Hannah Clothier Hull
Provenance: Donated by Hannah C. Hull, Jane Addams, Emily
Greene Balch, Caroline Biddle
Lippincott
Size: 3 linear feet (96.2 cm.)
Microfilm: Yes (six reels)
Restrictions: None
Finding Aid: Checklist
The bulk of this collection was microfilmed under N.E.H. Grant No.
RC 27706-77-739. The correspondence from Hannah Clothier Hull to
Caroline C. Biddle (Lippincott) was filmed by Scholarly Resources,
Inc
Hannah Clothier Hull (1872-1958), was one of the founders of the Woman's Peace Party and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. She served as a national officer of the WILPF for nearly forty years. Hull was also active in other social reform movements. A member of a well-to-do Quaker family, Hannah Clothier graduated from Swarthmore College in 1891. She first worked at a Philadelphia settlement house and then entered the graduate program in social work at Bryn Mawr College. In the following year Hannah Clothier married William Isaac Hull, a fellow pacifist and professor of political science at Swarthmore.
From 1914 to 1919 Hannah Clothier Hull was the chairman of the Pennsylvania branch of the Woman's Peace Party. She became more involved with the national WILPF in 1922 when she attended an emergency International Conference of Women at The Hague. Hull served as an officer of the U.S. section of the WILPF from 1924 to 1939 and as the honorary president until her death in 1958. This work drew her into close association with Jane Addams, Emily Greene Balch, Carrie Chapman Catt, and with peace leaders in all parts of the world.
Hull had many other interests apart from the peace movement. She
worked in the woman suffrage campaign and women's rights, had some
interest in temperance, was a member of the Friends Peace Committee
of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, and was on the board of the
American Friends Service Committee (1928-1947).
The Hannah Clothier Hull Papers contain personal correspondence (1889-1956), professional correspondence, speeches, articles, and manuscript notes. There is also biographical material, family papers, newspaper clippings, and photographs.
Among Hull's early personal correspondence is a folder of letters she wrote to her friend Caroline Cooper Biddle. These letters chart the close friendship between the two young women at the turn of the century.
A large part of the collection reflects Hull's work in the peace movement. There is correspondence with other WILPF officers and members, financial statements, press releases, and documents of the League. A file documenting attacks on WILPF (1924-1937), is also included. Hull's interest in women's rights is represented by items on woman suffrage, correspondence on WILPF relations with the National Council of Women of the United States, and material on women's movements in China and India.
Among the many correspondents in this collection are Jane Addams, Emily Greene Balch, Carrie Chapman Catt, Alice Hamilton, Lida Gustava Heymann, Lola Maverick Lloyd, Lucia Ames Mead, Jeannette Rankin, Rosika Schwimmer, Anna Garlin Spencer, Ellen Gates Starr, and Mary E. Woolley.
Most of the materials in this collection were given to the Swarthmore College Peace Collection by Hannah Clothier Hull herself, in 1950, 1954, and 1958. A few records were presented by her daughters following her death in 1958.
In December of 1976, the letters from Hannah Clothier Hull to
Caroline Cooper Biddle (Lippincott) were received as a gift of
Caroline Biddle Lippincott through the courtesy of Dr. H. Chandler
Forman. Also included in this gift was a clipping of the biography of
Isaac H. Clothier (Hannah's father) and two photographs of Hannah
Clothier Hull.
Distribution of material.
Box 2. Correspondence, 1927-1934 [mf reel
1]
Folder 1. 1927
Folder 2. 1928
Folder 3. 1929
Folder 4. 1930
Folder 5. 1931
Folder 6. 1932
Box 2. Correspondence, 1927-1934 [mf reel
2]
Folder 7. January-March 1933
Folder 8. April-June 1933
Folder 9. July-September 1933
Folder 10. October-December 1933
Folder 11. January-July 1934
Folder 12. August-December 1934
Box 3. Correspondence, 1935-1936 [mf reel
2]
Folder 1. January-June 1935
Folder 2. July-September 1935
Folder 3. October-December 1935
Folder 4. January-March 1936
Box 4. Correspondence, 1937-1938 [mf reel 3]
Folder 1. January-March 1937
Folder 2. April-June 1937
Folder 3. July-September 1937
Folder 4. October-December 1937
Folder 5. January-March 1938
Box 5. Correspondence, 1939-1957, and undated [mf
reel 4]
Folder 1. Undated
Folder 2. January-March 1939
Folder 3. April-June 1939
Folder 4. July-December 1939
Folder 5.1940
Folder 6. 1941-1947
Folder 7. 1948-1957
Box 6. Correspondence by subject, 1918-1958 [mf reel
5]
Folder 2. Jane Addams, 1932-1935
Folder 3. Attacks, 1924, 1926-1937
Folder 4. Emily Greene Balch, 1924-1929
Folder 5. Emily Greene Balch, 1930-1935
Folder 6. Emily Greene Balch, 1936-1939
Folder 7. Emily Greene Balch, 1940-1958
Folder 8. Emily Greene Balch, no date
Folder 9. Carrie Chapman Catt, 1925, 1931-1937
Folder 10. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, 1926
Folder 11. National Council of Women, 1924-1925
Folder 12. WILPF Fortieth Anniversary, 1954-1955
Folder 13. WILPF Education Committee, 1937
Folder 14. WILPF Labor Committee, 1937
Folder 15. WILPF Women's Committee for the Recognition of Russia,
1925
Box 7. Records and Miscellaneous [mf reel 6]
Folder 6. India Trip, 1928
Folder 7. Woman's Suffrage, 1909-1913