Link to the online finding aid for this collection

Overview:  Manuscripts, notebooks, letters, newspaper clippings, photos, and printed material relating to the research and publications of Rachel Carson (1907-1964). Carson, a biologist and environmentalist, who graduated from the Pennsylvania College for Women (later Chatham College) in 1929 and received an M.S. in genetics from Johns Hopkins University in 1932. Her work as an aquatic biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service led to a career as an author, including her international bestseller Silent Spring (1962), which explored the human destruction of the environment through the careless use of pesticides. Ruth Harrison was a British animal welfare activist and author.

Digitized collection material:

• Series III, Box 116, Folder 2207: Scrapbook, Silent Spring and pesticide issues, circa 1962-1964 (only 6 pages of the scrapbook have been digitized). Note: This is a large, 434 MB, file and Google may ask you to download it in order to open it.

Link to the online finding aid

Overview: Documentation compiled by civil rights attorney and lead defense counsel Catherine Roraback (1920-2007) during the New Haven trial of Black Panther leader Ericka Huggins (born 1948), including Huggins’ prison writings, legal files, and other documentation of the trial and Huggins’ imprisonment. Huggins attended Lincoln University, where she met her future husband John Huggins, with whom she moved to California to join the Black Panthers. After the murder of her husband in Los Angeles in 1969, Huggins moved to New Haven and became a leader of that city’s Black Panther chapter. Her 1969-1971 arrest, incarceration, and trial in New Haven, along with Panther co-founder Bobby Seale and others, for the kidnapping and murder of Panther member Alex Rackley resulted in the 1970 May Day rally in New Haven. The trial ended in a mistrial and dismissal of all charges against Huggins in May 1971. Huggins moved back to California, where she was active with the Black Panthers and taught sociology and African American studies.

Digitized collection material:

• Series II, Box 8, Folder 87: Letter from Angela Davis to Ericka Huggins, 2 May 1971.
• Series II, Box 8, folder 88: Letter from Ericka Huggins to Catherine Roraback, 1969-1970.
• Series III, Box 8, Folder 125: Prison writings of Ericka Huggins, 1969.

Link to the finding aid in Archives at Yale

Collection Overview: The records consist of administrative records, correspondence, publications, subject files, and photographs documenting the history, structure, philosophies, and activities of the Coalition to Stop Trident as well as other groups working to stop the production and deployment of Trident submarines and missiles in Connecticut and New England. There are also subject files which place the local activities of these Connecticut groups into the context of the national and international disarmament movement.    

Digitized collection material:

• Box 1, Folder 4: Civil Disobedience Handbooks

Link to the online finding aid for this collection

Overview:  Materials created and collected by Lisbet Tellefsen (born 1961). Many of the materials center around the creation of Aché, which was first issued in 1989 as a journal and existed as a collective in the Bay Area until 1994. The rest of the materials generally relate to allied groups and other events that Tellefsen participated in and helped to organize, such as the National Black Gay and Lesbian Conference’s Video Project.  Tellefsen–a political activist, feminist, and community organizer–is a Bay Area native who co-founded Aché along with Pippa Fleming, and has worked as an editor, recording engineer, and producer, receiving a number of awards for her service to the lesbian and gay community.

Digitized collection material:

• May 2012 Accession, Box 6, Folder 191: Aché layout, volume 1, number 10 (November 1989).
• May 2012 Accession, Box 7, Folder 195: Aché layout, volume 2, number 3 (May/June 1990).

Link to the finding aid in Archives at Yale

Collection Overview: Letters of Walter A. Chapman (1840-1865) describing his experience as a member of the 36th regiment, his participation in numerous battles (1862-1864), and the hardships of camp life due to shortages of food, clothing, and medicines. In 1864 he became lieutenant of a brigade of black troops and describes their conduct in a battle at Blakely, Alabama in April, 1865. The diary covers the period January, 1863 to March, 1864.  

Digitized collection material:

• Box 1, folder 9: Correspondence

Link to the finding aid in Archives at Yale

Collection Overview: The records include background materials on the Black Panther party, information on the trial, and a series of Strike Newspapers issued by Dwight Hall. Also included are materials documenting Yale's approach and efforts toward organizing peaceful co-existence during the weekend events, as well as published information chronicling each day and summarizing media coverage. Other materials describe the faculty meeting held to address the issue of suspending academic activities during the trial, as well reaction to President Kingman Brewster, Jr.'s, famous speech before that assembly. A significant number of letters detailing positive and negative feedback from Yale alumni and those unrelated to Yale comprise the correspondence files. May Day weekend took place 1-3 May 1970 as a rally to protest the Black Panther murder trial of party chairman Bobby Seale and seven other party members. Normal academic activities were suspended so that Yale students, faculty, and staff could assist in planning and organizing cautionary measures. Yale University opened its doors to demonstrators by offering shelter, food, day care, and first aid throughout the weekend. Approximately 15,000 people attended the first day of rallies without significant disruption or disorder. Fewer remained the following days, and academic activities resumed around campus by Monday 4 May

Collection material:

• Box 7, folder 65: Strike Newspaper
• Box 7, folder 69: Kingman Brewster Statement

Link to the online finding aid for this collection

Overview: Correspondence, writings, speeches, diaries, clippings, printed matter, sermons, and other papers of two centuries of Beecher family members. The papers relate principally to Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887), popular 19th century clergyman abolitionist, and orator, and members of his family. Among those represented are his father, the Reverend Lyman Beecher (1775-1863), clergyman; his brothers, Edward Beecher (1803-1895), educator and antislavery leader, and Thomas Kinnicut Beecher (1824-1900) and Charles Beecher (1815-1900), both clergyman and antislavery activist; and his sisters, Harriett Elizabeth (Beecher) Stowe (1811-1896), author, Catherine Esther Beecher (1800-1878), pioneer educator and writer on ‘domestic economy,’ and Isabella Homes (Beecher) Hooker (1822-1907), well-known suffragist.

Digitized collection material:

• Box 5, folder 223: Correspondence from Harriet Beecher Stowe to her sister-in-law Eunice White Beecher and brother Henry, 1837-1860.

Link to the finding aid in Archives at Yale

Collection Overview: Correspondence, subject files, writings, clippings, audio and video recordings, and other materials that document the career of William Sloane Coffin, Jr (1924-2006). The collection includes documentation relating to the civil rights movement, Vietnam War protests, amnesty for war resisters, the Peace Corps, Operation Crossroads Africa, and Yale University during the time when Coffin served as chaplain of Yale University (1958-1975).

Digitized collection material:

• Box 13, folder 266: Freedom rides - correspondence, anti-, 1961.
• Box 26, folder 169: Race relations, 1960-1961.

Link to the finding aid in Archives at Yale

Collection Overview: The materials consist of correspondence, press releases, oral history transcripts, objects, and printed material documenting Yale student involvement in the 1970 May Day rally in New Haven, Connecticut and published materials collected by the donor as a stringer for the "New York Times" related to Yale's student strike, the anti-war movement, and the Black Panthers trial in New Haven. Also included are publications related to anti-war activities nationally.

Collection material:

• Series accession, 1971-a-004, box 1, folder 1: April 30, 1970 flyer for protest
• Series accession, 1971-a-004, box 1, folder 1: Council of Churches, New Haven
• Series accession, 1971-a-004, box 2, folder 2: New Haven Panther Defense Committee Newspaper, April 17, 1970