Collection is open to the public. Collection must be used in Special Collections and University Archives Reading Room. Collection or parts of collection may be stored offsite. Please contact Special Collections and University Archives in advance of your visit to allow for transportation time.
Paper finding aid with additional information is available in Special Collections & University Archives.
Ruth Erickson (~1890 - 1970) and Eleanor Stevenson (~1898 - ?) lived in a small house near New Milford, Connecticut from 1930 to the 1970's. Erickson died in 1970. They were political radicals, Socialists for the most part, and carried out a voluminous epistolary campaign against injustice. They offered their opinions and advice to friends and world leaders.
The collection contains correspondence by Erickson and Stevenson and subject files, and personal material of Erickson's including manuscripts of poems, articles, plays, and novels.
The paper finding aid shows that the initial material donated in 1971 is arranged in a chronological order (1910-1955). The paper finding aid includes descriptions of Erickson's and Stevenson's activities during a given period. Material in each period may include correspondence, manuscript material, and subject files.
Erickson's personal material includes, manuscripts of articles, novels and plays by Erickson, a diary and school notes.
There are many folders of correspondence separated into incoming and outgoing sections. Major correspondents were Grace Hutchins, Rockwell Kent, Phyllis A. Pope, Louise Pettibone Smith, and Philip Stevenson.
Subject files (often titled "Other/Related Material") include organizational letters, pamphlets, press releases, tearsheets, broadsides, newsletters, clippings, speeches, publications, poetry, and photographs.
Organizations represented include Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, the League for Peace and Democracy, Labor's Non-partisan League, League of Women Voters, Socialist Party, Medical Bureau to Aid Spanish Democracy, the Methodist Federation for social service, American Committee for Protection of the foreign Born, Russian War Relief, Progressive Party, and civil rights and labor groups.
The addition of 1972 contains more correspondence, manuscript material, and subject files also arranged into chronological periods (1920-1971) and the paper finding aid includes descriptions of Erickson's and Stevenson's activities during a given period.
Correspondence is separated into multiple incoming and outgoing sections. Each period includes files of "related material" which seem to be subject and activity files similar to the above description.