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

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0120 PP/EPR
Held at	: Wellcome Library   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://wellcomelibrary.org/ ›
Full title	: Eileen Palmer: collection of material on birth control, including papers of Edith How-Martyn and Olive Johnson
Date(s)	: 1912-2001
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 6 boxes
Name of creator(s)	: Martyn | Edith | How- | 1875-1954 | suffragist and feminist Johnson | Olive M | fl. 1920s-1950s | pioneer of the birth control movement Palmer | Eileen | fl. 1913-1989 | pioneer of the birth control movement
Detailed catalogue	: Click here to view repository detailed catalogue

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

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 Biography, and some obituaries and other biographical material in A.8.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Eileen Palmer birth control papers, 1912-2001. These papers constitute the residue of a much larger collection of papers relating to the birth control movement in Britain and internationally. 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.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

A. Edith How-Martyn: personal and biographical
B. Edith How-Martyn: campaign for birth control advice in welfare centres
C. Edith How-Martyn: international birth control tours
D. Olive M Johnson correspondence
E. Eileen Palmer papers
F. Birth Control International Information Centre/Birth Control Worldwide
G. Pamphlets and publications

Conditions governing access:

The papers are available subject to the usual conditions of access to Archives and Manuscripts material, after the completion of a Reader's Undertaking. File A.1/2 is Restricted Access until 1 Jan 2024 as it contains sensitive personal information about individuals. A Restricted Access application form must be completed to apply for access to this file.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Photocopies/photographs/microfilm are supplied for private research only at the Archivist's discretion. Please note that material may be unsuitable for copying on conservation grounds, and that photographs cannot be photocopied in any circumstances. Readers are restricted to 100 photocopies in twelve months. Researchers who wish to publish material must seek copyright permission from the copyright owner.

Finding aids:

Archival Information

Archival history:

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.

Immediate source of acquisition:

Dr Hilary Frances transferred the papers in her care to the Wellcome Library in May 2006.

Allied Materials

Related material:

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.

Papers of Edith How-Martyn in The Women's Library, primarily dealing with her activities in the Women's Freedom League, and following the grant of the vote, with the Suffragette Fellowship.
Papers of Eileen Palmer relating to the birth control movement are in the Archives Section, London School of Economics Library.
Papers of Edith How-Martyn and Eileen Palmer, mostly relating to their tours in India, are in the Indian Office Select Materials, MS Eur D1182, in the British Library.
Margaret Sanger papers, Library of Congress Washington DC and Sophia Smith Collection Smith College.

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Copied from the Wellcome Library catalogue by Sarah Drewery.

Rules or conventions:
In compliance with ISAD (G): General International Standard Archival Description - 2nd Edition (1999); UNESCO Thesaurus, December 2001; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
Jan 2009