Henry Ford Peace Expedition

Records, 1915-1916

Document Group: DG 018

Provenance: Acc. 48-034: Carl Wittke; Acc. 49-063: Mrs. John Thompson; Acc. 49-096 and 60-028: Ben Huebsch; Acc. 53-048:

Ford Motor Company Archives, Acc. 99A-032: Barbara Kraft

Size: 2.1 linear feet

Restrictions: None

Microfilm: Yes

Finding Aid: Checklist revised by Wendy Chmielewski, April 1998 and July 1999

This checklist is the property of the Swarthmore College Peace Collection.

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Historical Introduction

On December 4, 1915, Henry Ford (1863-1947) and over one hundred delegated and reporters left Hoboken, New Jersey, aboard the steamship Oscar II bound for Christiana, Norway, the first port of call on an itinerary of peace meetings in nonbelligerant Europe. Less than a month before the Oscar II sailed, Rosika Schwimmer (1877-1948), who became the expedition's "general secretary," persuaded Ford to finance the voyage. The purpose of the Henry Ford Peace Expedition was the establishment of a conference of neutral nations which would seek to implement peace proposals through continuous mediation.

Although Ford left the expedition at Christiana (Oslo) for health reasons, the delegation visited European pacifists in Stockholm and The Hague before returning to the United States in January 1916. In late February, representatives from the European neutral nations met with a remnant of the Ford Peace Expedition to establish the Neutral Conference for Continuous Mediation (NCCM) at Stockholm. Several months later, the site of the sessions was transferred to The Hague. Work on proposals continued until the end of 1916, with Louis P. Lochner playing a key role in this attempt to encourage peace overtures and establish principles which could serve as the basis for an equitable peace settlement.

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Scope and Content

The collected records of the Henry Ford Peace Expedition in the Swarthmore College Peace Collection are neither the official records of the Expedition nor those of the Neutral Conference for Continuous Mediation. The bulk of the materials were donated by various members of the expedition and include scattered correspondence and personal files of Louis P. Lochner, Benjamin W. Huebsch, Arthur L. Weatherly, Theodore A. Hostetler, and John E. Jones. This section of the collection includes diaries, correspondence (1915-1916), statements, speeches, passenger lists and biographies, press releases, pamphlets, the Argosy (a shipboard newsletter), menus, invitations, press credentials and visiting cards as well as clippings (1915-1925), and photographs. Also present is a file of Lochner's on Corda Fratres, an international student organization. Documents of the Neutral Conference for Continuous Mediation include minutes (1916), releases, manifestos, and bulletins. The work of the NCCM is described in the conference publications, most of which are printed in English, but include some items in French, German, Swedish, and Esperanto.

In 1999, Barbara S Kraft, the author of The Peace Ship: Henry Ford's Pacifist Adventure in the First World War, donated her extensive files of materials on the Expedition. Kraft had collected correspondence, published pamphlets, and biographical material on Expedition participants from archival collections in Europe and North America in preparation for her book. These files form the second series of this collection.

Correspondents in the whole collection, in addition to all those named above, are Katherine Devereux Blake, Katherine Leckie, Lola Maverick Lloyd, Lewis A. Maverick, Gaston Plantiff, Frances Pogany, May Wright Sewall, and Julia Grace Wales.

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Arrangement

All accessions except for the materials donated in 1999 by Barbara S. Kraft are organized into five boxes. Secondary material about the Expedition was grouped together, then papers of individual members, printed material from the Neutral Conference for Continuous Mediation, and then correspondence. This material was microfilmed. Additional items were received after the microfilming process and they are grouped together in the last box. The materials received from Barbara Kraft are grouped together and (as of July 1999) remain as the donor organized them. This material was not microfilmed. However, the donor included a small piece of microfilm of several finding aids and miscellaneous resources she had collected during her research. This film is Reel 76.4. Photographs were removed from all parts of the collection, including the Kraft accession and placed in the SCPC Photograph Collection.

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Contents of the Collection

Series I: Original Accession

Box 1.
Reel 76.1	Folder 1	"Who's Who" and List of Members
	Folder 2.	Pamphlets
	Folder 3.	Clippings and articles
	Folder 4.	Clippings from Washington, D.C. Papers
	Folder 5	Clippings from The Boston Traveler, January 7 to February 15, 1916.
	Folder 6.	Clippings
	Folder 7.	Pamphlets and Photographs
	Folder 8.	Clippings, 1915 [not on microfilm]

Box 2. Papers of Benjamin W. Huebsch
Reel 76.1 (cont.)	Folder 1.	Neutral Conference for Continuous Mediation (NCCM)
	Folder 2.	NCCM Bulletin's Speeches, Proposals, and Resolutions
	Folder 3.	Correspondence, NCCM Bulletins, and Cable grams
	Folder 4.	NCCM Bulletins and Programs
	Folder 5.	Reports, Plans, and Speeches relating to Ford Peace Expedition

Box 3. Papers of Benjamin W. Huebsch (cont.)
Reel 76.1 (cont.)	Folder 1.	Correspondence
	Folder 2.	Argosy
	Folder 3.	Argosy
	Folder 4.	Travel arrangements, Visiting cards, and Photographs [removed to SCPC Photograph Collection]
	Folder 5.	Passenger Lists
Reel 76.2	Folder 6.	Bulletins, Resolutions, and Minutes
	Folder 7.	Julia Grace Wales
	Folder 8.	American Neutral Conference Committee
	Folder 9.	Fred Vetd Ret and The Orcadian
	Folder 10.	International Congress of Students

Box 4. Papers of Members
Reel 76.2 (cont.)	Folder 1.	Correspondence of Louis P. Lochner
	Folder 2.	Clippings
	Folder 3.	Material by Lochner
	Folder 4.	Articles, Clippings, and Letters
	Folder 5.	Travels of Lochner with Ford Expedition and in Germany
	Folder 6.	Papers of Theodore A. Hostetler
	Folder 7.	Papers of John E. Jones

Box 5.
Reel 76.2 (cont.)	Folder 1.	Minutes of Neutral Conference for Continuous Mediation (NCCM)
		Minutes of March 11, 1916 [added after filming]
	Folder 2.	Papers of Arthur L. Weatherly
Reel 76.3	Folder 3.	Minutes of the Provisional Central Committee of the Neutral Conference
	Folder 4.	Material written or collected by Arthur L. Weatherly
	Folder 5.	Minutes, Members, Statement, Reports, Bulletins, Speeches, and Discussions of NCCM

Box 5a Neutral Conference for Continuous Mediation, 1916
Not on microfilm	Folder 1.	Numbered documents
	Folder 2.	Weekly summaries
	Folder 3.	Statements, minutes, reports
	Folder 4.	Miscellaneous pamphlets
	Folder 5.	Henry Ford and The Peace of Europe [by Louis Lochner, 1916?]
	Folder 6.	Manuscript from Labadie Collection, Rebecca Shelley, n.d.

Series II. Files of Barbara Kraft

Boxes 1-8 Not on microfilm	Miscellaneous files collected on the Henry Ford Peace Expedition (unprocessed as of July 1999)
Reel 76.4	1 reel of film: miscellaneous finding aids collected by Barbara Kraft. List available in SCPC office files.
Photographs	Photographs available in the Peace Collection Photograph Collection (8" x 10" and oversize)