Collections

Research materials created and collected by the political scientist David Porter during the course of his doctoral research in Algeria.

The bulk of the papers is Porter's own handwritten notes, but also includes materials he saved from other sources (such as local newspapers) and typewritten proposals presented by Porter to his dissertation committee. The papers remain in Porter's original order. Porter's research focused on socialist and anarchist forces in Algeria immediately following independence. Materials are in both French and English.

Dennis Cunningham (1936-2022) was a lawyer who practiced law in Illinois, New York, and California. One of the founding members of the People's Law Office in Chicago, Illinois, he specialized in public interest and civil law centered on injustice perpetuated by the government with cases on environmental activism, police brutality, civil disobedience, prisoners' rights, and political injustice. Notable clients include Akil Al Jundi, Judi Bari, and Fred Hampton. This collection covers his career as a lawyer from 1967-2019 in 45 manuscript boxes. The collection is arranged into two main series, case/subject files and professional files. Materials are arranged alphabetically within series and primarily include court documents, notes and annotations, correspondence, newspaper clippings, and photographs.

Court documents (motions, briefs, appeals, affidavits), correspondence, police records, ephemera, photos, tweets, transcripts, notes, and newspaper clippings relating to the career of lawyer Dennis Cunningham.

The Dennis Cunningham Papers covers Cunningham's professional career from 1967-2019 in 45 manuscript boxes totaling approximately 22.5 linear feet.

This collection consists primarily of court and trial documents, drafts and annotations, correspondence, notebooks with commentary on cases, transcripts, research materials, newspaper clippings, photographs, and various ephemera collected during Cunningham's career.

Strengths of this collection include coverage of most of Cunningham's career with notable cases from his time in Chicago, New York, and California. More extensive collections feature materials covering not only the trial but behind-the-scenes processes such as meetings, research and notes, and settlements or payment. The collection also features a variety of notebooks detailing Cunningham's comments on cases and his challenges with the Bar Exam in the State of California.

This collection documenting the history of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and of labor organizing in North America was assembled by Don Stewart, owner of the Vancouver bookstore MacLeod's Books since 1973. The collection is arranged into five series. Organizational Records comprise records of the central IWW administration, such as general convention minutes (1913-1969 with gaps), general executive boards letters and minutes (1959-1964), financial statements (1918-1944 with gaps), membership cards, and documents from the general defense committee relating to IWW prisoners during World War I. Reflecting the IWW's internal structure, Constituent Unions Records are organized by industrial trade numbers and include administrative documents and organizing literature. Constituent Unions Records also include a few folders relating to the Western Federation of Miners, which pre-dates IWW's founding in 1905 The Colorado Coal Strike Archive is a set of letters, telegrams between labor organizers, bulletins to workers, and other documents relating to the Columbine Mine Massacre of 1927. Topical Literature contains general ephemera by the IWW and literature related to the IWW and labor unions, including a transcript of the play "The Wobblies" by Ronald Weihs and a memorial booklet for Carlo Tresca. Finally, International Material contains foreign print materials about IWW or labor more generally. It also contains records and letters from the Canadian division of IWW in the Vancouver area, including letters from Fred Thompson and Pete Seeger.

Don Werkheiser was a teacher, writer, and philosopher-reformer active in the last half of the 20th century. He is best described as an individualist anarchist and libertarian. Most of his writings center on the philosophy of Mutual Option Relationship, which he developed and promoted throughout his life. It is multidisciplinary in its nature but based mainly on principles of equal rights and freedom of the individual. The eight linear feet of papers consist primarily of Werkheiser's writings (in the form of notes, drafts, and finished typescripts), correspondence with friends and colleagues, and related ephemera. A small number of photographs, materials documenting Werkheiser's interests and activities, and works by associates of Werkheiser are also present.

Don Werkheiser, like many of his peers, received little recognition for his ideas and efforts during his lifetime, even among the relatively small circle of individualist anarchists within which he interacted. The papers consist mainly of various iterations of his Mutual Option Relationship philosophy and methodologies for realizing it, as well as his thoughts on the numerous social, economic, and political problems that he saw in contemporary American society. There is also correspondence with friends and associates in his intellectual and ideological sphere. The ephemera in the collection--consisting of newspaper clippings; pamphlets; and extracts from periodicals, books, and monographs, are significant because of their subject area (mainly freedom of speech), their relative obscurity, and also Werkheiser's extensive annotations. These materials are supplemented by a very small number of photographs.

The Don Werkheiser Papers (8 linear feet) have been divided into six series: Writings, Correspondence, Other Activities, Works by Others, Photographs, and Ephemera. Originally included with the Don Werkheiser Papers was a large collection of books and pamphlets by Theodore Schroeder, an important influence on Werkheiser, as well as published works by other authors. These have been removed and cataloged separately.

There is a significant amount of material in the Don Werkheiser Papers having to do with Theodore Schroeder. In addition to championing free speech causes, Schroeder developed a system of psychological thought which he named "evolutionary psychology." He was also interested in erotogenic interpretations of religious practices, and his writings on this topic generated much controversy in his day. Werkheiser was profoundly influenced by evolutionary psychology and other areas of Schroeder's thought, especially his advocacy of free speech. This is indicated not only in Werkheiser's own writings, but also in his substantial files of material by and about Schroeder and in a small amount of correspondence between the two, and between Schroeder and others. (As a point of clarification, Schroeder's evolutionary psychology appears to be entirely unrelated to the discipline of the same name established by Leda Cosmides and John Tooby in the 1990s.)

There is also a substantial amount of material related to the School of Living (mainly the one in Brookville, Ohio) and the ideas associated with it: decentralism, cooperative living, monetary and tax reform, alternative education, permaculture, wilderness and farmland preservation, and the environment. Its founders, Ralph Borsodi and Mildred Loomis, are also well-represented in the collection--particularly Loomis, who was a close friend of Werkheiser's. (As another point of clarification, the School of Living's journal-newsletter, Green Revolution, is unaffiliated with--and even in direct ideological opposition to--the Green Revolution in agriculture begun in the mid-1940s that encouraged large-scale chemical applications as a means to boost agricultural productivity.)

Other important influences on or associates of Werkheiser represented in the collection are Georgism and Henry George (on which Werkheiser wrote extensively), Laurance Labadie, Ralph Templin, and Arnold Maddaloni. There is also some material by the science fiction writer Robert Anton Wilson.

The Ed and Jean Yellin HUAC Papers (1948-2019) consist of materials relating to the Yellins' legal battles against the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) after Ed Yellin's refusal to testify on the basis of the First Amendment. The materials detail the effects on the Yellins' lives, and their later decision to publish a memoir about their experiences, titled In Contempt: Defending Free Speech, Defeating HUAC. The materials also document the progression of the case and subsequent appeals. The collection consists of five series: Correspondence, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Files, Newspaper Clippings, Research Files, and In Contempt Manuscript Drafts and Notes.

The Ed and Jean Yellin HUAC Papers (1948-2019) consist of materials relating to the Yellins' legal battles against the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). The materials detail the effects on the Yellins' lives during and after their battle to defend Ed's First Amendment rights, and their later decision to publish a memoir about their experiences. The collection consists of five series: Correspondence, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Files, Newspaper Clippings, Research Files, and In Contempt Manuscript Drafts and Notes.

The Correspondence series consists of detailed correspondence between Ed Yellin and various parties. The bulk of the correspondence is from 1957-1965, beginning with Yellin's HUAC hearing in Gary, Indiana. The series includes correspondence with attorney Victor Rabinowitz, letters regarding Yellin's suspension from the University of Illinois and revocation of his NSF grant and subsequent academic reinstatement, correspondence with supporters and other First Amendment defendants, graduate fellowship and postdoctoral applications, correspondence with Johns Hopkins University, support from previous professors, and correspondence with organizations such as the ACLU and the New York Council to Abolish HUAC.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Files series consists of records the FBI compiled on Ed and Jean Yellin. There are files specifically for Jean Fagan Yellin and Ed Yellin, as well as some combined files. These records document the FBI's surveillance of the Yellins as early as 1950. The records were obtained by a Freedom of Information Privacy Act request in the 1980s. Some documents have redacted information.

The Newspaper Clippings series consists of original newspaper articles, primarily from 1958-1963, that relate to Ed Yellin, his legal battles with HUAC, and with the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the University of Illinois over his academic suspension. There are also articles detailing other HUAC and First Amendment cases and anti-HUAC sentiment.

The Research Files series consists of documents collected by Ed Yellin in the course of his contempt of Congress trial, subsequent appeals, and battle for academic reinstatement. These documents are case notes and briefs, court transcripts, press releases, publications by the ACLU and other organizations, anti-HUAC newsletters and pamphlets, journal articles, and notes about his defense.

The In Contempt Manuscript Drafts and Notes series consists of materials relating to the Yellins' process of publishing a memoir of their experiences in the 1950s and 1960s against HUAC. The materials begin with the genesis of the idea of publishing a book, early interview transcripts, and other information gathering, and progress to chapter drafts, revisions, notes, archival material requests, illustrations, and chronologies.

The collection contains a series of letters from Robert "Ed" Stover to William "Bill" Goring, his lawyer and confidante. The bulk of the letters are from Stover's incarceration in San Quentin prison, where he died in 1972.

The letters consist primarily of hand-written letters from Stover to Goring, but also included are photocopies of Goring's letters to Stover. Also included are some note- and postcards, as well as several newsletters and other serialized mailers. Newspaper clippings shared between the two men are also included, as well as photocopies of a document titled "Notebook of a Convict in the Alameda County Jail."

Materials are generally arranged chronologically.

Edward C. Weber (1922-2006) was long-time curator of the University of Michigan Special Collection's Joseph A. Labadie Collection of radical history. Under his stewardship, the Labadie Collection grew into one of the premier and most forward-thinking holdings of materials relating to radical and protest groups from the United States and around the world. The Edward C. Weber Papers are made up of the subject's correspondence and biographical materials, written from 1949 to 2006. The bulk of the collection, the correspondence is mostly comprised of Weber's letters soliciting materials on behalf of the Labadie Collection or fielding reference questions from researchers, as well as personal correspondence from the his family and friends. The collection's materials are comprised of letters (typed and handwritten), printed out emails, postcards, greeting cards, news clippings, photographs, printed biographical materials, framed commendations, and other miscellaneous paper materials.

The Edward C. Weber Papers consists of Weber's correspondence with organizations, publishers, researchers, associates, family, and friends, along with biographical materials created for his retirement and memorial services. The collection provides a snapshot of the Joseph A. Labadie Collection and his work there for a 40 year period (1960-2000), as well as a portrait of his personal relationships with friends and family from 1949 to 2005.

The Biographical Materials series contains materials from Weber's retirement celebration and memorial service. The first folder contains past articles and correspondence on paper stock, reprinted for Weber's memorial service in 2006. The second set of items relate to Weber's retirement in 2000. This includes a flyer for his retirement celebration, articles about his retirement, and copied certificates of commendation. In addition, two framed items of commendation are housed in an oversized box.

The Correspondence series makes up the majority of the collection and is comprised of 27 linear feet of paper material housed in 54 manuscript boxes, foldered alphabetically by correspondent or corresponding organization. Individual letters, cards, photographs and other types of written communication are arranged chronologically within each subject's folder(s). The majority of folders are dedicated to outreach by Weber to various radical groups and individuals soliciting material donations to contribute to the Labadie Collection. His written responses to reference inquiries for items within the Labadie Collection make up another significant segment of the series. Most of these materials are typewritten letters officially sent on behalf of the Labadie Collection and University of Michigan Special Collections. Some later letters were written by Labadie Collection assistants during Weber's time there and with his knowledge. Since Weber never used email, his letters sent on behalf of the Labadie Collection were typed on a manual or electric typewriter. There are occasional handwritten notations on some of these letters and a few emails printed out so he could read them. Other folders in the series contain personal correspondence from friends, family, and other associates. These items are made up mostly of handwritten notes, postcards, greeting cards, newspaper clippings, printouts of emails, occasional photographs, and other miscellaneous items. Many of the folders were removed from the general Labadie correspondence files in 2008 and a listing was made of them at that time. The rest of the series is made up of personal correspondence Weber stored in his home.

Within the series are several notable, lengthy correspondence partners including Theodore Adams (1950-2004, 21 folders), James Q. Belden (1952-2000, 11 folders), George Nick (1949-1991, 12 folders), Curtis and Clarice Rodgers (1961-2005, 18 folders), and Henry Van Dyke (1950-2004, 12 folders). The series also includes correspondence from notable individuals such as civil rights activist Malcolm X, graphic novelist Harvey Pekar, former Secretary of State Eliot Abrams, the White Panther Party, among many others.

Abbreviations:

LC=Labadie Collection ECW=Edward C. Weber

This collection contains personal and case-related correspondence, documents, and photographs from E.F. Doree, a labor organized imprisoned but later pardoned for his political activities.

The papers are separated into three series: Doree Correspondence, Case-related Documents, and Photographs. They consist of over 250 letters, mostly from Doree to his wife, Chiky, during his imprisonment at Leavenworth. The dates of the letters range from 1917 to 1922, with a gap from 1920 to April 1921, when Doree was let out on bail to prepare his appeal. The correspondence in Series II consists of 17 letters between various people regarding the case of E.F. Doree. They are from the prison warden, the American Civil Liberties Union, Edmund C. Evan to Mrs. Doree, a draft of a letter from Ida Doree to President Warren G. Harding, pleading for her husband's release, letters from attorneys to Doree informing him of updates in his case, and various telegrams. The Clippings file contains several original and some photocopies of newspaper articles about the case, especially the topic of Bucky's illness and Doree's temporary release to visit him. This was the story which touched the hearts of the American people, and won favor for Doree's case. Doree's original pardon, signed by Warren G. Harding, is included in the collection. The photographs are identified in a list included in the photograph folder.

Ella Reeve "Mother" Bloor (1862–1951) was an American activist dedicated to the labor movement, the Socialist Party, and numerous radical groups.

The Ella Reeve Bloor Papers consist of two linear feet of personal and professional correspondence, notebooks and pamphlets, clippings, publications, and printed ephemera.

The collection, divided into 4 series, documents her activities as suffragist, free speech advocate, and labor organizer.

The Correspondence series consists of manuscript letters betweeen Bloor and her family, and correspondence between Bloor and her colleagues.

The majority of the family letters are to/from her children. Her letters, written during her travels, provide information about individuals and events associated with her work. Most of the family letters include the month and day written, but not the year. As a result, the letters are arranged in non-specific order.

Bloor's correspondence with colleagues and organizations are arranged chronologically. Included are letters from various Socialist societies, state and local government offices, newspapers, and labor unions, such as the New York State Committee Socialist Party, United Cloth and Cap Makers, Tailors’ Union. In addition, there are handwritten letters from other activists involved in socialist and labor causes (e.g., letter from Joseph W. Sharts, counsel for Eugene V. Debs in his trial at Cleveland, Ohio; Theodore H. Lunde, officer of the Peace Council in Chicago).

The Publications series includes several small booklets, articles, a journal, and a report on the professional achievements of Harold M. Ware.

This collection contains materials about the personal lives and political activities of Emma Goldman and Warren Starr Van Valkenburgh, organized into four series. The bulk of the collection is correspondence between the two anarchists, primarily from the 1920s (Series 1). Also included is correspondence with other people (Series 2), records and correspondence related to committees for various political causes and to raise funds for the writing of Goldman's autobiography (Series 3), and printed materials including books and pamphlets, newspaper clippings, and typewritten drafts written by Goldman (Series 4).