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Anna Louise Strong papers, 1885-1971

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Strong, Anna Louise, 1885-1970
Title
Anna Louise Strong papers
Dates
1885-1971 (inclusive)
1969-1970 (bulk)
Quantity
24 cubic feet, (49 boxes, 2 packages, 2 tubes)
4 vertical files
7 microfilm reels
Collection Number
1309, 1444
Summary
Papers of a female political activist, journalist, and author who observed the Communist revolution in China
Repository
University of Washington Libraries, Special Collections
Special Collections
University of Washington Libraries
Box 352900
Seattle, WA
98195-2900
Telephone: 2065431929
Fax: 2065431931
speccoll@uw.edu
Access Restrictions

Open to all users.

Some material stored offsite; advance notice required for use.

Request at UW

Languages
Collection materials are in English.
Sponsor
Funding for encoding this finding aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities
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Biographical Note

Anna Louise Strong was a journalist, world traveler, observer of revolutions and author of over 30 books and countless articles. She was the daughter of a Congregationalist minister, Sydney Strong, who was a pacifist and practitioner of the social gospel. She was educated at Oberlin College, Bryn Mawr and University of Chicago, where she earned a Ph.D. After finishing her education, Strong joined the National Child Labor Committee and organized child welfare exhibits throughout the country from 1910-1912.

Sydney Strong moved to Seattle in 1906 where he lived until his death in 1938. Anna Louise Strong, who seldom lived anywhere for long, joined him there from 1916 to 1921, which was for her a time of radicalizing events, including the Everett massacre and trial, and the Seattle General Strike. In Seattle, she began her journalism career and wrote for the Seattle Union Record. During this time, she was elected to the Seattle School Board and subsequently recalled because of association with the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.). In the wake of these events, Strong went elsewhere in search of socialism in practice. Her quest took her first to the Soviet Union, where she was based from 1921 until 1940. During this period she spent part of the year in the Soviet Union, but would return to the United States for a lecture tour, usually between January and April.

Strong also became one of the earliest journalists to cover the Communist revolution in China. She visited China first in 1925 and returned frequently until 1947. During the course of her visits to China, she met and interviewed the Chinese Communist leaders, including Chou En-lai and Mao Tse-tung, gaining their respect and trust. In his 1946 interview with her, Mao first used the expression "paper tiger" to describe the United States.

Strong's enthusiasm for the Chinese revolution may have led to her arrest, imprisonment and expulsion from the Soviet Union in 1949. After these events, she was cut off from the Soviet Union, shunned by American Communists and denied a passport by the United States government. She settled for a time in California, where she wrote, lectured and invested in real estate. She was cleared finally of the Soviets' charges against her in 1955. When her passport was restored in 1958, she immediately made her way back to China, where she remained until her death in 1970. During the latter part of her life Anna Louise was honored and revered by the Chinese, one of the few Westerners with entree to China after the revolution and one of the last "Old China Hands" to remain in the good graces of the Chinese through the cultural revolution. The Chinese leaders considered her their unofficial spokesperson to the English speaking world.

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Content Description

Correspondence, writings, diaries, biography, pamphlets, photographs, clippings, memorabilia, and scrapbooks. Consists of material relating to Strong's personal life as well as to her political and professional interests. Includes notebooks on China, the Spanish Civil War, the Soviet Union, and labor organizing in the Midwest and California in the late 1930s. Also includes a sound recording taped at Strong's seventieth birthday celebration in 1955. Major correspondents include Eleanor Roosevelt, Joel Shubin (Strong's Russian husband), as well as Strong's father, Sydney Dix Strong, and brother, Tracy Strong. Chinese correspondents include, Chiang Kai-shek, Chou En-Lai, Liu Shaoqi, and Mao Tse-tung.

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Other Descriptive Information

Forms a part of the Labor Archives of Washington.

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Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

Creator's literary rights transferred to the University of Washington Libraries.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

Arranged in 8 accessions:

  1. Accession No. 1309-001, Anna Louise Strong papers, 1885-1957
  2. Accession No. 1309-002, Anna Louise Strong microfilm, 1896-1957
  3. Accession No. 1309-016, Anna Louise Strong letters, 1955, 1960
  4. Accession No. 1309-017, Anna Louise Strong papers, 1961, undated
  5. Accession No. 1309-018, Anna Louise Strong papers, 1904-1970
  6. Accession No. 1309-019, Anna Louise Strong papers, 1968-1969
  7. Accession No. 1309-020, Anna Louise Strong papers, 1906, 1918
  8. Accession No. 1444-001, Anna Louise Strong papers, 1907-1971

Separated Materials

In 2007, publications received with accession 1309-001 were separated in order to be cataloged individually.

Microfilm is available through Government Publications, Maps, Microforms & Newspapers.

Related Materials

Anna Louise Strong's papers from her last years in China, 1958-1970, including an autobiography, are in the National Library of China in Beijing.

Additional materials related to Anna Louise Strong can be found in the Strong Family Papers (Manuscript Collection 0958) in the repository. Wikidata is available for this collection

Bibliography

Strong, Tracy B. and Helene Keyssar, Right in Her Soul the Life of Anna Louise Strong, 1983. Ogle, Stephanie Francine, Anna Louise Strong, Progressive and Propogandist, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Washington, Seattle, 1981.

Strong, Tracy B. and Helene Keyssar, Right in Her Soul the Life of Anna Louise Strong, 1983.Ogle, Stephanie Francine, Anna Louise Strong, Progressive and Propogandist, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Washington, Seattle, 1981.
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Detailed Description of the Collection

Names and Subjects

Subject Terms

  • Communism--China--History
  • Communism--Russia--History
  • Everett Massacre, Everett, Wash., 1916
  • General Strike, Seattle, Wash., 1919
  • Labor journalism--United States
  • Labor unions--Organizing--Middle West
  • Labor unions--Organizing--Washington (State)--Seattle
  • Personal Papers/Corporate Records (University of Washington)
  • Women journalists--United States--Archives
  • Women social reformers--United States--Archives

Geographical Names

  • China-- Politics and government--1912-1949
  • China--History--Republic, 1912-1949
  • Seattle
  • Seattle (Wash.)--Politics and government
  • Soviet Union--Politics and government--1917-1936
  • Spain--History--Civil War, 1936-1939
  • Washington (State)

Form or Genre Terms

  • Clippings (Books, newspapers, etc.)
  • Diaries
  • Newsletters
  • Notebooks
  • Pamphlets
  • Photographs
  • Scrapbooks

Occupations

  • Journalists
  • Political activists

Titles within the Collection

  • Seattle union record
  • Today : a personal news-letter / Anna Louise Strong

Other Creators

  • Personal Names

    • Chiang, Kai-shek, 1887-1975--Correspondence
    • Liu, Shaoqi, 1898-1969--Correspondence
    • Mao, Zedong, 1893-1976--Correspondence
    • Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962--Correspondence (creator)
    • Shubin, Joel--Correspondence
    • Strong, Anna Louise, 1885-1970--Archives
    • Strong, Sydney, 1860-1938--Correspondence
    • Strong, Tracy, 1887-1968--Correspondence
    • Zhou, Enlai, 1898-1976--Correspondence

    Corporate Names

    • Industrial Workers of the World
    • Labor Archives of Washington (University of Washington) (creator)
    • Seattle Public Schools. Board of Directors


2007 (Last modified: 2/23/2024)

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