Lawrence Maxwell Papers
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Abstract
Lawrence Maxwell (1909-1991) was a Socialist activist and created and led the Harvard University Socialist Club from 1928-1930. He later became a Communist and then Trotskyist, and later in his life worked in the publishing industry. The collection mostly contains clippings about his work and arrests as a Socialist leader while at Harvard. Biographical material pertaining to Maxwell is also contained in the collection.
Historical/Biographical Note
Lawrence Maxwell (born Lawrence B. Cohen, Jr., October 20, 1909.) briefly attended Harvard University, where he founded the Harvard University Socialist Club in 1928. He became an atheist and changed his name to not be identified as Jewish. In the Socialist party, he went by Albert Robertson (which was his grandfather's name). During his sophmore year, he left Harvard and became a member of the Young Communist League (YCL), and later he became a Trotskyist for a short time. Maxwell worked in a small bookstore and when World War II broke out joined the Merchant Marines. Maxwell moved to New York City and opened a bookstore, which went bankrupt in 1950. He then went to work for the Bureau of Business Practice, a subsidiary of Prentice Hall. Maxwell died in 1991.
A more thorough biography of Lawrence Maxwell cane be found in the Collection Survey Report in the collection.
Arrangement
Arranged alphabetically.
Scope and Content Note
This collection is made up of mostly clippings and leaflets pertaining to Lawrence Maxwell's work in the socialist movement at Harvard University, the bulk of which come from 1928-1930. Maxwell led the Harvard University Socialist Club, and much of the collection consists of press clippings from many different newspapers detailling Maxwell's arrests, demonstrations, and other political activities. Maxwell hired a clipping service to collect these. Some clippings from the Harvard Crimson detail the treatment of chambermaids at Harvard, about which Maxwell wrote a leaflet. Biographical documents in this collection are of his marriage and change of name certificates, as well as military IDs and passports. Additionally, an oral history interview by Jon Bloom, has been removed to the Library's oral history collection.
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People
Conditions Governing Access
Materials are open without restrictions.
Conditions Governing Use
Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archive has no information about copyright ownership for this collection and is not authorized to grant permission to publish or reproduce materials from it. Materials in this collection are expected to enter the public domain in 120 years.
Preferred Citation
Identification of item, date; Lawrence Maxwell Papers; TAM 561; box number; folder number; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Materials found in collection; provenance is unknown. The accession number associated with this collection is 2010.094.
