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Call number
MssCol 2703
Physical description
1650 linear feet (1361 boxes)
Language
Major portions of the collection are in Hungarian and German
Preferred Citation

Schwimmer-Lloyd collection, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library

Repository
Manuscripts and Archives Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.
Portions of this collection have been digitized and are available online.

The collection consists chiefly of correspondence and papers of Rosika Schwimmer (1877-1948), Lola Maverick Lloyd (1875-1944) and their associates relating to their work for the European and American feminist movements, woman suffrage, World War I mediation efforts, international peace and world government. Correspondents include hundreds of notable Americans and Europeans such as Jane Addams, Anita Augspurg, Emily G. Balch, Mary R. Beard, Carrie Chapman Catt, Albert Einstein, Lida Gustava Heymann, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Aletta Jacobs, Alice Paul, Anna Howard Shaw, Baroness Bertha von Suttner, and Count Michael Karolyi.

Scope and arrangement

The collection consists chiefly of correspondence and papers of Rosika Schwimmer (1877-1948), Lola Maverick Lloyd (1875-1944) and their associates relating to their work for the European and American feminist movements, woman suffrage, World War I mediation efforts, international peace and world government.

The papers of Rosika Schwimmer document her career as a suffragist, feminist, pacifist, and diplomat. Included are materials emanating from her work for the Hungarian Feminist Association, Ford Peace Expedition and Neutral Conference for Continual Mediation. Also included are documents related to her role as Hungarian Minister to Switzerland, as co-founder of the Campaign for World Government, and those documenting her struggle to gain U.S. citizenship.

The papers of Lola Maverick Lloyd include those documenting her work with the Woman's Peace Party, Hague Congress of Women, National Woman's Party, People's Council, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Women's Equality Campaign, and Women's Consultative Committee.

While the collection chiefly comprises Schwimmer's and Lloyd's papers, the papers of other individuals and organizations have been donated for inclusion in the collection. Among them are the papers of Franciscka Schwimmer, Lola Maverick Lloyd's children (William Bross Lloyd, Jr., Mary Maverick Lloyd, Georgia Lloyd, and Jessie Lloyd O'Connor), Frieda Langer Lazarus, Leopold & Berta Katscher, Kitty Marion, Edith Wynner, and several members of the Henry Ford Peace Expedition, 1915-1916. Organizational papers include those of the Campaign for World Government and the Griffin-O'Day Bill Committee.

Correspondents include hundreds of notable Americans and Europeans such as Jane Addams, Anita Augspurg, Emily G. Balch, Mary R. Beard, Carrie Chapman Catt, Albert Einstein, Lida Gustava Heymann, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Aletta Jacobs, Alice Paul, Anna Howard Shaw, Baroness Bertha von Suttner, and Count Michael Karolyi.

The Schwimmer-Lloyd collection is arranged in seven series:

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

The bulk of the collection was donated in 1944 by Rosika Schwimmer and Lola Maverick Lloyd, however numerous additional accessions from the Lloyd family, Franciska Schwimmer and Edith Wynner were contributed between 1944 and 1991.

Processing information

In 1944, Rosika Schwimmer and Lola Maverick Lloyd donated their papers to The New York Public Library and encouraged their friends, professional associates and family members to follow suit.

Close to a decade prior, Schwimmer, who was particularly concerned about documenting feminist and pacifist history, had attempted to form a World Center for Women's Archives with the historian Mary Ritter Beard. The first project of its kind, the WCWA's stated mission was to accumulate the records of prominent women in the fields of suffrage, reproductive rights, anti-war activism and other forms of progressive endeavor. The project ultimately failed due to lack of funding, however, several of the smaller collections within the Schwimmer-Lloyd Collection are believed to result from the WCWA's collecting efforts.

The donated materials were arranged together into 22 series of the larger "Schwimmer-Lloyd Collection" and were administered over by Schwimmer's personal secretary and friend, Edith Wynner, until the time of her retirement in the early 1990s. Wynner continued to collect topical materials following the deaths of Schwimmer and Lloyd, while often attributing the papers to them. Whenever possible, these post-mortem accretions have been separated to Wynner's papers, or moved to the Schwimmer-Lloyd Vertical File.

In addition, numerous accessions of personal papers were added to the collection over the period between 1944 and 1993, the bulk of which were the records of the Campaign for World Government and related world government movements, and the papers of Lola Maverick Lloyd's equally politically and socially active children.

The Schwimmer-Lloyd Collection was officially opened for research in 1974.

Beginning in 2005, much of the Schwimmer-Lloyd material was re-evaluated and reprocessed as separate collections. The papers of Schwimmer and Lloyd and of other individuals and organizations became discrete collections bearing the names of their creators. Each of these collections remains under the administrative aegis of the larger Schwimmer-Lloyd Collection.

Compiled by Laura Ruttum, July 2008, rev. 2012

Related Material

See separate guides:

Rosika Schwimmer papers.

Lola Maverick Lloyd papers.

Campaign for World Government records, Chicago Office and New York Office.

Maverick Family Papers.

Florence Holbrook Scrapbooks.

Leopold and Berta Katscher Papers.

Kohlbach-Bickel Family Papers.

Theodore Koppanyi Papers.

Frieda Langer Lazarus Papers.

Katherine Leckie Papers.

Georgia Lloyd Papers.

Gustav Regler Letters to Mary Maverick Lloyd.

William Bross Lloyd, Jr. Papers.

Ernest Mandel Papers.

Kitty Marion Papers.

Jessie Lloyd O'Connor Papers.

Rudolph Phillip Papers on Raoul Wallenberg.

Margarete Schurgast Papers.

Mary Maverick Lloyd papers.

William Bross Lloyd papers.

Schwimmer family papers.

Edith Wynner papers.

Martin Knottenbelt papers.

World Constitutional and Parliamentary Association records.

Using the collection

Location

Manuscripts and Archives Division
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, New York, NY 10018-2788
Brooke Russell Astor Reading Room, Third Floor, Room 328

Alternative form available

Portions of the collection are available on microfilm.