Houghton Library collection of anti-nuclear protest armbands
Overview
Contains six linen armbands, with text and decorative elements, used at anti-nuclear protests against power plants at Seabrook (New Hampshire), Shoreham (New York), and Dauphin County (Pennsylvania).
Dates
- Creation: 1977-1988
Language of Materials
English
Conditions Governing Access
There are no restrictions on physical access to this material. Collection is open for research.
This collection is shelved offsite at the Harvard Depository. Retrieval requires advance notice. Readers should check with Houghton Public Services staff to determine what material is offsite and retrieval policies and times.
Extent
.1 linear feet (1 box)Contains six variously-colored linen armband, with text and decorative, used in anti-nuclear protests from 1977-1988, including protests in Seabrook (New Hampshire), Shoreham (New York), and Daughphin County (Pennsylvania). Three of the included armbands were worn by members of the Clamshell Alliance, a group active from 1976-1988 who participated in a series of non-violent actions to protest the construction of the nuclear reactor at teh Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant. There is also a single armband from the SHAD Alliance, which was involved with the protest against Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant, as well as a single armband worn to protest the nuclear power plant at Three Mile Island after the accident in March 1979.
Biographical / Historical
Anti-nuclear protests grew out of the environmental movement and peaked in the 1970s, spread across political landscapes of the United States. The bulk of nuclear plants that were ordered in the late 1960s raised safety concerns and induced public fears of a possible reactor incident that would release a great amount of radioactivity into the environment. Toward the end of 1970s, the growth of environmental anti-nuclear activism coexisted with anti-war activism that opposed nuclear weapons.The anti-nuclear movement concerned with issues such as the possibility of catastrophic accidents, the facilitation of nuclear weapons due to the spread of nuclear technology, the increased likeability of war due to increased numbers and kinds of nuclear weapons, and the negligence of renewable and abundant energy sources from the natural environment.
Arrangement
Materials are in the order in which they were received from the dealer.
Physical Location
Harvard Depository
Immediate Source of Acquisition
2020M-83. Purchase, Stanley Marcus Endowment for Rare Books, 2020 January.
Processing Information
Processed by Betts Coup, 2020. Description of the collection is derived from that provided by the dealer.
Genre / Form
Topical
Source
- Houghton Library (Organization)
- Title
- Houghton Library. Houghton Library collection of anti-nuclear protest armbands, 1977-1988 (MS Am 3354): Guide.
- Status
- completed
- Author
- Houghton Library, Harvard University.
- Date
- 2020 February 13
- Description rules
- dacs
- Language of description
- und
- EAD ID
- hou03313
Repository Details
Part of the Houghton Library Repository
Houghton Library is Harvard College's principal repository for rare books and manuscripts, archives, and more. Houghton Library's collections represent the scope of human experience from ancient Egypt to twenty-first century Cambridge. With strengths primarily in North American and European history, literature, and culture, collections range in media from printed books and handwritten manuscripts to maps, drawings and paintings, prints, posters, photographs, film and audio recordings, and digital media, as well as costumes, theater props, and a wide range of other objects. Houghton Library has historically focused on collecting the written record of European and Eurocentric North American culture, yet it holds a large and diverse number of primary sources valuable for research on the languages, culture and history of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.
Houghton Library’s Reading Room is free and open to all who wish to use the library’s collections.
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