Scope and arrangement
The papers consist of correspondence, professional writings and notes, and a small amount of printed matter, newspaper clippings, financial papers, and photographs. The materials document in part O'Connor's political beliefs and commitment to various radical causes. The typescript of a 1927-1928 diary kept by O'Connor while she was living in the Soviet Union presents a window into circles of American "fellow travelers" in Moscow at that time.
Certain items within the collection, in particular the photocopied Letters to the Editor and the Soviet diary typescript, may be present in part or in alternate forms in the substantial Jessie Lloyd O'Connor Papers held as part of the Sophia Smith Collection at Smith College. For further information, researchers are advised to view the finding aid for that collection at http://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/findaids/sophiasmith/mnsss131_main.html.
The Jessie Lloyd O'Connor papers are arranged in six series:
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1909-1983, n.d.
The bulk of the correspondence in Jessie Lloyd O'Connor's papers consists of general incoming letters, and those from Lola Maverick Lloyd, O'Connor's mother, from two family friends, Franciska Schwimmer and Edith Wynner, and from the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. A small number of letters addressed to Mrs. O'Connor's husband, Harvey O'Connor, are included in the incoming correspondence.
In addition to incoming materials, there are nine folders of outgoing letters, the majority of which O'Connor sent as Letters to the Editor over the course of fifty years of dedicated drafting of such correspondence.
All materials are arranged chronologically.
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1926-1943, n.d.
Jessie Lloyd O'Connor's writings include a diary she kept while living in the Soviet Union in 1927-1928, Federated Press news service sheets which contain numerous articles by both of the O'Connors, clippings of published articles, drafts of articles, and notes.
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1916-1943, n.d.
This small series consists of one folder of financial papers in the form of checks, bank statements from 1916 and 1918, an undated bank book, and receipts.
Checks present consist of a few written by Jessie O'Connor herself, checks from both of her parents, and one check related to the Hull House Association. Receipts are for donations and membership fees made to the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee committee and Chicago Civil Liberties Committee, payments made to Hull House, and general personal expenditures.
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1917-1961, n.d.
Printed matter and newspaper clippings consist of miscellaneous printed matter, newspaper clippings and articles by other authors, and one poster. Materials of interest include several flyers advertising speeches by friends and family, and a pamphlet on the Abraham Lincoln school--the progressive school with a pacifist focus with which both O'Connor's were involved.
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1939-1944, n.d.
Miscellaneous items include a 1943 adoption application filled out by Jessie Lloyd O'Connor, an application and membership materials from the Descendants of the American Revolution, and one folder of general miscellaneous materials.
The 1943 adoption application for the Chicago Foundlings Home contains biographical information on Jessie and Harvey O'Connor, including religion, ancestral origin, employer and financial standing (including Harvey's sources of income, and the yearly payments of Jessie's trusts), the existence of another individual the O'Connors helped to support, references, and gender and character of child preferred.
The Descendants of the American Revolution, an organization committed to the ideals of freedom and democracy in American life, and which supported the protection of civil rights and academic freedom, served as a progressive response to the more conservative Daughters of the American Revolution. Items related to this organization include Jessie O'Connor's membership application and supporting genealogical reports, a small amount of correspondence, 1939 copies of the organization's National Constitution, and other administrative materials from 1940-1941.
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1919, 1936, n.d.
Jessie Lloyd O'Connor's black and white photographs consist of a photo of Rosika and Franciska Schwimmer in Budapest, 1919; the copy of a signed, undated photo of Rosika Schwimmer; twenty-five pictures of a small boy, circa 1936; and one undated photo of Jessie and Harvey O'Connor, taken in the later years of their marriage.