Scope and arrangement
The Mary Maverick Lloyd papers date from 1904 to 1976 (bulk dates: 1931-1964) and contain correspondence, writings, diaries, financial and real estate documents, photographs, and subject files that document Lloyd's personal and professional life. As a journalist and activist, her work with the Federated Press, Works Progress Administration's Federal Writers' Project, Campaign for World Government, Action for World Federation, and Conseil Mondial pour l'Assemblée Constituante des Peuples is represented, as are her relationships with family members, writers, pacifists, and world government activists.
While documenting Lloyd's participation with and press coverage of different peace and world government organizations and events, the papers also show the development of these movements in the mid-20th century through the letters and writings of individuals connected to Lloyd, including Gustav Regler, Jacques Savary, Camille Drevet, Clair Laning, and Josephine Herbst. The Maverick and Lloyd families are covered throughout the collection, with relationships between extended family members sustained over correspondence; the activist causes of Mary Maverick Lloyd, her mother, and siblings documented in correspondence and subject files; and materials that detail the management of the families' trusts and properties.
Materials in the collection are in English, French, and German.
The Mary Maverick Lloyd papers are arranged in three series:
-
1911-1976
Series I: Correspondence comprises the bulk of the collection, and largely consists of incoming letters with small portions of Lloyd's outgoing letters present. Correspondence is personal, social, and professional in nature, and the materials in the series span Lloyd's lifetime.
The most frequent and long-standing correspondents are Lloyd's family members, including both of her parents, stepmother Madge Bird Lloyd, sisters Georgia Lloyd and Jessie Lloyd O'Connor, brother William Bross Lloyd, Jr., as well as relatives by marriage and members of the extended Lloyd and Maverick families. These letters provide detailed accounts of her relatives' personal lives and professional activities, particularly during the interwar period. Events of note documented through letters from immediate family include Lola Maverick Lloyd's work with the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and the Campaign for World Government; William Lloyd, Jr.'s assignment to a conscientious objector camp during World War II; her sisters' attendance at Smith College and Antioch College; Jessie Lloyd O'Connor's work as a labor journalist; and Georgia Lloyd assuming the directorship of the CWG Chicago Office after their mother's death. Family correspondence also discusses the maintenance and administration of Lloyd and Maverick family properties in Winnetka, Illinois; Little Compton, Rhode Island; Boerne, Texas; and Montego Bay, Jamaica. Family members often enclosed carbon copies of outgoing letters and incoming letters to quickly circulate news, and these materials remain in place with the enclosing letter addressed to Mary Maverick Lloyd.
Social and professional correspondence, beginning in the mid-1930s, documents Lloyd's relationships with American and European writers, labor organizers, and peace and world government activists. During her illness with and recovery from tuberculosis between 1938 and 1939, she received voluminous letters from former Federated Press and Federal Writers' Project colleagues, including Clair Laning, Jacob Baker, Irwin Elber, Marcia Phelps, Hugh Ferris, Henry Alsberg, Fleta Coe, Lyle Saxon, Murray Godwin, and Clifford McCarthy. These letters reported to Lloyd updates from the Federal Writers' Project offices; the assignments pursued by journalists covering pacifism, labor rights, and disarmament; the status of novels and stories in progress; and social news for the large network of friends. Lloyd's correspondence in this era shows her efforts to assist fellow writers financially and in getting their work published. In particular, the series holds extensive correspondence from the 1930s through the 1960s with writers Clair Laning, Jay Allen, Josephine Herbst, and Louise Haakman (known as "la Lous"). Her romantic relationships are also documented in voluminous love letters from suitor Wilhelm Friedrich Schubert and husband John T. Whitaker.
Approaching World War II, Lloyd's correspondence centers on her involvement in the relocation of writer Gustav Regler to Mexico, as he first fled Nazi Germany, and later, occupied France. During and after the war, her letters also focus on coordinating food and relief packages through the agency CARE for the Schubert family remaining in Austria. Her regular correspondents throughout the 1950s and 1960s include Regler, Camille Drevet, Edith Wynner, and Jacques Savary, who provide detailed reports of their peace activism and world federalist efforts. While much of Lloyd's professional correspondence deals with issues associated with world government activism, her efforts in this area are best represented in Series III of the collection, with subject files containing correspondence that directly stems from her work with various world government organizations.
The series is arranged chronologically. For correspondence between 1925 and 1964, general correspondence files are followed by alphabetical files. Correspondents in the alphabetical files include family members and social and professional contacts for which there are voluminous letters, but the files do not collocate every letter by a certain individual or group of individuals for that year. For instance, Family files primarily contain the correspondence of extended family members, such as aunts Rena Maverick Green and Augusta Maverick Kelley, and cousin George Maverick Green, but may also include Lloyd's siblings, parents, and stepmother. If searching for all available letters from a particular individual, researchers should consult general files and all relevant alphabetical files. Undated letters have been arranged with the closest estimated year.
Correspondence is in English, French, and German.
-
1906-1976
Series II: Personal Files consists of Lloyd's diaries, photographs, financial files, address books, school papers, notebooks, and personal ephemera. Diaries chronicle Lloyd's daily activities in brief entries, and cover most of her adulthood with some gaps. In particular, her travel and extended stays in France and other European countries are detailed in the diaries. The short personal essay “Tourist Americana” expands on Lloyd's earliest experiences traveling abroad.
Personal and family photographs date from the early 20th century to the 1970s and include portraits of Maverick and Lloyd family members and friends, as well as prints depicting family gatherings, family properties, and Lloyd's travels. Individual portraits of the 1923 graduating class of New Trier High School are also present.
Financial files primarily contain correspondence with bankers, attorneys, parents, and siblings discussing investments, stocks, and the inheritance of her parents' and stepmother's estates. Real estate properties documented in the Financial files include the William Bross Lloyd properties (particularly Bu Saaba in Jamaica), Lola Maverick Lloyd's home in Winnetka, the Henry Demarest Lloyd Wayside home in Winnetka, the Maverick family properties (primarily the Maverick Ranch outside of Boerne, Texas), and Mary Maverick Lloyd's property on Sakonnet Point. Surveys, architectural plans, and maps within the Financial files depict the Lola Maverick Lloyd Winnetka house; Keflawn, a predecessor name of Henry Demarest Lloyd's Wayside; the Maverick Ranch; and the Sakonnet properties of Henry Demarest Lloyd, William Bross Lloyd, and Mary Maverick Lloyd.
Lloyd's parents' divorce is represented by court petitions, and custody and child support documents. Portions of a deposition with Lola Maverick Lloyd detail her concerns over her ex-husband's influence on their children's morals, specifically Mary's open attitudes toward sex and marriage. Her school papers contain subject notebooks, essays, drawings, and school publications. Personal ephemera includes sketches, programs, travel memorabilia, clippings, poetry, and unidentified notes. Identification cards begin with Lloyd's birth certificate and also contain licenses, passports, and press passes dating from throughout her life.
-
1904-1975
Series III: Subject Files consists of materials assembled by Lloyd that represent her interests in peace activism and world government; her work as a journalist and with world government organizations; and the activities of her family members, fellow writers, and activists. The series is arranged alphabetically by personal name, organization name, or topic.
Subject files for organizations cover Lloyd's efforts in world government advocacy groups, including the Campaign for World Government Chicago Office, Action for World Government, World Movement for World Federal Government, Conseil Mondial pour l'Assemblée Constituante des Peuples, and closely associated campaigns and actions such as the People's Committee for a World Constitutional Convention. These files consist of correspondence, minutes, proposed statutes, position statements, petitions, printed materials, and periodicals, and represent Lloyd's individual work for each organization. Much of the material from Action for World Federalists concentrates on the creation and distribution of a petition to the United Nations to call a world constitutional convention; general office files, correspondence, and outreach materials for seeking partner organizations abroad are also included. Campaign for World Government files consist of carbon copies of letters to and from Lola Maverick Lloyd and William Bross Lloyd, Jr., as well as copies of William Bross Lloyd, Jr.'s reports and speeches. These files document the activities of the Campaign for World Government office on a daily basis while detailing the campaign's position on current events and its communication with elected leaders and constituents. For world government organizations, some overlap exists within the files, as Lloyd attended conferences and congresses representing the interests of multiple entities (such as the Campaign for World Government and the Conseil Mondial at the World Movement for World Federal Government congresses).
Lloyd's employment with the Federal Writers' Project and the Federated Press are documented by correspondence, article drafts, notes, editorial memoranda, press releases, and publications. Federal Writers' Project files include an editorial manual for the American Guide Series, as well as address cards for research and writing contacts in each region or state profiled in the series.
Topical subject files include correspondence, printed material, periodicals, and clippings on broad subjects allied with Lloyd's activism, and range from general files on world government and pacifism to the formation of the League of Nations and United Nations.
Subject files on individuals hold manuscripts from Lloyd's writing colleagues, including Jay Allen, Camille Drevet, Jacques Savary, and Gustav Regler. Printed materials and clippings regarding immediate and extended family members are found in the Family file, with the exception of Lola Maverick Lloyd, Robin Lloyd, and Samuel Maverick, for whom individual files are present. For files on Wilhelm Schubert, Jacques Savary, and Lola Maverick Lloyd, a small amount of correspondence with outside individuals and personal work files are also present. For instance, letters between Rena Maverick Green and Lola Maverick Lloyd in the possession of Mary Lloyd are found in Lola Maverick Lloyd's file, along with Lola Maverick Lloyd's notes on her daughter's infancy, printed matter and manuscripts documenting Lola Maverick Lloyd's political activities, and condolence letters to the family following Lola Maverick Lloyd's death. The Wilhelm Schubert file contains his diaries and daybooks before and during during his courtship with Lloyd, Schubert's letters to Lloyd's parents, and a small number of Schubert's writings and personal photographs. Along with Jacques Savary's letters and documents generated by his work with Conseil Mondial and Democratie Mondial, the collection also holds nine audio recordings of Savary's lectures in the 1950s.
Materials in the subject files are in English, French, and German.