This series provides an overview of Anne Burlak Timpson's personal and political life. The subseries Biographical information documents Timpson's life through short biographical statements, plays and poetry written about her, oral histories and interviews, as well as newspaper clippings and articles that document many of Timpson's arrests and indictments. The F.B.I. files on Timpson document both the close surveillance the government had on her as well as indicate people that Timpson met with, meetings she attended, as well as the government's case against her under the Smith Act. Additional newspaper clippings about Timpson and the Smith Act is located in SERIES VII. SCRAPBOOKS. There are transcripts for some of the taped oral histories and interviews. The Family subseries includes information about Timpson's husband, siblings, and son. The subseries, Daily calendars, contains newspaper clippings and other notes that were found with the calendars. This series also contains information about awards given to Timpson, tributes made before and after her death, and buttons and other memorabilia documenting the organizations to which she was dedicated. There are also some files on Timpson's vacations. Additional information about trips that Timpson took is in SERIES VI. PHOTOGRAPHS AND SLIDES and SERIES VII. SCRAPBOOKS.

[see also OVERSIZE MATERIALS]

This series is organized into two subseries: Family and Friends and associates. There is extensive correspondence between Timpson and her husband in the late 1930s and early 1940s, as well as letters written to Timpson by her brothers from Russia and the Ukraine from the 1960s through the 1990s. Correspondence with her brothers includes not only family news but also reactions to political and social events in the United States and the Soviet Union. The subseries Friends and associates reveals Timpson's commitment to her causes, the affection she held for aging comrades, and her willingness to share the story of her life with others. It is arranged in alphabetical order by first letter of the last name; more prolific correspondents have their own folder. The bulk of the subseries is from the 1980s and 1990s. Although most of the correspondence is to Anne Burlak Timpson, she began keeping typed copies of many of her letters in the 1990s, and they are interfiled with the correspondence she received from others.

This series contains notes, drafts, and completed and uncompleted manuscripts by Anne Burlak Timpson. There are four subseries, the first of which, Published writings, includes articles, letters to the editor, and newsletters that Timpson edited. The subseries Unpublished writings includes a few diaries, but the majority of the subseries consists of materials related to her incomplete autobiography. Correspondence relating to the autobiography is located in this subseries, arranged chronologically. Primary documents relating to subjects covered in her autobiography are in this series as well as in SERIES IV. ORGANIZATION FILES and SERIES V. SUBJECT FILES. Some of the microfilmed copies of newspaper clippings are in poor shape and are probably too faded for photocopying. Most of the Speeches subseries contains notes for speeches rather than complete works. The subseries Tributes includes notes, programs, and occasionally texts of testimonials and eulogies Timpson gave for friends and colleagues.

Files in this series are arranged alphabetically and include organizations in which Timpson was heavily involved, like the Communist Party of the USA, and groups to which she gave money, like the United Seniors Association. The series includes notes, minutes, reports, newspaper clippings, newsletters, correspondence, brochures, and other printed materials. The largest groups of files relate to the U.S. Council for International Friendship and the Communist Party of the USA. Documents in both files reveal the operations of the organization at the local, state, and national levels. Files on the Communist Party newspapers are not the newspapers themselves but materials related to the running of the newspaper, such as fundraising. Articles or letters to the editor of Communist newspapers are located in SERIES III. WRITINGS AND SPEECHES. Information on Communist Party candidates is in SERIES V. SUBJECT FILES. Organizations with very limited amounts of materials have been moved to the appropriate locations in SERIES V. SUBJECT FILES.

The subject files are arranged alphabetically and contain information on individuals, legislation, categories of people (such as women or youth), and geographic regions. Additional subject files relevant to Timpson's autobiography are located in SERIES III. WRITINGS AND SPEECHES. The bulk of the subject files are from a U.S. perspective, although there are some international materials in the subject files (such as labor and communism). There are also files on specific countries, most of them listed under their names, with the exception of some materials located under the heading Latin America and the Caribbean. Most of the state-level political candidates are from Massachusetts, but there are a few from outside of the state. Topics that are well-covered include elections, labor, legislation, nuclear weapons, peace, politics, and the Soviet Union. Documents relating to Timpson's indictments under the Smith and McCarran Acts are located in this series under the name of the legislation. There are also songs and poetry related to a wide variety of topics in this series.

[see also OVERSIZE MATERIALS]

The bulk of this series documents Timpson's personal life, beginning in her infancy and ending a few years before her death. There are, however, political images as well, including several photographs of Timpson with raised fists during protests and with friends and associates. The Photographs subseries includes her trips to Cuba, Yugoslavia, Spain, and the Soviet Union. Other photographs, especially of Timpson and her family, are located in SERIES VII. SCRAPBOOKS. The subseries Slides mostly contains family images, but it also includes commercially generated images of Leningrad.

This series includes sketches, photographs, commentary, maps, newspaper clippings and other memorabilia. Most of the material in this series documents family life and the relationships among the family members of the Burlak and Timpson families. Two albums document the 1933 Naumkeag Steam Cotton Company strike. Two albums document her trials under Smith Act indictment, and seven albums provide vivid details of husband Arthur's World War II battles. The World War II scrapbooks appear to have been based upon notes written during the summer of 1945 while Arthur was waiting to come home and cover the period between 1943 and 1945. The scrapbooks themselves were created much later, probably in the late 1950s or early 1960s. Due to the fragile nature of the scrapbooks, many of the albums have been reformatted to preserve their content. Although the original text of most of the scrapbooks was not preserved, those texts that included initials indicating which family member wrote which piece of the narrative have been kept.

[see also OVERSIZE MATERIALS]

This bulk of this series relates to Anne Burlak Timpson's family and her oral histories and interviews. The subseries Audiocassettes, VHS cassettes, and Mini DV cassettes all have preservation masters and use copies. They are arranged by type of the original material. If the use copy is in a different format, the format will be indicated in brackets after the title. The reels in the subseries Super 8 need to be reformatted before they can be viewed. Please check with the Sophia Smith Collection several weeks in advance if you are interested in viewing the films in this subseries.