Margaret Sanger Research Bureau Records, 1873-1973 (bulk 1917-1969)
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Sophia Smith Collection Smith CollegeNorthampton, MA
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collection
Margaret Sanger Research Bureau Records
Creation of Margaret Sanger Research Bureau Records
Time of Creation of Margaret Sanger Research Bureau Records
Margaret Sanger Research Bureau
Biographical History for: Margaret Sanger Research Bureau Records
Historical Note BCCRB pamphlet, undated © PPFA Margaret Sanger founded the Margaret Sanger Research Bureau (MSRB) in 1923 as the Clinical Research Bureau, operating under the direction of the American Birth Control League (ABCL). In 1928, Margaret Sanger resigned as president of the ABCL and assumed full control of the clinic, renaming it the Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau (BCCRB). The BCCRB and the ABCL merged in 1939 and became the Birth Control Federation of America (it became Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) in 1942 with the clinic retaining much of its, independence. In 1940, it was renamed the MSRB in honor of its founder. Under the guidelines of the 1939 merger, the MSRB was only loosely affiliated with PPFA until the mid-1950s, when budget deficits forced the Bureau to more closely align its services with the Federation in exchange for financial assistance. The Bureau assisted with fund-raising and became the clinical research arm of the PPFA. In return PPFA funded the Bureau and provided grants for doctors and researchers on the Bureau staff. In 1968 because of continuing financial difficulties the Bureau became affiliated with Columbia University. However, budgetary difficulties in 1974 forced the Bureau to shut down and combine its staff with Planned Parenthood of New York City in a new facility called the Margaret Sanger Center in New York. Between 1940 and 1962 (the last year of Sanger's involvement with the MSRB) the Bureau provided comprehensive contraceptive services for women and couples, and became the largest combined birth control and fertility center in the world. After Medical Director Hannah Stone's death in 1941, Abraham Stone, her husband and successor, altered and expanded the MSRB to accommodate his growing interest in infertility. In 1945, Stone inaugurated a Fertility Service that offered counseling, testing, and treatment for infertile couples. He expanded the Bureau's Marriage Consultation Service and steered the Research Department into a greater emphasis on infertility studies. While the Bureau continued to offer contraceptive services, the number of patients dropped as contraception became more widely available through private physicians. However, the Bureau grew as a teaching center, offering seminars, research projects and clinical work for visiting doctors, nurses, and medical students. The Bureau also offered a fellowship program for gynecologists and obstetricians for intensive training in birth control techniques. Margaret Sanger withdrew from day-to-day MSRB affairs in the 1940s, but continued to make many of the budgetary and personnel decisions. Though she disagreed with how the Clinic had evolved under Abraham Stone's leadership, she continued to raise funds for the MSRB. In 1950 Sanger turned over even more control to Stone, naming him director and selling him the West 16th Street building. For more information on the Margaret Sanger Research Bureau see the Margaret Sanger Papers Project.
Scope and Contents of the Collection The Margaret Sanger Research Bureau Records contain correspondence, clippings, pamphlets (some in foreign languages), miscellaneous printed material, books, and 194 glass slides and two films used by Norman Hines for lectures on birth control in the 1930s (located in Oversized Materials at the end of the Records). It appears that these Records contain items from the Bureau's library as well as remaining historical material from its consolidation in 1974. The collection is less the administrative records of the Bureau, although there are a few, and more subject files collected by the Bureau over the years. The Margaret Sanger Papers include more records from the Bureau. Nevertheless this collection represents a rich source of information on the early birth control movement in the U.S. and abroad. Of particular interest are general 19th and 20th century pamphlets on birth control, religious views, sex education, contraceptive methods (dating from 1877), and early commercial catalogs; writings by Margaret Sanger and other pioneers of the early birth control movement such as suffragist and socialist Annie Besant; birth control and sex education advocates Mary Ware Dennett and Marie Stopes; Malthusians George Drysdale, Charles Robert Drysdale, and Charles Vickery Drysdale; and eugenicist, socialist, and feminist Moses Harmon. Organization files include reports, history, bibliographies, laws, legislation, and general literature published by the American Birth Control League, Birth Control Federation of America, National Committee on Federal Legislation for Birth Control, National Committee on Maternal Health, Planned Parenthood Federation of America and other birth control leagues, clinics and conferences in the United States and England. The collection includes a library of 59 books on birth control, sexuality, marriage, family, and related topics.
Birth control--Great Britain--History
lcsh
Birth control--Law and legislation--United States--History--Sources
Birth control--Religious aspects--Catholic Church
Birth control--Research--History--Sources
Birth control--United States--History--20th century--Sources
Birth control clinics--United States--History--Sources Contraceptives--Research--Sources
Hygiene, Sexual--History--20th century--Sources
Marriage--United States--History--20th century--Sources
Sex instruction--United States--History
Women--Health and hygiene--United States--20th century--Sources
Blossom, F.A. (Frederick Augustus), b. 1878
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Dennett, Mary Ware, 1872-1947
Drysdale, George, 1825-1904
Ellis, Havelock, 1859-1939
Harmon, Moses, 1830-1910
Stone, Abraham, 1890-
Sanger, Margaret, 1879-1966
Stopes, Marie Carmichael, 1880-1958
Stone, Hannah M. (Hannah Mayer), 1894-1941
American Birth Control League
Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau (New York, N.Y.)--History
Birth Control Federation of America--History--Sources
Malthusian League
National Committee on Federal Legislation for Birth Control
National Committee on Maternal Health
Planned Parenthood Federation of America--History--Sources
series
SERIES I. BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS (1886-1973),
This series contains printed material, correspondence, writings, and notes by and about nineteen people, most of whom were birth control pioneers from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They are arranged in alphabetical order. Of particular interest are pamphlets by suffragist and socialist Annie Besant; birth control and sex education advocates Mary Ware Dennett and Marie Stopes; Malthusians George Drysdale, Charles Robert Drysdale, and Charles Vickery Drysdale; and eugenicist, socialist, and feminist Moses Harmon. There is a significant amount of biographical material on Margaret Sanger including obituaries and clippings. An article she wrote for Reader's Digest in 1951, along with letters women wrote in response are included. Many of the women ask specific questions about birth control. Also of interest are various editions (both in English and other languages) of Sanger's Family Limitation beginning in 1914. There are also copies of Sanger's Women and the New Race, Magnetation Methods of Birth Control; Birth Control Through the Ages; Women, Morality and Birth Control; and Voluntary Motherhood. (There are also writings by Sanger in SERIES VI. BOOKS) William Sanger's The Trial of William Sanger, September 10, 1915, regarding his arrest and trial for handing out birth control literature is also included. There is a large amount of manuscript material by Abraham Stone including a copy of Birth Control (n.d.), proof and typed copies of A Marriage Manual (1968) which he wrote with his wife Hannah, and his Psychosomatic Factors in Marriage (1946).
SERIES II. ORGANIZATION FILES (1885-1972),
This series is divided into two subseries: Great Britain and United States. Each is arranged alphabetically. The first subseries contains information on twenty birth control organizations, clinics, and related groups in Great Britain including Scotland and India. Of particular interest are pamphlets and printed material of the Malthusian League (1911-51). The second subseries contains information on thirty-four US organizations and clinics. The primary organizations represented are the American Birth Control League (ABCL) (1922-39), the Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau (BCCRB) (1939-40), and the National Committee on the Federal Legislation for Birth Control (NCFLBC) (1929-36). The ABCL records include annual meeting materials, clinic data, history, publications related to laws and legislation, and birth control literature. The BCCRB material contains annual reports and meeting material, newsletters, clinic information, and miscellaneous pamphlets and printed material. The NCFLBC also contains newsletters, news releases, pamphlets, and printed material. There is one folder on the Margaret Sanger Research Bureau (1927-29) which contains a history of birth control and of the MSRB as well as a study on contraception and menopause. Worthy of note in this subseries is a copy of a flyer in three languages from Sanger's Brooklyn clinic (46 Amboy St.) and flyers from her Harlem clinic.
SERIES III. CONFERENCES (1921-1936),
This series contain reports, notes, publications, and miscellaneous printed material on nine conferences held in the United State and abroad. They are arranged alphabetically. Of particular interest is The Practice of Contraception edited by Margaret Sanger and Hannah Stone (from the 7th International Birth Control Conference), reports of the fifth (1922) and sixth (1925) International Neo-Malthusian and Birth Control Conference and Birth Control: What It Is, How It Works And What It Will Do from the First American Birth Control Conference, 1921.
SERIES IV. SUBJECT FILES (1873-1962),
This series is divided in two subseries: Birth Control and Sex Education. Birth Control is divided into eight sections: anti-birth control; clinics; laws, legislation, and trials; marriage and birth control; medical views; contraceptive methods; religious views; and miscellaneous. Law, legislation, and trials contains information on the Comstock law which forbade the sending of birth control information through the mail (1873-1915); New York vs. Margaret Sanger and Ethel Byrne, the trial for opening Sanger's birth control clinic in Brooklyn (1916-29); and US vs. One Package which was a case related to the interception by customs of a package of contraceptives supplies sent to Sanger from Japan (1936). The methods sections contains pamphlets as early as 1877 and of particular interest are early commercial catalogs from drug companies and manufacturers of birth control devices and rubber goods. Miscellaneous pamphlets contains English and foreign language publications.
SERIES V. BOOKS (1901-1951)
This series contains 59 titles including Margaret Sanger's Pivot of Civilization, Women and the New Race, Happiness in Marriage, and My Fight for Birth Control; seven volumes of Havelock Ellis' Studies in the Psychology of Sex; five titles by Marie Stopes as well as a biography of Stopes by Maude Alymner; and the Birth Control Congressional Hearings (1931-34).
Besant, Annie, 1886, 1889
Blossom, Frederick, 1913-23, n.d.
Dennett, Mary Ware, 1928-29
Drysdale, George, Charles Robert and Charles Vickery, 1901, 1929-51, n.d.
Ellis, Havelock, 1925-26
Flynn, Elizabeth Gurley
Goldman, Emma, n.d.
Hanau, Stella, n.d.
Harmon, Moses, 1907-10, n.d.
Hepburn, Katherine Houghton, n.d.
Himes, Norman, 1931-1940
Knowlton, Charles, n.d.
Newman, Elizabeth, 1944
Sanger, Margaret
Articles, clippings, and printed material, 1928-73, n.d.
Obituaries and tributes, 1929, 1966-73, n.d.
Readers Digest article and related correspondence, 1951
Writings
Family Limitation
English editons, 1914-24, n.d.
Foreign language editions, 1915-17, n.d.
Miscellaneous, 1920-60, n.d.
Sanger, William, 1917, n.d.
Shane, Dr., n.d.
Stone, Abraham
Birth Control: ms. copy, n.d.
A Marriage Manual (with Hannah Stone), 1968 edition
Proof copy
Typed copy, n.d.
Psychosomatic Factors in Marriage, 1946
Stone, Hannah, 1925-37
Stopes, Marie, 1921-36, n.d.
Vickery, Alice, n.d.
Zeublin, Charles n.d.
Great Britain
Birmingham Women's Welfare Centre, n.d.
Birth Control International Information Centre, 1935, n.d.
Contraceptive Trade Association, 1933
East Street Welfare Centre, circa 1923
Family Planning Association, 1939
Glasgow Women's Welfare and Advisory Clinic, 1927
International Medical Group for the Investigation of Birth Control, 1929, n.d.
Madras Neo Malthusian League, 1930
Pamphlets, 1911-21
Miscellaneous printed material, 1885-1951, n.d.
Maternity and Child Welfare Centres, 1929-30
Mother's Clinic, 1933-38, n.d.
National Birth Control Association, 1937-38
New Generation League, n.d.
North Kensington Women's Welfare Center, 1924-56, n.d.
Sex Education Society, n.d.
Society and Clinic for Constructive Birth Control, 1931, n.d.
Society for the Provision of Birth Control Clinics, 1921
Wives' Clinic for Discretionary Birth Control, 1921
Women's Welfare Clinic, n.d.
Workers Birth Control Group, circa 1928
United States
Aims/principles, n.d.
Annual meetings, 1929-33
Clinical Research Department, 1925
Clinics, 1934-38, n.d.
History, constitution, and miscellaneous reports, 1923-28, n.d.
Laws and legislation, 1926-38, n.d.
Literature catalogs, 1934-39, n.d.
Maternity Research Council, 1923-25
Publications and printed material, 1922-36, n.d.
Birth Control Clinical Research Bureau
Annual reports, 1939-40
Annual meetings, 1940
"The Bulletin," 1940
Clinics, 1941, n.d.
Newsletters, 1940
Pamphlets and miscellaneous printed material, 1938-41, n.d.
Birth Control League of Massachusetts, 1936
Brooklyn (46 Amboy St.) Birth Control Clinic, n.d.
Bureau For Contraceptive Advice, 1929-33
Citizen's Committee for Planned Parenthood, 1939
Committee of One Hundred, 1917
Committee on Maternal Health (Cincinnati), 1932
Committee on Maternal Health (NY), 1927-30, n.d.
Harlem Birth Control Clinic, n.d.
Illinois Birth Control League, 1924-26
International Planned Parenthood Committee, 1952
Margaret Sanger Research Bureau, 1927, 1929, n.d.
Maternal Health Association (Cleveland), 1935
Maternal Health Center (Newark, NJ), 1924
Maternal Health Society of Easton (PA), 1932
Maternal Health League of Michigan, 1935
Minnesota Birth Control League, 1933
Mothers Clinic of Detroit, circa 1927-31
Mother's Health Center, n.d.
Mountain Maternal Health League of Kentucky, 1938
National Committee for Planned Parenthood, 1941, n.d.
Newsletters and news releases, 1929-35
Pamphlets and miscellaneous printed material, 1929-36, n.d.
National Committee on Maternal Health, 1932-49
National Medical Council on Birth Control, 1938
Palama Settlement (Honolulu), 1938
Pennsylvania Birth Control Federation, 1929
Planned Parenthood Campaign, 1945
Planned Parenthood Federation of America, 1948, 1953, 1972
Planned Parenthood of Rochester, 1968
Planned Parenthood of South East Pennsylvania, 1970
Voluntary Parenthood League, 1921, n.d.
World Population Emergency Campaign, 1960
American Birth Control Conference (First), 1921
American Conference on Birth Control and National Recovery
Berlin Sexual Research Congress, 1926
Conference on Birth Control in Asia, 1933
Conference on Contraceptive Research and Clinical Practice, 1936
Conference on the Giving of Information on Birth Control by Health Authorities, 1930
International Birth Control Conference (Seventh), 1930
The Practice of Contraception: An International Symposium and Survey Edited by Margaret Sanger and Hannah Stone, Baltimore, Williams and Wilkins, 1931
Questionnaire for all workers in birth control Clinics in Europe and the United States
International Neo-Malthusian and Birth Control Conference
Fifth, 1922
Report, edited by Raymond Pierpont. London, William Heineman
Miscellaneous printed material
Sixth, 1925
National Birth Control Conference, 1929
World Population Conference, 1927
Birth control
Anti-birth control, 1889-1931, n.d.
Clinics, 1925-39, n.d.
Clippings, 1929-62, n.d.
Law, legislation, and trials
Comstock Law, circa 1873, 1879, 1915
Federal Trade Commission, 1936-37
Great Britain, 1934
New York vs. Margaret Sanger, Ethel Byrne and Fannie Mindell, 1916, 1929
U.S. vs One Package, 1936
Miscellaneous pamphlets and printed material, 1930-62, n.d.
Marriage and birth control, 1902-31, n.d.
Medical views, 1916-37, n.d.
Methods
Commercial catalogs and flyers, 1926, n.d.
Pamphlets and printed material, 1877-1952, n.d.
Religious views, 1904-37
Miscellaneous pamphlets and printed material
English, 1886-1940, n.d.
Foreign language, 1908-52, n.d.
Eugenics
Sex education, 1919-28
Birth Control Congressional Hearings, 1931-1934
Blacker, C.P., Birth Control and the State: A Plea and a Forecast (1926)
Breckinridge, Sophonisba P., Marriage and the Civic Rights of Women, Separate Domicile and Independent Citizenship (1931)
Bucke, Richard Maurice, Cosmic Consciousness: A Study In the Evolution of the Human Mind (1901)
Carr, Norman, Birth Control in Marriage (1931)
Carson, William E., The Marriage Revolt: A Study of Marriage and Divorce (1915)
Chachuat, Maurice, Le Mouvement du "Birth Control" dans les Pays Anglo Saxons (1934)
Clark, Le Mon, The Vaginal Diaphragm, Its Fitting and Use in Contraceptive Technique (1939)
Cooper, James F., Technique of Contraception: The Principles and Practice of Anti-conceptional Methods (1928)
Cox, Gladys M., Clinical Contraception (1937)
Devilbiss, Lydia Allen, Birth Control, What Is It? (1923)
Drysdale, Bessie Ingman, Labour Troubles and Birth Control (1920)
Drysdale, C.V., et al, Small or Large Families: Birth Control From the Moral, Racial, and Eugenic Standpoint (1917)
Ellis, Havelock, Studies in the Psychology of Sex 7v. (1901-28)
Fielding, Michael, ed., Birth Control in Asia: A Report of a Conference Held at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, November 24-25, 1933 (1935)
Himes, Norman E., A Guide to Birth Control Literature (1931)
______________, Medical History of Contraception (1936)
______________, Praktische Methoden der Geburtenregelung (1949)
Hodann, Max, Sexualelend und Sexualberatung (1928)
Horder, Sir Thomas, The Cost of English Morals (1931)
Irwin, Rita, and Clementina Paolone, Practical Birth Control (1937)
Key, Ellen, The Century of the Child (1909)
Knopf, S. Adolphus, The Medical, Social, Economic, Moral and Religious Aspects of Birth Control (1926)
_______________, Various Aspects of Birth Control. (1928) (2c)
Lenz, J., The Rise and Fall of the Second International (1932)
Lutz, Alma, Created Equal: A Biography of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 1815-1902 (1940)
Maude, Alymer, The Authorized Life of Marie C. Stopes (1924)
Meyer, Adolf, Birth Control Facts and Responsibilities (1925)
Pancoast, Elinor, and Anne E. Lincoln, Incorrigible Idealist: Robert Dale Owen in America (1940)
Palmer, Rachel Lynn, and Sarah K. Greenberg, Facts and Frauds in Woman's Hygiene (1936)
Place, Francis, Illustrations and Proofs of the Principle of Population (1930)
Raina, Lt. Cl. B.L., Family Planning, Why? When? and How? (1951)
Raleigh, A.S., Woman and Super-Woman (1916)
Robinson, William J., Birth Control or The Limitation of Offspring by Prevention of Conception (1928)
Rout, Ettie A., The Morality of Birth Control (1925)
Sanger, Margaret, and Hannah Stone, ed., The Practice of Contraception: An International Symposium and Survey (1931)
Sanger, Margaret, Die Neue Mutterschaft (1927)
______________, Happiness in Marriage (1926)
______________, My Fight For Birth Control (1931)
______________, The Pivot of Civilization (1922)
______________, Woman and the New Race (1920)
Stopes, Marie Carmichael, Contraception Its Theory, History and Practice (1931)
_____________________, Enduring Passion (1929)
_____________________, The Human Body (1926)
_____________________, Mother England, A Contemporary History (1929)
_____________________, Wise Parenthood (1922)
Sutherland, Halliday G., Birth Control (1922)
Swedenborg, Emanuel, Delights of Wisdom Concerning Conjugal Love: After Which Follow Pleasures of Insanity Concerning Scortatory Love (1923)
Telling, W.H. Maxwell, et al, Medical Help on Birth Control (1928)
Vaughan Father Bernard, The Menace of the Empty Cradle (1917)
Westermarck, Edward, The History of Human Marriage (1903)
Whitney, Leon F., Sex and Birth Control (1932)
OVERSIZE MATERIALS
194 Glass slides and two films used by Norman Hines for birth control lectures (1930s)