Browse Items (228 total)

This article, published in the weekly New York Times Magazine on April 3rd, 1938, demonstrates how journalism brought the Spanish refugee crisis into the eyes and minds of American society. The focus of this article is the mass migrations of…

The bombings during the Spanish Civil War not only destroyed buildings and land, but they destroyed families. Children of all ages were victims of fascist attacks, and because of the numerous children who were left orphaned and who were in harms way…

Quaker peace testimonies resounded throughout Britain in reaction to the devastating violence and atrocities of the Spanish Civil War, in contrast to those who wanted to take up arms against the fascists responsible for those atrocities. Though the…

This quote, attributed to T. Edmund Harvey, alludes to the idea that society will reap what it sows, and that violence will never lead to peace, but only to more violence. Read on another register, images of Spanish peasants and workers forming…

This poster, produced by Great Britain’s Northern Friends Peace Board in 1938, appeals to the ethics of family and maternity. It could be read as a response both to the Spanish Civil War and as a protest of the impending Second World War. In Three…

This anti-war poster calls attention to the obscene sums of money spent on war preparations, and simultaneously suggests that military stockpiling inhibits God’s kingdom from flourishing. It calls to mind the Quaker peace testimony, which states…

This journal entry from January 1st, 1937 is found in a Quaker weekly journal from 1937 where it informed other Friends how the Friends Service Council (the British corollary to the American Friends Service Committee), together with the Save the…

“They Still Draw Pictures” is a collection of 60 original drawings created by the children who had first-hand experience with the violence of the Spanish Civil War. Its significance stems from the fact that the drawings allowed a child--whose…

This poster, printed in 1939, expresses the connection between pacifism and the Quaker religion by stating that war disagrees with God. It can be read both as a Spanish Civil War poster and as a caution against the looming Second World War. It is a…

Can peace ever be stable when injustice exists, and is just violence even possible? This poster, created by the London Quaker Friends in 1938, propels us to the heart of such questions by instantly equating peace and justice. Yet the Quakers were not…

During the Spanish Civil War and well into Francisco Franco’s regime the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) played an active role supporting peace efforts. With the fall of the Republic in 1939, attention turned to refugees leaving Spain. The…

Sponsored by Eleanor Roosevelt, Dorothy Parker, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Helen Keller, and other prominent figures of the time, The American Rescue Ship Mission letter circulated in 1940 makes an appeal for donations to help Spanish Republican…

The Society of Friends attempted to remain neutral during the Spanish Civil War, and conducted relief work for both the Republicans and the Nationalists. In Quaker Service in Modern War, Howard Kershner writes, “I maintain that when one undertakes…

The topic of the poster refers to the relentless bombing of Madrid by Franco's forces, which began in November 1936, targeting civilians. The journalist Louis Delaprée writes of the bombardments, “But night falls. The great butchery, the horror, the…

This Quaker poster criticizes conscription, the compulsory enrollment of persons for military service, and denounces war altogether. By claiming that, through conscription, the state has control of the collective human consciousness, which is…

During the Spanish Civil War, Quakers from Britain and United States sent reports back to the Friends Service Council and the American Friends Service Committee from Spain exploring the conditions of the people and the gruesome effects of war. This…

During the twentieth century, Quakers were active in publicizing peace-related concepts and striving against remilitarization. This poster, calling for a coordinated international effort in peace-building in place of force to deter war, sheds light…

“Cuando el arte se trueca en intérprete de la emoción popular, el arte se sublima… Se hace a un tiempo carne y espíritu.”
“When art becomes the interpreter of some great national sentiment, it is sublime… [It is] a mingling of the flesh with the…

Quaker peace testimonies resounded throughout Britain in reaction to the devastating violence and atrocities of the Spanish Civil War, in contrast to those who wanted to take up arms against the fascists responsible for those atrocities. Though the…

In this compilation of selections from letters, Esther Farquhar Kamp, a social worker and Quaker relief worker with the American Friends Service Committee, discusses the physical, mental, and emotional stresses on the Spanish children and the ways in…

Both the Friendship Project pamphlet and The American Friend article, “Out of the Mouths of Babes,” explore the role of children as peacebuilders during the Spanish Civil War. In these two artifacts, young people are recognized as uniquely powerful…

In an effort to provide aid to the war torn countryside of Spain, the Friends Service Council (FSC) made and distributed pamphlets about the war to Friends in England to collect funds and donations to help bring a measure of peace to Spain. To the…

This pamphlet, titled Give for Spain’s Refugees, is one of a series that were distributed by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) to ask for help for the children refugees who were victims of the Spanish Civil War. This pamphlet shows that…