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Michigan office of national organization concerned with peace, poverty, and other matters of social justice. Administrative files, topical files, and regional and national office materials; contain files relating to their interest in pacifism, draft counseling, community service, prison reform and other issues relating to the criminal justice system, and peace education (especially relating to the Middle East and the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians), and lesbian/gay issues.

The records of the Michigan Area Office of the American Friends Service Committee have been arranged into the followings series: Executive Committee / Coordinating Committee; Peace Education Committee; Community Relations Committee; National and Regional Offices; Administrative files; Topical files; and Audio-Visual Materials.

Cooperative leader and liberal activist. Topical files and photographs relating to his work with an Americanization program for immigrants in Akron, Ohio in the 1920s; his involvement in the National Farmers Union, including radio transcripts of programs presented by the North Dakota Farmers Union; and his interest in the Danish folk school movement and the administration of Ashland College in Grant, Michigan; also material concerning the American Friends Service Committee, the Grant Community Church, pacifism, economic cooperatives, and other social and political liberal causes.

The papers of Chester Graham reflect the multifaceted activities of his career. The papers are arranged in a single alphabetical series, without regard to the chronological relationship between the various folders. Thus material from the late 1970s can be found next to material from the 1920s. In general, folder material begins whenever Graham first became involved with the subject and continues more or less to the present, although material becomes far more ephemeral as time passes and Graham's primary concerns shift to other subjects.

The largest bodies of material deal with Americanization in Akron, Ashland College, the National Farmers Union, and Graham's radio transcripts. There is also a body of material dealing with the Society of Friends and the organization's various political and social activities.

Physician and pacifist active in movement of conscientious objectors opposing use of their taxes for military purposes; chairperson and honorary national chairperson of the National Council for a World Peace Tax Fund (name changed in 1985 to National Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund). Pacifist Issues series includes materials collected and created by Bassett on a variety of pacifist issues, primarily war tax resistance and conscientious objection; the Peace Tax Fund series consists of chronological files and topological files relating to the work of the National Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund; and series of manuals, handbooks and reference materials.

The David R. Bassett Papers document Bassett's activities in local and national peace-related organizations, most notably the peace tax fund movement from 1963 to 2002. The collection includes correspondence, minutes, agendas, memos, newspaper clippings, articles, interview transcripts, flyers, brochures, handouts, notes and newsletters, as well as a number of handbooks and manuals. The collection divides into four series. Pacifist Issues concern Bassett's peace-related activities. The next series, which makes up the bulk of the collection, contains the organizational records of the National Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund. The last two series are devoted to related groups, including Other Organizations based in the United States, or International groups devoted to peace tax funds or other peace-related causes.

Friend of peace activist Rebecca Shelley. Transcripts of oral history interviews with Rebecca Shelley conducted by Eric Hanson; correspondence regarding proposed movie about life of Rebecca Shelley; and miscellaneous collected Shelley materials, including photographs.

These papers contain transcripts of oral histories conducted with Shelley, biographical information on Shelley accumulated by Blair, and documentation of Blair's efforts to locate a biographer or actress interested in writing or enacting Rebecca Shelley's story. Unable to see the project through to completion, Blair donated these papers to the Bentley Library in April 1987.

The Papers of Geraldine Blair are divided into three series: Oral History Transcripts; Correspondence, 1973-1987; and Miscellaneous Materials Documenting Shelley's Life, 1959-1985.

Pacifist, participant in World War I peace movement and later peace activities, member of Fellowship of Reconciliation, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, and Women Strike for Peace. Papers include Correspondence, newspaper clippings, pamphlets, periodicals, reports, photographs, and other materials relating to the International Congress of Women, 1915, the Ford Peace Ship, the American Neutral Conference Committee, the Emergency Peace Federation, and the People's Council of America.

The papers of Rebecca Shelley (1887-1984) were donated by Shelley in several accessions between 1964 and 1984. The papers make up twenty-one linear feet of materials and cover the years 1890-1984, though only a few photographs and printed items predate 1910. Her anti-war activism, legal battles, writing career, and courtships with Franz Willman and Felix Rathmer are all well-represented. In addition to her personal papers, there are groups of material belonging to Emily Balch, Richard Olsen, Felix Rathmer, Paul Shelly, and William A. Shelly.

Many peace organizations are also documented in these papers through flyers, pamphlets, periodicals, newsletters, and correspondence. These include the American Neutral Conference Committee, Emergency Peace Federation, People's Council of America, Fellowship of Reconciliation, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Women Strike for Peace, and many others. As Shelley served as an officer in the Michigan Fellowship of Reconciliation (F.O.R.) through the 1950s and 1960s, many of the organization's official papers came to be in her possession. Therefore, an effort was made to remove most of these official papers to the separate Michigan F.O.R. collection.

The collection is arranged in eleven series: Biographical; Newspaper Clippings; Correspondence; Topical Papers; Miscellaneous Papers; Papers Of Other Individuals; Printed; Periodicals; Diaries And Notebooks; Photographs; and Writings.

Ruth K. Graves is a Quaker and high school chemistry teacher from Ypsilanti, Michigan. In 1969, Graves and her husband Bruce began withholding taxes contributing to the military, before being taken to the Supreme Court by the IRS in 1975. Ruth Graves has been active in a number of organizations involved with social causes, as well as presented on public access television. The collection consists of newsletters and reports from the World Peace Tax Fund and local organizations and correspondence between the Graves and Michigan Senators, Carl Levin and Donald Riegle. Audio and video recordings of the public access show, Peace InSight and other programs about social issues are also found within the collection.

The Ruth K. Graves papers document Graves' objection to military taxation during the 1970s. The collection primarily contains reports and meeting minutes of the National Council for the World Peace Tax Fund, as well as newspaper clippings and journal articles about Ruth and her husband Bruce, Graves' involvement with the organization. Also included is personal correspondence, most notably between the Graves and Michigan Senators Carl Levin and Donald Riegle, discussing a World Peace Tax Fund. Organizational records of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Ann Arbor Friends, and other local organizations can be found within the collection.

A substantial portion of the collection includes video and audio programs from the public access series, Peace InSight, amongst other television programs covering social issues.

The War Resisters League is a pacifist organization that promotes anti-war initiatives using nonviolent actions. The records contain scattered documentation of the activities of the organization from the late 1960s through the 1980s.

The War Resisters League records were acquired by the Special Collections Library in 2014. The records provide scattered documentation of the activities of the organization from the late 1960s through the 1980s. The collection includes textual material, audio and moving image material, publications, and artifacts that characterize the anti-war mission of the organization.

Two audio cassettes and six reel to reel audi tapes from box 10 have been reformatted.