Scope and arrangement
The records of the International Committee for Political Prisoners (I.C.C.P.) span the years 1918 to 1942, with the bulk of the material dating from the period of 1924 to 1938.
The records consist of typewritten and handwritten correspondence - mainly between chairman Roger Baldwin and other individuals and organizations - memoranda, telegrams, minutes, typescripts, financial statements, and supporting printed matter, such as press releases, newsletters, clippings, pamphlets, periodicals and a few photographs.
The International Committee for Political Prisoners records are arranged in three series:
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1924-1942
The administrative records include minutes of executive meetings, membership lists, financial statements, reports and memoranda.
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1918-1942
The Country/Geographic Files, 1918-1942, make up the bulk of the collection and are arranged by country name. Some printed matter is interfiled with correspondence, as was the I.C.C.P.'s practice.
The largest country file, the U.S.S.R., contains substantial correspondence from liberals and leftists in the United States including Henry G. Alsberg and Harry F. Ward. It also includes a large number of case files on individual prisoners and refugees, notably the cases of Leon Trotsky, Serge Trotsky and Zensl Muhsam. Canada, Germany, Hungary and Italy also include a large number of case files. Certain country files are particularly rich in information about the political situations in their respective nations. Ireland contains many letters from the Irish nationalist Maud Gonne MacBride, and the files for India document the independence movement in correspondence with Jawaharlal Nehru and case files for M.N. Roy and Chaman Lal. Other notable files are those of Agnes Smedley (China), Alexander Berkman (France and the U.S.S.R), Jacques Romain (Haiti) and Gaetano Salvemini and Giacomo Matteotti (Italy).