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Helen MacMartin Collection of Political Printed Materials

Collection Summary

Repository

University of Vermont, Bailey/Howe Library, Special Collections

Creator - Author

MacMartin, Helen Hawthorne, 1891-1987

Title

Helen MacMartin Collection of Political Printed Materials

ID

mss.069

Date

circa 1945-1975

Extent

3.125 Linear feet

Location

Library Research Annex

Language

Abstract

Helen MacMartin (1891-1987) was Secretary-Treasurer of the Progressive Party of Vermont from 1948-1953, after which she continued to work with local, national, and international organizations that promoted peace, civil liberties, civil rights, and an end to nuclear proliferation. She died in Berlin, Vermont, November 3, 1987. This collection consists of the bulk of the printed materials from the Helen MacMartin Papers. It includes one carton of monographs and pamphlets dating from around 1945 to around 1975. The collection also contains serial issues arranged alphabetically by the serial title and then chronologically. The dates and topics of the serials are similar to those of the monographs.

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Administrative Information

Publication Information

University of Vermont, Bailey/Howe Library, Special Collections 2008.10.22 

Access

Collection is open for research.

Publication Rights

This is a collection of published material, general copyright provisions apply.

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Biographical Note

Helen MacMartin was born April 22, 1891, in Brooklyn, New York, to Daniel and Carrie (Page) Hawthorn. She attended William Smith College, graduating in 1913. That year she also married James MacGregor MacMartin. Helen moved to Vermont in 1926. In 1936, she began working in the U.S. Employment Service in Vermont after completing graduate work in Simmons College’s School of Social Work. Helen resigned from her position in 1948 in order to take the position of Secretary-Treasurer of the Progressive Party of Vermont. She worked on the campaign to elect Henry Wallace as President, in 1948. After the Vermont Progressive Party dissolved in 1953(?), Helen continued to work with local, national, and international organizations that promoted peace, civil liberties, civil rights, and an end to nuclear proliferation. She lived mainly in Burlington, Vermont, and was a member of St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral. In the Spring of 1965, MacMartin traveled to London, in order to protest nuclear proliferation at a meeting of NATO. She died in Berlin, Vermont, November 3, 1987.

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Scope and Content note

This collection consists of the bulk of the printed materials from the Helen MacMartin Papers. It includes one carton of monographs and pamphlets dating from around 1945 to around 1975. These are not arranged except that pamplets, tracts, and smaller monographs are in two small boxes within the carton. The subjects of these materials include information and opinions on the McCarran Act, Communism abroad and in the U.S., issues of civil liberties in the U.S., issues of racism and civil rights in the U.S., peace and protest of the war in Vietnam, and nuclear disarmament as well as many others. Authors include Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Scott Nearing, William Z. Foster, and Rose Maurer. The collection also contains serial issues arranged alphabetically by the serial title and then chronologically. The dates of the issues which she kept document some of her reading during different times of her active political life. She often marked the top of a newsletter with the date on which she read it, and many articles are underlined or otherwise annotated. The dates and topics of the serials are similar to those of the monographs.

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Related Materials

Related Archival Materials note

The materials in this collection were originally part of the Helen MacMartin Papers and are closely related in both context and subject matter.

Separated Materials note

Duplicate copies of the printed materials were removed from this collection. Major national serial publications like The Nation, The National Guardian, and Political Affairs, In Fact, and Rights were separated and used to supplement the periodical collections of Bailey/Howe Library, UVM. Full length published books by Scott Nearing, Karl Marx, and Waldo Frank were separated from the collection if they were not annotated. British and Scottish tourist materials were removed from the collection.

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Controlled Access Headings

Geographic Name(s)

• United States--Politics and government

Personal Name(s)

• MacMartin, Helen Hawthorne, 1891-1987

Subject(s)

• Civil rights--United States
• Communism--United States
• Peace activism
• Nuclear disarmament

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