Helen Hawthorne MacMartin (1891-1987) Progressive Party Papers, 1948-1953 Doc 475

Introduction

This collection consists of the papers of Helen Hawthorn MacMartin (1891-1987) of Burlington, Vermont, from the 1940’s into the 1950’s, when she was active in the Vermont and the National Progressive Parties and related issues. The collection was given to the Vermont Historical Society in the summer of 2001 by Ellen David Friedman, chair of the Vermont Progressive Party (ms. acc. no. 2001.14). The collection had been “found in an attic in Northfield” and given to the current Vermont Progressive Party. The collection occupies one document storage box (1 linear foot).

Biographical Note

Helen Hawthorn MacMartin was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1891 and died in Berlin, Vermont, in 1997. She was a graduate of William Smith College and did graduate work at the Simmons School of Social Work in Boston. She worked as a placement interviewer with the U. S. Employment Service in Burlington, Springfield, and Windsor, Vermont, from 1936 to 1948 when she resigned to devote her time to concerns with peace and justice. She served as secretary-treasurer for the Progressive Party of Vermont and as state director of the Wallace for President Committee in 1948. She continued active involvement in social and political causes for many years.

Scope & Content

The collection is divided into three series: Helen MacMartin’s personal correspondence, records related specifically to the Vermont and National Parties, and duplicated materials related to progressive issues but not necessarily produced by the Progressive Party.

The first series contains material created by Helen MacMartin and correspondence sent to her. The correspondence concerns meetings and brief references to the unending daily work she and other committed persons were doing for the Progressive Party in Vermont. Often she seems frustrated by a lack of committed co- workers. Letters contain names of people who worked for the party and demonstrate the locations in the state in which the party was active. She regularly received letters from others who shared her commitment; all are personal but businesslike and to the point. Personal ephemera include records of calories consumed, a flyer from an international cinema house in Chicago, and a magazine solicitation.

The second series contains records related to the operation of the Progressive Party of Vermont and to national meetings, including platform materials from the 1952 convention. The link between Vermont’s fledgling party and the National Party is well documented here. A petition against the Korean War to Vermont Senators Flanders and

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Aiken contains over fifty signatures collected from Vermonters in Randolph, White River, Bethel, and Norwich, Vermont.

The third series includes printed materials received and kept by Mrs. MacMartin. It includes a wide variety of newsletters, including In Fact, A Daily Antidote For Falsehood of the Press and publications by the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship. There are flyers as well for various causes such as the treatment of Black singer Paul Robeson, the Korean War, banning the atomic bomb, and other peace issues. Other issues important to the Progressive Party that are represented in the collection include the Presidential campaign of Henry Wallace in 1948, assistance to those citizens attacked by the House Un-American Activities Committee, and world peace. Helen MacMartin was an active newspaper clipper. The collection contains one folder of undated, unorganized clippings from various newspapers. Full issues of newspapers that had not been annotated were discarded.

Inventory

I. Personal

Doc 475:1 Obituary, Helen MacMartin 2 Biography, Helen MacMartin 3 Correspondence from Helen MacMartin 5 Correspondence to Helen MacMartin 6 Notes, Helen MacMartin 7 Personal ephemera

II. Records Pertaining to Vermont and National Progressive Party

8 Resolutions, minutes, and records of the Vermont Progressive Party, 1947-1951 9 Vermont Progressive Party petition to Senators Aiken and Flanders in the cause of peace, Korean War period 10 National Progressive Party meeting, Dec. 2, 1950. 11 National Progressive Party Convention, 1952: Platform Materials

III. Progressive Party Issues

12 Various Progressive Party Issues and statements 13 Publications of Progressive Parties not in Vermont 14 Henry Wallace for President Campaign, 1948 15 Henry Wallace’s speech at founding of Progressive Party of Mass., 1948 16 Material relating to the House Un-American Activities Committee, Smith and McCarran Acts 17 Progressive Party analysis of record of Senator John Sparkman

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18 Progressive Party views of Presidential candidates Dwight D. Eisenhower and Adlai E. Stevenson 19 American Peace Crusade Newsletters, related material 20 Materials related to farming 21 Newsletters, In Fact, Inc. An Antidote for Falsehood in the Daily Press, 1949-9,1950 22 Newsletters relating to peace causes 23 National Council of American-Soviet Friendship press releases, 1948 and n.d. 24 Publications of National Council of Soviet-American Friendship, 1948 and n.d. 25 Newspaper clippings, 1940’s, 1950’s, n.d. 26 Materials related to racism 27 Miscellaneous 28 Miscellaneous

Barbara Ellingson December 2001

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