Swarthmore College Peace Collection

U.S. Delegation to the International Congress of Women
for a Permanent Peace, 1915
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom Records,
Swarthmore College Peace Collection

The Swarthmore College Peace Collection is a special collections library and archives collecting on non-governmental efforts for peace and non-violent social change around the world.  Holdings on World War I include the original papers of individual peace activists, such as Nobel Peace Prize winner Jane Addams and the records of peace organizations active from 1914 onward.  These individual activists and the organizations created a significant force of opposition to the Great War in Europe, and, after 1917, in the United States.  They were also involved in finding ways to maintain peace and reconciliation once the war was over. 

The Peace Collection has dozens of manuscript collections containing hundreds of thousands of original documents, thousands of photographs and posters, postcards, magazines, books, and other items documenting various topics on the Great War.  While the majority of the resources relating to peace efforts and opposition to the war in the United States, there are also materials from Great Britain, Germany, France, and many other nations caught up in the war.  There are resources on many topics about World War I in the Peace Collection, and the following are the major subject areas:  Opposition to the War; Conscientious Objection and Civil Liberties; Peace and Reconciliation; and Women and Peace. 

Peace Collection holdings are organized by the name of an individual or by the title of an organization and contain a variety of original and published documents created by the person or organization.  The collections listed here have on line finding aids (lists detailing documents folder by folder).  The documents themselves are not on line.   There are dozens more World War I era collections of original documents, photographs, posters, and other items in the Peace Collection which do not yet have a finding aid or a digital presence online.

The Peace Collection is open to the general public throughout the year.  See the full website at: http://www.swarthmore.edu/Library/peace

Pre-War Arbitration

American Peace Society
Lake Mohonk Conference Records
World Peace Foundation Records

Peace and Reconciliation

Fellowship of Reconciliation Records
Henry Ford Peace Expedition Records
League to Enforce Peace Collected Records

Organizations and Individuals Opposed to the War

William C. Allen Collected Papers
American Union Against Militarism Records
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Dana Papers
Edward Evans Papers
George Nasmyth and Florence Nasmyth Papers
Scott Nearing Papers
John Nevin Sayre Papers
James Warbasse and Agnes Warbasse Collected Papers

Conscientious Objection and Civil Liberties

Eichel Family Papers
William Kantor Collected Papers
New York Bureau of Legal Advice Collected Records
People's Council of America for Democracy and Peace Collected Records
List of Military Classification for Draftees, World War I-present
Database of U.S. World War I Conscientious Objectors
Subject File on Conscientious Objection
Conscientious Objection in America

Women and Peace

Jane Addams Collection
Emily Greene Balch Papers
Katherine Devereux Blake Collected Papers
Lella Secor Florence Papers
Rose Dabney Forbes Papers
Jessie Wallace Hughan Papers
Edwin Mead and Lucia Ames Mead Papers
Tracy Mygatt and Frances Witherspoon Papers
Rosika Schwimmer Collected Papers
Woman's Peace Party Records [renamed the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom in 1919]

Germany

Anna Eckstein Collected Papers
Martha Freund-Hoppe Collected Papers
Ludwig Quidde Collected Papers

Great Britain

T. Corder Catchpool Collected Papers
A.Ruth Fry Papers
Ronald E. Gundry Collected Papers
Hugh Richardson Papers
Helena Maria Swanwick Collected Papers
Alexander Wilson and Edith J. Wilson Collected Papers
Union of Democratic Control Collected Records

Photograph and Image Exhibits Online

Jane Addams
American Peace Society
Emily Greene Balch
Eichel Family
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, 1915-1919
Images from the Martha Freund-Hoppe Collection
Triptych Online Image Database of Swarthmore, Haverford, and Bryn Mawr Colleges [Put “World War I” in the search box to find items on the Great War]

Periodicals

Four Lights newsletter of the Woman’s Peace Party (1917, 1919)

- 1917 January 27
- 1917 February 6
- 1917 February 10
- 1917 February 24
- 1917 March 10
- 1917 March 24
- 1917 April 7
- 1917 April 21
- 1917 May 5
- 1917 May 19
- 1917 June 2
- 1917 June 16
- 1917 June 30
- 1917 July 14
- 1917 July 28
- 1917 August 11
- 1917 August 25
- 1917 September 8
- 1917 September 22
- 1917 October 6
- 1917 October 20
- 1919 June 12

Newspapers produced by German prisoners of war held by the British (1915-1919)

Knockaloe-Lager-Zeitung
--1916 November 18
--1917 March 1

Stobsiade
-- 1915 September 5
-- 1915 October 24
-- 1915 November 14
-- 1916 May 10
-- 1916 November 5
-- 1917 December
-- 1917 July
-- 1918 April
-- 1918 October - November
-- 1919 January - February

This page was created by Wendy E. Chmielewski, George R. Cooley Curator, Swarthmore College Peace Collection

See also the following pages on this site about resources from the Swarthmore College Peace Collection:

Opposition to the War in the United States
Women Peace Activists during WWI
American Relief Efforts in Europe
Peace Congresses Leading Up to World War I

Other Institutions: