Spanish Child Welfare Association of America records

1937-1939

The Spanish Child Welfare Association of America was founded in New York City in December of 1937 for the purpose of raising funds to help evacuate, feed and nurse Spanish children who were victims of the Spanish Civil War. It raised funds primarily through the sponsoring of exhibitions of drawings of Spanish children and paintings of contemporary Spanish artists at art museums, colleges and art associations. Its/aid funds were distributed in Spain by the American Friends Service Committee. The Association also published for sale a book, entitled They Still Draw Pictures which contained an introduction by Aldous Huxley. Its staff included John A. Kingsbury (acting chairman), Irene Lewisohn (secretary and acting treasurer), Mary Carter Jones (executive secretary), Clara Bogart Burrage, Herbert Weissberger and, Jose A. Weissberger. Grace Abbot served as chairman of its technical advisory committee, and Claude G. Bowers, ambassador to Spain, as its honorary chairman.

The collection consists of a file of correspondence arranged in name/subject order and office records interfiled under the organization's title, and under "financial reports". The correspondence is mainly that of Mmes. Lewisohn, Jones, Barrage, and Masers Kingsbury and Weissberger (Herbert and Jose A.). The correspondence concerns the recruiting of members, arrangements for fun-raising exhibitions of Spanish children's drawings, and paintings by contemporary Spanish artists, the publication of They Still Draw Pictures, publicity, and the condition of refugee children in Spain. Included is correspondence with their European representative in Paris (Margaret Palmer). Office records include minutes of meetings, internal memoranda and reports, membership lists, by-laws and financial reports. There are present a few photographs of exhibitions of children's art. Correspondents include Grace Abbott, American Friends Service Committee, Claude G. Bowers, Van Wyck Brooks, Cleveland Museum of Art, Paul D. Cravath, Felix Frankfurter, Fannie Hurst, Aldous Huxley, Institute of Modern Art, Boston, Lewis Mumford, Oxford University Press, Margaret Palmer, Clarence E. Pickett, John F. Reich, Ruth Hanna Simms, and William Allen White.