Eileen Palmer: collection of material on birth control, including papers of Edith How-Martyn and Olive Johnson

Edith How-Martyn (1875-1974)

Date:: 1912-2001

Reference:: PP/EPR

Archives and manuscripts

Collection contents

Eileen Palmer: collection of material on birth control, including papers of Edith How-Martyn and Olive JohnsonPP/EPR

About this work

Description

These papers constitute the residue of a much larger collection of papers relating to the birth control movement in Britain and internationally: see below for related material held elsewhere. Eileen Palmer, Olive Johnson, and Edith How-Martyn worked closely together in the Birth Control International Information Centre and Birth Control Worldwide organisations during the 1930s, and Palmer accompanied How-Martyn on one of her several tours of India to promote birth control. The collection therefore includes some How-Martyn papers, including biographical and personal material, some items on the campaign of the 1920s to persuade the Ministry of Health to permit contraceptive advice to be given in maternity clinics, and relating to her international tours, several files of Olive Johnson's correspondence (mainly with How-Martyn, but including other colleagues in the birth control movement), and a few files of Palmer's own papers. There are also some files of BCIIC and BCW papers, and a collection of publications and pamphlets, of which the provenance is not clear.

This collection illuminates the international face of the British birth control movement during the 1930s.

The collection has been added to in 2016 (accession 2280) with five boxes of material accumulated during the course of a Margaret Sanger project at New York University and consists mainly of Edith How-Martyn's correspondence with Margaret Sanger and the US birth control movement. An additional file of four letters was added in July 2016 (accession 2297). The material in section H comprises these two 2016 accessions.

Publication/Creation

1912-2001

Physical description

6 boxes

Contributors

Arrangement

A. Edith How-Martyn: personal and biographical, 1914-1989

B. Edith How-Martyn: campaign for birth control advice in welfare centres, 1920s-1930s

C. Edith How-Martyn: international birth control tours, 1933-1939

D. Olive M Johnson correspondence, 1936-1951

E. Eileen Palmer papers, 1930-2001

F. Birth Control International Information Centre/Birth Control Worldwide, 1930-1987

G. Pamphlets and publications, 1912-1951

H. Additional Correspondence and Papers: Edith How-Martyn and Margaret Sanger, 1915-1961

Acquisition note

Dr Hilary Frances transferred the papers comprising accession 1438 in her care to the library at Wellcome Collection in May 2006. Dr Esther Katz of New York University donated the papers received in 2016 (accession 2280).

Biographical note

Eileen Palmer, Olive Johnson, and Edith How-Martyn worked closely together in the British birth control movement during a period from the 1920s to the 1950s. How-Martyn had been active in this cause since before the First World War. They were all involved with the Birth Control International Information Centre and Birth Control Worldwide organisations during the 1930s, and Palmer accompanied How-Martyn on one of her several tours of India to promote birth control. How-Martyn undertook a number of other foreign tours, before emigrating to Australia with her husband around 1940. There is an entry for How-Martyn in the Oxford Dictionary of National Niography, and some obituaries and other biographical material in A.8.

Related material

In Wellcome: SA/FPA, PP/CPB include material relating to How-Martyn. See also 'Birth Control' sources leaflet. A number of related books and journals received from Eileen Palmer were donated to the Library by Hilary Frances.

Held elsewhere:

The Women's Library: Papers of Edith How-Martyn, primarily dealing with her activities in the Women's Freedom League, and following the grant of the vote, with the Suffragette Fellowship.

London School of Economics Library: Papers of Eileen Palmer relating to the birth control movement.

British Library: Papers of Edith How-Martyn and Eileen Palmer, mostly relating to their tours in India, Ref. MS Eur D1182.

Library of Congress Washington DC and Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College: Margaret Sanger Papers.

Terms of use

This collection has been catalogued and is available to library members. Some items have access restrictions which are explained in the item-level catalogue records.

Ownership note

These papers were accrued by Eileen Palmer, and include papers of her colleagues in the birth control movement, Edith How-Martyn, and Olive M Johnson. The papers were eventually given by Eileen Palmer to Dr Hilary Frances. The second accession was accumulated during the course of a Margaret Sanger project (www.nyu.edu/projects/sanger) by New York University.

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