970s, but was revived in the mid-1980s by a group of former SCI volunteers.

Established around 1956 by Robert Stowell and others as an American affiliate of Service Civil International (founded in Europe in 1920 by Pierre Ceresole) with goals of voluntary service, self-discipline, and international friendship; U.S. national office located successively in Cabot, Vermont, Wheatland, Wyoming, and Chicago, Illinois; has also called itself International Voluntary Service (also the name of the British affiliate); this usage was discontinued to avoid confusion with another group of a similar name located in Washington D.C.; operated approximately 87 workcamps between 1954 and 1974; arranged short-term workcamp assignments overseas and a small number of long-term and conscientious objector placements; suspended operation in the mid-1970s, but was revived in the mid-1980s by a group of former SCI volunteers located in Crozet, Virginia.

Includes correspondence, administrative files, financial records, recruitment, orientation and membership files, periodicals, published materials, photographs of starvation in Biafra, and publications from the International Secretariat and affiliates in other countries. Correspondents include Dorothy Day, David Dellinger, Robert Gaebler, A.J. Muste, and Robert Stowell.