Ellen Starr Brinton

Last updated

Ellen Starr Brinton (March, 16, 1886 - July 2, 1954) [1] [2] [3] was an American pacifist, human rights activist and archivist. She represented the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) both locally and internationally and was known for her lectures about her working travels abroad and on the subject of peace. Brinton was the first curator of the Jane Addams Peace Collection which later became the Swarthmore College Peace Collection (SCPC). [2] Brinton was a Quaker and a feminist. [2]

Contents

Career

Brinton was born in West Chester, Pennsylvania. She was involved in the distributions of war rations in Pennsylvania during World War I. [4] She did publicity work for the Food Administration in Philadelphia. [2] She also wrote for a local paper. [2]

Brinton served as the field secretary for Pennsylvania's branch of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) [5] [6] in the 1920s and early 1930s. [2] In this capacity, she represented WILPF internationally. [7] [8] [9] She urged WILPF to resist violence in Cuba and for the United States to stop interfering in Cuban affairs. [10] Brinton began an inter-American project to collect the names of Latin American peace activists in 1934, eventually gaining a list of 170 names from 21 different countries. [11] She lectured about her many travels and correspondences with international peace activists, [12] [13] [14] and was considered a noted lecturer by The Philadelphia Inquirer . [15]

Brinton started the Swarthmore College Peace Collection (SCPC) in 1935. [2] She was first the acting curator of the collection, which contained documents belonging to Jane Addams and other sources that were around 300 years old. [16] Brinton doubled the size of the collection, by taking relevant sources back from the Library of Congress to include in her archive for SCPC. [17] She also found other documents belonging to Addams in 1951, which had been boxed up and placed in the Addams' barn. [18] The special collections of peace seals and stamps were started by Brinton. [2] Brinton retired from the library in 1951. [2]

Brinton helped found the interracial Media Fellowship House and a wing of the house was built using money from her memorial fund. [19] [20]

After her death, United Nations delegates and others held a concert in her memory. [21]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swarthmore College</span> College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, US

Swarthmore College is a private liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the earliest coeducational colleges in the United States. It was established as a college under the Religious Society of Friends. By 1906, Swarthmore had dropped its religious affiliation and officially became non-sectarian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jane Addams</span> American activist, sociologist and writer (1860–1935)

Laura Jane Addams was an American settlement activist, reformer, social worker, sociologist, public administrator, philosopher, and author. She was a leader in the history of social work and Women's suffrage. In 1889, Addams co-founded Hull House, one of America's most famous settlement houses, in Chicago, Illinois, providing extensive social services to poor, largely immigrant families. Philosophically a "radical pragmatist", she was arguably the first woman public philosopher in the United States. In the Progressive Era, when even presidents such as Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson identified themselves as reformers and might be seen as social activists, Addams was one of the most prominent reformers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women's International League for Peace and Freedom</span> Civil society organization

The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) is a non-profit non-governmental organization working "to bring together women of different political views and philosophical and religious backgrounds determined to study and make known the causes of war and work for a permanent peace" and to unite women worldwide who oppose oppression and exploitation. WILPF has national sections in 37 countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marii Hasegawa</span>

Marii Hasegawa, born Kyogoku Marii, was a peace activist, known for her fifty years of work with the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, including serving as its president during the Vietnam War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tracy Dickinson Mygatt</span> American dramatist

Tracy Dickinson Mygatt was an American writer and pacifist, co-founder with Frances M. Witherspoon of the War Resisters League, and longtime officer of the Campaign for World Government.

Heloise Brainerd was an American activist and a proponent of Latin American women's participation in the peace movement. Brainerd worked at the Pan American Union from 1909 to 1935 and then Women's International League for Peace and Freedom's US section. She received several international awards, including the Medal of Public Instruction from Venezuela and the Order of Merit from Ecuador.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Annalee Stewart</span>

Annalee Stewart was one of the first ordained female ministers of the U.S. Methodist Church and was the first woman to be a guest chaplain for the U.S. House of Representatives. She was a peace activist and served as president of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) between 1946 and 1950.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hannah Clothier Hull</span> American clubwoman, feminist and pacifist

Hannah Hallowell Clothier Hull was an American clubwoman, feminist, and pacifist, one of the founders and leaders of the Women's Peace Party and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.

Mildred Scott Olmsted was an American Quaker pacifist, in leadership positions with the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gertrud Baer</span> German Jewish womens rights and peace activist

Gertrud Baer (1890–1981) was a German Jewish women's rights and peace activist. One of the founding members of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, she served as the executive secretary of the German branch of WILPF beginning in 1921 and co-chair of the international organization from 1929 to 1947. Throughout World War II, though leadership was shared, Baer was the primary leader of the organization. At the end of the war, she became the first WILPF consultant to the United Nations and held that post until 1972.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clara Ragaz</span> Swiss feminist pacifist

Clara Ragaz was one of the most noted Swiss feminist pacifists of the first half of the twentieth century. She was a founder of the Swiss Federation of Abstinent Women, an organization that supported the temperance movement in Switzerland. She served as the co-International chair of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) from 1929 to 1946.

Kathleen Innes was a British Quaker, educator, writer and pacifist, who served as the joint chair of the international headquarters for the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) from 1937 to 1946.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cornelia Ramondt-Hirschmann</span>

Cornelia Ramondt-Hirschmann was a Dutch teacher, feminist, pacifist and theosophist active in the first half of the twentieth century. She was one of the women who participated in the push by pacifist feminists during World War I for world leaders to develop a mediating body to work for peace. The culmination of their efforts would be the achievement of the League of Nations when the war ended. Between 1935 and 1937, she served as one of the three international co-chairs of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anna Cox Brinton</span> American classics scholar, college administrator, writer and Quaker leader

Anna Shipley Cox Brinton was an American classics scholar, college administrator, writer, and Quaker leader, active with the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rose Morgan French</span> American suffragist

Rose Morgan French was an American suffragist, temperance and peace activist. She represented California suffragists as a delegate to the International Congress of Women, when it met in The Hague in 1915, and in Zürich in 1919.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alice Thacher Post</span> American editor

Alice Thacher Post was an American editor, suffragist, and pacifist. She was a founding officer of the Woman's Peace Party. She was married to Louis F. Post, who was Assistant Secretary of Labor in the Wilson administration.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bertha McNeill</span> American activist and educator (1887–1979)

Bertha Clay McNeill was an American civil rights activist, peace activist, and educator. She grew up in North Carolina and earned a teaching certificate there before moving to Washington, D.C., where she studied at Howard University. During her schooling, she became a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority and the Howard University Women's Club. On graduating in 1908, she briefly taught in Baltimore, before transferring to the District of Columbia Public School System. From 1909 to 1916, she taught at the M Street High School, thereafter at Dunbar High School until 1957, when she became an adjunct professor at Howard. During her teaching career, McNeill was the faculty advisor for Dunbar High School's student newspaper, edited several journals for organizations, and contributed articles to African-American newspapers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucy Biddle Lewis</span> American peace activist

Lucy Biddle Lewis was an American Quaker suffragist and peace activist, one of the American delegates to the International Congress of Women meeting at The Hague in 1915, and in Zürich in 1919. She was American national chair of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). She helped to create the Swarthmore College Peace Collection, which includes the papers of many notable pacificists, including those of Jane Addams.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dorothy H. Hutchinson</span> American activist, lecturer and author

Dorothy Hewitt Hutchinson was an American peace, civil rights and environmental activist, lecturer and author during the twentieth century. An advocate of nuclear disarmament, she became the president of American branch of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) in 1961 and the international chair of WILPF in 1965, the first American woman to hold that position since Jane Addams co-founded the organization in 1915.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucy Perkins Carner</span> American sociologist and pacifist (1886–1983)

Lucy Perkins Carner was an American sociologist, civil rights activist and pacifist. She was a national executive of the YWCA, and held national roles in peace organizations, including the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.

References

Citations

  1. ↑ Cross, Jesse Calvin (1961). The Jackson family : a history of Ephraim Jackson, first ancestor to come to America and his descendants, 1684-1960. p. 220.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Ellen Starr Brinton Papers (DG 051)". Swarthmore College Peace Collection. 22 June 2016. Archived from the original on 2017-10-16. Retrieved 2017-08-22.
  3. ↑ "Ellen Starr Brinton". Women In Peace. Retrieved 2017-08-29.
  4. ↑ McCain, George Nox (1920). War Rations for Pennsylvanians. Philadelphia: The John C. Winston Co. p. 149.
  5. ↑ "Miss Brinton to Speak at Y.W.C.A. Monday". The Evening News. 16 November 1933. Retrieved 22 August 2017– via Newspapers.com.
  6. ↑ "L.V. Congress of Women's Clubs Holds Meeting in Catasauqua". The Morning Call. 25 April 1934. Retrieved 23 August 2017– via Newspapers.com.
  7. ↑ "Miss Ellen Brinton, Peace Worker, Find Turkey Most Interesting Country in Europe". Our Town. 18 (44): 1,6. 12 August 1932. Retrieved 29 August 2017.
  8. ↑ "To Attend Mexican Peace Conference". Our Town. Vol. 16, no. 37. 27 June 1930. p. 12. Retrieved 29 August 2017.
  9. ↑ "Narberth Woman to Attend League Conference Abroad". Our Town. Vol. 18, no. 30. 6 May 1932. p. 5. Retrieved 29 August 2017.
  10. ↑ Gronbeck-Tedesco, John A. (2015). Cuba, the United States, and Cultures of the Transnational Left, 1930–1975. New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 243. ISBN   9781107083080.
  11. ↑ Threlkeld 2014, p. 176.
  12. ↑ "Speaker Traces Peace Moves". Altoona Tribune (Newspapers.com ed.). 22 November 1932. Retrieved 22 August 2017.
  13. ↑ Threlkeld 2014, p. 1.
  14. ↑ "Peace League Officer Lectures on Mexico". Star-Gazette. 5 April 1932. Retrieved 22 August 2017– via Newspapers.com.
  15. ↑ "Samuel L. Brinton". The Philadelphia Inquirer. 19 July 1921. Retrieved 29 August 2017– via Newspapers.com.
  16. ↑ "Establishing Peace Library". Swarthmorean. 8 December 1939. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
  17. ↑ Skidmore, Arden (25 April 1964). "Former Librarians Had White Beards". Delaware County Daily Times. Retrieved 22 August 2017– via Newspapers.com.
  18. ↑ Bryan, Mary Lynn McCree; Bair, Barbara; De Angury, Maree, eds. (2003). The Selected Papers of Jane Addams: Preparing to Lead, 1860-81. Vol. 1. Chicago: University of Illinois Press. p. 60. ISBN   0252027299.
  19. ↑ Plastas 2011, p. 159.
  20. ↑ Grasberger, Sara M. (26 November 1964). "Racial Incident Spawns Unique Institution". Delaware County Daily Times. Retrieved 22 August 2017– via Newspapers.com.
  21. ↑ "Philadelphia Organist In Concert Sunday". Swarthmorean. 28 October 1955. Retrieved 23 August 2017.

Sources

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.