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Helena M. Swanwick Collected Papers

 Collection
Identifier: SCPC-CDG-B-Great Britain-Swanwick, Helena M.

Scope and Contents

The Swanwick Collection consists of a small amount of personal material, correspondence, and writings. Correspondents include: and Lord Clifford Allen; Vera Brittain; Dorothy Detzer (Women's International League for Peace and Freedom); John P. Fletcher (Society of Friends); Carl Heath (Friends Service Council); Commander Stephen King-Hall; Hon. Ramsey MacDonald; Gilbert Murray; Lord Ponsonby; Edith Pye (Women's International League for Peace and Freedom); Edward Smith (London Peace Council); Bertrand Russell; Leonard Woolf; and Virginia Woolf.

Dates

  • Creation: 1907-1938

Creator

Language of Materials

The materials are in English.

Conditions Governing Access

None.

Conditions Governing Use

None.

Biographical

Helena Maria Swanwick was born in Munich, Germany in 1864, the only daughter of Oswald and Maria Sickert, and sister to the painter, Walter Richard Sickert. The family moved to England when she was four years old. She was educated at Notting Hill High School and Girton College, Cambridge, obtaining her Moral Science Tripos in 1885, and later her ad eundem Master of Arts Degree at Dublin. She married Frederick Tertius Swanwick in 1888 (he died in 1931).

Swanwick's resume included being a lecturer in psychology, economics and sociology; a teacher in girls' clubs; first Editor of Common Cause magazine (organ of the constitutionalist suffragists); Editor ofForeign Affairs magazine (1924-1928); Honorable Secretary of the Manchester Women's Suffrage Association; Executive Member of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies; Honorable Secretary of the Committee of Organized Women (1914-1915), which provided work and relief for women unemployed because of the war; first Chair of the Richmond Day Nursery (1914-1916); Vice President of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Geneva; Chair of the British Section of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom; Executive Member of the Union of Democratic Control (started by Ramsey MacDonald in 1914); Vice President of the Richmond (Surrey) Labour Party; and Member of the Committee of Inquiry Into Sexual Morality. Swanwick helped pioneer the League of Nations Society, representated Great Britain at the International Conference of Women, and was appointed by Ramsey MacDonald to be a member of the British government delegation to the League of Nations Assembly in Geneva in 1924 and in 1929.

Swanwick was a well-known journalist and lecturer on feminism, social justice, and peace. Her dream was that women, if they used their power, could make an end to war. She contributed articles to the Manchester Guardian and the Observor and to other journals. Her books included The Small Town Garden, The Future of the Women's Movement, Some Points of English Law, Women in the Socialist State, Builder of Peace [a history of the Union of Democratic Control], I Have Been Young, Collective Insecurity, and The Roots of Peace. Her many years of distinguished public work and efforts for international cooperation were officially acknowledged when J. Ramsay MacDonald was successful in having her made a Companion of Honour in 1931.

Swanwick died in Maidenhead, England in Nov. 1939.

Extent

0.67 linear ft. (8 linear in.)

Abstract

Helena Maria Sickert was born in Germany and moved to England early on. She was an author, journalist, and lecturer involved in peace activism, feminism, and social justice. She became chair of the British Section of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and was a British delegate to the League of Nations. Her dream was that women, if they used their power, could make an end to war.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Unknown.

Separated Materials

See the Book Collection for "Builders of Peace and Collective Insecurity"

Legal Status

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendents, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Processing Information

Processed by SCPC staff; checklist revised by Anne M. Yoder, January 1998; updated by Wendy Chmielewski, April 2015.

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

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 repoductions from Swarthmore College Peace Collection Library

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