The Civil Rights History Project: Survey of Collections and Repositories

Luscomb, Florence. Papers

Repository: Harvard University. Radcliffe Institute. Schlesinger Library

Collection Description (CRHP): Series I includes several interviews and oral histories of Luscomb, including one by Dorothy Colby and Patricia King.

Collection Description (Extant): The Luscomb papers are comprised largely of material from the many organizations in which FHL was involved, although they also include family and personal papers. The bulk of the collection is in series III . . . . Series III, Social and political activism, #185-425, is arranged in seven subseries, each of which contains pamphlets, flyers, leaflets, FHL's notes for speeches, speeches by FHL and others, writings by FHL and others, correspondence, clippings, notes, brochures, and photographs; some also contain membership lists, mailing lists, financial records, and minutes from organizations, and FHL's journals . . . . IIIA, General, #185-203, contains miscellaneous and unidentified subjects. Some mailing lists are in this subseries because they are not identified or because FHL reused the same lists for a variety of causes; others are with the records of specific organizations or causes. Folder headings in quotation marks were used either by a previous processor or by FHL herself. Folders for which original restrictions have expired were added to the collection in November 2009.
IIIB, Women, #204-228, covers FHL's suffrage activities, including the diary of her 1911 trip to the International Woman Suffrage Alliance Conference, and her involvement in the women's movement of the 1970s, in the form mainly of speaking engagements and honors. Some material pertaining to women and women's issues appears in the other subseries of Series III; see cross-references on page 20.
IIIC, Electoral politics, #229-244, includes material from FHL's own four political candidacies, about the Progressive Party from 1947 to 1956, and from other candidacies FHL supported.
IIID, Race relations, #245-255, provides an overview of FHL's interests in this area but little substantial documentation of her activities. Only records from the Boston Scottsboro Defense Committee are fairly complete.
IIIE, Labor, #256-273, consists of union material (some of which FHL may have written) and other material documenting her support for labor and for the issues organized labor faced, particularly in the mid twentieth century.
IIIF, Peace and International Affairs, #274-378, is arranged by region or event, and then chronologicaly. More general organizations and activities, and those with little material, are arranged chronologically (#351-378). There is little pertaining to WILPF.
IIIG, Civil liberties and democracy, #379-423, consists mostly of material regarding the anti-"communist" investigations of FHL and others in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. CLUM and other Massachusetts activities are also covered. There are five folders (#419-423) of papers that appear to have belonged to Edwin B. Goodell, Jr.; there is no indication as to why they are here.

Date(s): 1856-1987

Digital Status: No

Extent: 18 file boxes, 2 half file boxes, 1 card file box, 1 filmstrip box, 5 audiotapes, 5 slides, 46 photograph folders, 5 folio folders, 5 folio+ folders, 6 oversize folders, 1 supersize folder

Finding Aid URL: http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/deepLink?_collection=oasis&uniqueId=sch00046

Language: English

Related Archival Items: See the Florence Luscomb papers at Harvard University, another interview of Luscomb (OH-2) in the Schlesinger Library and the Woman's Rights Collection (WRC). See also the Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society.

Interviewees: Florence Luscomb

Rights (CRHP): Contact the repository which holds the collection for information on rights

Subjects:

American Civil Liberties Union
Boston (Mass.)--Politics and government
Civil rights movements--Massachusetts
Feminism
Labor movement
Massachusetts--Politics and government
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
Peace movements
Progressive Party (U.S. : 1948)
Scottsboro Trial, Scottsboro, Ala., 1931
Women's rights

Genres:

Interviews
Manuscripts
Photographs
Speeches
Transcripts
Videorecordings