Scope and Content Note

Series I. Medical Personnel: Biographical Files and Correspondence 1936-1988.This series includes correspondence from and biographical material on hundreds of medical volunteers from over 25 countries (Includes materials written in Spanish, French, Russian, Rumanian and German). Particularly informative are questionnaires sent by Martin and filled in by dozens of doctors, nurses, ambulance drives and other medical personnel detailing their activities in Spain and their subsequent experiences. These also provide data on political affiliations before and after the war and personal motivations for going to Spain. Much of the correspondence to and from Martin chronicles the later lives of the volunteers and offers insights to the range of attitudes regarding Martin's efforts to record their work in Spain. Additionally, this series contains materials donated to Martin, including Spanish Civil War letters (originals and copies), diaries and journals (typescripts and photocopies) personal essays, clippings, leaflets, and other ephemera. Martin also collected medical writings and other materials published by the medical volunteers.

Notable in this series are: English volunteer Monica Milward Barnett's diary (transcription), which provides information on the Spanish Medical Aid Committee office in Barcelona; John Patrick O'Reilly's handwritten ward instructions from Villa Paz; a typescript in English of Mary Bingham de Urquidi's "Mercy in Madrid: a Personal History of the Spanish Civil War" (published in Spanish in 1975 under the title Misericordia en Madrid, an English-language version has never appeared in print); recollections of Dutch nurse Johana Maas; letters written by Ave Bruzzichesi to Dr. Leo Eloesser describing the withdrawal of foreign units from Spain, as well as files on Dr. Eloesser which include dispatches to the Medical Bureau from Spain; Spanish Civil War documents and Medical Bureau ephemera from Jose Dhaga, a native of Peru who volunteered with the North American medical unit; correspondence and material related to Alba Novac and her husband William Ryan, a combat volunteer who appeared before HUAC as a cooperative witness; files on Frances Vanzant, the only woman doctor attached to the American unit; information on George Zlatovski, charged in 1957 with spying for the Soviet Union; and Helen Freeman's 1949 letters, written from Germany while working for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.

Letters to and from Martin's close friends Anne Taft Muldavin and Toby Jensky offer insights on Martin's life and work over a forty-year period. This series also contains a biographical file on Martin, notes she took on her return to Spain in 1972, and a hospital ward journal she kept in Spain during the war. Research progress reports and rough drafts of Martin's manuscript "Proud within Themselves" (her unfinished history of the medical units) can be found here.

Scope and Content Note

Series II. Medical Subject Files, 1937-1984.This series contains Martin's research files pertaining to medical aid and services in Spain during the war. Materials related to the Medical Bureau to Aid Spanish Democracy are located in this series including research correspondence related to the establishment and structure of the Medical Bureau; brochures, press releases, leaflets, and other ephemera; information on the merger with the North American Committee to Aid Spanish Democracy; and documents related to the passport application policy for Medical Bureau personnel. A file of correspondence, notes and written statements offers evidence of Martin's dogged efforts to amass and safeguard materials documenting the history of the Medical Bureau. The bulk of this series is devoted to files on the dozens of medical sites that were established by the International Brigade medical units during the war. Included are accounts excerpted by Martin from letters written by medical and combat volunteers detailing conditions and staffing, notes, clippings, and printed material related to each location.

There are several research files on the International Brigades medical services, as well as information on ambulance donations and ambulance drivers. Photocopies of articles from Ayuda Medica Internacional, the organ of the IB medical services, and files on treatment including the utilization of Hiram Orr's closed cast system can also be found here. Noteworthy is a hand-drawn diagram of a medical facility, circa 1937, headed "Sanitary Service of a Battalion in the Spanish Republican Army."

Scope and Content Note

Series III. Combat Volunteers: Biographical Files and Correspondence, 1937-1985.This series includes correspondence from and biographical material on Spanish Civil War combat volunteers. Although Martin corresponded with volunteers from many countries, the majority of these files document United States volunteers. Like the medical personnel files, these files include accounts of activities in Spain and chronicle the lives of the veterans in their later years. The correspondence and other material here also document the fraternal nature of the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade (VALB), which provided financial, medical and legal assistance to its members. An example of this can be found in Robert Raven's file, which includes leaflets and a 1937 fundraising appeal on Robert Raven Rehabilitation Committee letterhead requesting aid for Raven who was blinded in Spain. Also notable is VALB correspondence related to the deportation of Carlos Soule Echeveria, a Spanish national who fought with the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. (Additional material on veterans and VALB can be found in Series V: General Subject Files).

Among the veterans Martin corresponded with regularly were Edward Lending, David Miller, Steve Nelson, Mark Rauschwald, Irving Weissman and Randall (Pete) Smith, who headed up the veteran's Spanish Civil War Historical Committee. Other correspondents include VALB executive secretary Moe Fishman, Canadian volunteer William Beeching, and author Arthur Landis, with whom Martin had a heated exchange over the publication of his book. Recurring topics include Martin's concerns over finding a suitable repository for the Medical Bureau materials, consideration of whether the veterans should assume stewardship of their papers, and the establishment of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives at Brandeis.

Scope and Content Note

Series IV. General Correspondence, 1937-1985.This series consists of Martin's incoming and outgoing correspondence from a range of friends, political figures, researchers and former Medical Bureau officers and organizers. Included in this latter category are Executive Secretary Herman F. Reissig, Evelyn Ahrend Kirkpatrick, James Loeb, Louis Miller, Harold L. Oram, Violet Robbin, John Sherman, and Charles Tobach who contribute information on the structure and activities of the Medical Bureau in the United States. Other correspondents include: Canadian Communist leader Tim Buck and his wife Bess, journalist Herbert Matthews, writer Joesph North and his wife Helen, and Gina Medem, author of a book on Jewish participation in the Spanish Civil War. Also included is correspondence from historians Gabriel Jackson, Peter Wyden, Robert Rosenstone and Herbert Southworth. Of special note is a 1945 letter Martin sent to Congressional Chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs Sol Bloom protesting U.S. relations with Franco. Also included in this series are several of Martin's address books (with loose notes and lists of addresses) and a number of business cards of contacts and friends in many countries.

Scope and Content Note

Series V. General Subject Files, 1937-1987.This series consists of primary and secondary materials collected by Martin in the course of her research. Notable are correspondence, leaflets and brochures related to Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee; correspondence to Martin from German volunteers held at Gurs Concentration Camp; correspondence and articles related to Jewish participation in the Spanish Civil War; clippings and notes related to aid to refugees and exiles; primary materials from the American Relief Ship for Spain and the American Rescue Ship Mission, including a donation booklet; and bibliographic sources on the Spanish Civil War.

General materials on veterans and VALB are located in this series. The VALB files span the late 1940s through the 1980s. Particularly noteworthy are questionnaires sent by Martin and filled out by 36 veterans who were treated for wounds in Spain; memos, reports and clippings related to VALB and the Subversive Activities Control Board; programs and materials from VALB's 40th anniversary event honoring women; and notes and statements clarifying the relationship between VALB and Medical Bureau personnel.

Much of this series is given over to the copious research notes Martin took at various repositories, chiefly at the New York Public Library and Columbia University. Martin obtained thousands of pages of photocopies from Columbia University's Spanish Refugee and Relief Organization (SRRO) collection in her efforts to document the administrative history of the Medical Bureau. [Note: These photocopies have been retained, however permission to publish these photocopied materials must be obtained in writing from Columbia University's Librarian for Rare Books and Manuscripts].

The correspondence between Martin and Brandeis University archivist Victor Berch, who provided extensive research assistance to Martin, is a useful source of information on the course of her work, and on the establishment of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives at Brandeis. This series also includes many files of articles Martin clipped from the Cuernavaca papers (chiefly in Spanish with some English), mostly on politics and culture in Spain during the 1970s and 1980s.