Bertha Waters Papers

The Bertha Waters Papers are arranged in four series.

Series 1: The Personal Papers are subdivided in four series: 1) Correspondence, consisting primarily of correspondence with family and friends; 2) Writings, including drafts of her columns for the Authentic and letters to the editor of other publications, and a travel journal from the early 1990s, 3) Family Papers, and 4) Higher Education Course Work, including syllabi, papers, and other materials for her classes at Temple University and Bryn Mawr College.

Series 2: Subject Files consist of mailings, publicity, publications, and other materials relating to organizations that Waters was active with, including the Parents Union for Public Schools in Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Ethical Society. Also included are issues of the Philadelphia Authentic from the fall of 1963, and an extensive collection of issues of the Oakes Newsletter, a newsletter advocating for reform in the Philadelphia public schools published by Helen Oakes in the 1970s and 1980s.

Series 3: The Educational Project, Inc. consists of administrative records of the Southeast Regional office of this statewide organization from the late 1960s to the early 1970s. The bulk of the records relate to the Pennsylvania Day Care Project.

Series 4: Jim Benston Papers, consists of writings of Benston, a Civil Rights and anti-war activist in the 1960s who periodically stayed with the Waters family. Included are a diary written on toilet paper while he was in a jail in the South for his participation in a Civil Rights demonstration. This series also includes flyers and pamphlets from the 1960s relating to the Civil Rights movement and the opposition to the War in Vietnam.