Indiana Historical Society - Manuscripts & Archives
User information
Historical Sketch
Scope and Content Note
Box and Folder Listing
Cataloguing Information
Processed by
Charles Latham
29 December 1993
VOLUME OF COLLECTION: 6 manuscript boxes, 2 oversize folders
COLLECTION DATES: inclusive 1922-1991; bulk 1946-1973
PROVENANCE: Estate of Mary Black, c/o L. Robert Lowe, Jr., Lowe Gray Steele and Hoffmann, Suite 4600 Bank One Tower, Indianapolis IN 46204-5146, 23 November 1993; Evaline H. Rhodehamel, Indianapolis, IN, 5 August 1996
RESTRICTIONS: None
REPRODUCTION RIGHTS: Permission to reproduce or publish material in this collection must be obtained in writing from the Indiana Historical Society
ALTERNATE FORMATS: None
OTHER FINDING AIDS: None
RELATED HOLDINGS: None
ACCESSION NUMBER: 94.0086, 96.0661
The national organization of the English-Speaking Union was founded in New York in 1920. Its stated purpose was to strengthen friendly relations between the people of the United States and the other English-speaking peoples of the world, in order to work for a world with equal justice for all, with democratic government and with a concern for the rights of all individuals. The first three national presidents were William Howard Taft (1921), lawyer and statesman John W. Davis (1921-1938), and Yale University president James Rowland Angell (1938-1946).
The Indianapolis Branch of the organization was founded in 1949 by Charles J. Lynn, retired vice president of Eli Lilly and Company. He served as president from 1949 to 1958, and was then succeeded by his wife, Dorothy B. Lynn (1958-1973) and she by attorney Robert S. Ashby (1973-1989).
The branch holds luncheon and dinner meetings with speakers usually provided by the speakers bureau of the national headquarters. Speakers have included Admiral Chester W. Nimitz (1951), historian Denis Brogan (1956), British ambassadors Lord Harlech (1964) and Sir Antony Acland (1990), Margaret Thatcher (1969), and General Maxwell D. Taylor (1973). At times meetings have been monthly, at other times more occasional.
Since 1951 the Branch has provided scholarships for Commonwealth students to study at Indiana University, and since 1976 for teachers from Marion County to study at British universities. The Branch has regularly provided hospitality for visitors from the Commonwealth, and has supported special projects such as a memorial to Winston Churchill. Since 1988 the Branch has sponsored an annual Shakespearean Competition, with contestants from Marion County high schools giving dramatic presentations.
Source: Materials in collection
This collection, filling six manuscript boxes and one oversize folder, contains correspondence, circular letters, and printed material from the period 1922-1991. Coming from the estate of Mary Black, sister of Mrs. Charles J. Lynn, the collection is most complete for the period of the presidencies of Mr. Lynn (1949-1958) and Mrs. Lynn (1958-1973).
The records for most years are organized in three main categories. The first is Programs and Speakers, including both the announcement of each program and correspondence about and with the speaker. For many meetings the menu is included, providing an interesting study of changes in organizational eating habits. A second category is general correspondence. A third is material regarding exhange students and visitors and about the Branch's drive for scholarship funds. In the most recent years a new category, Hospitality, appears.
Box 1 (1922-1960) contains material 1922-1946 on Charles J. Lynn's individual membership in the E-SU, material 1946-1949 on his successful effort to found the local branch, and records of the years of his presidency. OM 304 folder 1 contains pages from a scrapbook of clippings from the years 1949-1959. OM 304 folder 2 contains a reproduction of an illuminated scroll the original of which was presented to Sir Winston Churchill during WW II in the United States; transmittal note included.
Records from the years of Mrs. Lynn's leadership form the bulk of the collection. Box 1 contains records of the years 1958-1960, Box 2 the years 1961-1963, Box 3 1964-1965, Box 4 1966-1968, Box 5 1969-1971, and Box 6 1972-1973. Box 6 also contains partial records for the years since 1973.
Box 1: Historical; Records 1922-1960
Folder
1 Historical 1949-1973
2 Scholarships and fellowships 1951-1990
3 Visitors and films 1959-1973
4 1922-1946
5 1948
6 1949
7 1950
8 1951-- Correspondence and meetings
9 1952-- Correspondence and meetings
10 1953-- Regional conference
11 1953-- Meetings
12 1954-- Meetings and correspondence
13 1955-- Meetings and correspondence
14 1956-- Meetings and correspondence
15 1957-- Meetings and correspondence
16 1958-- Meetings and correspondence
17 1959-- Programs and speakers
18 1960-- Programs and speakers
19-20 1960-- Bonnie Sue Harrison scholarship
21-22 1960-- Correspondence
23 (OM 304) Scrapbook 1949-1959
24 (OM 304) Broadside: Reproduction of an illuminated scroll
Box 2: Records 1961-1963
Folder
1 1961-- Programs and speaker
2-3 1961-- Correspondence
4 1962-- Programs and speakers
5-6 1962-- Correspondence
7 1963-- Programs and speakers
8-9 1963-- Correspondence
10 1963 -- Exchange students, visitors
Box 3: Records 1964-1965
Folder
1 1964-- Programs and speakers
2-3 1964-- Correspondence
4-5 1964-- Exchange students, visitors, scholarships
6 1964-- Churchill statue appeal
7-8 1965-- Programs and speakers
9-10 1965-- Correspondence
11-12 1965-- Exchange students, visitors, scholarships
13 1965 -- Bulletins and reports
Box 4: Records 1966-1968 (1967 missing)
Folder
1-2 1966-- Programs and speaker
3-4 1966-- Correspondence
5-6 1966-- Exchange students, visitors, scholarships
7-8 1968-- Programs and speakers
9-10 1968-- correspondence
11-12 1968-- Exchange students, visitors, scholarships
13 1968-1978-- Churchill Scholarship at Cambridge
Box 5: Records 1969-1971
Folder
1-2 1969-- Programs and speakers
3-4 1969-- Correspondence
5-6 1969-- Exchange students, visitors, scholarships
7-8 1970-- Programs and speakers
9-10 1970-- Correspondence
11-12 1970-- Exchange students, visitors, scholarships
13 1971-- Programs and speakers
14-15 1971-- Correspondence
16 1971 -- Exchange students, visitors, scholarships
Box 6: Records 1972-1991
Folder
1-2 1972-- Programs and speaker
3-4 1972-- Correspondence
5 1972 -- Exchange students, visitors, scholarships
6-7 1973-- Programs and speakers
8-9 1973-- Exchange students, visitors, scholarships
10 1973-- Bulletins and reports
11 1978-- Meetings
12 1978-- Correspondence
13 1978-- Scholarships
14 1978 -- Hospitality
15 1979-1980-- Meetings
16 1979-1981-- Correspondence
17 1979-- Hospitality
18 1980-- Hospitality
19 1981-1982-- Meetings
20 1981-- Hospitality
21 1982-- Hospitality
22 1983-1984-- Meetings
23 1984-- Hospitality
24 1985-1986-- Meetings
25 1987-1988-- Meetings
26 1989-1991-- Meetings
MAIN ENTRY: English-Speaking Union of the United States. Indianapolis Branch
SUBJECT ENTRIES: English-Speaking Union of the United States. Indianapolis Branch
Lynn, Charles J., (Charles Jackson), 1874-1958
Lynn, Dorothy B., (Dorothy Black), 1902-1989
Ashby, Robert S., (Robert Samuel), d. 1989
English-speaking countries--Societies, etc.
English language--Indiana--Indianapolis-- Societies, etc.
English language--Scholarships, fellowships, etc.--Indiana--Indianapolis
English language--Study and teaching (Higher)-- Indiana
Teacher exchange programs--Indiana
Teacher exchange programs--Great Britain
Student exchange programs--Indiana
Scholarships--Indiana--Indianapolis
British--Indiana--Indianapolis
Indianapolis (Ind.)--Societies, etc.
British Commonwealth
END