Papers, 1848-1988.

  1. Resources
  2. View Resource

ArchivalResource

Papers, 1848-1988.

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/173702619

Papers of writer and publisher Ralph Ginzburg relating to his publication of Eros magazine and subsequent First Amendment case before the Supreme Court, and to his research for a biography of Anthony Comstock and the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, a project which was not completed. The research portion of the collection is processed and dates mainly 1873-1915. It contains research notes; copies of newspaper articles, arrest blotters, bibliographies, and other papers; and some original materials, including correspondence and interview transcripts. This collection documents the work and procedures of the New York Society and later anti-vice societies; the personality and background of Anthony Comstock; and the effect anti-obscenity laws had on those prosecuted, those doing the prosecuting, and society at large. There is also some information on John Sumner, who followed Comstock as director of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice. Prominent correspondents and persons documented in the collection include De Robigne M. Bennett, Ida Craddock, Edward Foote, John Wesley Glasgow, Emma Goldman, Moses Harman, Ezra Heywood, Ben Reitman, Margaret and William Sanger, George Bernard Shaw, Upton Sinclair, Lincoln Steffens, and activists in the Free Thought movement. The papers also concern Comstock's efforts to suppress abortion, contraceptives, gambling, and many works of art, literature, and theater. There are also photographs of Comstock and images of individuals and events related to his life. The processed portion of the collection is summarized above and dates 1848-1964. The additional accessions date 1961-1988 and concern Eros magazine. They include an extensive file of news clippings, mainly about the publishing of Eros and the later trial; law journal articles based on the Eros case; Ginzburg's notes before and during the trial; case files from the Dept. of Justice, the Postal Inspector's Office, and the Parole Board obtained by Ginzburg through Freedom of Information requests; samples of the subscription solicitation inquiries sent out by Eros; correspondence from friends, acquaintances, and members of the public; files about the administration of his various magazines; and postcards with postmarks from places with suggestive names (e.g., Pillow, Penn.).

9.0 c.f. (23 archives boxes)40 photographs,2 pieces of ephemera, and5 negatives; plus.additions of 14.6 c.f.

Wisconsin Historical Society, Newspaper Project

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 6926309

Wisconsin Historical Society, Newspaper Project

Related Entities

There are 20 Entities related to this resource.

Sanger, Margaret, 1879-1966

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w66b7wgt (person)

Margaret Louise Higgins was born in Corning, New York, on September 15, 1879, the sixth of eleven children and the third of four daughters born to Anne Purcell Higgins and Michael Hennessey Higgins, a stone mason. Her two elder sisters worked to supplement the family income, and financed her education at Claverack College, a private coeducational preparatory school in the Catskills. After leaving Claverack, Higgins took a job teaching first grade to immigrant children, but decided after a short ...

Shaw, Bernard, 1856-1950

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6q92419 (person)

Born in Dublin, Ireland, on July 26, 1856, George Bernard Shaw was the only son and third and youngest child of George Carr and Lucinda Elizabeth Gurly Shaw. Though descended from landed Irish gentry, Shaw's father was unable to sustain any more than a facade of gentility. Shaw's official education consisted of being tutored by an uncle and briefly attending Protestant and Catholic day schools. At fifteen Shaw began working as a bookkeeper in a land agent's office which required him t...

Sinclair, Upton, 1878-1968

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6zm65v8 (person)

Upton Sinclair was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1878. Sinclair was an American author, novelist, journalist, and political activist who wrote many books in several genres. He is most well-known for his exposé, The Jungle regarding conditions in Chicago's meat packing plants, which influenced the passage of the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906. Much of Sinclair's writing was related to the economic and social conditions of the early twentieth century. He was heavily in...

Comstock, Anthony, 1844-1915

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6p27wp3 (person)

Reformer, and secretary of the Society for the Suppression of Vice from 1873 until his death in 1915. From the description of Letter to A. W. Parker [manuscript], 1892. (University of Virginia). WorldCat record id: 647996468 Head of Society for the Suppression of Vice. From the description of Postcard, 1882 June 29. (Duke University Library). WorldCat record id: 31421823 Inspector, Secretary and Chief special agent for The New York Society for the Suppre...

Sumner, John Sexton, 1876-ca. 1962.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6kd3f6f (person)

Harmon, Moses, 1830-1910

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6kd3fd4 (person)

Ginzburg, Ralph

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6sf3krg (person)

Ginzburg was editor and publisher of the magazine Eros, and publisher of the 1962 edition of "The housewife's handbook on selective promiscuity" by Rey Anthony [pseud.] From the description of Letter to Nathan Pusey, 1963? (Harvard Law School Library). WorldCat record id: 561862864 Ralph Ginzburg (1929-2006) was a journalist, publisher, and editor who began his career at the "Washington Times-Herald", 1949-1951. He wrote free lance articles and also worked as an editor for "...

Reitman, Ben.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6mw40g5 (person)

Foote, Edward B. (Edward Bliss), 1829-1906

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6pz6sz1 (person)

Steffens, Lincoln, 1866-1936

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w67p90xd (person)

American journalist. From the description of Letter, 1931 July 5, Carmel, Calif., to Perry Walton, Boston. (Boston Athenaeum). WorldCat record id: 184904650 American journalist & editor. From the description of Papers of Lincoln Steffens [manuscript], ca. 1910. (University of Virginia). WorldCat record id: 647817346 Discussion of the corruption in the city at the turn of the twentieth century. From the description of Pittsburgh: a city as...

Schroeder, Theodore, 1864-1953

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6j10dfx (person)

Lawyer in Salt Lake City and anti-Mormon writer. From the guide to the MS 9391 Theodore Schroeder collection 1845-1901 (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Church History Library) Theodore Albert Schroeder (1864-1953) was an American lawyer, author and specialist in evolutionary psychology. When he lived in Salt Lake City he became an expert on the Mormon religion. After moving to New York City to pursue his legal career, he lectured on sociology, psychology and fre...

Glasgow, John Wesley.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6jw9xgm (person)

Kahan, Harry.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6hh838h (person)

Sanger, William T. (William Thomas), 1885-1975

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6r78nfs (person)

William Thomas Sanger, the son of Samuel F. and Susan Thomas Sanger, was born on Sepember 16, 1885 in Bridgewater, (Rockingham County) Virginia where he attended primary school at the Academy associated wtih Bridgewater College until 1896. The economic depression of the 1890s hit the Bridgewater area quite hard, and Samuel Sanger was compelled to take a salaried position with the Southern Railroad Company. The new job meant a move to Calverton, Virginia, where the family lived only one year befo...

Free Speech League (New York, N.Y.)

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6rz4mmb (corporateBody)

Bennett, De Robigne Mortimer, 1818-1882

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6cv61qz (person)

Goldman, Emma, 1869-1940

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6x63kt6 (person)

Emma Goldman (1869-1940) was an anarchist, feminist, author, editor, and lecturer on politics, literature and the arts. She was born in Lithuania and died in Canada. Her lectures and publications attracted attention throughout the U.S. and Europe. She was associated with the anarchist journal Mother Earth from 1906 to 1917 and was imprisoned for publicly advocating birth control in 1916 and pacifism in 1917. In 1919 she was deported to Russia but had to leave because of her criticism of the Bols...

New York Society for the Suppression of Vice

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6dn9dvp (corporateBody)

Organization incorporated in 1873 for the purpose of encouraging the enforcement of laws suppressing obscene publications and "articles of indecent or immoral use." From the description of Records of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, 1871-1953. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 84233393 Organizational History The New York Society for the Suppression of Vice was founded in 1873 by Anthony Comstock and his supp...

Craddock, Ida C.

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6j96r8v (person)

Miss Ida C. Craddock was born in Philadelphia on August 1, 1857, of Quaker parents. Her life was wholly dedicated to "preventing sexual evils and sufferings" by educating adults. Her publications and lectures were condemned as obscenities by some and praised for their educational value by others. Miss Craddock was a student of religious eroticism. Her puritan upbringing and intense moralistic conflicts brought her ultimately into mental hospitals and five jails. Criticism and persecution followe...

Heywood, Ezra H. (Ezra Hervey), 1829-1893

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6q54602 (person)