November 2014 – The Hall-Hoag Collection of Dissenting and Extremist Printed Propaganda, Part I and II

Jane Addams Peace Association

On November 26, 2014

The Jane Addams Peace Association was founded in 1948 to promote world peace. Since its founding the JAPA has primarily worked to provide peace educational resources to children and has given an annual children’s book award since the 1950s. The item below is a teacher resource published in 1972. It includes lesson plans for teachers to promote peace in their students. For example the objective of the lesson below is to show “ways in which an individual can participate in the quest for peace.” Although not a political organization the item from the JAPA below is an artifact of the Peace Movements and Women’s Movements that really took off in the 1970s in the Wake of Vietnam.

Jane Addams Peace Association 1 (1972)

Jane Addams Peace Association 2 (1972)

Jesus To The Communist World

By amajcher

On November 19, 2014

In Collection Highlights

Jesus To The Communist World, also known as the “Voice of the Martyrs” was created in 1967 a Romanian Christian minister named Richard Wurmbrand. Wurmbrand born in 1909 in Romanian was anti-communist believing that Christianity and Communist were incompatible.[1] While in Romanian he was imprisoned and tortured for his beliefs multiple times after the USSR took control of Romanian in 1944. In the late 1940s he was imprisoned for 8 and a half years and then again in 1959 he was sentenced to 25 years in prison.[2] He was released from prison for the last time in 1964 for $10,000 leaving Romanian and eventually moving to the United States in 1966. Wurmbrand started to the Voice of the Martyr publication to expose the persecution of Christians around the world especially in Communist and Muslim countries. Wurmbrand died in 2001 in California.

Jesus To The Communist World 1 (1980s)

Jesus To The Communist World 2 (1980s)

Jesus To The Communist World 3 (1980s)

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Wurmbrand

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Wurmbrand

John Patler

By amajcher

On November 12, 2014

In Collection Highlights

John Patler was born John C. Patsalos in 1938 in New York. Patler became a member of the American Nazi Party after he was dishonorably discharged from the Marines after attending a Pro-Nazi rally.[1] Patler served as the editor of the ANP magazine “Stromtrooper” and was moving up in the ranks until he was kicked out of the group after a disagreement with ANP founder and leader George Lincoln Rockwell. Several months later in 1967 Patler assassinated Rockwell and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Patler was released from prison in 1975, changed his name back to Patsalos and moved to New York. [2]

John Patler (Left) (Mid-1960s)

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Patler

[2] http://en.metapedia.org/wiki/John_Patler

Photograph Preservation

By amajcher

On November 3, 2014

In Archival Processing

As part of an internship program with the Simmons College School of Library and Information Science LIS student, Michelle Montalbano has been working this semester with the Hall-Hoag collection. In particular she is organizing and describing the 14 record center boxes of thousands of photographs in the collection. Some of the photographs are identified and labeled, but most are not. Michelle is working to identify as many images as possible and then organize them so similar images are collocated. The end goal is to intellectually link to photographs to the organizations and people that also have printed material in the Hall-Hoag Collection.

Along the way we found photographs that were in the need of preservation. Some of them were folded, bent and frayed with rounded edges that made them hard to fit into boxes. It also made the photographs more susceptible to further damage. We decided with the help of Rachel Lapkin, the university’s preservationist to flatten and press the photographs. We applied pressure to stacks of the photographs using a press that the university owns. We will leave the photographs under pressure for a few weeks. After checking the progress we maybe have to add a bit of moisture to the images and re-press them in they are not flattened at that time.