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Naomi Achenbach Benson papers, 1895-1961

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Benson, Naomi Achenbach
Title
Naomi Achenbach Benson papers
Dates
1895-1961 (inclusive)
Quantity
19.5 cubic feet (40 boxes)
Collection Number
0204 (Accession No. 0204-001)
Summary
Papers of a teacher and Democratic Party worker in Snohomish County, Washington.
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

No restrictions on access.

Request at UW

Languages
English
Sponsor
Funding for encoding this finding aid was partially provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities
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Biographical Note

Naomi Achenbach Benson, a teacher as well as a political and civic activist from Everett, Washington, was a member of the Snohomish County Democratic Party and the Washington State Progressive Party. She worked on behalf of a wide variety of liberal causes in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s: civil liberties and freedom of speech, liberal relief policies, pacifist foreign policies, equal rights for women and minorities, public power, and many others.

Naomi Benson was born Naomi Achenbach on August 19, 1878, and raised on her parents’ farm in Gladbrook, Iowa. She began attending the Iowa State Normal School in Cedar Falls in 1893, then in 1900 enrolled at the State University of Iowa in Iowa City, from which she graduated in 1902. After graduation, she taught one year of seventh grade and three years of high school before moving to Everett, where she taught high school from 1906 to 1908 and 1912 to 1919. She moved back to Iowa in 1919 to help her parents with the farm, and on October 12, 1921, she married Jesse Noble Benson, a highway engineer from her hometown. After their marriage, Jesse Benson worked out of town while his wife continued to help at the Achenbach family farm. The Bensons moved into their own house in 1922 and in the late 1920s moved to Everett permanently.

Naomi Benson was a member of numerous organizations throughout her lifetime. Among the first that she supported were the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Everett-based Mountaineers, the American Red Cross, and the National Parks Association.

Benson first became seriously involved in politics in the 1920s, when she joined the League of Women Voters and served on a Democratic Party committee. She then took little part in political affairs until the Great Depression. In May 1936 she acted as a delegate from the Snohomish County Democratic Women’s Club to the State Conference of Democratic Women. In September of the same year she was elected Democratic Party state committeewoman. Benson continued to serve as a committed Democratic Party worker in the early 1940s but was slowly becoming disillusioned with the party and the government. She was particularly concerned with what she considered mismanagement by the Works Progress Administration. In 1942 she resigned from her post as state committeewoman and by the mid-1940s she was turning down other positions on Democratic committees and declining to assist with party campaigns.

Benson, who had always been an admirer of Henry Wallace, joined the Progressive Party when it split off from the Democrats in 1948. She became president of the Snohomish County chapter of Women for Wallace, a Progressive Party organization that supported Wallace’s 1948 presidential campaign. Benson also served on the Progressive Party’s Washington State Executive Board and helped lead a strong effort by the Progressives in Snohomish County. Wallace ran stronger in Snohomish County than anywhere else in the state. Benson resigned her leadership posts in 1950, when members of the Communist Party took over top positions in the Washington Progressive Party.

Among the organizations in which Benson most actively participated were the Public Ownership League of America and the Everett Consumers’ Co-operative Association. In conjunction with the Public Ownership League in the early 1940s, Benson worked on an initiative for a public utility district, which was eventually established. Her involvement in the Everett Consumers’ Co-operative, founded in 1945, consisted of serving in several capacities, including recording secretary and trustee chairwoman. Benson attempted to stabilize the cooperative as it became plagued with financial problems, but it fell apart in 1948 with the resignations of several trustees.

In her later years Benson supported numerous liberal groups, including the American Association for the United Nations, the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Friends Service Committee (an anti-war group), Americans for Democratic Action, the Association on American Indian Affairs, the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors, the Congress of Racial Equality, the Washington Committee for Protection of Foreign Born, and the Workers Defense League.

Although Benson fought communist efforts to control left-wing organizations, she strongly defended their right to participate in the political process. Benson opposed the state legislature’s Canwell Committee investigations of alleged communists and the federal government’s efforts to prosecute “subversive” organizations. She participated in picketing of the Canwell Committee in 1948 and testified on behalf of Jerry O’Connell, a former Montana representative who was first convicted but, on appeal, later acquitted of disorderly conduct for the leading role he took in the picketing. In 1954 and 1956 she also appeared for the defense in a series of Smith Act anti-communist court cases.

Naomi Benson died in 1961.

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Content Description

The collection contains correspondence, journals, notebooks, financial records, writings, newspaper clippings, and ephemera. The correspondence series makes up the bulk of the papers. Many items in this series are ephemera or form letters from organizations of which Benson was a member. The series of journals and notebooks includes notes Benson took while at college as well as teaching notes, diaries from the 1920s to the 1950s, and notebooks containing newspaper clippings about political affairs. A series of writings contains essays Benson wrote in college and additional lecture notes. The writings series also houses many loose sheets of paper with notes that Benson took while reading, participating in political meetings, or attending her Unitarian church. Also included in the Benson papers is an extensive series of printed materials which includes books and pamphlets published by pacifist groups, civil rights organizations, and religious groups of many denominations. Much of the religious material is anti-Catholic in tone.

The collection includes substantial series documenting the Democratic Party, the Everett Consumers’ Co-operative Association, and the Progressive Party. In the campaign materials series, a large quantity of printed materials -- especially broadsides and form letters -- are from various presidential, legislative, and initiative campaigns between 1920 and 1960.

Major correspondents and others who are represented in the papers include Homer T. Bone, Herbert Holdridge, Hubert H. Humphrey, Henry M. Jackson, Warren G. Magnuson, Hugh B. Mitchell, Beulah Thomas, Mon C. Wallgren, the American Association for the United Nations, the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Committee for Protection of Foreign Born, the American Friends Service Committee, the American Veterans Committee, Americans for Democratic Action, the Association on American Indian Affairs, the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors, the Citrus Grove Development Company, the Civil Rights Congress, the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Democratic National Committee, the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee, the Everett Unitarian Fellowship, the Northwest Citizens’ Defense Committee, the Peoples’ World, Piney Woods School, the Progressive Citizens of America, the Public Ownership League of America, the Puget Sound Power and Light Company, the Unitarian Church of the Larger Fellowship, Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Washington Committee for the Protection of the Foreign Born, the Washington Cooperative Egg and Poultry Association, and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.

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Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

The creator's literary rights have not been transferred to the University of Washington Libraries.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

Arranged in 12 series:

  • Correspondence
  • Journals and notebooks
  • Financial records
  • Writings
  • Clippings
  • Democratic Party
  • Everett Consumers' Co-op Association
  • Mid-Century Conference for Peace
  • Progressive Party
  • Snohomish County Legislative Council
  • Campaign materials
  • Printed materials

Acquisition Information

Gift of Donald Fairchild, Naomi Benson’s nephew. Fairchild placed the papers on deposit in December 1961 and donated them on January 15, 1965.

Processing Note

Loose newspaper clippings were placed in their own series and sorted by subject. The journals and notebooks have not been processed. Many national magazines originally included in this collection were removed.

Notes describing the collection were written by Michael Reese in 1996.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

 

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • Anti-Catholicism United States
  • Civil rights--Washington (State)
  • Electric utilities--Government ownership
  • Liberals--Washington (State)--Everett--Archives
  • Pacifism--United States
  • Personal Papers/Corporate Records (University of Washington)
  • Progressivism (United States politics)
  • Unitarians--Washington (State)--Everett--Archives
  • Women civic leaders--Washington (State)--Everett--Archives
  • Women pacifists--Washington (State)--Everett--Archives
  • Women political activists--Washington (State)--Everett--Archives
  • Women teachers--Iowa--Archives

Personal Names

  • Benson, Naomi Achenbach--Archives
  • Benson, Naomi Achenbach--Diaries
  • Bone, Homer Truett, 1883-1970
  • Holdridge, Herbert C. (Herbert Charles), 1892-1974
  • Humphrey, Hubert H. (Hubert Horatio), 1911-1978
  • Jackson, Henry M. (Henry Martin), 1912-1983
  • Magnuson, Warren G. (Warren Grant), 1905-1989
  • Mitchell, Hugh B. (Hugh Burnton), 1907-
  • Thomas, Beulah
  • Wallace, Henry Agard, 1888-1965
  • Wallgren, Monrad C. (Monrad Charles), 1891-1961

Corporate Names

  • American Association for the United Nations
  • American Civil Liberties Union
  • American Committee for Protection of Foreign Born
  • American Friends Service Committee
  • American Veterans Committee
  • Americans for Democratic Action
  • Association on American Indian Affairs
  • Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors
  • Citrus Grove Development Company
  • Civil Rights Congress (U.S.)
  • Daughters of the American Revolution
  • Democratic National Committee (U.S.)
  • Democratic Party (U.S.)
  • Everett Consumers Cooperative Association
  • Everett Unitarian Fellowship
  • National Emergency Civil Liberties Committee (U.S.)
  • Northwest Citizens' Defense Committee
  • Peoples' World
  • Piney Woods School
  • Progressive Citizens of America
  • Public Ownership League of America
  • Puget Sound Power and Light Company
  • Unitarian Church of the Larger Fellowship
  • Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States
  • Washington Cooperative Egg and Poultry Association
  • Washington State Committee for the Protection of the Foreign Born
  • Women's International League for Peace and Freedom

Geographical Names

  • Everett (Wash.)--Politics and government
  • Washington (State)--Politics and government


2006 (Last modified: 4/2/2020)

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