Inventory of the Margaret E. Hill Papers

Processed by Jill Golden.

Hoover Institution Archives

Stanford University

Stanford, California 94305-6010

Phone: (650) 723-3563

Fax: (650) 725-3445

Email: archives@hoover.stanford.edu

Inventory of the Margaret E. Hill Papers

Hoover Institution Archives

Stanford University

Stanford, California

Processed by:: Jill Golden
Date Completed:: 2011
Encoded by:: Machine-readable finding aid derived from Microsoft Word and MARC record by Jill Golden.

Collection Summary

Title: Margaret E. Hill papers

Dates: 1940-1949

Collection Number: 79071

Creator: Hill, Margaret E.

Collection Size: 4 manuscript boxes, 1 oversize box, 9 envelopes, 3 phonorecords (4 linear feet)

Repository: Hoover Institution Archives

Stanford, California 94305-6010

Abstract: Press releases, bulletins, correspondence, pamphlets, clippings, brochures, photographs, motion picture film, and phonorecords, relating to fundraising in southern California for World War II relief activities. Sound use copies of sound recordings available.

Physical Location: Hoover Institution Archives

Languages: In English and French

Administrative Information

Access

Collection is open for research.

The Hoover Institution Archives only allows access to copies of audiovisual items. To listen to sound recordings or to view videos or films during your visit, please contact the Archives at least two working days before your arrival. We will then advise you of the accessibility of the material you wish to see or hear. Please note that not all audiovisual material is immediately accessible.

Publication Rights

For copyright status, please contact the Hoover Institution Archives.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Margaret E. Hill papers, [Box number], Hoover Institution Archives.

Acquisition Information

Acquired by the Hoover Institution Archives in 1979.

Accruals

Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. To determine if this has occurred, find the collection in Stanford University's online catalog at http://searchworks.stanford.edu/ . Materials have been added to the collection if the number of boxes listed in the online catalog is larger than the number of boxes listed in this finding aid.

Biographical Note

Margaret E. Hill graduated from Mills College in 1922 and received advanced degrees from Western Reserve University and the University of Grenoble. In 1935 she moved to Los Angeles to teach French at the Marlborough School. From 1942 to 1947 she held positions in relief organizations in the Los Angeles area, serving as the southern California chairman of American Relief for France, executive secretary of the United Nations War Relief Council for Southern California, and vice-chairman of the Los Angeles County War Chest. To commemorate her relief work, Hill was decorated by the French government with the Legion of Honor in 1947. After the United Nations War Relief Council was dissolved in December 1947, Hill resumed her teaching career at the Anoakia School for Girls in Arcadia, California. She retired in 1967.

Scope and Content of Collection

The Margaret E. Hill papers document her years working for World War II relief organizations in southern California. The papers consist of press releases, bulletins, correspondence, pamphlets, clippings, brochures, photographs, motion picture film, and phonorecords.

As chair of American Relief for France in Southern California, Hill was primarily responsible for fundraising. Her projects for the organization, including the city of Los Angeles's adoption of Calais and Argentan, are documented in the American Relief for France file. She also led a program to send packages to French orphans after the war; files about this initiative include dossiers, lists, and photographs of the children served. In gratitude, the city of Calais sent Hill albums of photographs and children's drawings, all of which can be found in the Oversize material file.

In July 1942 Hill represented French relief at the inaugural meeting of the United Nations War Relief Council (UNWRC). The Council was incorporated in California to coordinate the activities of relief agencies for China, Czechoslovakia, France, Greece, Holland, Norway, the Philippines, and Poland. After being appointed executive secretary in 1943, Hill ran a fundraising campaign that included radio programs publicizing relief efforts, transcripts and recordings of which are included in the United Nations War Relief Council and Sound recordings files.

As a coordinator of relief efforts throughout southern California, Hill collected and received Photographs, Films, and Printed Matter produced by other World War II relief agencies.

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.

United Nations War Relief Council for Southern California.

International relief.

World War, 1939-1945--California.

World War, 1939-1945--Civilian relief.

Collection Contents

Box: 1-2

American Relief for France file 1943-1949

Scope and Content Note

Contains correspondence, clippings, photographs, reports, lists, exhibit materials, and printed matter. Around 1946, the organization changed its name to American Aid to France, which may be found on some of the later documents.

Arrangement

In alphabetical order by project or form and thereunder chronologically

Box/Folder: 1 : 1-2

Argentan file, 1948

Calais file, 1946-1947

Box/Folder: 1 : 3

Le siège de Calais et le dévouement des six bourgeois, by Maurice Martin, Calais city archivist, circa 1946

Box/Folder: 1 : 4

Report by American Aid to France transport driver J.A. Manley, circa 1946

Box/Folder: 1 : 5

Aperçu de l'histoire de Calais, 1947 January 3

Box/Folder: 1 : 6

Florence Gilliam letter on conditions in Calais, 1947 March 31

Package adoption program files, 1944-1949

Box/Folder: 1 : 7

Red Cross Prisoner of War package guidelines, 1944

Box/Folder: 1 : 8

Package adoption program proposal, 1945 November

Box/Folder: 1 : 9

Index cards, 1945-1946

Scope and Content Note

Cards include names of children, age, status of parents, and photographs

Box/Folder: 1 : 10

List of children, 1946 March

Box/Folder: 1 : 11

Los Angeles Times clipping, 1946 May 26

Scope and Content Note

Article includes a photograph of Hill

Box/Folder: 1 : 12

Thank you letters from France, 1946-1948

Box/Folder: 1 : 13

Fundraising appeal, 1949

Public relations bureau file, 1944-1948

Promotional materials, 1946-1947

Box/Folder: 1 : 14

1,200,000 Thanks for 1,200,000 Chocolate Bars, 1946

Box/Folder: 1 : 15

Le Théatre de la mode: A Creation by French Artists and Designers Organised by the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne; Presented to New York by American Relief for France under the Auspices of l'Association Française d'Action Artistique in Aid of l'Entr'Aide française , 1946

Box/Folder: 1 : 16-17

Reports, 1944-1948

Scope and Content Note

Includes reports on Grand-Synthe and joint activities between American Relief for France and the American Friends Service Committee

Box/Folder: 2 : 1-5

Exhibit material on the war in France, produced by the Coordinating Council of French Relief Societies, 1943

Scope and Content Note

Includes reprints of photographs by Thérèse Bonney

Box: 3

United Nations War Relief Council file 1943-1947

Scope and Content Note

Contains bulletins, clippings, correspondence, flyers, minutes, radio transcripts, and reports

Arrangement

In alphabetical order by form or title and thereunder chronologically

Box/Folder: 3 : 1

Bulletins, 1944

Box/Folder: 3 : 2-4

Clippings on fundraising events, 1943-1947

Correspondence, 1944-1947

Box/Folder: 3 : 5

California War Chest, 1944-1945

Box/Folder: 3 : 6

Carnet, Joseph M., 1944

Box/Folder: 3 : 7

Coordinating Council of French Relief Societies, 1944

Box/Folder: 3 : 8

Royal Norwegian Information Service, 1944 and 1947

Box/Folder: 3 : 9

Sayler, Lucie R., 1946

Box/Folder: 3 : 10

United Yugoslav Relief Fund of America, 1944

Box/Folder: 3 : 11

Wooster, John B., circa 1945

Scope and Content Note

On the Philippines

Box/Folder: 3 : 12

Flyers and clippings advertising poster exhibit, 1944 April

Box/Folder: 3 : 13

"History of the United Nations War Relief Council," 1947

Box/Folder: 3 : 14

Letterhead, 1945-1947

Box/Folder: 3 : 15

Meeting minutes, 1947 December 3

Radio broadcast transcripts, 1944-1947

Box/Folder: 3 : 16

Françoise Dony interview on the German occupation of Belgium, 1944

Box/Folder: 3 : 17

Irena Grodzka interview, 1944 July 19

Scope and Content Note

Grodzka was a captain of the Women's Auxiliary Service (WAS) in Poland (Pomocnicza Służba Kobiet or PSK)

Box/Folder: 3 : 18

One minute radio spots to raise money for relief efforts in Czechoslovakia, Poland, Holland, and France, circa 1946

Box/Folder: 3 : 19

Claude Angles interview on the French underground, circa 1946

Box/Folder: 3 : 20

Jean-Pierre Aumont and Stanley Maw interview on French relief, circa 1946

Box/Folder: 3 : 21

Radio program by Ralph Rose featuring Basil Rathbone, Jean Hersholt, and Anna Mae Wong, circa 1946

Box/Folder: 3 : 22

"Your World Tomorrow," program with Donald M. Nelson, President of the Society of Independent Motion Picture Producers and Chairman of the United Nations War Relief Council, Warren A. Wilson, and Manchester Boddy, publisher of the Los Angeles Daily News. circa 1946

Box/Folder: 3 : 23

"Down in Flames, Out by Underground," by Bierne Lay, adapted by Leona Wilson, 1947 June 6

Box/Folder: 3 : 24

"This Day Remembered," 1947 June 6

Scope and Content Note