Pollard, Alice H. Papers

Supporter of the Marshall Plan

The papers of Alice H. Pollard relate to a five-year period in Mrs. Pollard’s life when she was writing to University Professors, U.S. Senators and Congressmen, and members of the Executive Branch of the U.S. Government concerning her idea to supplement the Marshall Plan by training young American women to go to Germany and assist in the rebuilding of Europe. The papers include correspondence, handwritten notes, newspaper clippings, and an index listing those to whom Mrs. Pollard sent her idea.

[Administrative Information | Biographical Sketch | Collection Description | Series Descriptions | Folder Title List]

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ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

Size: 10 linear inches (about 1,600 pages).
Access: Open.
Copyright: The donor gave to the U.S. government her copyright interest in her unpublished writings in this collection, and in any other collection of papers in the custody of the U.S. government. Documents created by U.S. government employees in the course of their official duties are also in the public domain. Copyright interest in any other documents in this collection presumably belongs to the creators of the documents, or their heirs.
Processed by: Erwin J. Mueller (1977).
Updated by: Philip Nicolaus (2008) as part of the Truman Library Internship Program.
Supervising Archivists: Randy Sowell and David Clark.

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

1908 (March 16)		Born
1926		Graduated from Wellesley College
1947-1952		Created her plan and corresponded with University Professors, U.S. Senators and Congressmen, and members of the U.S. Executive Branch concerning her plan. Mrs. Pollard continually revised her plan throughout these years.
1977		Her collection of papers was donated by Mrs. Pollard to the Harry S. Truman Library.
1992 (January 2)		Died

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COLLECTION DESCRIPTION

The papers of Alice H. Pollard concern Mrs. Pollard’s plan to supplement the Marshall Plan with a peace-time volunteer force. Her plan included such ideas as sending American women into Germany following the Second World War to help with the raising of German children. She also included her desire to have community centers set up throughout post-war Europe which would provide support to Europeans who were rebuilding their own homes. These community centers would help by providing supervision for their children as well as lending tools with which to build. She associated these ideas with the Quaker ideal that “common work makes friends.” The collection includes correspondence with college professors, U.S. Senators and Congressmen, members of the State Department, and other prominent persons.

The papers are arranged in two series, a Correspondence File and a Subject File. The Correspondence File makes up about one-half of the collection, including letters from Eleanor Roosevelt, Alger Hiss, Hubert H. Humphrey, John Foster Dulles, Pearl Buck, Chester Bowles, Norris Cotton, and Charles Tobey. The Correspondence File also includes a card index of all of Mrs. Pollard’s contacts recording their reception of her plan. The other one-half consists of the Subject File, which includes records kept by Mrs. Pollard of Congressional action reflecting her plan, a Health and Human Relations report, her own progress reports, many newspaper clippings which were kept by Mrs. Pollard, all three of Mrs. Pollard’s versions and revisions of the plan, and Mrs. Pollard’s notes and working papers.

The Truman Library has other collections relating to various aspects of the Marshall Plan, including the Papers of Harry S. Truman (Official File 426), Joseph Jones, Harry Price, and Paul Hoffman.

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