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Mary Bye Papers
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Held at: Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College [Contact Us]500 College Avenue, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania 19081
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College. 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
Mary Du Bois was born on April 25, 1913. She graduated from Swarthmore College in 1936 and married Ranulph de Bayeux. They had five children, Dennis Latham (b. May 31, 1942), Barbara Downman (b. April 7, 1944), Richard Edwin (b. March 12, 1951; d. May 10, 1951), Stephen Gerard (b. June 18, 1952), and Catherine Maitland (b. 1955).
She is an active member of Doylestown Monthly Meeting and Bucks Quarterly Meeting, serving on several committees, including the Quarterly Meeting's Peace and Service Committee. In addition to her political involvement through the Meeting, she individually was active in the peace movement and other social causes. She protested several issues, leading to her arrest at the Pentagon in 1969 and at Harrisburg in 1972. She also protested by not paying her taxes.
One of the most important things she did as a political activist was to open her home as a forum where people such as Father Daniel Berrigan could speak to the community and peace walkers could spend the night.
This collection consists of the papers relating to Mary Bye's political activity. It includes correspondence, notes, clippings, and other files concerning peace and justice issues. Includes material on Daniel Berrigan, Robert Whittington Eaton, the Plowshares Eight, Vietnamese conflict, Continental Walk for Disarmament, corporate divestiture, Central American refugees, and many other issues. Correspondents include Noam Chomsky, Alexander Calder, Theodore Friend, Kai Yutah Clouds, Fr. Paul Kabat, and others.
The collection is divided into two series:
- Correspondence
- Miscellaneous
Donor: Mary Bye, 1991, 1994
This collection was given to the Swarthmore College Peace Collection by Mary Bye. It was transferred to Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College in 1991.
This collection was given to the Swarthmore College Peace Collection by Mary Bye. It was transferred to Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College in 1991. Periodicals were retained by the Peace Collection. Mary Bye's original subject designations have been retained, and they have been put into alphabetical order. Form letters and solicitations from various organizations were returned to the donor or discarded.
Note: This is an open collection, with additional unprocessed accessions arriving at indeterminate intervals.
Organization
Subject
- Publisher
- Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College
- Finding Aid Author
- FHL staff
- Finding Aid Date
- 1991
- Sponsor
- Encoding made possible by a grant by the Gladys Kriebel Delmas Foundation to the Philadelphia Consortium of Special Collections Libraries
- Access Restrictions
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Collection is open for research.
- Use Restrictions
-
Permission to reuse, publish, or reproduce items in this collection beyond the bounds of Fair Use or other exemptions to copyright law must be obtained from the copyright holder or their heirs/assigns. See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-RUU/1.0/.
Collection Inventory
Folders arranged alphabetically according to Mary Bye's subject designations. Although this series is largely comprised of Correspondence, the folders also contain many notes in Mary Bye's hand, rough drafts of letters and proclamations, newspaper clippings by or about Mary Bye, bills, receipts, photographs and slides. In some folders general background information is included to allow for a fuller understanding of Mary Bye's involvement with the issue.
2 versions
The checks show the variety of organizations Mary Bye supported.
Published in the Bucks County Town and Country Living.