The collection is a group of records from the national office donated to the Historical Society in 1973 by Philip Altbach via the University of Chicago Archives, together with a small amount of material culled from a 1975 donation of personal papers donated directly to the Society by Altbach. The records are best for the years 1961 through 1963; consequently they contain virtually no information on either the formation or dissolution of SPU. Also disappointing are materials on some of the most important issues in the organization's history: its “third camp” position during the Cuban missile crisis, support of civil rights, and opposition to the war in Vietnam. The collection includes internal administrative records, correspondence, publications, local records, and miscellany. Many of SPU's official records (particularly resolution statements, officers' reports, and financial reports) were published in the Discussion Bulletin; when such material could be identified, duplication within the office files was eliminated.
ADMINISTRATIVE RECORDS, 1959-1964, include an early version of SPU's constitution (later versions are included within the convention papers); minutes of the National Council and the National Steering Committee; papers of the policy-making national conventions; and miscellaneous membership lists, statements of candidates for the National Council, and officers' reports. The minutes of the National Steering Committee, which was responsible for much of the routine administration of SPU, are fairly complete for the years 1961-1963; the National Council, however, is represented by minutes or notes of only four meetings. Convention papers cover a similar time period and variously include minutes, notes, resolutions and statements, and reports.
Chronologically-arranged CORRESPONDENCE, 1958-1964, is largely a file created by National Chairman Philip Altbach, though letters to and from other officers are also included. Subjects discussed range from routine requests for information, concerns related to publication of the Bulletin and the Discussion Bulletin, and communications with local chapters to high-level explorations of policy options with some of the most important individuals and organizations then active in the peace movement. Among the most frequent of these are Alfred Hassler, Brad Lyttle, David McReynolds, Linus Pauling, Robert Pickus, David Riesman, Bayard Rustin, Norman Thomas, and other representatives of the American Friends Service Committee, the Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy, the Committee for Nonviolent Action, the National Student Association, Turn Toward Peace, and the War Resisters League.
The remaining sections of the collection are quite fragmentary. Runs of the Bulletin and the Discussion Bulletin and several monographs have been separated from PUBLICATIONS, 1959-1964; files of handbills and pamphlets (and a few drafts of the latter) remain with the manuscript material. Also included are drafts of several published articles and two folders of articles probably intended for the Discussion Bulletin, but whose publication could not be established. Also of note is a collection of statements and official resolutions which could not be interfiled with the convention papers. Included here is SPU's statement on Vietnam. LOCAL RECORDS, 1959-1964, chiefly consist of fragmentary minutes, constitutions, and statements of purpose. The MISCELLANY, 1955-1964, includes a file of clippings about SPU, its activities, and members, and miscellaneous financial records not available in published form.
