IOWA WOMEN’S ARCHIVES
UNIVERSITY OF IOWA LIBRARIES
IOWA CITY, IOWA
IOWA PEACE LINKS
NORTHN
RECORDS, 1985-
2 linear inches
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ACQUISITION: |
The records (donor no. 685) were
donated by Olive Wilson in
1999. |
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ACCESS: |
The records are open for research. |
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COPYRIGHT: |
Copyright has been retained by the donor. |
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PROCESSED BY: |
Doris Malkmus, 2000. [Iowa
Peace Links.doc] |
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History
In 1984, Eleanor Bedell, then wife of legislator Berkeley
Bedell of Spirit Lake contacted Virginia Rohwer of Paullina for her help in
founding a peace organization in northwest Iowa. Rohwer organized a group to meet with Bedell in a restaurant in
Primghar, Iowa, where Bedell impressed them with the size and risks of the
United States nuclear arsenal. The Primghar women were unanimous in asking
Rohwer, a pacifist by conviction, to take leadership in organizing a Peace
Links group in Primghar. The Primghar
group became a local affiliate of the national Peace Links, founded by Betty
Bumpers, wife of Senator Dale Bumpers of Arkansas, and other congressional
wives.
Peace Links groups were also formed in Orange City,
Sheldon, Cherokee, and Paullina in northwest Iowa. Members joined together to hold monthly meetings to hear speakers
and collaborate on peace projects. In
1985, they hosted a group of four Russian women who toured the United States on
behalf of peace. Primghar member Beth
Wilson was part of the National Peace Links group that made a return visit to
the Soviet Union the following year.
Other efforts to make peace more visible included creating a peace float
which was pulled in several summer parades, installing a peace pole near the
local school building, erecting signs advocating peace, presenting programs to
a variety of local groups, and furnishing bookcovers for local schools. To make peace more visible, the group sewed
a peace quilt. The first official to
sleep beneath the quilt and to record his thoughts was Iowa Governor Terry
Branstad. He was followed by many other
legislators and officials in Iowa, Washington, D.C., and Denmark. The quilt was displayed at the Iowa Peace
Institute at Grinnell, Iowa for several years and was donated to the National
Peace Links in 1999 during a ceremony at a national conference honoring the
northwest Iowa affiliates.
In 1984, the Paullina and Primghar groups began
publishing the Northwest Iowa Peace Links newsletter with Olive Wilson as
editor. It eventually subsumed the
irregularly published Davenport newsletter as the principle state newsletter,
receiving information concerning local peace activities from concerned
individuals across the state. Wilson has edited and distributed about 450
newsletters each quarter since 1986.
Since the Paullina and Primghar groups are the only regularly meeting
groups of Peace Links in Iowa, the newsletter keeps peace activists around the
state aware of current topics and peace events.
See the historical sketch included in folder 6.
Scope and Content
The Iowa Peace Links records date from 1985 to the
present and measure two linear inches.
The collection consist primarily of newsletters. The newsletter of the Davenport Peace Links
dates from 1985 to 1986 and that from the Northwest Iowa Peace Links dates from
1985 to 1986. A statewide newsletter
dates from 1986 to 2000 with on-going additions. There is also a brief historical sketch, pamphlets, and a small
number of newspaper clippings related to Peace Links activities and members.
Box no. Description
Box 1
Newsletters
Northwest Iowa Peace Links,
1985-1986
Davenport Peace Links, 1985-1986
Iowa Peace Links
1986-1992
1993-1997
1998-
Historical sketch, newspaper clippings and
pamphlets, 1990-2001 and undated