Title: Patrick M. Quinn Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1968-1974

Creator:

• Patrick M. Quinn, 1942-

Call Number: Mss 510; Tape 779A; PH Mss 510

Quantity: 0.8 c.f. (2 archives boxes), 2 tape recordings, and 6 photographs

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

Abstract:

Papers of social activist Pat Quinn that document his anti-Vietnam War and labor efforts in Madison, Wisconsin, between 1968 and 1974. The papers concern his involvement with the Madison Area Peace Action Council, the Madison Committee to End the War in Vietnam, and Local 171 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and consist of correspondence, leaflets, press releases, printed matter, and clippings. On tape is a 1974 interview, the transcript of which is also in the collection, that concerns his assessment of the origins and growth of the anti-war movement in Madison. The photographs document a 1973 Memorial Day anti-war march sponsored by the Madison Area Peace Action Council.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00510

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Patrick Michael Quinn was born August 22, 1942 in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. He attended local public schools from 1947 to 1960. After beginning college at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater in 1960, he transferred to the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1962, where he received his B.S. in English two years later. From 1964 to 1967 Quinn attended graduate school at the UW in Madison. During this period he also taught high school in Racine and worked as a research assistant at the University.

Since September 1966 Quinn has worked as an archivist. He was employed by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin from 1966 through 1971, and the next year he became assistant university archivist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 1974 he took an archival position at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois.

During the years that Quinn lived in Madison he was involved in labor union activities, as well as with many anti-Vietnam war and leftist organizations. He was chairman of the Madison Committee to End the War in Vietnam (1968), and later worked extensively with Madison Labor Against the War, Madison Area Peace Action Council, and other organizations. Quinn was also extremely active in his union, American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), serving as steward of Local #171 and working in the United Action Caucus.

The papers have been arranged in five categories: Labor Activities, Anti-War Activities, materials regarding Other Organizations, Miscellany, and Interviews. Items in the Labor Activities category pertain to union and related labor activities with which Quinn was involved. The American Federation of Teachers/Wisconsin Federation of Teachers and Wisconsin State Employees Union, Local #171 records include constitutions, correspondence, memos, leaflets, and agenda of meetings. There are also printed material and notes from the 1973 WSEU state convention, to which Quinn was an alternate delegate. The General Electric and Teaching Assistants Association strikes of 1970 are documented by correspondence, leaflets, and clippings. The file on the United Caucus of Local #171 contains material concerning a WSEU contract, and Quinn's notes and drafts for leaflets and articles distributed by the Caucus.

The Anti-War Activities group contains Quinn's files on the Madison Area Peace Action Council, of which he was a founding member. Duplicate copies of some of the items concerning MAPAC activities and events have been integrated into the Council's records (Mss 195). The records in Quinn's collection document those activities in which he was involved, such as the April 18th (1970) march, which he organized. Included are correspondence, notes, and drafts of leaflets and press releases written by Quinn. The papers concerning the Madison Committee to End the War in Vietnam date from 1968, the year that Quinn served as chairperson. The file consists of correspondence, drafts of Quinn's articles and notes regarding the internal operations of the Committee.

The records of Other organizations primarily consist of printed leaflets and notes regarding a number of anti-war and other social activist groups.

Taped Interviews with Quinn, conducted on May 29 and 31, 1974 by Michael Kohl and Sarah Cooper, give little additional substantive information. Rather, they provide Quinn's assessment of the roots and growth of the anti-war movement, primarily in Madison. There is also a typewritten abstract of highlights of the interviews.

Presented by Patrick M. Quinn, Evanston, Illinois, 1972-1974, 1976, 1977.

Mss 510	Labor Activities, 1970-1974
Box   1 Folder   1	American Federation of Teachers/Wisconsin Federation of Teachers
Box   1 Folder   2	General Electric Strike, 1970
Box   1 Folder   3	Teaching Assistants Association Strike, March 1970
Box   1 Folder   4	United Action Caucus, Local #171
Box   1 Folder   5	Wisconsin State Employees Union, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Local #171
Box   1 Folder   6	Wisconsin State Employees Union State Convention, June 22-24, 1973
	Anti-War Activities, 1968-1973
	Madison Area Peace Action Council
Box   1 Folder   7	Statewide Anti-War March, April 18, 1970
Box   1 Folder   8	Memorial Day Anti-War March, May 30, 1970
Box   1 Folder   9	Memorial Day Anti-War March, May 29, 1972
Box   1 Folder   10	Memorial Day Anti-War March, May 28, 1973
PH Mss 510	Photographs
Mss 510 Box   2 Folder   1	Working File
Box   2 Folder   2	Madison Committee to End the War in Vietnam, 1968-1971
Box   2 Folder   3	Madison Labor Against the War, 1970
	Other Organizations
Box   2 Folder   4	Emergency Committee to Defend the French Revolutionaries, 1973
Box   2 Folder   5	Community Action on Latin America May Day Meeting, 1974
	Leaflets from Miscellaneous Anti-War and Other Groups
Box   2 Folder   6	A-M
Box   2 Folder   7	N-Z
Box   2 Folder   8	Miscellany
Tape 779A	Interviews
No.   1-2	Interviews with Quinn, May 29, 31, 1974
Mss 510 Box   2 Folder   9	Abstract of Interviews on Tape 779A