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Collections
Edith Wynner papers
Edith Wynner papers
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Collection Data
- Description
- Edith Wynner (1915-2003) was a writer, speaker, and activist for world government, peace, and feminism throughout the 20th century. The Edith Wynner papers document her work as secretary to Mme. Rosika Schwimmer, lecturer and author on world government, and biographer of Rosika Schwimmer.
- Names
- Wynner, Edith (Creator)
- Dates / Origin
- Date Created: 1890 - 1999 (Approximate)
- Library locations
- Manuscripts and Archives Division
- Shelf locator: MssCol 17917
- Topics
- Feminists -- United States
- International organization
- Pacifists -- United States
- Peace movements -- United States
- World War, 1914-1918 -- Protest movements
- Hungary -- History -- 1867-1918
- Lloyd, Georgia, 1913-
- Schwimmer, Franciska
- Schwimmer, Rosika, 1877-1948
- Campaign for World Government (Organization)
- Henry Ford Peace Expedition (1915-1916)
- Schwimmer-Lloyd collection
- manuscripts for publication
- research notes
- Genres
- Manuscripts
- Photographs
- notes (documents)
- translations (documents)
- Notes
- Biographical/historical: Edith Wynner was born Edith Weiner on December 22, 1915 in Budapest, Hungary to Frieda Herskovics and Robert Weiner. Her father, a jeweler, left Hungary at the end of World War I for the United States and anglicized the family surname to Wynner; Edith, her mother, and brother, Albert, followed in 1923. Because of her family's travels, including extended visits to family in Czechoslovakia, Wynner was fluent in Hungarian, German, English, Slovak, and French from a young age. The Wynners settled in Chicago, Illinois, where Edith graduated from Theodore Roosevelt High School and was first introduced to Mme. Rosika Schwimmer. Wynner moved to New York City after high school with the intention of attending Hunter College; however, the effects of the Great Depression forced her to find full-time employment at 19 years old. Because of her language skills and interest in activism, she became secretary to Rosika Schwimmer in 1934. Wynner became closely involved in the issues Schwimmer advocated for, and Schwimmer pushed her to begin delivering small lectures and publishing her writing. In addition to working as Schwimmer's personal secretary, Wynner served as National Secretary of the Griffin-O'Day Bill Committee from 1934 to 1936, and from 1937 to 1941 as New York Secretary and delegate of the Campaign for World Government-which were headed by Schwimmer and her longtime associate, Lola Maverick Lloyd. From 1943 to 1944, Wynner and Lloyd's daughter, Georgia Lloyd, researched and wrote Searchlight on Peace Plans: Choose Your Road to World Government, examining peace plans over five centuries in history. Edith Wynner and Georgia Lloyd went on a speaking tour for the book through 1946, which included some international destinations. In 1947, Wynner sailed to England and worked as secretary to Henry Usborne, M.P. and co-founder of the Parliamentary Group for World Government. With Usborne, she attended the 1947 Conference of the World Movement for World Federal Government, and was elected Vice President of the Conference. Following Rosika Schwimmer's death in 1948, Wynner became Consultant to the Schwimmer-Lloyd collection at the New York Public Library. With Franciska Schwimmer, until her death in 1962, Wynner oversaw all aspects of the collection's administration, including processing, description, access restrictions, reference requests, and preservation. She actively worked to build the collection, securing the papers of Lola Maverick Lloyd's children and meticulously collecting books and printed material on the subjects covered in the collection. Wynner remained the Schwimmer-Lloyd Consultant for many decades, until her illness in the late 1990s. Wynner continued writing about the need for world peace through world government throughout her life, publishing World Federal Government: Why? What? How? In Maximum Terms in 1954. She regularly engaged in written debate about how best to achieve disarmament and improve the United Nations, with her letters to the editor and essays appeared in publications such as The New York Times, The Wilson Quarterly, and World Peace News. Wynner delivered testimony to Senate and United Nations charter hearings from the 1950s through the 1970s, though she scaled back participation in world government organizations in favor of her research. Wynner's fervor for disarmament and world peace gave her written work a tone that she recognized as unvarnished and biting. She published reviews and essays into the 1990s, often taking to task historians and authors who she felt misrepresented the work of Rosika Schwimmer and the Campaign for World Government. While working with the Schwimmer-Lloyd collection, Wynner labored on a historical biography she hoped to complete about Rosika Schwimmer's life. Her work on The Life and Times of Rosika Schwimmer spanned over 50 years, but never saw completion. Edith Wynner died in 2003.
- Content: The Edith Wynner papers date from 1890 to 1999 and contain correspondence, writings, personal files, photographs, and research notes. The collection covers Wynner's family life and earliest work as a world government advocate; her time as secretary to Rosika Schwimmer; work as an independent researcher, lecturer, and writer on world government and peace activism; and as the biographer of Rosika Schwimmer. Correspondence is both personal and professional in nature, and is filed throughout the collection. Wynner's writings and lectures-including books, articles, reviews, numerous letters to the editor, and her unfinished biography of Rosika Schwimmer-are represented by drafts, revisions, and documents on the publicity and distribution of her work. Position statements, notes, and photographs document her participation in world government conferences, government hearings, local organizations, and demonstrations. Wynner compiled general subject files that broadly cover the areas of her ideological interests, particularly the creation of world federal government, pacifism, and feminism. Research files make up the bulk of the collection and were created in the course of writing her books, primarily The Life and Times of Rosika Schwimmer. In addition to Wynner's notes, the research files include transcriptions and translations from papers in the Schwimmer-Lloyd collection. Owing to the division of her papers between the Schwimmer-Lloyd collection and those in her possession until the time of her death, as well as her work on the same subject spanning a 50 year time period, Wynner's original filing schemes were not consistent. The collection currently contains a small number of duplicates throughout the series, as well as documents of similar type and subject spread among the series. For instance, correspondence about Wynner's research pursuits can be found in Series I, filed by date, Series V, filed by correspondent, or Series VI, filed by subject. Researchers should review the finding aid for all possible series and subseries for a given topic. Materials in the collection are in English, Hungarian, and German.
- Content: Custodial history: The Edith Wynner papers were donated to the New York Public Library in 1944 as part of the Schwimmer-Lloyd collection. Though largely unprocessed and restricted from use, the original donation was arranged as Series S of Schwimmer-Lloyd. Additional material created from the 1950s to the late 1990s remained in Wynner's custody until 2000, when the entire collection described in this guide was accessioned.
- Acquisition: Gift of Edith Wynner, 1944-2000.
- Content: Processing information: Compiled by Weatherly Stephan. Processing included removing all books, periodicals, printed material, and pamphlets to the Schwimmer-Lloyd library and its subsidiary Edith Wynner books series. Documents that relate directly to the administration of the Schwimmer-Lloyd collection were placed in the Manuscripts and Archives Division collection dossier. Lastly, material from other Schwimmer-Lloyd collections (primarily the Rosika Schwimmer papers) removed by Wynner has been returned to the original collections. Along with Series S, material from two other Schwimmer-Lloyd collection series have been integrated. Files donated by Josephine Rubin were removed from the Schwimmer-Lloyd collection, Series T: Campaign for World Government New York and Chicago Offices; they are now arranged with Rubin's subject files in Series V. Material from the Hungarian Feminist Association Archives was previously arranged with Series I of Schwimmer-Lloyd. These documents have been integrated into Wynner's research notes in Series VI.B.
- Physical Description
- Extent: 76.92 linear feet (176 boxes)
- Type of Resource
- Text
- Still image
- Identifiers
- NYPL catalog ID (B-number): b19666172
- MSS Unit ID: 17917
- Universal Unique Identifier (UUID): f40b9f30-0753-013a-954a-0242ac110004