Nuclear Free America Records, 1945-2003

Series 1 documents the administrative activities of the organization, and includes summary reports, financial records, funding proposals, grant applications, contact lists, and outreach records. Evidence of the organization’s donor outreach activities, including mailer campaigns and donor approaches, is ample in this series. Notable in this series are records of several events sponsored jointly with other local anti-nuclear nonprofit organizations, including two dance marathon fundraisers, which show the organization’s network and community reach. Also notable is an incomplete run of The New Abolitionist, the newspaper produced by Nuclear Free America from the late 1980s to the mid 1990s. Content includes reports from national and international Nuclear Free Zones, progress reports from campaigns underway, and related nuclear and disarmament news.

Series 2 documents the primary campaign of Nuclear Free America, to create Nuclear Free Zones around the world. Grouped by geographical area, the files in this series show how NFA worked with grassroots activists at each locality to advance this goal. In addition to correspondence with these activists and data sheets detailing the nature of the local campaign, these files include fundraising materials, promotional materials for the campaign such as event flyers, advertising posters, and petitions; local news and press coverage, including newspapers and clippings, letters to the editor, and editorials; text of proposed ordinances and resolutions; correspondence with local authorities; handwritten notes; literature from pronuclear organizations and individuals; city council agendas and minutes; minutes and related materials from partner organizations; speeches, and more. These document the organizing activities at the grassroots level and can be used to show how the presence of nuclear materials, waste, or energy production affected specific localities and communities.

Series 3 documents an important product of Nuclear Free America which was in high demand by activist groups for many years. The weapons-maker database compiled and cross-referenced numerous federal datasets to provide reports on the sources, materials, and makers of nuclear weapons in the United States. This database included Department of Defense and Department of Energy contracts for weapons systems and weapons systems support by contractor and parent company. These data were derived from the Federal Procurement Data Center’s Individual Contract Actions and Awards master file, and were combined with parent company data provided by Eagle Eye Publishers of Arlington, Virginia. Buyers of these data and reports, including individuals, organizations, and nonprofits, used them to prepare boycotts, educate consumers, and a variety of other legal and social uses. NFA published a top 100 and a top 50 nuclear weapons systems makers list annually, ranked by total contract amount from the U.S. government. Familiar corporations such as AT&T, Boeing, General Motors, General Electric, Ford Motor, Hewlett-Packard, Lockheed, and Westinghouse appear annually on each list ranked according to total amounts received. Materials include data sheets, correspondence with clients and data providers, a list of cross-reference codes, and compiled lists.

Series 4 compiles files on other Nuclear Free America projects, including those intended to increase public awareness of consumer links to the nuclear arms race and to provide people with simple ways of taking action against nuclear weapons contractors. The boycott of Morton Salt (whose parent company Morton Thiokol was the producer of solid rocket boosters for all U.S. nuclear weapons) was promoted through the media, direct mailings, and the efforts of hundreds of local campaigns, and was featured in the mainstream press via Newsweek, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, and several radio talk shows. The boycott lasted for several years and had a notable impact on the company. Other projects include the Nuclear Free Home Project, which marketed lightbulbs and smoke detectors made by non nuclear-affiliated companies and contained no radioactive material.  Materials include project files, correspondence, promotional materials, budgets, and graphic design files.

Series 5 collects materials from a number of affiliated activist and social justice organizations both small and large. These include Concerned Citizens for Nuclear Safety, Greenpeace, International Peace Bureau, the Indigenous Environmental Network, Japan Council against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs, NukeWatch, the Peace Boat, SANE/Freeze, and the World Information Service on Energy (WISE). Topics span a huge range of nuclear concerns, including waste disposal, power plant siting, construction, accidents, environmental protection, nonproliferation, disarmament, uranium mining, and international relations. Materials include newspapers, newsletters, white papers, flyers, brochures, conference papers, reports, and other ephemera. Many of the periodicals included are quite rare, as they were produced by small organizations with limited reach and a community focus; others are commonly available and produced by larger organizations with wider membership. Nuclear concerns are covered from many different angles, including legal, religious, and environmental directions.

Series 6 contains similar materials to those found in Series 5, but are arranged by subject focus. Flyers, brochures, pamphlets, newsclippings, and articles on a number of areas of concern are in this series. Files on the Hanford Site and the Trojan Nuclear Power Plant document Pacific Northwest issues, and more general files on topics such as pro-nuclear campaigns and economic justice show the breadth and depth of Nuclear Free America's concerns.

Series 7 is comprised of antinuclear ephemera, artifacts, and memorabilia collected by Nuclear Free America, including buttons, placards, posters, armbands, coffee mugs, stickers, and signs. Most are related to Nuclear Free Zones at various localities, but other national and international organizations represented include Bike for Peace and Movement de la Paix.

This series contains VHS tape recordings of television productions and broadcasts related to nuclear issues. Notable items include an interview with spiritual leader Ram Dass in which he comments on nuclear free zones, as well as recordings related to tribal lands and nuclear activity.