[OASIS]Harvard University Library
OASIS: Online Archival Search Information System		Frames Version
Questions or Comments   Copyright Statement
MC 228

Lamb, Helen Boyden. Papers, 1937-1975: A Finding Aid

Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America

[link]


Radcliffe College
July 1976

© 1976 Radcliffe College

Descriptive Summary

Call No.: MC 228
Repository: Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute
Creator: Helen Lamb Lamont, 1906-1975
Title: Papers, 1937-1975
Quantity: 10 file boxes, 1 oversize folder, 1 folio+ folder
Abstract: Correspondence, drafts, notes, etc., of Helen Boyden Lamb, economist.

Processing Information:

Processed: July 1976
By: Anne Whittington

Acquisition Information:

Accession numbers: 75-377, 76-16, 76-119, 76-133
The papers of Helen Lamb Lamont were deposited with the Schlesinger Library in November 1975 and in January and April 1976 by Corliss Lamont.

Preferred citation for publication:

Helen Lamb Lamont Papers, 1937-1975; item description, dates. MC 228, folder #. Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.

BIOGRAPHY

Helen Elizabeth Boyden was born on May 31, 1906 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Walter Lincoln and Elizabeth Boyden. She majored in history at Radcliffe College, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and graduated in 1928; her senior thesis was entitled "Metics in Athens." In 1936 she married Robert Keen Lamb (1905-1952), an economist and Harvard graduate. From 1938 to 1947 the Lambs lived in Washington, D.C., where HLL was a research analyst for the Foreign Economic Administration, working on the U.S. Government Guide Program for the American occupation of Japan, while RKL was a special investigator for various Congressional committees, and later a lobbyist for the United Steel Workers of America. HLL received her Ph.D. from Radcliffe in 1943, writing an important dissertation on "Industrial Relations in the Western Lettuce Industry." In 1947 the Lambs returned to Cambridge, where HLL joined the Center for International Studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to do research on India's economy. RKL taught in MIT's Division of Humanities and Social Sciences until his death from cancer on August 25, 1952. HLL remained in Cambridge, working at MIT and raising her three children, Robert Boyden Lamb (Robin), Roland William Boyden Lamb (Billy), and Albert Boyden Lamb (Al).
In 1962 HLL moved to New York and married Corliss Lamont, author and philosopher, who had been director of the American Civil Liberties Union from 1932 to 1954. About this time she became concerned with the growing U.S. involvement in Vietnam and began to study the conflict there. She campaigned actively against the war, giving speeches, writing about the war from an academic viewpoint, giving money to anti-war organizations, participating in demonstrations and marches -- and was thus instrumental in bringing the war to the attention of the American public. Her efforts were notable enough to earn her a place on President Nixon's Enemies' List of 1973. She died in New York City on July 21, 1975.

SCOPE AND CONTENT

The collection includes some personal papers and correspondence with relatives and friends; correspondence and publications connected with HLL's work on Indian economics and on Vietnam; and some material on other political issues, including China, Cuba, and women's rights. There are also several folders of advertisements and reviews of books that interested HLL. The largest part of the collection pertains to HLL's work on Vietnam. In addition to correspondence with individuals and organizations in the U.S. and abroad, there are papers relating to her published writing on Vietnam, including interviews with Vietnamese political exiles in Paris for an article in The Nation (August 10, 1963) and notes, correspondence and advertising for her widely-distributed pamphlet, "The Tragedy of Vietnam" (1964) and her book, Vietnam's Will to Live: Resistance to Foreign Aggression from Early Times Through the Nineteenth Century (1972). There are extensive drafts of chapters for Vietnam's Will to Live that were not used. Also in the collection are notes and invitations for speeches given by HLL, mostly from 1963 to 1966, as well as copies and newsclippings of open letters she signed and letters to the editor she wrote from 1962 to 1974. There are several folders of flyers, announcements and other ephemera which reflect major anti-war activities from 1963 to 1972, primarily in the New York area. There is some background material on Vietnam, but most of HLL's Vietnam literature has been given to the Indochina Resource Center in Washington, D.C.

CONTAINER LIST

INVENTORY

Additional catalog entries

Boyden, Elizabeth B
Boyden family
Chomsky, Avram Noam, 1928-
Cleveland, Francis Grover
Durr, Virginia Foster
Fairbank, John King, 1907-
Fellowship of Reconciliation
Gage-Colby, Ruth
Hinton, Carmelita
Hughes, Everett Cherrington, 1897-
James, Alice Runnels
Lamb, Robert Keen, 1905-1952
Lamont, Corliss, 1902-
Lattimore, Owen, 1900-
Luscomb, Florence Hope, 1887-
Mead, Margaret, 1901-
Olds, Elizabeth, 1896-
Olmsted, Mildred Scott
Russell, Bertrand Russell, 3d earl, 1872-1970
Smith, Jessica, 1895-
Strong, Anna Louise, 1885-1970
Sweezy, Paul Marlor, 1910-
Winter, Ella, 1898-
Women Strike for Peace
Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
Authors
Cambridge, Mass.--Social life and customs
Economists
Herz, Helga Alice
Humanism
India--Economic conditions
Peace
U.S.--Foreign policy
Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975

Index of Individuals

Index of Organizations


sch00686