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Henry LeRoy Finch Papers
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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
Henry Leroy Finch, Jr. was born on August 8, 1918. He was a pacifist and conscientious objector during World War II. He served in Civilian Public Service (CPS) Camp 11 (Ashburnham, Massachusetts) and Camp 37 (Coleville, California), and with CPS Unit 41 Williamsburg, Virginia). The first two were engaged in U.S. Forest Service efforts, and the latter was a mental hospital. After the war, Finch worked as an editor for Alternative and Liberation. For a time he was involved with the American Forum for Socialist Education, but his primary affiliations were with the Fellowship of Reconciliation and War Resisters League. He earned a PhD, taught philosophy at Sarah Lawrence College for twenty years and at Hunter College for sixteen years, and wrote several books, including Simone Weil and the Intellect of Grace. Finch was one of the founders of the American Weil Society in 1970. He died on August 22, 1997.
Finch was known as Roy in pacifist circles during the 1940s-1950s, and as such this name is noted in parentheses in the title of his papers because it shows up this way in the various collections at the SCPC. He used Henry as his name in his professional life.
This collection is comprised of material related to Finch's pacifist activities in the 1940s and 1950s. It includes much correspondence, as well as some administrative material for organizations or efforts he involved himself with. The papers contain only slight reference to Finch's work as a philosopher, writer and professor.
The Swarthmore College Peace Collection is the official repository for these papers/records.
Gift of Annie Finch, 1998 [acc. 98A-001; acc. 98A-024].
Processed and finding aid by Anne M. Yoder, Archivist, April 2014.
People
Organization
- Civilian Public Service
- American Forum for Socialist Education
- Fellowship of Reconciliation (U.S.)
- War Resisters League
Subject
- Publisher
- Swarthmore College Peace Collection
- Access Restrictions
-
Collection is open for research without restrictions.
- Copyright to the materials created by Henry Leroy Finch has been transferred to the Swarthmore College Peace Collection. Copyright to all other materials is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
- Use Restrictions
-
None.
Collection Inventory
by Finch?
no correspondence
no correspondence; 2 photographs removed
see also named correspondence folders
includes WRL staff
no correspondence
mostly by others
no correspondence
no correspondence (continued)
for magazine production?
mostly re: Cuba
no correspondence
no correspondence