Explore Our Collection

The Peace Collection holds a wide range of materials in a diversity of formats, including manuscript collections, posters, periodicals, memorabilia, film and video, and photographs.  View a full list of our collections in our finding aid portal. Manuscript collections are referenced as DGs (Document Group), or CDGs (Collected Document Group). We also hold an extensive collection of Subject Files. 

One important area of our collection is the history of conscientious objection. See this exhibit on Conscientious Objection & the Great War: 1914-1920, and this Guide on Conscientious Objection/Objectors. 

In the Library

Most Peace Collection materials have not been digitized, so if you want to see them, you will need to come to the Reading Room in person.

Search our catalogs before your visit:

• Archives and Manuscripts: find archival materials and manuscripts, read collection descriptions and summaries, and learn of any limitations on particular collection access. 
  • Use this guide to learn how to get the most out of the Archives and Manuscripts site, especially if searching for archival material is new to you.
• Tripod: find books and periodicals. After entering your search, you may refine your search to items under "Library" to Swarthmore: Peace Collection.

Online Digital Collections

A selection of items from a small number of our collections have been digitized and are viewable on the TriCollege Libraries Digital Collections site. Highlights include:

• Jane Addams Collection
• Button, Pin, and Ribbon Collection
• ​​​​​E. Raymond Wilson Collection of Japanese Lantern Slides
• Mohandas K. Gandhi Correspondence 
• Peace Collection Ephemera
• Photographs
• Soviet posters 
• War Resisters League Publications 

Additional materials––including selected digitized Sound Recordings and Moving Images from our collections––are available on  the Internet Archive.

There are a few things in other places, so if you don't see what you're looking for, email peacecollection@swarthmore.edu for help.

Digital Exhibits + Online Guides

Peace Collection staff has created several digital exhibits over the years, including:

• Photographs by Dorothy Marder
• Photographs by Harvey Finkle, 1970-2015

We have also created a few Guides to our collections:

• The Peace Collection Resources Guide has sections covering: Conscientious Objectors, Selected Activists, Women's activism and LGBTQ activism and Peace [MANY broken links in this guide!]
• Queer History Materials in Swarthmore Special Collections, with a section devoted to LGBTQ Peace Activists

The Words We Choose

Occasionally, you may come across language in our finding aids, catalog records, digitized collections, blog posts, exhibitions, or elsewhere that you find offensive or harmful. Please let us know by emailing peacecollection@swarthmore.edu. 

Temple University's Special Collections Resource Center has an excellent explanation for why these terms sometimes appear in archival description.