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Hannah Clothier Hull Papers

 Collection
Identifier: SCPC-DG-016

Scope and Contents

The Hannah Clothier Hull Papers contain personal correspondence (1889-1956), professional correspondence, speeches, articles, and manuscript notes. There is also biographical material, family papers, newspaper clippings, and photographs.

Among Hull's early personal correspondence is a folder of letters she wrote to her friend Caroline Cooper Biddle. These letters chart the close friendship between the two young women at the turn of the century.

A large part of the collection reflects Hull's work in the peace movement. There is correspondence with other WILPF officers and members, financial statements, press releases, and documents of the League. A file documenting attacks on WILPF (1924-1937), is also included. Hull's interest in women's rights is represented by items on woman suffrage, correspondence on WILPF relations with the National Council of Women of the United States, and material on women's movements in China and India.

Among the many correspondents in this collection are Jane Addams, Emily Greene Balch, Carrie Chapman Catt, Alice Hamilton, Lida Gustava Heymann, Lola Maverick Lloyd, Lucia Ames Mead, Jeannette Rankin, Rosika Schwimmer, Anna Garlin Spencer, Ellen Gates Starr, and Mary E. Woolley.

Re-File Box [on-site]

Dates

  • 1889-1958

Creator

Language of Materials

Materials are in English.

Limitations on Accessing the Collection

The collection is open for research use.

Physical Access Note

All or part of this collection is stored off-site. Contact Swarthmore College Peace Collection staff at peacecollection@swarthmore.edu at least two weeks in advance of visit to request boxes.

Copyright and Rights Information

None.

Biographical Note

Hannah Clothier Hull (1872-1958), was one of the founders of the Woman's Peace Party and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. She served as a national officer of the WILPF for nearly forty years. Hull was also active in other social reform movements. A member of a well-to-do Quaker family, Hannah Clothier graduated from Swarthmore College in 1891. She first worked at a Philadelphia settlement house and then entered the graduate program in social work at Bryn Mawr College. In the following year Hannah Clothier married William Isaac Hull, a fellow pacifist and professor of political science at Swarthmore.

From 1914 to 1919 Hannah Clothier Hull was the chairman of the Pennsylvania branch of the Woman's Peace Party. She became more involved with the national WILPF in 1922 when she attended an emergency International Conference of Women at The Hague. Hull served as an officer of the U.S. section of the WILPF from 1924 to 1939 and as the honorary president until her death in 1958. This work drew her into close association with Jane Addams, Emily Greene Balch, Carrie Chapman Catt, and with peace leaders in all parts of the world.

Hull had many other interests apart from the peace movement. She worked in the woman suffrage campaign and women's rights, had some interest in temperance, was a member of the Friends Peace Committee of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, and was on the board of the American Friends Service Committee (1928-1947).

Extent

3 Linear Feet (3 linear feet.)

Abstract

Hannah Clothier Hull (1872-1958), was one of the founders of the Woman's Peace Party and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. She served as a national officer of the WILPF for nearly forty years. Hull was also active in other social reform movements. A member of a well-to-do Quaker family, Hannah Clothier graduated from Swarthmore College in 1891. She first worked at a Philadelphia settlement house and then entered the graduate program in social work at Bryn Mawr College. In the following year Hannah Clothier married William Isaac Hull, a fellow pacifist and professor of political science at Swarthmore.

Hannah Clothier Hull worked in the woman suffrage campaign and women's rights, had some interest in temperance, was a member of the Friends Peace Committee of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, and was on the board of the American Friends Service Committee (1928-1947).

Other Finding Aids

For the catalog record for this collection and to find materials on similar topics, search the library's online catalog.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Hannah C. Hull, Jane Addams, Emily Greene Balch, and Caroline Biddle Lippincott. Most of the materials in this collection were given to the Swarthmore College Peace Collection by Hannah Clothier Hull herself, in 1950, 1954, and 1958. A few records were presented by her daughters following her death in 1958.In December of 1976, the letters from Hannah Clothier Hull to Caroline Cooper Biddle (Lippincott) were received as a gift of Caroline Biddle Lippincott through the courtesy of Dr. H. Chandler Forman. Also included in this gift was a clipping of the biography of Isaac H. Clothier (Hannah's father) and two photographs of Hannah Clothier Hull.

Existence and Location of Copies

This collection, excluding one folder of correspondence, is available on microfilm (reels 75.1-75.6). Microfilm is available on-site by appointment and through interlibrary loan from the Swarthmore College Peace Collection.

Separated Materials

Photographs: See Swarthmore College Peace Collection, Photograph Collection

Bibliographic References

Guide to the Swarthmore College Peace Collection, 2nd ed., p. 33.

Bibliographic References

Guide to Sources on Women in the Swarthmore College Peace Collection, p. 13.

Legal Status

Copyright to the materials created by Hannah Clothier Hull has been transferred to the Swarthmore College Peace Collection. Copyright to all other materials is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Revision Statements

  • 2018: The file list was standardized in Summer 2018 by Julie C. Swierczek in preparation for importing into ArchivesSpace. Tessa Chambers added the notes in Fall 2017. This finding aid was updated by Wendy E. Chmielewski, February 2019.

Find It at the Library

Most of the materials in this catalog are not digitized and can only be accessed in person. Please see our website for more information about visiting or requesting reproductions from Swarthmore College Peace Collection Library

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