Special Collections and University Archives: Reform and Countercultural Movements

The papers of Shirley Chisholm contain speeches, congressional files, newsletters, articles, photographs, campaign miscellany, and audio cassettes. The speeches show Chisholm’s ideas and how far these ideas were disseminated. Topics include African Americans and their role in politics, business, the media, education, and the family unit; drug and alcohol abuse; nursing and health care and the implications for education and mental health; and “humanism” and general race issues. Of particular interest are speeches on the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. There are several speeches on women’s issues in regard to the workplace, the family, and politics.

The Clifford P. Case papers primarily document Case's career in the U.S. House of Representatives (1945-1953) and the U.S. Senate (1955-1978). Many aspects of U.S. public policy are documented in the Senator's papers, especially in the areas of civil rights, mass transit, and the environment; the Vietnam Conflict is also represented. Also documented are the Senator's participation as a trustee or director of various nonprofit organizations, including the Board of Foreign Missions of the Reformed Church in America, the National Council of Churches, Roper Public Opinion Research Center, Freedom House, the New Jersey Society for Crippled Children and Adults, the Fund for the Republic, and Rutgers University.

Harrison A. Williams, Jr. (1919-2001) represented New Jersey in the U.S. Senate (1959-1982) and served in the House of Representatives (1953-1956). A member of the Democratic Party, Williams held leadership positions on the Committee on Labor and Human Resources, the Special Committee on Aging, the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and the Select Committee on Small Business, among others. Major themes in the papers include the involvement of the Federal government in managing the natural and built environment of the United States (e.g., housing, mass transit, land and wildlife conservation, energy); the search for civil rights, economic equity and security, and the expansion of educational opportunities and initiatives; national tensions over economic and social costs (e.g., expanded entitlement programs vs. taxation, crime and assassinations vs. gun control); business concerns on trade, contractual, and regulatory matters; and Americans' responses to foreign affairs, particularly with regard to the Vietnam War, the Middle East, and the Panama Canal Treaty.

The bulk of the papers relate to Mary T. Norton’s career as a Congresswoman (1925-1950). The collection consists of correspondence, speeches, statements and press releases, writings, photographs, certificates of election, scrapbooks, newspaper clippings, and letters of condolence on her death. Also included are biographical material, including magazine articles and her legislative and voting records, and documents relating to organizations of which she was a member. Speeches and public statements made in Congress and elsewhere concentrate on the issues of labor, women’s role and status, and child care. Her writings deal with some of the same issues.

Please see additional congressional papers for further materials on social reform.

The collection contains minutes of executive board meetings, spring institutes, and annual conventions of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Mercer County, together with records of Woman's Christian Temperance Union No. 1 of Trenton and other constituent unions. The records of Trenton Union No. 1 include minutes of regular and executive committee meetings, a constitution and pledge book, a typescript history, minutes of the Y Branch, and scrapbooks that include some clippings pertaining to the Willard Union, also of Trenton. Additional records present consist of a membership list and treasurer's reports of the Hillcrest Union (of Trenton), minutes of the Iota Sigma of Ewing WCTU, and a constitution and minutes of regular and executive committee meetings of the Citizens' League of the City of Trenton.

Founded in 1920 as a successor to the New Jersey Woman Suffrage Association, the League of Women Voters of New Jersey is a non-governmental organization that promotes non-partisan political education and responsible public policy. Its broad objectives were the advancement and clarification of women's political and legal status, promotion of legislation to protect women workers, reform of state governmental structure and institutions, social reform, and support of world peace. The early records document the League's support of social legislation, such as the regulation of women's industrial work, restriction of child labor, prohibition, and other issues. The greater part of the collection documents the League's program after 1945, particularly its support of expanded educational opportunities, equalization of the tax burden, protection of the environment, and regional planning.

Through its annual conferences, the Council for Human Services in New Jersey provided a forum for the exchange of information and ideas between persons from private charities, religious organizations, and government agencies who were directly involved "with the problems of human affliction and distress." Between conferences, the Council's additional work in studying both societal problems and the delivery of social welfare services in New Jersey was largely carried out through its committees. Agricultural laborers, older people, refugees, drug addiction, juvenile delinquency, public assistance, and public health were among the topics addressed by the Council. The organization also disseminated information, study results, and revised standards through its publications. Its advocacy contributed to the formation of other organizations, including the New Jersey Association for Mental Health and the Rutgers University Graduate School of Social Work, and influenced the adoption of state regulations and legislation. Included in the records of the Council are constitutions and bylaws, minutes, resolutions, annual reports, financial records, a chrono file, conference papers and agendas, committee files, subject files, historical files, publications, files of the affiliated Social Welfare Research Foundation of New Jersey, photographs, a membership card file, a publications index, and scrapbooks.

Women's group founded in 1895 to improve and beautify the city; worked at first to promote clean streets and lots; later became involved with such social problems as prison welfare and child labor legislation. Minutes, clippings, notes, and letters received.