Charles Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections

The Carolina settlement of Charles Town, named in honor of King Charles II of England, was established after English settlers arrived in 1670; it was renamed Charleston in 1783. From 1720 until 1773 South Carolina was under English jurisdiction as a Crown Colony. Serving as the state capital until 1790, the records of the court, including deeds, wills and property lists were deposited there. African slaves built indigo, rice and cotton plantations at the direction of the English and French Huguenot settlers. During this colonial period, various settlements were established, the area sustained damage from two significant hurricanes, and loss of some 60 lives during a slave revolt in 1739.

From the guide to the Charleston County, South Carolina Records, 1719-1763, (Charles Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections)

Avrom M. Landy (1904 - ) was raised in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned a B.A. from Ohio State University and an M.A. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He went on to work for a Ph.D. in history at Madison, and had completed all the requirements except the dissertation when he broke off his studies to go to New York to accept a position at the Daily Worker. He was city editor for the Daily Worker for about two years in the early 1930s, and later became educational director of the Communist Party of America, a position he held until 1945. He was co-publisher of International Publishers from 1945 until about 1947, when he left the Communist Party.

Landy was an influential Marxist thinker during the 1930s and 1940s, especially through his educational and editorial work, and also through his articles in various leftist journals. He published one book, Marxism and the Democratic Tradition (New York: International Publishers, 1946), and one pamphlet, Marxism and the Woman Question (New York: Worker's Library, 1943).

From the guide to the Avrom M. Landy Collection, 1938-1954, (Charles Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections)

The Chicago, Illinois city council established the mayor’s advisory Commission on Women’s Affairs in 1984. Appointed members represented the geographic, cultural, ethnic, racial and socio-economic diversity of the city. The purpose of the commission was to assist the mayor in the “formulation of programs, policies and legislation relating to the female population of the City of Chicago and to coordinate, advise and provide vital input and representation of women into all levels of City government.”

From the guide to the Chicago Commission on Women's Affairs, 1984-1985, (Charles Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections)

Dr. Friedrich Ernst Auhagen emigrated to the United States in 1923, received a doctorate in philosophy, taught at Columbia University until 1935, and although he applied for citizenship in 1929, he never completed the process.  In March of 1939 he helped organize the American Fellowship Forum as an educational vehicle among German Americans to promote “national recovery.”  Branches were established in New York, Newark, Philadelphia, Springfield (MA), Cleveland, Chicago, and La Salle (IL). However, the A.F.F. actually supported fascism and the rise of German National Socialism.  Other leaders included George Sylvester Viereck, German propagandist since World War I, and Lawrence Dennis, publisher of The Weekly Foreign Letter which analyzed foreign political trends from a fascist perspective.  Dr. Auhagen wrote regularly for the A.F.F.’s two serials, Today’s Challenge and The Forum Observer which were published between 1939 and 1940.  The American Fellowship Forum disbanded in May of 1940.

In September 1940 Dr. Auhagen was arrested and called to testify before the Dies Commission in October regarding possible subversive Nazi activities.  He was released, but kept under Justice Department surveillance until March 1941 when a federal grand jury issued an indictment against him for failing to register as a German agent.  Circumstantial evidence against him maintained that he had received payment for spreading propaganda to influence attitudes and policies in the U.S.  He was convicted on July 11, 1941, on three counts of failing to register as an agent of the German government and distributing propaganda.  He was fined $1000 and sentenced to two years in prison.  However, after the formal declaration of war with Germany in December 1941, Auhagen was listed as a “dangerous enemy alien,” not allowed an appeal, and held in custody until April 1947 when he was returned to Germany and there arrested for war crimes as a Nazi agent.  He was tried in Nuremberg in August 1947, and released after a review of all charges and records showed no connection with the Nazi regime.  However, he was not allowed to return to the U.S. and in 1952 he petitioned for a new trial.

From the guide to the Friedrich Ernst Auhagen Collection, 1939-1952, (Charles Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections)