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Charles M. Tatum. American Friends Service Committee Coal Relief 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
The President's Committee on Unemployment Relief and the Federal Children's Bureau requested that the American Friends Service Committee provide relief for the children of unemployed mine workers in the poverty stricken bituminous coal fields in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Kentucky, Tennessee, Illinois, and West Virginia during the winter of 1931-1932. The mining industry was particularly hard hit during the Depression when mines closed and other fuels gained market share. The following winter, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation worked through county agencies in most areas, but the AFSC continued to administer some programs in W. Virginia and Kentucky. By 1933-1934, the emphasis had shifted from relief to education and social reconstruction.
Charles Maris Tatum worked in West Virginia and Kentucky for the AFSC Coal Relief mission from 1931-1933. He was the son Mary Biddle McCollin Tatum and Oliver Parry Tatum. His mother was a doctor and worked in Warsaw for several years after World War I. Charles Tatum was born in 1903 and married Margaret O. Garrett at Lansdowne Monthly Meeting in 1939. An engineer, he was a graduate of Haverford College and member of Radnor Monthly Meeting. He died February 1984. The supervisor of the coal mission team in W. Virginia and Kentucky was Mary Kelsey, a Quaker social worker and pacifist who had worked with the American Friends Reconstruction Unit after WWI. She was born June 15, 1877, in St. Louis, Missouri, and became a member of Germantown Monthly Meeting in 1920. She died March 23, 1948.
The collection documents the work of the American Friends Service Committee child relief team in the bituminous coal fields of West Virginia and Kentucky, 1931-1933. Of particular interest are (carbon) letters sent regularly to the American Friends Service Committee Coal Committee headquartered in Philadelphia, Pa., recounting almost daily the activities of the team from February-May 1932 as well as the hardships and political unrest. The first year of the program concentrated on feeding and clothing; thereafter, the administration for relief was gradually transferred to local government and was focused on social and economic reconstruction.
Organized into five series:
- Correspondence
- Casebooks and reports
- Publications
- Clippings
- Miscellaneous
Donor: Charles M. Tatum, Jr., 2003 (Accession number: 2003-025
The papers were preserved by Charles M. Tatum and his mother, Dr. Mary Biddle McCollin Tatum, and were not sorted when received. The bulk of the papers document the American Friends Service Committee's relief efforts in mining areas of W. Virginia and Kentucky. A small amount of papers concerning Dr. Tatum's work with the AFSC in Poland after WWI were removed and catalogued as a Small Collection. The Mining Relief Papers were sorted into series and processed. A small photo album (not labeled) and loose photographs have been removed to FHL Picture Collection, PA 140.
People
Subject
- Publisher
- Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College
- Finding Aid Author
- FHL staff
- Finding Aid Date
- 2007
- 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
He visited Williamson, W. Va., and wants to help. Her letter describes some of the hardships there.
Physical Description1 folder
Kelsey describes how school feeding programs have been organized.
Physical Description1 folder
Mary Kelsey helped find placement for Mahon whose child was stillborn. She died shortly after the birth as well.
Physical Description1 folder
Details need in school for basic clothing
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Describing desperate conditions
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She was the supervisor of the AFSC relief service in Mingo and McDowell Co., W. Virginia and Floyd Co., Kentucky, working with Charles Tatum and others. Her letters, most to Bernard D. Waring, Chairman of the Committee, record in detail the activities and projects of the group. The copies in this collection are the extra carbons that Charles asked Mary to make in order to send a copy to his mother, some with an additional short handwritten note.
Physical Description1 folder
She was the director of the AFSC relief service in Mingo and McDowell Co., W. Virginia and Floyd Co., Kentucky, working with Charles Tatum and others. Her letters, most to Bernard D. Waring, Chairman of the Committee, record in detail the activities and projects of the group. These copies are the extra carbons that Charles asked Mary to make in order to send a copy to his mother, some with an additional short handwritten note.
Physical Description1 folder
. She was the director of the AFSC relief service in Mingo and McDowell Co., W. Virginia and Floyd Co., Kentucky, working with Charles Tatum and others. Her letters, most to Bernard D. Waring, Chairman of the Committee, record in detail the activities and projects of the group. These copies are the extra carbons that Charles asked Mary to make in order to send a copy to his mother, some with an additional short handwritten note.
Physical Description1 folder
Mary Kelsey arrived in W. Va., in early November to set up child feeding program, and Charles Tatum soon followed. Priorities were clothing for children and food supplies. Eleanore Stabler Clarke was the chair of the Clothing Committee.
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Most concern sending supplies.
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Most concern sending supplies. Bank closing.
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Most concern sending supplies.
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Most concern sending supplies, finances
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Most concern finances, supplies
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Most concern finances, supplies
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Most concern finances, supplies.
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Her interest in mountain ballads.
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Informal newsletter of people and activities, circulated from AFSC headquarters, Philadelphia
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Includes aid solicitation letter from Haverford Monthly Meeting, Pa., where Charles Tatum was an attender.
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Also loose photographs. Stored in PA 140.
Physical Description1 folder
Notes on a proposed documentary movie on coalminers, using actual locals and AFSC staff as the actors.
Physical Description1 folder
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