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COLLECTION Identifier: bMS 16146

Unitarian Service Committee. Executive Director. Records, 1940-1950.

Overview

Chiefly the records of Robert Dexter, executive director, 1941-1944, and Charles Joy, executive director, 1944-1946. The collection also includes correspondence from Edward A. Cahill, associate director, 1944-1947; Howard L. Brooks, associate director, 1943-1953, and acting director, July-November 1952, July 1946-March 1947; and other people associated with the Service Committee, such as Noel Field and Elizabeth Dexter.

Dates

  • Creation: 1940-1950.

Extent

3 boxes

This collection includes the records of Robert Dexter, executive director, 1941-1944, and Charles Joy, executive director, 1944-1946. There is also correspondence from Edward A. Cahill, associate director, 1944-1947; Howard L. Brooks, associate director, 1943-1953, and acting director, July-November 1952, July 1946-March 1947; and other people associated with the Service Committee, such as Noel Field and Elizabeth Dexter. The records document controversies concerning Service Committee members Noel Field, Herta Tempi, and Charles Joy, and the serious financial crisis the Committee faced in the mid-1940s. There are also reports documenting the experiences of refugees in Italy, particularly in Vienna and Bologna, as well as in Czechoslovakia and other parts of Europe.

Biographical / Historical

The Unitarian Service Committee was formed as a standing committee of the American Unitarian Association in May 1940. Its purpose was to be a committee to investigate opportunities both in America and abroad for humanitarian service. During and after World War II, the Unitarian Service Committee aided hundreds of displaced persons in occupied countries, allowing many of them to find passage to the United States. The present-day Unitarian Universalist Service Committee continues to endeavor to advance human rights and social justice throughout the world.

General note

NOTE: For each entry in the following list, the bMS number indicates the collection number, the number after the slash is the box number, and the number in parentheses is the folder number. Portions of this collection have been digitized for a collaborative project with the U.S. Holocaust Museum and the Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine (CDJC), France. Those items have a "See digital image" link.

Title
Unitarian Service Committee. Executive Director. Records, 1940-1950: A Finding Aid.
Author
Andover-Harvard Theological Library
Language of description
und
EAD ID
div16146

Repository Details

Part of the Harvard Divinity School Library, Harvard University Repository

Special Collections at Harvard Divinity School Library preserves and makes accessible primary source materials documenting the history of religion and theology, with particular historical emphasis on American liberal religious traditions. Though the historical strengths of the collections have been in the field of Christianity, other religious traditions are increasingly reflected, in step with Harvard Divinity School's evolving focus on global religious studies. Known as Andover-Harvard Theological Library since 1911, it was renamed the Harvard Divinity School Library in 2021.

Contact:
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