The Margaret Meier Collection of Extreme Right Ephemeral Materials, c1930-1980, consists of 47 manuscript boxes and 9 print boxes. The collection contains Margaret and Herbert Meier's materials documenting the rise and the activities of the extreme right in California and national politics. The bulk of the materials date from the 1960s-early 1970s, with additional materials from the late 1930s through the 1980s. Much of the materials relate to activities and groups in Southern California, where the Meiers lived, especially the towns of Arcadia and Sierra Madre. Included are political ephemera, newspaper and magazine clippings, and serials from extreme right groups such as the John Birch Society, Americanism clubs, various Christian right organizations, republican and extreme right political personalities. A censorship debate regarding the Arcadia Public Library's decision to include Kazantzakis' work, The Last Temptation of Christ, the activities of and opposition to the John Birch Society, and opposition to Senator Kuchel of California are three examples of subjects which are especially well covered. The collection also contains 18 boxes of serials and 3 OS boxes of newspapers, including publications of the John Birch Society and its leader, Robert Welch, the Institute for American Democracy, and Gerald L.K. Smith. MM's notes are found throughout the collection. The processors have made every attempt to retain MM's original order of the collection when possible, and have ordered the unorganized materials in this spirit.

Margaret and Herbert ("Herb") Meier were active in Republican politics in Orange County, and in California as a whole, primarily during the 1960s and 1970s. Herbert worked as a "field underwriter" at the Pasadena office of Home Life Insurance Co., of New York. Both were moderate Republicans, although Margaret held a membership card for the Moderate Democrats [see Box 20, folder 10]. In 1965, Herbert Meier was president of the Arcadia-Sierra Madre Chapter of the California Republican League, a "state-wide volunteer political organization authorized by the California Republican State Central Committee and activated in 1964," whose objective was that the "party must be broader, more dynamic, more forward-looking." Both Herbert and Margaret also held other state and local positions in Republican political groups. This collection reveals their effort to document the rise of the extreme right during these years.

28 linear ft.

Property rights reside with the repository. Literary rights reside with the creators of the documents or their heirs. To obtain permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the Public Services Librarian of the Dept. of Special Collections.

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