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Margaret Sanger, 1916
Margaret Louise Higgins was born in Corning, New York, on September 15, 1879, the sixth of eleven children and the third of four daughters born to Anne Purcell Higgins and Michael Hennessey Higgins, a stone mason. Her two elder sisters worked to supplement the family income, and financed her education at Claverack College, a private coeducational preparatory school in the Catskills. After leaving Claverack, Higgins took a job teaching first grade to immigrant children, but decided after a short time that the work did not suit her temperament. She returned to Corning where her mother, then only forty-nine years old, was dying of tuberculosis. Margaret Higgins blamed her mother's untimely death, as well as her sisters' need to sacrifice their own ambitions to support the family, on her parents' high fertility. Though she loved and admired her father, she resented his demand that she take her mother's place managing the household. Shortly after her Anne Higgins's death, Margaret Higgins left Corning for White Plains, New York, where she entered nursing school.
In 1902, after completing two years of practical nursing training and gaining acceptance to a three-year degree program, Higgins met and married William Sanger, an architect and aspiring artist. By 1910 Margaret Sanger had survived her own bout with tuberculosis and given birth to three children (Stuart, 1903; Grant, 1908; and Peggy, 1910), but was chafing inside her role as a traditional housewife and mother in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. Later that year the family moved to Manhattan where, through her work as a home nurse on the Lower East Side and her political involvements with the International Workers of the World and anarchist Emma Goldman, Margaret Sanger was drawn into the burgeoning struggle for women's right to control their sexuality and fertility. By 1912 Sanger was widely recognized as a writer and speaker about sex reform. Later that year she became a regular contributor to the socialist newspaper The Call, where she published a series of articles on sexual hygiene. One of these, an article about syphilis published in February 1913, was targeted by the U.S. Post Office under the Comstock Act of 1873, which banned the distribution of sexually-related material through the U.S. mail. This repression of her writings, combined with her exposure to the damages done to women by repeated childbirths and self-induced abortions, led to Sanger's decision to devote herself entirely to the birth control movement. By 1914 she had separated from her husband, written a pamphlet entitled Family Limitation which coined the term "birth control," traveled to Europe to research new contraceptive methods, and set out to establish a system of advice centers where women throughout the U.S. could obtain reliable birth control information.
Sanger's use of radical tactics to educate women about birth control, especially her publication of the radical journal The Woman Rebel, brought her once again to the attention of the U.S. Postal Service. When the U.S. government brought charges against her, Sanger fled to Europe where she befriended the sex reformer Havelock Ellis, who encouraged her to avoid radical political rhetoric and reframe her writings in the language of the social sciences. The pneumonia death of five-year-old Peggy Sanger, which occurred shortly after her mother's return to the New York in October 1915, devastated Margaret Sanger. But Peggy's death, in tandem with William Sanger's arrest for distributing a copy of Family Limitation, aroused considerable public sympathy for Sanger, which, in turn, led the U.S. government to drop its earlier charges against her. More convinced than ever of the need to legalize birth control, Sanger and her younger sister Ethel Byrne opened the Brownsville Clinic in Brooklyn in October 1916 and, for ten days before the police closed it down, the two dispensed contraceptive advice to 488 women. Tried and imprisoned for her work, Margaret Sanger became a national figure. On appeal, Sanger won a clarification of the New York law forbidding the dissemination of contraceptive information. The Judge, Frederick Crane, rejected Sanger's argument that, because it forced women to risk death in pregnancy, the law was unconstitutional. Nevertheless, Crane did establish doctors' right to provide women with contraceptive advice for "the cure and prevention of disease."
Interpreting Crane's decision broadly as a mandate for birth control clinics staffed by doctors, Sanger completed the strategic and tactical transformation she had begun at Havelock Ellis's suggestion. Sanger minimized her radical past and began to stress eugenic arguments for birth control over feminist ones. In doing so, she gained increasing support from both medical professionals and philanthropists; in 1921 such backing allowed her to organize the American Birth Control League, which would become the Planned Parenthood Federation of America in 1942. In 1923, aided by her second husband, millionaire J. Noah Slee, Sanger opened the first doctor-staffed contraceptive clinic in the U.S., the Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau in New York City, under the direction of Dr. Hannah Stone. In addition to dispensing birth control information and devices, the Bureau trained hundreds of physicians in contraceptive techniques and served as a model for the national network of 300 clinics Sanger and her supporters would establish over the next fifteen years. In 1925 Sanger convinced her old friend Herbert Simonds to found the Holland Rantos Company, which became the first American company to produce the diaphragm. Between 1929 and 1936 Sanger and her lobbying group, the Committee on Federation legislation for Birth Control, waged a series of court battles which culminated in United States v. One Package, which overturned the old statutes by permitting the mailing of contraceptive devices intended for physicians. Sanger's victory in this case led the American Medical Association to endorse contraception as a legitimate medical service and a vital component of medical education in 1937.
After the U.S. v. One Package Victory Sanger retired to Tucson, Arizona determined to play less central role in the birth control movement, yet her influence continued. In 1952 Sanger helped found the International Planned Parenthood Federation and served as the organization's first president. Also in the 1950s she won philanthropist Katharine Dexter McCormick's financial support for Gregory Pincus's work on the development of the birth control pill. Margaret Sanger died of congestive heart failure in Tucson on September 6, 1966.
The Margaret Sanger Papers are divided into two distinct portions: those papers that were microfilmed by the Margaret Sanger Papers Project, consisting of 39.5 linear feet (95 boxes; 83 reels); and the unfilmed portion of the papers consisting of 73.5 linear feet (131 boxes). The unfilmed records and papers were, with few exceptions, not created or authored by Sanger. Material authored by Sanger (including her complete writings), and core organizational records as well as many legal and miscellaneous materials were extracted and included in Microfilm Edition. The unfilmed portion of the Margaret Sanger Papers has been arranged and described to be used in tandem with the microfilm edition. Many of the records are overlapping and interrelated, and some duplication exists between the collections.
The published
There is no further description or container listing for the microfilmed portion included here. For more information about the Sanger Papers on microfilm, and to view the online guide to the microfilm, as well as selected documents online, go to the
The
The unfilmed portion documents the American and international birth control movements, particularly between the years 1920 and 1962, but includes records spanning the mid- 19th century to 1970 related to the history of contraception, malthusianism, eugenics, sex education, and other topics related to birth control and population planning. In particular, the correspondence and biographical material serve as an essential supplement to the microfilmed portion, as well as providing substantive information on many of Sanger's closest friends and principal supporters. The collection includes significant documentation of many international organizations and clinics particularly in Europe and Asia, and records of many regional organizations and clinics in the U. S. This collection also provides material on the 19th century English and American roots of the Sanger-led birth control movement. In addition, the Unfilmed Collection offers extensive information on Sanger's family, in particular her second husband, J. Noah Slee, and her sons Grant and Stuart Sanger.
The unfilmed portion of the collection is organized into ten series:
These are photographs found in the Sanger Papers, in series other than SERIES IX. PHOTOGRAPHS. Note: this is only a partial listing - additional images may be found scattered throughout the collection.
[See also related images in the
The papers are open to research according to the regulations of the Sophia Smith Collection. However, in order to preserve the original materials, researchers are requested to use the microfilm for those portions of the collection where it's available.
Alexander Sanger, as representative of the Sanger family, holds copyright to unpublished works by Margaret Sanger. Permission must be obtained to publish reproductions or quotations beyond "fair use." Copyright to materials created by others may be owned by those individuals or their heirs or assigns. It is the responsibility of the researcher to identify and satisfy the holders of all copyrights. Permission to publish must also be obtained from the Sophia Smith Collection as owners of the physical property.
Please use the following formats when citing materials from this collection:
For materials in the the unfilmed portion: "The Margaret Sanger Papers (unfilmed), Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, Northampton, Mass."
For microfilmed materials:
If using originals in the SSC from the microfilmed portion, cite as follows: "The Margaret Sanger Papers (microfilmed), Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, Northampton, Mass."
Thanks to the Margaret Sanger Papers Project, a large portion of this collection is available on microfilm and can be ordered through interlibrary loan. The Project has also published the
Periodic additions to collection are expected.
Margaret Sanger donated her papers to the Sophia Smith Collection in 1946 and continued to add to them until her death in 1966. Since then additional material has been given to the SSC by family members, The Margaret Sanger Papers Project, and others.
Papers processed by Peter Engleman, 1998. Photographs processed by Margaret Jessup.
Related material is in the
Additional papers of Margaret Sanger are at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (also available on microfilm in the SSC).
See also
Series I is organized into nine subseries: Personal records; Awards, honors, anniversaries, and, degrees; Films and television; Homes; Arizona activities; Margaret Sanger's death; Miscellaneous; and Research and publications about Sanger. Subseries 5 of the microfilm edition contains material of the same nature, much of it authored by Sanger.
The Personal records consist of checkbook stubs and expenses books, address books, Christmas lists, and a large number of calendars and appointment books (copies of which were filmed as part of the microfilm edition). These records provide an excellent source for names and addresses of Sanger friends and workers in the birth control movement. A small amount of material on Sanger's family includes family trees for Sanger/Higgins/Purcell and Slee, information on William Sanger's parents (including a 1903 letter from Edward Sanger to Andrew Carnegie), and the Higgins family bible showing Sanger's original birth date crossed-out and amended.
Many of the documents in the subseries Awards, honors, anniversaries, and degrees duplicate material in the microfilm edition. The unfilmed material contains many clippings and the actual awards or medallions, etc. that were not microfilmed. Of particular note is a 1966 letter from President Lyndon Johnson to George Lindsay of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America regarding the Margaret Sanger Award; many acknowledgment letters pertaining to the honorary degree Sanger received from Smith College in 1949; and the 1991 Arizona Hall of Fame Award which spurred a debate in the press over accusations that Sanger was a racist.
Film and television includes information on attempts to make a film about Sanger, as well as responses to some of Sanger's television appearances, most notably a 1952 Freedom Forum interview in Los Angeles, and her 1957 interview with Mike Wallace. [See also SERIES VII. AUDIOVISUAL MATERIAL]
The Homes subseries contains correspondence with contractors and bills from the construction of the Willowlake estate in Fishkill, New York in the early 1920s, and Sanger's Sierra Vista home in Tucson, Arizona which she built in 1949. Also included are various lists of furnishings and work assignments and schedules for domestic help.
Arizona activities consists mainly of printed material and some correspondence related the local organizations Sanger belonged to or supported, such as the Tucson Festival of the Arts, the Tucson Medical Center (includes Florence Rose correspondence), and the Tucson Watercolor Guild.
The subseries Margaret Sanger's death consists primarily of obituaries and news notices from clipping services. Also included are Congressional Record acknowledgments and documents related to Sanger's memorial services, including a letter from Florence Rose describing the memorial service for Sanger in New York.
Miscellaneous contains material that has been arranged alphabetically by subject matter and includes such topics as art exhibits, Claverack College, Corning, New York, interior decoration, the Library of Congress collection of Sanger's papers, and the Society of Rosicrusians. Memorabilia, consisting primarily of gifts given to Sanger during her world travels, is included in this series.
The final subseries, Research and publications about Sanger, contains writings by her contemporaries, biography manuscripts, oral histories, research papers, and theses. Much of the material in this series was written after Sanger's death in 1966. The subseries includes a copy of Harold Hersey's 1938 unpublished biography, Margaret Sanger: The Biography of a Birth Control Pioneer, the only biography written by a friend and colleague (one other copy is located in the New York Public Library). Manuscripts for two later, published biographies are also here: a typescript and research notebooks for Lawrence Lader's The Margaret Sanger Story, and a typescript for Madeline Gray's Margaret Sanger: Birth Control Pioneer. The several theses filed in the Research series include Alexander Sanger's 1969 Princeton undergraduate thesis on his grandmother during the years 1910 to 1917. This series also contains two interviews with Grant Sanger, and interviews with Nancy Sanger Ivins and Margaret Sanger Marston (Sanger's granddaughters), and Sanger's niece, Olive Byrne Richard. Many articles and biographical writings from magazines and birth control publications, such as the 1930 New Yorker profile of Sanger and the 1937 Life Magazine spread, are also located here.
See also SERIES X. OVERSIZE for additional biographical material.
Sanger's writings in the unfilmed portion of her papers contain a number of foreign language versions of Family Limitation; two editions of What Every Girl Should Know, an edition of What Every Mother Should Know; a large amount of correspondence related to distribution and complimentary copies of Sanger's 1938 Autobiography; notes on a proposed play about birth control (possibly written by Henriette Posner); and notes and research materials that were probably used for drafting articles and speeches. The writings series also contains material on Sanger's 1940 speaking tour of Massachusetts and the infamous Holyoke incident.
Series III is arranged alphabetically by individual or organization and includes a correspondence file and/or other material (writings, clippings, reports) sorted in chronological order.
This series includes correspondence regarding all aspects of the American and international birth control movements. The series incorporates correspondence, articles, reports and clippings related to Sanger's co-workers, other major players in the American birth control movement, particularly after 1930, and the chief organizers and financial supporters of the International Planned Parenthood Federation, established in 1952. This series also contains a significant amount of correspondence from Sanger family members and friends, and covers a wide range of projects and issues apart from birth control.
Although most letters were filed under the author's name, each individual's file may contain both incoming and outgoing correspondence. Most letters written by secretaries or other organization staff were filed by recipient, as were letters written by little known or insignificant parties.
Correspondence covering the major birth control organizations Sanger established, led, or in which she played a significant role is included in this series under individuals associated with a particular organization, as well as in SERIES IV. ORGANIZATIONS AND CONFERENCES, under the name of the organization. The series IV correspondence tends to relate specifically to the work of the organization: letters written and received on behalf of organization staff. Series III correspondence is more difficult to categorize. It typically covers much broader themes and is, generally, less relevant to a specific organization. The series III correspondence is also more personal and reflective of the work and concerns of the author/recipient. For a list of organization personnel for the sixteen organizations that Sanger was associated with, see the organizational histories in the guide to The Margaret Sanger Papers Microfilm Edition: Smith College Collection Series.
The files of several individuals in series III include a significant amount of correspondence related to specific organizations. The Florence Rose file contains material on the BCCRB, the NCFLBC, the BCFA, and the PPFA. Robert Dickinson's correspondence concerns his advisory role with the BCCRB and the work of the National Committee on Maternal Health. The correspondence filed under Hannah Stone and Abraham Stone relates to the affairs of the BCCRB and MSRB, as well as various contraceptive research and writing projects. Information on the NCFLBC can be found under Hazel Moore, George Hastings and Margaret Valiant, among others. Correspondence concerning PPFA affairs is most concentrated in the files of William Vogt and D. Kenneth Rose, two national directors of the organization. Correspondence related to the IPPF and international work is more plentiful. Major participants in the international movement represented here include: Dorothy Brush, Clarence Gamble, Shidzue Kato, Dhanvanthi Rama Rau, Abraham Stone, Ellen Watumull, Edith How-Martyn, C. P. Blacker, and Vera Houghton. The file on Shidzue Kato contains significant documentation on the Japanese birth control movement. Correspondence under Charles Scribner, William Mathews, and Elizabeth Newman concerns General Douglas MacArthur's 1949 decision to deny Sanger a visa to enter Japan.
Dorothy Brush's and Clarence Gamble's correspondence/biographical files, the two largest in the series, provide a wealth of information on particular aspects of the birth control movement. Brush, a close friend of Sanger, travelled with her on several trips to Europe and Asia, edited the IPPF newsletter, and provided funding for Sanger. Her correspondence offers a more intimate account of some of Sanger's activities and the emergence of an organized birth control movement in Asia. While the Sophia Smith Collection houses a separate collection of Brush's papers, some of her writings, including drafts of an article about her travels with Sanger, can be found here. Additional Brush correspondence is located in the Smith College Honorary Degree file in series I. Gamble was associated in one way or another with each organization Sanger led. His correspondence documents his multifaceted role as benefactor, medical researcher, and movement gadfly. His papers, including many publications and research reports, also describe the grass roots efforts to set up birth control clinics and organizations in Asia and many non-industrialized countries.
Information on contraceptive research is scattered throughout the correspondence. In particular, the correspondence of Lydia DeVilbiss, Gamble, and Abraham and Hannah Stone offers important supplementary documentation to the Sanger correspondence in the microfilm edition. The DeVilbiss correspondence primarily concerns her controversial work on developing and testing a foam powder contraceptive designed to be used by the uneducated and the poor. Her correspondence with Abraham Stone is located in the Stone file.
Reports, articles, and correspondence concerning the development of the anovulant pill can be found under Katharine Dexter McCormick, John Rock, and Gregory Pincus.
This series contains approximately twenty client letters (filed under "client"): inquiries from men and women seeking contraceptive information. This is a small number compared to the several hundred that are included in the microfilm editions of the Smith College Collections and the Library of Congress collection of Sanger's papers, but it is a valuable resource since many thousands of these letters were treated as confidential medical records and destroyed by Sanger and her co-workers.
Printed material on the history of the English birth control movement and censorship is contained in the non-correspondence file of Annie Besant. Included are 19th century publications by Besant, information of the Besant-Bradlaugh trial, publications of the theosophical movement, and copies of Charles Knowlton's birth control tract, Fruits of Philosophy. Pamphlets and writings by Besant, C. R. Drysdale, Charles Vickery Drysdale, and Alice Drysdale Vickery also provide background on the Malthusian League, eugenics, and population control.
Series III includes correspondence regarding efforts on the part of Sanger and Florence Rose, her long time secretary, to assist European refugees in emigrating to the U.S. during the late 1930s and 1940s. This correspondence is located under Anna Kreupl, Lilia Skala, Norbert Neufeld, Ludmilla Protitch, Leopold Pulitzer, Wilhelm Josefovitz, and Ludwig Chiavacci, and supplements the more extensive run of refugee correspondence in the microfilm edition.
Significant correspondence between many of Sanger's closest friends can be found under Juliet Rublee, Dorothy Brush, Elizabeth Newman, Anne Kennedy, and Leighton Rollins, among others. The Rublee - Brush correspondence partially chronicles their long feud over who was most committed to Sanger's best interests. Much of the Rollins correspondence concerns his play about Sanger written in 1950. The Rollins, Brush, and Elizabeth Bacon correspondence also include discussions of Sanger's declining health during her final years.
An exchange of love letters between Hugh de Selincourt and Francoise Cyon Lafitte is located in the Lafitte correspondence. The two carried on an affair for many years while Lafitte was living with Havelock Ellis and de Selincourt was married. Sanger's relevancy to this relationship (she was close friends and carried on long affairs with both de Selincourt and Ellis) is made apparent in her correspondence with Ellis, de Selincourt and Lafitte contained on both the Library of Congress and Smith College Collections microfilms.
Series III contains important family correspondence and a few family records. The correspondence of Sanger's sisters, Anna Higgins, Ethel Byrne, and Mary Higgins includes several early letters. A large file concerning the disposition of William Purcell's (Sanger's maternal uncle) estate is located in the Anna Higgins correspondence. The non-correspondence file for Mary Higgins contains a journal (1895-1900) that includes passages on the death of their mother, Ann Purcell Higgins. The files on Sanger's sons, Grant and Stuart, are mostly composed of school and college records and early correspondence with friends and family. Included in Grant Sanger's correspondence are letters and cards written while escorting his mother on her ground-breaking 1922 world tour in which they travelled through Asia, northern Africa, and Europe. A few letters to Grant, Stuart and Peggy Sanger from their father are found under William Sanger, along with an early and barely legible diary. The large file on J. Noah Slee contains correspondence concerning the Three-in-One Oil Company, loans and investments; correspondence with business associate Norman Bray; and correspondence with his sons and daughter. Some of Slee's correspondence as treasurer of the BCCRB and NCFLBC is located in the correspondence files of the organizations in series IV. The non-correspondence filed under Slee includes divorce papers from his first marriage; expense books dating from 1891, address books, passports and appointment books; and horoscopes and psychic writings.
Finally, correspondence related to the collection and preservation of Sanger's papers in the Sophia Smith Collection is located under Margaret Grierson, Dorothy Brush, Leighton Rollins, and Grant and Stuart Sanger.
The organization records are arranged alphabetically by name of organization, and then sorted by category of material (minutes, reports, form letters, etc.) under each organization, and arranged chronologically under each category. The conference material has been organized chronologically by conference. Larger conferences have been broken down further by record type (programs, correspondence, proceedings, etc.).
This series is very incomplete and deficient in key documents. Core organization and conference records such as board and major committee minutes, annual reports, and publications, releases, pamphlets and other material written by Sanger or directly related to her work have been incorporated in the microfilm edition. For more information on the Sanger related birth control organizations, see the organizational histories in the guide to The Margaret Sanger Papers Microfilm Edition: Smith College Collection Series.
The organization materials that remain in the unfilmed collection include records of the major birth control organizations that Sanger was associated with: the American Birth Control League (ABCL), Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau (BCCRB), Birth Control Federation of America (BCFL), Birth Control International Information Centre (BCIIC), International Committee on Planned Parenthood (ICPP), International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), Margaret Sanger Research Bureau (MSRB), National Committee on Federal Legislation for Birth Control (NCFLBC), Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), and World Population Emergency Campaign (WPEC). A smaller group of records covers many of the other organizations that were vital to Sanger's work, including the ACLU, the AMA, the American Nurses Association, the Human Betterment Association, the New York City Department of Health, and the Population Reference Bureau, among many others; English organizations that worked closely with Sanger: the Malthusian League (includes writings by Alice Vickery and C.V. Drysdale) and the Eugenics Society; and two early birth control organizations that competed with Sanger: the National Birth Control League and the Voluntary Parenthood League. However, most of these files contain only a few pamphlets or a small amount of correspondence. Limited records of several foundations that supported Sanger's work are also contained in this series.
For each of the major Sanger birth control organizations, the records are arranged in roughly the same order: general information, correspondence, minutes, organizational memos, publications, reports, form letters. Some of the organizations include other categories of material which are filed in a logical progression.
Most of the ABCL records cover the years 1929-1939 when Sanger was not active in ABCL affairs (she resigned as president in 1928). The correspondence in the ABCL files contains many letters to and from NCFLBC staff as the two organizations discussed issues related to congressional lobbying efforts and fund-raising. The ABCL publications file includes reports on and articles about the Birth Control Review, which was published under the auspices of the ABCL starting in 1923. All other records of the Review from the Sanger collection have been incorporated in the microfilm edition.
The BCCRB records (1928-1939) include useful statistical reports on clinic patients (many of these monthly reports are summarized in annual reports incorporated in the microfilm edition), some of Florence Rose's field reports (many more reports are contained in the Florence Rose papers in the Sophia Smith Collection) conducted in conjunction with the NCFLBC, and a study on the Recreation Rooms and Settlement Birth Control Clinic (1933-1935), a satellite clinic located in the tenement district of New York's Lower East Side. Records of the BCCRB's Harlem Branch (1930-1936) are included in a separate grouping and provide more detail than parallel records in the microfilm edition. For clinic records prior to 1928 (when the clinic operated under the auspices of the ABCL), see information regarding the Clinical Research Bureau in the ABCL files. Additional records are located under the NCFLBC (the two organizations shared staff and conducted joint fund-raising projects).
The records of the BCFA (1939-1942) include extensive publications, information on personnel, monthly reports submitted to the BCFA by the MSRB, and papers given at the 1941 annual meeting. The records also contain reports and correspondence related to the Division of Negro Services/Negro Project.
A single folder on the BCIIC is comprised of publications distributed by the organization.
A small amount of material is contained in the ICPP files (1948-1952). Most of the records duplicate what exists in the microfilm edition and concern efforts to consolidate the organization and organize a world conference in India in 1952 (at which the IPPF was formally established).
The IPPF records span 1952 to 1964 and duplicate much of what is included in the microfilm edition. The files contain a number of drafts of constitutions and by-laws, committee minutes, publications chronicling the history of the international movement, regional and special subject reports, and conference programs. The unfilmed IPPF material includes comprehensive lists of members and representatives.
The records of the MSRB (1940-1969) include detailed financial reports from the 1950s, considerable personnel information, and publications on the history of the clinic. Of particular interest are files containing transcripts of marriage counselling group sessions from 1946 to 1948. These transcripts, along with a small amount of correspondence, consist of very frank discussions about sexual dysfunction and achieving sexual compatibility. There is also a folder on proposals for a Margaret Sanger Memorial building and a group of photographs of the clinic. Some of the documents, the minutes in particular, are duplicated in the microfilm edition.
The NCFLBC records (1929-1938) contain a large correspondence file, including a series of letters from the fund-raising consultants Tamblyn & Tamblyn; extensive reports on field work and lobbying activities; financial reports; proceedings of Congressional hearings; and collections of endorsements, statements and speeches in favor of birth control. In particular, the reports from individual field workers and lobbyists document the aims and agendas of the organization and provide material that is not always condensed in summary and yearly reports located in the microfilm edition. Some of the NCFLBC records overlap with BCCRB material since the two organizations shared staff members and pursued joint projects.
Records of the PPFA (1942-1966) make up the largest group of organizational records in the unfilmed Sanger collection, but offer many documents that are available in the two microfilmed collections of Sanger's papers, as well as in the voluminous PPFA collection in the Sophia Smith Collection. The bulk of these files consist of committee minutes from the 1950s and 1960s and communications with affiliate organizations. There is minimal correspondence and noticeable gaps in the material covering the 1940s. A relatively complete run of budget and expense reports exists for the late 1950s. Notable among these records is an extensive publications file comprised of both propaganda materials and practical advice manuals, including a comic book, "Escape from Fear."
The limited WPEC records (1960-1962) include correspondence primarily related to fund-raising; documents outlining the organization's close alignment with the IPPF and merger with PPFA; newsletters and copies of IPPF's Around the World News of Population and Birth Control (a complete run is available in the Sophia Smith Collection); and several key reports, including a "Preliminary Survey of the Population Problems and Family Planning Programs in Africa, Asia, and the Western Hemisphere," and travel reports on Asia written by George and Barbara Cadbury.
The WPEC and PPFA records overlap to some extent since the organizations merged in 1961. Documents produced under the merged name of PPFA- WPEC can be found in the records of both organizations, although the preponderance of this material is filed under PPFA. The IPPF records also contain material related to WPEC, which served as a fund-raising vehicle for IPPF projects.
Information on regional and state or country clinics or organizations is located in SERIES V. COUNTRIES AND REGIONS.
The conference files span 1903 to 1960 and include documentation of small, regional conferences and major world population conferences. Core records have been incorporated in the microfilm edition. While there is some duplication between the filmed and unfilmed collections, the records here include documentation of the many contributions made by organizers of the conferences apart from Sanger.
The early conference records consist primarily of proceedings, many of which were published. The files on the 1927 World Population Conference in Geneva contain several conference publications not included in the microfilm edition, along with photographs and a scrapbook containing cards of many of the participants. Records of the Seventh International Birth Control Conference in Zurich in 1930 include transcriptions of a large number of conference speeches. Files on the international planned parenthood conferences in 1952, 1953, 1955, 1957 (proposed) and 1959, offer substantial coverage of the events in the form of programs, clippings, speech transcriptions and proceedings, as well as correspondence on the organization of the conferences and lists of sponsors, contributors and conference delegates. Copies of some of the published conference proceedings can also be found in Sanger's library (SERIES VII. PRINTED MATERIAL).
Series V. is arranged alphabetically by country and by state. Each file is also arranged by document types (correspondence, reports, printed material, clippings).
This series contains alphabetical files on birth control activities in many U.S. states, and countries from all five continents. Clippings and printed material are most prevalent. Correspondence and reports are also included. Separate boxes contain substantial documentation on birth control activities in Japan and India, countries which became the focus of the international movement, as well as England, France, and Germany.
The general countries files contain considerable material on Asian and Latin American countries. Most of the documentation dates from the 1950s and is linked to IPPF activities, although there are some records and publications that Sanger collected on her various world tours in the 1920s and 1930s.
The large file on England consists of extensive publications from the late 19th century to the 1950s, including early pamphlets on population control and contraception, and writings of Marie Stopes; information on several clinics and birth control organizations, including the Family Planning Association, National Birth Control Association, and Walworth Women's Welfare Centre; and numerous news extracts, articles and reprints.
Files on France and Germany contain many early and significant publications on Malthusian doctrine, sexual hygiene, contraception, and fertility studies.
The box on India includes many publications put out by the Family Planning Association of India, information on conferences, reports chronicling initial efforts to organize birth control activities in India, and a small amount of correspondence largely related to IPPF matters. The files also contain several government publications and numerous clippings.
The boxes on Japan contain a small amount of correspondence, some of which relates to General Douglas MacArthur's decision to deny Sanger a visa to enter Japan in 1950; reports; and a file on Japan birth control organizations which include important historical information on the history of the movement in Japan and the issue of population growth. The material on Japan also includes a large clipping file mostly covering the 1950s, and many publications printed in Japanese.
The states files cover 37 states and date mostly from the late 1930s to the 1950s. The Arizona file contains photographs of Mexican-American families for a case history study conducted by the Tucson Mother's Clinic.
The subject files are arranged alphabetically by subject.
They contain printed material, clippings, reports, and some correspondence regarding various topics related to birth control, population, sexuality, health, medicine, legal issues, and religion, among other topics. These files frequently duplicate printed material found in the SERIES IV. ORGANIZATION AND CONFERENCE FILES and SERIES V. COUNTRIES AND REGIONS. This series is an excellent source for historical material on the history of contraception and population control. It includes many late 19th century and early 20th century publications.
The files on contraception and eugenics, along with a history file (containing mostly historical outlines and articles from the English publication, the Malthusian), a file on Malthus and Malthusianism, a large amount of material on Sex Education, including early pamphlets and publications from England, Sweden and the U.S., and the Legal files make up a core collection of historical materials on the roots of the American birth control movement.
Of particular interest are the files on abortion, which include research, statistical information and some apocryphal stories on the illegal abortion industry, as well as some influential arguments in favor of legalizing abortion, such as A. J. Rongy's "Abortion and Birth Control."
Along with the Records of the Margaret Sanger Research Bureau, a separate collection in the Sophia Smith Collection, the Contraception subject files provide one of the best sources of material on the history of contraceptive research and education. These files contain numerous 19th century publications for women, including catalogs of hygiene devices; popular marital guides from the 20th century; research publications on the use and effectiveness of specific contraceptive methods; and a large number of short guides written by physicians. Additional material on contraception is located throughout the subject files, particularly under Marriage, Medicine, Population, and Sex Education.
Studies on eugenics and heredity can be located in separate files under Eugenics, Heredity and Mental Hygiene. These files contain many of the seminal works on eugenics written during the early part of the century that influenced the thinking of Sanger and other leaders in the birth control movement, including publications by Moses Harmon, C.V. Drysdale, and Raymond Pearl, as well as many pamphlets and propaganda materials put out by the American Eugenics Society and the Brush Foundation, and numerous scientific papers.
Legal materials, filed under Laws, Legal Cases, and Legislation contain publications, briefs and other legal documents covering several significant cases, including the D. M. Bennett trial in 1879, the City of Portland vs. Emma Goldman and Ben Reitman in 1915, the arrest and trial of William Sanger in 1915, and the 1921 Town Hall Raid in New York. Also included are transcripts of laws and proposed laws, a list of birth control advocates who have received prison sentences, and published transcripts of Supreme Court and Congressional hearings on matters or cases related to birth control.
The large Population files are composed of statistical studies and research reports, and cover many individual countries.
Related material can also be found under Birth Rates.
The Religion files contain significant documentation by and about the Catholic Church, and, along with a small Anti-Birth Control file, represent the bulk of the birth control opposition material in series IV.
One particularly useful file contains bibliographies of birth control literature and is located under Bibliography.
The Periodicals subseries is sorted alphabetically by publication title; Newspaper clippings and magazine articles are chronological with separate files for a few specific subjects; and Books are arranged alphabetically by author.
This series consists primarily of books and periodicals that were part of Margaret Sanger's personal library. There is also a collection of articles and newspaper clippings. The subject matter of this material reflects that of the rest of the Sanger Papers: birth control, population, eugenics, sex education, health, marriage, sexuality, and miscellaneous other topics.
This series is equally divided between a small sampling of contemporary recordings and film footage of Sanger and documentaries made after her death. The Sound recordings subseries is arranged chronologically and consists of record album, reel-to-reel tape, and cassette tape formats. Most items have been reformatted for research use (these are noted in the Contents list). There are recordings of Sanger speeches and interviews and one made after Sanger's death of Elizabeth Bacon and Leighton Rollins discussing Sanger's last years. Films and videotapes include copies of four documentaries and two contemporary films of Sanger.
The photographs are divided into the following subseries: Margaret (Higgins) Sanger--alone (arranged chronologically); Family (subdivided into files for "Higgins," "Sanger," "Slee," and "Family dogs" and arranged alphabetically within those subdivisions); Friends and associates (divided into individuals and groups); Sites and scenes; and Miscellaneous.
The Friends and associates subseries includes many "notables," such as Pearl Buck, Havelock Ellis, Mohandas Gandhi, Shidzue Kato, and many others. Box 112 contains photocopies for research purposes.
See also SERIES X. OVERSIZE MATERIALS and APPENDIX: PHOTOGRAPHS LOCATED IN OTHER SERIES.
This series contains miscellaneous oversize items from most of the other series, arranged in the same order. The bulk of it consists of awards, honors, and memorabilia. The latter is primarily gifts given to Sanger during her world travels, including Japanese slippers, some scrapbooks, and drawings and sculptures of Sanger.
Two busts and one bas-relief of Sanger are located in the reading room.
[See also SERIES VII. PRINTED MATERIAL-Books on shelf, for bound volume]
[Audio recording located in SERIES VIII. Audiovisual materials]
[Audio recording located in SERIES VIII. Audiovisual materials]
[Audio recording located in SERIES VIII. Audiovisual materials]
(see shelves in Reading Room for bound volumes)
[see SERIES X. OVERSIZE--Sanger library and Flat File]
[
[Originals and masters of audiovisual materials are closed. Use research copies]
Please use these for research
See also SERIES X. OVERSIZE MATERIALS and APPENDIX: PHOTOGRAPHS LOCATED IN OTHER SERIES.
[see also framed photo of Mary Higgins in SERIES X. OVERSIZE, box 130]
[see also photograph of Stuart and Yale class of 1928 in Flat file]
[see also oversize photo of Margaret Sanger and J. Noah H. Slee in Potsdam in Flat file]
[see also photo album of Japan trip, 1959, in SERIES X. OVERSIZE]