Records of the Massachusetts Branch of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, 1915-1977
Overview
Correspondence, newsletters, financial records, etc., of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Massachusetts Branch, which organized protest marches, obtained funds for the relief of the poor in many parts of the world, and organized community action for the repeal of unjust laws and for the passage of disarmament and anti-war bills.
Dates
- Creation: 1915-1977
Access Restrictions:
Access. Collection is open for research, with the exception of records of membership and contributions, which are closed for 50 years.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright. Copyright in the records created by the Massachusetts Branch of the Women's International League for Peace is held by the President and Fellows of Harvard College for the Schlesinger Library. Copyright in other papers in the collection may be held by their authors, or the authors' heirs or assigns.
Copying. Papers may be copied in accordance with the library's usual procedures.
Extent
2 linear feet (2 cartons)This collection primarily contains correspondence, newsletters, financial records, membership lists, minutes of board meetings, and flyers of the Massachusetts branch of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), with some papers of local branches throughout the state. Also included are correspondence, newsletters, and minutes of the WILPF national branch in Washington (and later in Philadelphia), and flyers and newsletters of other Massachusetts organizations with which the Massachusetts branch has cooperated, including the Greater Boston Peace Action Coalition, the Coalition to Fight Political Repression, and People's Coalition for Peace and Justice.
The collection is arranged chronologically; papers are those of the Massachusetts branch unless otherwise noted. Folder headings (except for dates) are those of the Massachusetts branch, with information added by the processor in square brackets.
HISTORY
The Women's International Committee for Permanent Peace was organized in April 1915 at an International Congress of Women at The Hague. Jane Addams was appointed as its first International Chairman. In May 1919, members of the Women's International Committee for Permanent Peace met in Zurich, Switzerland, to discuss postwar problems; this was "the first international group to point out the dangers to permanent peace contained in some of the provisions of the treaty of Versailles." At this meeting, the name of the organization was changed to Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). The "Statement of Objects" adopted at the Fifth International Congress (Dublin, Ireland, 1926) set its "aims at uniting women in all countries who are opposed to every kind of war, exploitation and oppression, and who work for universal disarmament and for the solution of conflicts by the recognition of human solidarity, by conciliation and arbitration, by world cooperation, and by the establishment of social, political and economic justice for all, without distinction of sex, race, class or creed." The United States Section contains branches in many states and at present has its national office in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. WILPF has organized protest marches, obtained funds for the relief of the poor in many parts of the world, and organized community action for the repeal of unjust laws and for the passage of disarmament and anti-war bills.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Accession number: 83-M23
These records were given to the Schlesinger Library by the Massachusetts Branch of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom in January 1983.
SEPARATION RECORD
The following items have been removed from the collection and deposited in the Schlesinger Library book collection, January 1983 and March 1983:
- Balch, Emily. Toward Human Unity or Beyond Nationalism
- Cleghorn, Sarah. Poems of Peace and Freedom
- Vietnamese Women in Society and Revolution
- WILPF, Sixth Congress
- WILPF, Twelfth Congress
- WILPF 1915-1938, A Venture in Internationalism
- Not from the Victor, Poems for Peace and Freedom
- Ruth Gage-Colby testimonial dinner, January 20, 1972
- Peace and Freedom, September - October 1952
- LOWUN International Newsletter, May 1951 - April 1953
- Report of work with United Nations, August 1952
- Statement submitted to UN Commission on Status of Women, March 1952
- Pax International, October 1927-October 1930
- Pax International, Section for the United States, June - May 1925
- Pax et Libertas, November 1950 - April 1953
- Pax International, March 1926 - October 1950
- Four Lights, January 1917 - February 1969
CONTAINER LIST
- Carton 1: 1-23
- Carton 2: 24-41
Processing Information
Preliminary inventory: April 1983
By: Christine C. Marshall
Subject
- Addams, Jane, 1860-1935 (Person)
- Balch, Emily Greene, 1867-1961 (Person)
- Title
- Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. Massachusetts Branch. Records of the Massachusetts Branch of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, 1915-1977: A Finding Aid
- Author
- Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America
- Language of description
- eng
- EAD ID
- sch00985
Repository Details
Part of the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute Repository
The preeminent research library on the history of women in the United States, the Schlesinger Library documents women's lives from the past and present for the future. In addition to its traditional strengths in the history of feminisms, women’s health, and women’s activism, the Schlesinger collections document the intersectional workings of race and ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and class in American history.