Reynolds (Earle and Akie) Archive, 1930-1997

Printable guide [HTML]
Request items

Summary

Title:
Earle and Akie Reynolds Archive
Dates:
1930-1997
Creators:
Reynolds, Earle L.
Abstract:
This collection includes correspondence, publications, scrapbooks, photographs, realia and audio/audio-visual materials related to the evolution of Earle Reynolds and his family as peace activists.
Extent:
61 boxes
Language:
English.
Preferred citation:

Earle and Akie Reynolds archive, MS 120, Special Collections, The University Library, University of California, Santa Cruz.

Background

Scope and content:

This archive includes correspondence, publications, scrapbooks, photographs, realia and audio/visual materials related to the evolution of Reynolds as a peace activist; from his early career as an anthropologist documenting the effects of the atomic bomb on the children of Hiroshima, through the voyages of the Phoenix into the Bikini test zone and his subsequent life as a Quaker and messenger for peace. Included is a small amount of information on Akie Reynold's passion, "Careers in Peace Making."

Biographical / historical:

Earle Reynolds began his career as a physical anthropologist. In 1951 his life was forever changed after he went to Hiroshima to study the effects of the atomic bomb. When he embarked with his family on a world voyage aboard their yacht, The Phoenix of Hiroshima, fate set him on a path that would lead him to his life's work--the struggle for peace. The Earle Reynolds Archive is located in the Special Collections of McHenry Library, at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Earle Reynolds was born Earle Schoene in 1910 in Des Moines, Iowa. His parents were trapeze artists and he spent his early years traveling in vaudeville and with the circus. When he was eight years old his father was killed falling from a tightrope. His mother later remarried and Earle took the last name of his stepfather.

Earle Reynolds began writing at an early age, and continued throughout his life. After graduating from high school in Mississippi, he earned a BA and MA from the University of Chicago and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, all in Anthropology. He married Barbara Leonard and they had three children: Tim, Ted, and Jessica. From 1943 to 1951 he was an associate professor of anthropology and the chairman of the Department of Human Growth of the Fels Research Institute at Antioch College. During this time he was also writing plays, which were performed in Yellow Springs, Ohio. His plays met with local success, and even attracted attention from a Broadway producer.

In 1951 he was hired by the Atomic Energy Commission to take part in research on the effects of the atomic bomb. He and his family moved to Japan where he worked as a physical anthropologist and later as the coordinator of research for the Atomic Bomb Casualty Committee in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. There he studied the effects of atomic radiation on the growth and development of children.

1954 brought the realization of a dream for Earle when he and his family began an around the world voyage on their hand-built sailboat, the Phoenix. They stopped at over one hundred ports and Earle gave lectures on conditions in Hiroshima. Young Jessica documented this trip in her book, Jessica's Journal , which was later published. When they arrived in Hawaii in 1958 they met the crew of the Golden Rule, Quakers who were on trial for their attempt to sail into the nuclear test zone near Bikini Island to protest nuclear weapons and atmospheric testing. They had been arrested and prevented from completing their mission. After talking with the crew of the Golden Rule, Dr. Reynolds and his family decided to complete the mission in their place. He also believed that the government did not have a right to restrict access to the open ocean. After sailing into the restricted zone, he was arrested and sentenced to two years in prison. This verdict was appealed and eventually overturned. From this point on his life was dedicated to activism for peace and anti-nuclear causes, often using voyages on the Phoenix as a way to spread his message.

During this time he began lecturing about his voyages and on issues of peace. With his notoriety he lost his standing in the academic community and his teaching position at Antioch. In 1959, a film entitled The Reynolds Story was made about the trip into the nuclear test zone. Dr. Reynolds wrote about these events in The Forbidden Voyage, published in 1961. In 1960 he became a guest lecturer at the Hiroshima Women's College. During this time he formally joined the Quaker religion. The next voyage of the Phoenix was to Nadhoka, USSR, to protest Soviet nuclear testing. In 1962 Dr. Reynolds co-founded the Hiroshima Institute for Peace Studies (HIPS), which was affiliated with Hiroshima University.

Another voyage took place in 1962. Earle captained the Everyman III, when members of A Quaker Action Group (AQAG) sailed from London to Leningrad via Belgium, Holland, Germany, Denmark, and Sweden. During these years he carried out a busy schedule of lecturing, attending conferences, and serving on various committees concerned with promoting peace. Eventually, Earle and Barbara Reynolds became estranged as their interests and activities led them in different directions. Much of Barbara's focus was on working with the atomic bomb survivors. The couple divorced in 1964. Later that year Earle married Akie Nagami, a young Japanese woman who was his secretary and assistant. She was also committed to the cause of peace. In 1967 Dr. Reynolds and a crew of other peace activists, under the sponsorship of A Quaker Action Group, sailed to Vietnam. They delivered medical supplies to North and South Vietnam as an expression of the Quaker principle of neutrality. Goodwill voyages to China were attempted in 1968 and 1969. These voyages to China created conflict with the Japanese government and eventually led to Earle being deported.

After sailing from Tokyo to San Francisco, Akie and Earle Reynolds settled in small town of Ben Lomond on the central coast of California, where they became the resident hosts of the Quaker Center for three years. After selling the Phoenix they bought a house nearby. Dr. Reynolds taught classes in Peace Studies at the University of California at Santa Cruz, and at Cabrillo Community College. His seminar class founded the Peace Resource Center at UCSC in 1975. Meanwhile he continued an active schedule of teaching, writing, lecturing around the world, attending meetings, protesting, all the while staying active in campaigns against nuclear testing in Nevada and against nuclear weapons research.

Akie Reynolds returned to school, earning her second BA from UCSC and an MA in Peace Studies from Antioch College. She worked as a career counselor at UCSC, specializing in peace-making careers and in placing students in overseas jobs. Akie died of breast cancer in 1994. Earle Reynolds then moved to Southern California to be near his daughter, Jessica. He died in 1998 at the age of 87.

Chronology
Date Event
1910 Born Des Moines, Iowa
1943 MA University of Chicago
1944 Ph.D. University of Wisconsin
1943-1951
Chairman, Department of Physical Growth, Fels Research Institute, Ohio
Associate Professor of Anthropology Antioch College, Ohio
1951-1954 Researcher, Atomic Bomb Casualty Committee,Hiroshima
1954-1958 Around the world voyage
1958 Sailed to nuclear test zone, Bikini Atoll
1960 Visiting professor, Hiroshima Women's College
1961 Protest voyage to Nadhodka, Siberia
1962 Everyman III "London to Leningrad" voyage
1964 Married Akie Nagami
1965 Friends World College, New York
1967 Voyage to Viet Nam
1968 China I
1969
China II
Lecture tour of U.S.
1970
Deported by Japanese government
Moved to Ben Lomond, CA
1973-1982 Taught at UCSC and Cabrillo College
1994 Death of Akie Reynolds, Santa Cruz, CA
1998 Death of Earle Reynolds, Southern California
Acquisition information:
Gift of Akie N. Reynolds.
Physical location:
Stored in Special Collections & Archives: Advance notice is required for access to the papers.
Rules or conventions:
Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: a Content Standard
Bibliography:
"Degree of kinship and pattern of ossification. A longitudinal x-ray study of the appearance pattern of ossification centers in children of different kinship groups. "American Journal of Physical Anthropology N. S., No. 1, 1943."Ossification sequences in identical triplets. "Journal of Heredity , vol.35, 1944 (with L.W. Sontag)."Seasonal variations in weight, height, and appearance of ossification centers. "Journal of Pediatrics , vol. 24, 1944 (with L.W. Sontag)."Status of infant at birth as related to basal metabolism of mother in pregnancy, "American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology , vol. 48, 1944 (with Sontag and Torbot)."The relation of basal metabolic gain during pregnancy to non-pregnant basal metabolism. "American Journal Obstetrics and Gynecology , vol. 48, 1944 (with Sontag and Torbet)."Differential tissue growth in the leg during childhood. "Child Development , vol. 15, 1944."The Fels Composite Sheet, I: A practical method for analyzing growth progress; II: Variations In growth patterns in health and disease. "Journal of Pediatrics , vol. 26 (with L.W. Sontag)."The bony pelvic girdle in early Infancy. A roentgenometric study. " American Journal of Physical Anthropology N. S., vol. 3, 1945."Sexual maturation and the growth of fat muscle and bone in girls. "Child Development , vol. 17, 1946."The bony pelvis in prepuberal childhood. "American Journal of Physical Anthropology "Growth patterns of identical triplets from 8 through 18 years. "Child Development , vol. 18, 1947 (with Grace Shoen)."Creatinine excretion growth progress and body structure in normal children. "Child Development , vol. 18, 1947 (with L.Clark)."Further data on symphalangism. "Journal of Heredity , vol. 39, 1948 (with A.G. Steinberg)."Individual differences in physical changes associated with adolescence in girls. "American Journal of Diseases of Children, vol. 75, 1948 (with Janet Wines)."Distribution of tissue components in the female leg from birth to maturity. "The Anatomical Record , vol. 100, 1948."box differences in the distribution of tissue components in the human leg from birth to maturity. "The Anatomical Record , vol. 102, 1948."The measurement of obesity in childhood. "American Journal of Physical Anthropology , vol. 6, 1948 (with Toshiko Asakawa)."Anthropology and human growth. "Ohio Journal of Science , vol. 491, 1949."The relation of illness patterns in children to ordinal position in the family. "Journal of Pediatrics , vol. 35, 1949 (with A, Kingley)."The fat/bone index as a sex-differentiating character in man. "Human Biology , vol. 21, 1949."A comparison of certain aspects of body structure and body shape in 200 adults. "American Journal of Physical Anthropology , vol. 3. 1950."The appearance of adult patterns of body hair in men. "Annals of the New York Academy of Science , vol. 53, 1951."Skeletal development in infancy. "American Journal of Roentgenology and Radium Therapy , vol. 55, 1951."Physical changes associated with adolescence in boys. "American Journal of Diseases of Children , vol. 82, 1951 (with J. Wines)."The study of the tissue components of the human body. "American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, Instructional Course Lectures , vol. 8, 1951.Distribution of Subcutaneous Fat in Childhood and Adolescence , Monograph: Society for Research in Child Developments vol. XV, Serial No. 509, Nov. 21, 1950.Growth and Development Program of the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission , August 28, 1951.Growth and Development Program of the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission , June 12, 1952."Report on a Three Year Study (1951-1953) of the Growth and Development of Hiroshima Children Exposed to the Atomic Bomb, " Atomic Bomb Casualty Commissions National Research Councils, 1954.Growth and Development Program of the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission , Nippon Shonika Gakkai Gasshi, LVIII, 699-7009, 1954."Forbidden Voyage "The Nation , 15 Nov. 1958."Irradiation and Human Evolution ", presented at 58th Annual Meeting of American Anthropological Association, 1959. Published in Human Biology , vol. 32, No. 1, 1960. Reprinted in The Processes of Ongoing Human Evolution, Gabriel W. Lasker (Ed.), Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1960. Also reprinted in The Subversive Science: Essays Toward an Ecology of Man, Shepherd and McKinley (Eds.), Boston: The Houghton Mifflin Co.The Forbidden Voyage , New York: David McKay & Co., 1961.All in the Same Boat , New York: David McKay & Co., 1962 (with Barbara Reynolds).Hiroshima, the Atom and the World , (in English and Japanese) Hiroshima: Hiroshima Jogakuin University Press, 1962."The Hiroshima Hibakusha. " presented at 62nd Annual Meeting of American Anthropological Assn., 1963. Abstract printed in minutes of meeting."Letter from Japan. " Peace News , March 1, 1963."The Phoenix. " Quaker Life , Aug, 1968."Earle-ly Warnings about Nuclear Threat. " Resource Center for Nonviolence Newsletter , July-Aug, 1977."The First Seriatin Study of Human Growth and Middle Aging. "American Journal of Physical Anthropology , vol.54, No.23-24, 1981."Some of My Best Friends are Rocks. " Friends Journal , 15 Nov. 1985.

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:
Processed by UCSC OAC Unit.
Date Prepared:
© 2001
Date Encoded:
Machine-readable finding aid derived from MS Word for Macintosh. Machine-readable finding aid created by the UCSC OAC Unit. Date of source: August 1995.

Access and use

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research. Please note that access to the Series VI Audio-Visual Material is RESTRICTED due to the fragile physical condition of the material. It has not been re-formatted.

Terms of access:

Property rights reside with the University of California. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and their heirs. For permission to publish or to reproduce the material, please contact Special Collections.

Preferred citation:

Earle and Akie Reynolds archive, MS 120, Special Collections, The University Library, University of California, Santa Cruz.

Location of this collection:
Special Collections and Archives, University Library
1156 High Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95064, US
Contact:
(831) 459-2547
speccoll@library.ucsc.edu
Website