Scope and arrangement
The Norman Thomas Family correspondence consists of eight folders. The collection dates from 1903 to 1974 and is represented through letters, invitations, drafts, notes, and pamphlets.
The collection is mainly focused on Norman and his younger brother Evan. The Norman correspondence contain letters, invitations, and report cards from his time as a student at Princeton University. The bulk of the letters are from his mother, Emma, but also includes other family members and friends.
The Evan Thomas files contain correspondence, drafts, and notes related to pacifism and his activities as a conscientious objector. Held here are letters to and from his mother while imprisoned at Fort Leavenworth. This file also contains letters from Emma to the War Department and a copy of a letter by Oswald Garrison Villard, editor of The Nation. Also held with the Evan Thomas files are drafts of works on pacifism and economic determinism; copies of The Way To Freedom, a 1943 pamphlet written for the War Resisters League; a 1972 letter to President Richard Nixon; and a photocopy of a 1974 War Resisters League newsletter with a remembrance for Evan written by Julius Eichel, a fellow conscientious objector and prisoner at Fort Leavenworth.