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William Jeanes Memorial Library Controversy 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

Call Number:
RG5.083
Repository:
Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College
Extent:
1.5 linear ft. (3 boxes)
Language:
English
Preferred Citation:
[Indicate the cited item or series here], William Jeanes Memorial Library Controversy Papers, RG5/083, Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College
Date:
1939-1961 [bulk 1953-1960] (inclusive)
Creator:
Knowles, Mary, 1910-, Plymouth Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends. Civil Liberties Committee, and William Jeanes Memorial Library (Plymouth Meeting, Pa.). Library Committee
Abstract:
Mary Knowles (b. 1910), a librarian at the William Jeanes Memorial Library in Plymouth, Pennsylvania, and Plymouth Monthly Meeting were the center of a "Red Scare" controversy in 1953-56 when Mrs. Knowles was accused of being a member of the Communist Party. Mary Knowles had pleaded the Fifth Amendment in 1953 before the Jenner Committee (Senate Internal Security Subcommittee) regarding her employment as secretary at the Samuel Adams School in Boston Mass. When she refused to take the Pennsylvania Loyalty Oath in 1954, the controversy and criticisms escalated. The William Jeanes Memorial Library was established in 1926 as a gift by Mary Rich Jeanes Miller, in memory of her first husband, granted to a Board of Trustees to be appointed by the Plymouth Preparative Meeting (Quaker), Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania. By 1953, the Jeanes Library received much of its budget from various public sources. Mary Knowles was hired as a temporary librarian and became permanent in 1954. The Library Committee and Plymouth Monthly Meeting remained staunchly behind Mary Knowles's civil rights and retained her as librarian. She was convicted of contempt of Congress in 1955 for refusing to answer questions arising out of the Senate subcommittee. She successfully appealed the conviction in 1960. This collection includes legal papers, correspondence, and other materials relating to the controversy. It also contains background material concerning the William Jeanes Memorial Library, Plymouth Monthly Meeting, and the hiring of Mary Knowles.

Mary (Ruth Gardner) Knowles was born in 1910 in Watertown, Massachusetts, and attended Bates College in Maine. She married Clive Dorman Knowles in 1933; they divorced in 1951. Mary Knowles worked for the Samuel Adams School for Social Studies, Boston, as an office secretary 1945-1948, and was certified as a librarian by the State of Massachusetts. In 1953, she appeared before the Jenner Committee (Senate Internal Security Subcommittee). Mary Knowles was hired by the Jeanes Memorial Library in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania, in 1953, and became the focus of a McCarthy-era controversy. She was convicted of contempt of Congress in 1957 for refusing to answer questions arising out of the Senate subcommittee and successfully appealed the conviction in 1960.

This collection includes legal papers, correspondence, and other materials relating to the William Jeanes Memorial Library Controversy concerning the hiring of Mary Knowles as librarian by the Library Committee of Plymouth Monthly Meeting. The collection contains background material concerning the William Jeanes Memorial Library, Plymouth Monthly Meeting, and Mary Knowles who was convicted of contempt of Congress in 1957 for refusing to answer questions arising out of the Jenner Committee (Senate Internal Security Subcommittee) and successfully appealed the conviction in 1960.

The collection is divided into eight series:

  1. General background
  2. Correspondence of Mary Knowles
  3. Legal papers
  4. Printed material
  5. William Jeanes Memorial Library
  6. Plymouth Monthly Meeting
  7. Alerted Americans
  8. Miscellaneous

Donor: Plymouth Monthly Meeting, 1977

Mary Knowles, 1981

Stefan Thiemer, 1985

In 1981, Plymouth Monthly Meeting permitted its previously deposited papers on the controversy to be integrated with the papers of Mary Knowles. The collection were combined into a single Record Group 5 collection, sorted and filed in documents boxes. in 1985, a paper by Stefan Thiemer, "The Plymouth Monthly Meeting and the Case of Mary Knowles," was added to the collection.

See also:

  1. Plymouth Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, RG 2
  2. Richmond Miller Papers, RG 5/105, Series 8

People
Subject
Place

Publisher
Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College
Finding Aid Author
FHL staff
Finding Aid Date
1981
Sponsor
Encoding made possible by a grant by the Gladys Kriebel Delmas Foundation to the Philadelphia Consortium of Special Collections Libraries
Access Restrictions

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

Background material.
Box 1
Scope and Contents

Biographical material about Mary Knowles, general information about the William Jeanes Memorial Library, Plymouth Meeting, Pa., and summaries of the controversy resulting from hiring Mary Knowles as Librarian in 1953 with implications for the broader issues of civil and religious liberty.

Physical Description

1 folder

Correspondence, 1953-1961.
Box 1

Senate and court documents (with related papers) concerning Mary Knowles's appearances before the Senate Judiciary Committee and subsequent trial, 1953-1960.
Box 1

Press releases.
Box 2
Other printed material, mostly magazine articles.
Box 2
Newspaper clippings, n.d. and 1953-61.
Box 2

Correspondence, 1939-61.
Box 2
Scope and Contents

Mostly correspondence of the Library Committee, appointed by Plymouth Monthly Meeting.

Minutes of the Library Committee., 1941-1961.
Box 2
Scope and Contents

Rough drafts of occasional minutes from 1941-61; sketchy and very incomplete.

Statements of the Library Committee.
Box 2
Financial statements and related material about the library.
Box 2
General information about the library.
Box 2

Correspondence, 1955-60.
Box 3
Statements, including ones received from other Friends meetings.
Box 3

Scope and Contents

The Alerted Americans were a right-wing group opposed to Mary Knowles.

Mimeographed statements by Helen Corson.
Box 3
Petition requesting replacement of Mary Knowles.
Box 3
Scope and Contents

Includes a summary and analysis, with packets of signatures at back of box.

Minutes and statements of other groups.
Box 3
General background material on defense of civil liberties,, n.d. and 1954-58.
Box 3
Thiemer, Stefan. "The Plymouth Monthly Meeting and the Case of Mary Knowles.".
Box 3
Scope and Contents

Paper--gift of author, May 1985.

Print, Suggest