Mary Bridges-Adams Collection on British Labour Movement and Russian Socialists, 1905-1939

Summary Information

Abstract

The collection of letters and documents addressed to, or relating to, Mrs. Mary Jane Bridges-Adams (1854–1939), British socialist and educationist, in connection with the British Labour movement and with the Russian Political Prisoners and Exiles Relief Committee in London. The collection also includes letters and documents of Georgii Chicherin (1872-1936), Russian diplomat, revolutionary, and second Commissar of Foreign Affairs, concerning his activities in London and Europe.

At a Glance

Call No.:
BA#0534
Bib ID:
9135518 View CLIO record
Creator(s):
Adams, Mary Bridges-, 1855-1939
Repository:
Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Physical Description:
3 linear feet (3 document boxes 1 oversized flat box)
Language(s):
English , French , Russian .
Access:
You will need to make an appointment in advance to use this collection material in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room. You can schedule an appointment once you've submitted your request through your Special Collections Research Account.

This collection is located on-site.

This collection has no restrictions.

Description

Summary

The collection consists of Mary Bridges-Adams and Georgii Chicherin materials. The Bridges-Adams papers contain correspondence and documents related to her activity as a labour movement activist and to the Russian Political Prisoners and Exiles Relief Committee in London, the revolutionary movement in Russia, the campaign against repatriation and the right of asylum, and social and educational matters. The correspondence contains letters from prominent people, such as Winston Churchill, Georgii Chicherin, Sir Victor Horsley, Henry Mayers Hyndman, Aleksandra Kollontai, Maksim Litvinov, Edward Lyulph Stanley (Fourth Baron Sheffield), Frances Evelyn Maynard Greville, Countess of Warwick. The remainder of the correspondence includes letters from socialist individuals and organizations. There are also some of Bridges-Adams' writings, printed ephemera, newspaper clippings, and other related materials. The Chicherin papers mostly contain materials related to the time of his emigration and his life in Great Britain. There is correspondence, drafts and copies of speeches and articles, reports, minutes of meetings, accounts for various activities, notes, a few documents related to his deportation, and printed ephemera and newspaper clippings. Chicherin corresponded with a number of prominent people including Robert Applegarth, Sergei Bagotskii, Fenner Brockway, Fedor Dan, Aleksandra Kollontai, A. Lozovskii, Iulii Martov, S. Semkovskii, Philip Snowden. Oversize materials have been separated and stored in Flat box #4 of the Bakhmeteff Archive Flat box collection. References are provided. There are cross-references provided throughout the finding aid. When the cross-reference refers to another item within the same series, the reference includes the specific name or title and box and folder number (this also applies to the references within same subseries). If the cross-reference is to an item in another series, the reference includes the series number, series name, folder title, and box and folder numbers (this also applies to references to the items in another subseries).

  • Series I: Mary Bridges-Adams Materials, 1905-1939, undated

    The series consists of Mary Bridges-Adams's correspondence, documents, writings, printed ephemera, and newspaper clippings. Organized in three subseries.

  • Series II: Georgii Checherin Materials, 1908-1918, undated, undated

    The series comprises correspondence, drafts and copies of speeches and articles, reports, minutes of meetings, accounts for various activities, notes, a few documents related to his deportation, and printed ephemera and newspaper clippings. Most materials are related to the time of Chicherin's emigration and his life in Great Britain. Organized in five subseries.

Arrangement

This collection is organized in two series.

Using the Collection

Restrictions on Access

You will need to make an appointment in advance to use this collection material in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room. You can schedule an appointment once you've submitted your request through your Special Collections Research Account.

This collection is located on-site.

This collection has no restrictions.

Terms Governing Use and Reproduction

Reproductions may be made for research purposes. Permission to publish material from the collection must be requested from the Curator of the Bakhmeteff Archive. The RBML approves permission to publish that which it physically owns; the responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the patron.

Preferred Citation

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Mary Bridges-Adams Collection on British Labour Movement and Russian Socialists; Box and Folder; Bakhmeteff Archive, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library.

Accrual

No additional material expected

Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. Contact rbml@columbia.edu for more information.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Method of acquisition--Purchase; Date of acquisition--1993.

About the Finding Aid / Processing Information

Columbia University Libraries, Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Processing Information

Papers processed Katia Shraga 11/--/2011.

Finding aid written Katia Shraga 11/30/2011.

Revision Description

2011-12-01 xml document instance created by Carrie Hintz

2019-05-20 EAD was imported spring 2019 as part of the ArchivesSpace Phase II migration.

Biographical Note

Mary Jane Bridges-Adams (née Daltry, 1854–1939), left-wing socialist especially interested in educational matters, a leading propagandist of educational reform, was born on October 19, 1854 at Maesycwmer, Bedwas, Monmouthshire, south Wales.

She was a member of the London School Board (1897-1903) and stood for free, compulsory education, for a secular curriculum, and for equal educational opportunity; a member of the Woolwich branch of the Women's Co-operative Guild (1890s); an honorary member of an association of trade union officials to facilitate the exchange of information on the legal position of trade unions. Bridges-Adams was involved with the Froebel movement. In 1901, Mary Bridges-Adams initiated the foundation of the National Labour Education League. She became a close friend of the Countess of Warwick and as her secretary and collaborator ran a London-based office and discussion centre, visitors to which included Gorst, Thorne, and Winston Churchill. Among her achievements was the establishment of the first Open Air School for Recovery in Bostall Woods, owned by the Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society. In 1909 she concentrated on adult education and in 1912 began a campaign to establish a working women's labour college. A year later she established a Working Women's Movement.

In 1914, Mary Bridges-Adams joined the political fight to preserve the right of asylum enjoyed by refugees from tsarist Russia, among whom was Georgii Chicherin, a future Soviet foreign minister. She became a proactive member of the Russian Political Prisoners and Exiles Relief Committee in London. Mary Bridges-Adams died at Princess Beatrice Hospital, London, on January 14, 1939.

Georgii Vasil'evich Chicherin, (born November 24, 1872, Tambov province, Russia - died July 7, 1936, Moscow), Russian diplomat, revolutionary and later second Commissar of Foreign Affairs, who led Soviet foreign policy from 1918 until 1928.

An aristocrat by birth, Chicherin entered the imperial diplomatic service after graduating from the University of St. Petersburg (1897). He became involved in the Russian revolutionary movement, however, and in 1904 resigned his post, renounced title to his estates, and went to Berlin, where he joined the Menshevik faction of the Russian Social Democratic Party (1905). For the next 12 years he devoted himself to party activities, working closely with the French Socialists and the British labour movement.

During World War I he took part in pacifist and relief activities in London organizing aid for revolutionaries under the relief committee, in which he was aided by Mary Bridges-Adams, and later for the Delegation of Russian Socialist Groups in London. After the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia in 1917, the British arrested him and, in exchange for their ambassador, Sir George Buchanan, released him on January 3, 1918. Chicherin returned to Russia and joined the Bolshevik Party. He then resumed his diplomatic career, participating in the final stage of negotiating the Brest-Litovsk peace treaty with Germany and subsequently becoming People's commissar for foreign affairs (May 1918). After negotiating treaties resolving territorial and commercial disputes, Chicherin headed the Soviet delegation to the conference of European nations held at Genoa to consider reconstruction of the European economy (1922). There he secretly negotiated the Treaty of Rapallo with Germany (signed April 16, 1922), which established normal commercial and diplomatic relations between the two countries and thereby ended the diplomatic and economic isolation that had been imposed on Russia and Germany after World War I. Although he had little influence in determining the foreign policies of the Soviet Union, Chicherin continued to carry them out skillfully until illness prevented him from performing his duties in 1928; he retired in 1930.

Subject Headings

The subject headings listed below are found in this collection. Links below allow searches for other collections at Columbia University, through CLIO, the catalog for Columbia University Libraries, and through ArchiveGRID, a catalog that allows users to search the holdings of multiple research libraries and archives.

All links open new windows.

Genre/Form
Correspondence CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Documents CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Manuscripts (documents) CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Name
Applegarth, Robert, 1834-1924 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Bagot︠s︡kiĭ, S. (Sergeĭ), 1879-1953 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Brockway, Fenner, 1888-1988 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Chicherin, G (Georgiĭ), 1872-1936 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Churchill, Winston, 1874-1965 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Dan, F. (Fedor), 1871-1947 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Horsley, Victor, Sir, 1857-1916 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Hyndman, H. M (Henry Mayers), 1842-1921 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Kollontaĭ, A. (Aleksandra), 1872-1952 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Labour Party (Great Britain) CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Litvinov, M. M (Maksim Maksimovich), 1876-1951 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Lozovskiĭ, A., 1878-1952 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Martov, L., 1873-1923 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Rossiĭskai︠a︡ sot︠s︡ial-demokraticheskai︠a︡ rabochai︠a︡ partii︠a︡ CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Semkovskiĭ, S CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Snowden, Philip Snowden, Viscount, 1864-1937 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Socialist Movement (Great Britain) CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Stanley, Edward Lyulph, 1839-1925 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Warwick, Frances Evelyn Maynard Greville, Countess of, 1861-1938 CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Subject
Education -- Great Britain CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Political activists -- Great Britain CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Russians -- Great Britain -- Politics and government CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Socialists -- Great Britain CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Women political activists -- Great Britain CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID
Women socialists -- Great Britain CLIO Catalog ArchiveGRID