Margaret Goddard Holt Papers, 1814-2004 (bulk 1960-2000)

All rights are owned by the Sophia Smith Collection. Permission is required beyond "fair use." Copyright to materials authored by persons other than Margaret Goddard Holt may be owned by those individuals or their heirs or assigns. It is the responsibility of the researcher to identify and satisfy the holders of all copyrights.

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Biographical Note

Margaret Goddard Holt was born on October 4, 1911 in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania to Fanny Whiting Reed and Harold Clarke Goddard, professor of English at Swarthmore College; she had one sister, Eleanor Goddard Worthen. She was raised a Quaker and absorbed the values of that tradition, but never joined the Society of Friends. She was also guided by Zen Buddhism, especially the teachings of Lao Tse. After graduating from Swarthmore High School in 1929, she studied art at various institutions, including the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Art Students' League in New York City, and the Cummington (Massachusetts) School of the Arts. She taught at the Shady Hill School in Cambridge, Massachusetts and at the School in Rose Valley in Rose Valley, Pennsylvania (both progressive schools), prior to her marriage in 1939 to Lee Elbert Holt (March 23, 1912 - January 23, 2004). The Holts were married for sixty-four years and had two children, Geoffrey Lincoln and Alison. In 1947, after living in Indiana, Wisconsin, New York and Connecticut, the Holts settled in Springfield, Massachusetts, where Lee taught English at American International College and Margaret worked part-time teaching art therapy to the handicapped at United Cerebral Palsy and Munson State Hospital. They moved to Amherst, Massachusetts in 1977. After the World War II bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the beginnings of the Cold War, Margaret Holt began her lifetime of work in peace and justice activism. She helped organize some of the major social justice demonstrations of the 1960s, including the Poor People's Campaign in Washington, D.C. in 1963; coordinated, with Lee, frequent vigils in Springfield from 1967 to 1972 in protest of the Vietnam War; co-founded the Springfield chapter of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom; was a pivotal member of the Gray Panthers of the Pioneer Valley; and, beginning in 2000, corresponded weekly with death row prisoners, in addition to providing occasional financial support to their families. With Lee, Margaret Holt helped establish the Amherst (Massachusetts) Vigil for a Nuclear Free World in 1979 and from that time forward, regardless of weather, she attended weekly noon Sunday vigils on the Amherst Town Common. Margaret Holt died in Amherst, Massachusetts on January 1, 2004.

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Scope and Contents of the Collection

The Margaret Goddard Holt Papers consist of 55.25 linear ft. of correspondence, diaries, writings, artwork, photographs, short run and small circulation newsletters, periodicals, and publications. The collection primarily concerns Margaret Holt, and also includes significant amounts of material generated by her husband, Lee E. Holt and by several generations of extended family. The collection dates from 1814 to 2004 (bulk 1960-2000).

The papers offer a rich account of Margaret Holt's intellectual interests, political concerns, and personal affairs. Her lifetime diaries are detailed and introspective, and document her inner life, her relationships with family and friends, and her evolving world view from adolescence through old age (the diaries are closed until Jan. 1, 2028). There is extensive correspondence between Holt and her sister, Eleanor Goddard Worthen; her husband, Lee E. Holt; her close friends, including her Jungian analyst and later friend, Paula Elkisch, and the painter, Sarah Blakeslee Speight; and a wide range of more casual friends and acquaintances, fellow activists, and death row prisoners. The personal correspondence is particularly valuable in that in several instances it includes the letters of both Holt and her correspondent. Significant topics covered in letters to the editor and to politicians and elected representatives include the civil rights movement (1960s); the Vietnam War, and Watergate (1960s and 1970s); biological warfare, and the Iran-Contra scandal (1980s); the Persian Gulf War (1990s); and the Iraq War (2000s).

Materials generated by Lee E. Holt and his family, notably family correspondence and photographs, provide context to Margaret Holt's own papers and add a valuable dimension to the collection as a whole. Major topics in the papers include world peace and nuclear disarmament; economic, political, and social justice for disadvantaged peoples in the U.S. and abroad; and objection to U.S. militarism and military interference by the U.S. in the affairs of other nations. There is extensive documentation of the Arab-Israeli conflict, as Holt was sympathetic to the Palestinian position. The collection also contains a rich assortment of short run and limited circulation newsletters and printed materials generated by small, local grassroots organizations in the United States and abroad.

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Organization of the Collection

This collection is organized into seven series:

• BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS
• CORRESPONDENCE
• WRITINGS
• ACTIVISM
• ARTWORK
• PHOTOGRAPHS
• SUBJECT FILES

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SERIES I. BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS (1814-2004) 5.5 linear ft.

This series provides a basic overview about Margaret Goddard Holt and her extended family. It is organized into four subseries: Family history, Margaret Goddard Holt, Other Family members, and Memorabilia. The series begins with genealogical and historical information, followed by biographical information about Margaret Holt, and other family members listed alphabetically by last name. Materials pertaining to Margaret Holt contain substantive writings about her, including autobiographical statements, eulogies and obituaries, and articles and clippings, as well as calendars; and records of her donations to peace, social justice, and political groups and organizations. If the amount is negligible, writings by some family members are included in this series rather than SERIES III. WRITINGS. Margaret Holt's relationships to family and friends are explained in Appendix.

SERIES II. CORRESPONDENCE (1868-2003) 12 linear ft.

This series is arranged in two subseries: Margaret Goddard Holt and Other family members. It begins with letters between Margaret Holt and her family, followed by correspondence with employers (a very small amount), friends and acquaintances, death row inmates, and letters to newspaper editors and elected government officials. Holt's correspondence contains a set of letters she designated those "which in some way help make MGH feel that her life hasn't been wasted." Correspondence within each subseries is arranged alphabetically by the author's last name. The use of nicknames is common in this series; see Appendix for identification.

SERIES III. WRITINGS (1908-2003) 8.5 linear ft.

This series consists of three subseries, beginning with the writings of Margaret Goddard Holt and followed by Other family members, and Writings by others. In addition to essays, poems, short stories, and drafts of a book, Holt's writings also contain travel diaries of several trips to the American Southwest and to Europe. Travel diaries are complemented by correspondence written to Holt's friends during her travels, notably to Kitty and Rudy Praetz, and by Lee E. Holt's photographs in SERIES VI. PHOTOGRAPHS. Margaret Holt's diaries overlap with her sketchbooks in SERIES V. ARTWORK, in that there are sketches in many of the former and informal diary entries in the latter. The writings of Harold Clarke Goddard and Lee E. Holt are primarily academic; those of Helen Holt consist of a booklet of privately published poems.

SERIES IV. ACTIVISM (1967-2004) 3 linear ft.

This series, which complements SERIES VII. SUBJECTS, documents Margaret G. Holt's involvement in three distinct spheres of political activism, and is accordingly arranged in three subseries: Anthrax research protest pertains to civil actions undertaken in protest of anthrax research conducted at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and includes documentation of publicity surrounding the case and of Holt's legal defense; Gray Panthers contains materials generated by Holt's work with the Pioneer Valley branch of this national organization; and Vigils pertains to the peace and social justice vigils that Holt initiated in 1967, and continued organizing and attending until just prior to her death in 2004, and contains correspondence, newspaper clippings, leaflets, and fliers. There is visual documentation of the vigils in SERIES VII: PHOTOGRAPHS.

SERIES V. ARTWORK (1920-2004) 9 linear ft.

This series contains six subseries, Writings, Conservation, Drawings and paintings, Sketchbooks, Copy photographs and slides, and Artwork by others. The first two subseries describe Holt's work as an artist, and efforts by Lee and Margaret Holt to have some of the better paintings cleaned, repaired, and conserved. The drawings and paintings themselves are arranged by subject, with larger items filed in oversize boxes. The sketchbooks are filed chronologically, and many of them contain musings, political commentary, and brief diary entries in addition to drawings.

SERIES VI. PHOTOGRAPHS (1899-2003) 7 linear ft.

This series contains photographs and transparencies of four generations of the Goddard and Holt families and their friends, including formal portraits and snapshots, travel photographs, and visual documentation of vigils and other political actions. With the exception of photographs of Margaret Holt's and Lee Holt's respective childhoods and images of earlier generations, virtually all of the photographs were taken by Lee E. Holt after he and Margaret married in 1939.

SERIES VII. SUBJECT FILES (1912-2004) 10.25 linear ft.

This series contains materials pertaining to Margaret Goddard Holt's lifelong interest in the many facets of peace and social justice activism at the local, state, national, and international levels. The bulk of the series is comprised of four subseries, Countries, Death penalty, Peace and disarmament, and Politics, reflecting the issues of most concern to Holt. All subseries are arranged alphabetically either by topic or by organization name.

SERIES I. BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS

SERIES II. CORRESPONDENCE

SERIES III. WRITINGS

SERIES IV. ACTIVISM

SERIES V. ARTWORK

SERIES VI. PHOTOGRAPHS

SERIES VII. SUBJECT FILES

OVERSIZE MATERIALS