Papers of Margaret Earhart Smith, 1940-1978

While there are few personal papers, the Special Services Committee papers (by far the largest group) include many references to Margaret Earhart Smith's family and to its financial arrangements with the Special Services Committee, Hilda Worthington Smith (see the Smith collection, A-76, in the Schlesinger Library), and Ernestine L. Friedmann.

In 1959 Smith gave the Women's Archives files of the Special Services Committee covering the period 1943-1950. This collection (the original A-79) was a combination of papers from Smith's files and files from the Ann Arbor office of the Special Services Committee. The office was run by Mary Malcomson Raphael; Smith lived in Detroit or the Boston area, but visited Ann Arbor often. Smith and Raphael corresponded frequently, often keeping copies of their letters and sometimes sending copies to interested labor educators. These others often sent the same letter to both Smith and Raphael. There was therefore much duplication and the addenda received in 1979 and 1980 added more duplicates. Because it was impossible to separate the work of the Special Services Committee and Smith's work on the Committee, the bulk of the papers--including correspondence, minutes, conference papers, and publications--have been combined in one chronological sequence that provides an extensive history of the Special Services Committee's involvement with the workers' education movement during 1943-1954.

Series IA, Special Services Committee, 1943-1978. The Special Services Committee was an informal group of women who came together to advance and support projects in workers' education: pamphlets ("Army Orientation," 1944, and "University Programs in Labor Education," by Caroline F. Ware, 1946); support, through the National Committee for the Extension of Labor Education, for the Labor Education Extension Bill, 1946-1949, and cooperation with American Labor Education Service (ALES) programs, including the Summer School for Office Workers, Hudson Shore Labor School, university and labor education programs, and workers' education exchanges in England and Europe. Members of the Special Services Committee were on the boards of these organizations and Smith and Mary Malcomson Raphael taught in a number of the programs. This subseries includes correspondence, minutes, conference papers, and pamphlets. Scattered throughout is correspondence with Hilda Worthington Smith, Ernestine L. Friedmann, Eleanor G. Coit, Mary Malcomson Raphael, Sadye Power, and other labor educators of the period.

Series IB, United Community Services of Metropolitan Boston, 1950-1952. Smith was chair of the Labor Participation Committee, whose purpose was "to serve the labor staff of the UCS" in order to develop better communication and cooperation between labor unions and social agencies for their mutual benefit. The two folders include scattered correspondence, minutes, conference papers, and other papers covering the three aspects of the committee's work: educational programs and courses (called Social Work Institutes by the AFL and Union Counseling Programs by the CIO); efforts to increase the involvement of labor leaders on United Community Services committees and the United Community Services board, and labor support for United Community Services through the Red Feather (fund-raising) Campaign; and an institute for union members and social workers.

Series IC, Race relations. In 1943-1945 Smith was actively concerned with race relations through her social work studies and as a member of the Committee on Race Relations of the Michigan Council of Churches. Included are a typed essay, "Detroit and its Negro Labor," responses to another essay, "Toward Better Race Relations," and miscellaneous correspondence, some with the Fair Employment Practices Commission.

Series II, Management Training Program, Radcliffe College. Between 1946 and 1953 Smith was variously a consultant, fundraiser and faculty member in the Management Training Program, and in 1951 was involved in an extensive program evaluation. Besides funding and organizational correspondence and student papers, there are papers about course development and program goals. (See also records in the Radcliffe College Archives.)

Series III, Refugee work. Smith was a founder of the Window Shop, which opened in Cambridge in the spring of 1939 to offer employment to and raise money for refugees from Germany and Austria. She became its first president in 1941. Besides Window Shop correspondence and speeches, this series includes correspondence concerning Smith's own efforts to find placement and employment for refugee families, letters from refugees to Smith, and three typed letters, signed from Felix Frankfurter about an individual case. Folders #60-61 for which original restrictions have expired were added to the collection in October 2009.