Peter Weiss Papers
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Abstract
This collection contains the personal and professional papers of human rights attorney Peter Weiss (1925- ). Born in Austria in 1925, Weiss moved to the U.S. in 1941 and worked as a lawyer from 1955 to 2006. This collection contains materials related to Weiss's professional career and his involvement in human rights issues. Materials contained within this collection include notes, research materials, published and unpublished works created between 1963 and 1993, personal and professional correspondence written between the 1940s and the 1990s, travel itineraries, transcripts, and ephemera related to Weiss's numerous speaking engagements.
Biographical Note
Peter Weiss (1925- ) is an attorney who specializes in international law in New York City. Born in Vienna, Austria in 1925, Weiss moved to the U.S. in 1941 and served in the United States Army from 1944 to 1946, and later in the Civilian Service of the U.S. Military Government in Berlin until 1947. He graduated from St. John's College in Annapolis in 1949 and later from Yale Law School in 1952. Weiss worked as a lawyer from 1955 to 2006 and has specialized in industrial property and international law since 1969. He has also served as a member of the governor's committee to review New York laws and procedures in the area of human rights (1967-1968), Vice Chairperson of the Lawyers Committee on American policy toward Vietnam (1969-1975), and as a member of the executive committee of the Fund for Peace (1981-1983). In 1968 he acted a delegate to the Democratic National Convention.
Peter Weiss has also been highly involved in a number of international human rights organizations. He is the former Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Institute for Policy Studies and remains an active member of the board. He also cofounded the American Committee on Africa, over which he presided from 1962-1972, and has served the vice president for the Center for Constitutional Rights since 1969. He also chaired the Manhattan and Bronx Councils of the New York State Commission for Human Rights from 1965-1970. His articles and commentary on political and legal subjects have appeared in numerous magazines and journals.
He is married to human rights activist Cora Weiss.
Arrangement
Materials in this collection have not been arranged by an archivist. All files have been rehoused in archival folders, but donor's original file names have been maintained.
Scope and Contents
This collection is comprised of the personal and professional files of attorney Peter Weiss. It includes materials related to Weiss's human rights activism including notes, research materials, published and unpublished works created between 1963 and 1993, and personal and professional correspondence written between the 1940s and the 1990s. The collection also contains travel itineraries, transcripts, and ephemera related to Weiss's numerous speaking engagements.
Weiss's papers contain a significant amount of materials related to the human rights abuses of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinoche and the victims of his regime. Most notably, it contains materials related to assassination of Chilean ambassador Orlando Letelier and his American colleague Ronni Moffitt who were killed by Pinochet's agents in a car bombing in Washington DC in 1976, and the execution of journalist Charles Horman by the Chilean government in 1973. As the vice president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, Weiss led the Center's team on behalf of Charles Horman's family in a wrongful death case aginst Henry Kissinger and the Richard Nixon Administration in 1976.
Materials in this collection have been rehoused into archival folders, and Weiss's original folder titles have been maintained as much as possible. Files labeled "Traces" contain an assortment of correspondence, clippings, articles, and notes related to Weiss's career and personal life. Files labeled "Opera" contain transcripts, articles, pamphlets, and correspondence related to a wide variety of international human rights issues. Other files, labeled "Orlando" specifically relate to the investigation surrounding the assassination of Orlando Letelier, these files are primarily comprised of newspapers clippings and correspondence with Letelier's family.
Subjects
Donors
Conditions Governing Access
Materials are open without restrictions.
Conditions Governing Use
Copyright (or related rights to publicity and privacy) for materials in this collection, created by Peter Weiss, was not transferred to New York University. Permission to use materials must be secured from the copyright holder.
Preferred Citation
Identification of item, date; Peter Weiss Papers; TAM 638; box number; folder number; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Donated by Peter Weiss in 2013. The accession number associated with this gift is 2013.045. Weiss donated an accretion in May 2023; the accession number associated with this gift is 2023.051.
Born-Digital Access Policies and Procedures
Born-digital materials have not been transferred and may not be available to researchers. Researchers may request access copies. To request that material be transferred, or if you are unsure if material has been transferred, please contact Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, special.collections@nyu.edu, 212-998-2596, with the collection name, collection number, and a description of the item(s) requested. A staff member will respond to you with further information.
Appraisal
Some published materials such as newspapers, magazines, and calendar returned to donor.
About this Guide
Processing Information
At the time of accessioning, materials were moved into archival housing, a preliminary file list was created, and a collection-level finding aid was created to describe these materials. No physical processing or arrangement was done at this time.
At the time of accessioning the 2023 accretion, materials were rehoused into archival boxes and a box list was created. Born-digital materials were physically separated, inventoried, and rehoused but not imaged. New York University Libraries follow professional standards and best practices when imaging, ingesting, and processing born-digital material in order to maintain the integrity and authenticity of the content.
