{"value"=>"<p>The International Congress of Women, convened at The Hague in late April 1915, was organized to discuss the Great War, then nearing the close of its first year. The congress brought together many influential women, including Jane Addams, Anita Augspurg, Lida Gustava Heymann, Florence Holbrook, Aletta Jacobs, Chrystal Macmillan, Rosika Schwimmer, and Julia Grace Wales. Wales's idea for continual mediation became an integral part of the final program of the ICW, and for Schwimmer's Peace Expedition.</p> <p>The Congress's official resolutions called for armistice and a subsequent plan structured to protect and sustain peace. This cessation of hostilities was to be mediated by a neutral international party, which would gather suggestions from each country and subsequently propose peace plans. Among the suggestions forwarded by the Congress were disarmament, non-punitive divisions of territory, and universal enfranchisement of women. The Congress also called for several convoys to visit the warring European countries and make initial attempts at mutual conciliation. Madame Schwimmer was part of the convoy visiting Denmark, Norway and Sweden, and later met with German Foreign Minister Gottlieb von Jagow. The diplomatic experience she gained as a part of these envoys was seminal to Schwimmer's planning of the Ford Peace Expedition later that year.</p> <p>Materials present in this series include correspondence, delegate lists and biographical information, Congress documents and drafts, peace plans, documentation of German pacifist and anti-annexationist activity, and other miscellany both created and collected by Schwimmer. The materials from Schwimmer's participation in the governmental convoys are also arranged within this series, and include correspondence, several of the envoy's final reports, and printed matter related to their efforts.</p> <p>In Dutch, English, French, and German.</p>"}