Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. Triangle Branch records, 1939-2025

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Summary

Creator:
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. Triangle Branch and Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture
Abstract:
The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), Triangle Branch is a local chapter of a peace advocacy organization. The Triangle Branch was founded in 1935 as the Chapel Hill Branch, twenty years after the international WILPF organization was established. Collection contains administrative materials, subject files, publications, and other items that document the branch's and its chairpersons' activities, advocacy, and interests, particularly their pacifist, anti-nuclear, and human rights activism. Acquired as part of the Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture.
Extent:
8 Linear Feet (7 boxes)
Language:
Materials in English
Collection ID:
RL.01395

Background

Scope and content:

Collection contains administrative materials, subject files, publications, photographs, scrapbooks, and audiovisual materials that document the history, activities, advocacy, and interests of Triangle WILPF and its chairpersons, especially Charlotte Adams and Vivian Plonsey. Materials range in date from 1939 to 2025, although the bulk of the collection dates from the 1980s to the 2000s. Topics represented in the collection include disarmament and the anti-nuclear movement; human rights; women's rights; racial, economic, and environmental justice; U.S. wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq; and U.S. foreign policy. Organizations represented throughout the collection include WILPF, Orange County Peace Coalition, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Peace Action Education Fund, NATO, and many others.

Administrative materials consist of chronological files, correspondence, meeting minutes, newsletters, and program-specific files that detail Triangle WILPF's history, operation, and community organizing. Series also contains informational literature, correspondence, and event materials from other chapters of WILPF, including the U.S. Section and the international body of WILPF. The activities of Charlotte Adams, Vivian Plonsey, and other WILPF chairs are represented throughout the administrative materials. Triangle WILPF's regular activities such as peace vigils, demonstrations and protests, and legislative advocacy are documented throughout the Administrative Materials and the Subject Files.

Subject files constitute the largest part of the collection and represent the breadth and intersectional nature of Triangle WILPF's interests and advocacy efforts. Materials include correspondence (particularly with U.S. presidents and congressmen), meeting minutes, notes, newsletters and publications, informational literature, flyers, clippings, and other related items. Topics in the subject files range greatly but have a focus on nuclear disarmament, nuclear treaties, U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and other armed conflicts. Vivian Plonsey's activities on behalf of WILPF and the Orange County Peace Coalition are strongly represented in this series.

Publications consist primarily of those published by WILPF, which include the International Peace Update, Pax et libertas, and Peace and Freedom. A few publications from other organizations are also in this series; other publications of a less substantial nature can be found in the Subject Files series.

Photographs depict Triangle WILPF members and events, especially those in the 1970s and 1980s.

Scrapbooks contain photographs, newspaper clippings, and other materials that document the Triangle chapter's history and activities. Additionally, one scrapbook commemorates Charlotte Adams and her activism.

Collections also contains a small number of audiovisual materials (VHS, CDs, and audiocassettes), which include an interview with Charlotte Adams, the chapter's founder, and several items related to nuclear disarmament and U.S. foreign policy.

Biographical / historical:

The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) is an international peace advocacy organization founded in 1915. Charlotte Adams founded the Chapel Hill Branch of WILPF in 1935. Since its establishment, the branch has used several names interchangeably. It officially changed its name to the Triangle Branch in 2002, and as of 2025 it is variously known as the Triangle NC Chapter, Triangle Branch, Triangle WILPF, WILPF Triangle, and Triangle Area WILPF. The Triangle Branch's particular focus areas are peace, human rights, environmental justice, and labor, and it is a member of the Orange County Peace Coalition, the Orange County Community Remembrance (OCCR) Coalition, Frackfree NC, and Concentrated Animal Feedings Operation (CAFO) Roundtable. Triangle WILPF participates in legislative advocacy, demonstrations, peace vigils, and other events to further their goals. Former chairpersons of Triangle WILPF include Charlotte Adams, Dee Gamble, Vivian Plonsey, Anne Ivey, Lori Hoyt, and Martha Drake.

Source: Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Triangle Branch website (accessed December 12, 2025).

Acquisition information:
The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, Triangle Branch Records were received by the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book Manuscript Library as a gift in 1999-2005 and 2025.
Processing information:

Processed by Alexandra Krensky and Megan E. Lewis, Nov 2010

Encoded by Alexandra Krensky and Megan E. Lewis, Nov 2010

Accession 2025-0096 added and collection reprocessed by Leah Tams, December 2025. The Printed Materials series was removed and processed into other extant series such as Adminstrative Materials, Subject Files, and Publications. Collection description significantly enhanced.

Accessions described in this collection guide: 1999-0315, 2000-0074, 2000-0288, 2001-0150, 2004-0073, 2005-0034, 2025-0096.

Arrangement:

Arranged into series: Administrative Materials, Subject Files, Publications, Photographs, Scrapbooks, and Audiovisual Materials.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Contents

Using These Materials

Using These Materials Links:

Using These Materials

Restrictions:

Access note. Some materials in this collection are original audiovisual items that need to be reformatted before use. Contact Research Services for access.

Terms of access:

The copyright interests in this collection have not been transferred to Duke University. For more information, consult the copyright section of the Regulations and Procedures of the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library.

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Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. Triangle Branch Records, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University

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https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/m19m7x