Richmond Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) records

Access and use

Location of collection:
Virginia Commonwealth University, Cabell Library
James Branch Cabell Library
Virginia Commonwealth University
P.O. Box 842003
901 Park Avenue
Richmond, VA 23284-2003
Contact for questions and access:
POC: SCA Staff
Phone: (804) 828-1108
Fax: (804) 828-0151
Restrictions:

The collection is open to research.

Terms of access:

There are no restrictions.

Preferred citation:

Richmond Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) records, 1967-2004, Collection # M 563, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

Summary

Extent:
1.71 Linear Feet 4 boxes (1 record storage box, 1 letter document box, 1 half-size letter document box, 1 legal document box)
Creator:
Huggins, Sarah Jean and Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. Richmond Branch
Language:
English .
Preferred citation:

Richmond Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) records, 1967-2004, Collection # M 563, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.

Background

Scope and content:

This collection documents the activities of the Richmond branch of WILPF. Materials were collected by past Richmond WILPF president, Sarah Jean Huggins. The Richmond WILPF records contains materials created between 1923 and 2004, with the bulk of the materials created from 1967-2004.

Formats include: meeting minutes and agendas, event planning materials, flyers, correspondence, annual reports, news clippings, photos, slides, and other administrative materials produced by the Richmond branch. It also includes local, regional, and other WILPF-produced publications, such as brochures, newsletters, magazines, buttons, flyers, and more.

Subjects include: nonviolence and peace; women's rights; anti-war, anti-embargo, and anti-nuclear politics; WILPF national meetings; welfare and child poverty; Marii Hasewaga (a peace activist who worked with WILPF for 50 years and served as the U.S. WILPF president during the Vietnam War. She was forcibly confined with her family by the U.S. Government at the Topaz War Relocation Center from 1942-1945. Hasewaga was named one of the Library of Virginia's Virginia Women in History in 2018); and work to prevent the 1997-1998 reappointment of Richmond Judge Thomas O. Jones due to instances of racism in the courtroom.

Biographical / historical:

The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) was founded in 1915, early in World War I during an International Suffrage Congress held at the Hague in the Netherlands. Jane Adams was the first president of the organization, which is one of the oldest extant women's peace organizations in the world. WILPF is an organization dedicated to "world disarmament; full rights for women; radical and economic justice; an end to all forms of violence; and to establish those political social and psychological conditions which can assure peace, freedom and justice for all." (WILPF "Principles and Policies" U.S. Section pamphlet, 1985). The local Richmond branch of WILPF (sometimes called RILPF) seems to have been founded in the 1960s, with varying levels of activity through the early 2000s.

Acquisition information:
Gift of Sarah Jean Huggins, 2011.
Arrangement:

Collection is organized chronologically and is separated into two series: Administrative materials (agendas, minutes, statements, policies, reports, correspondence, brochures, event planning, news clippings documenting Richmond WILPF members and activities, photos from events, etc.) and Magazines and newsletters (Peace and Freedom magazine issues, WILPF newsletters, and other Virginia area newsletters).

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard