Foster Parents Plan International, Volume II (Mss. Gr. 117.2)

Series 1. Board of Directors
This series contains records documenting the activities of PLAN's policy making and governing board. The board has been variously known as the American Committee, the General Committee, and since 1958, the Board of Directors. Topics include budgets and finances, opening new national and field offices, field office operations, and personnel issues. The types of records include agenda and minutes of meetings, correspondence, memos, budget proposals, and reports.

The records in this series are arranged alphabetically by subject or type of record and chronologically within folders.

Series 2. Committees
The records of this series document the activities of standing and ad hoc committees of the Board of Directors of PLAN. The records are not complete for the committees represented, especially for the early years of the organization, but they are sufficiently comprehensive to provide an overview of the administrative structure of PLAN over a twenty-year period.

Topics include personnel and salaries, organizational finances, public relations, and the automation of many of the office functions of PLAN. The types of records include agenda and minutes of meetings, correspondence, memos, reports, budgets, and grant proposals.

The records are arranged alphabetically by the name of the committee and chronologically within folders.

Series 3. Subject File
The Subject File contains the administrative files of PLAN's international headquarters staff. The records document the activities of the headquarters staff and its interaction with PLAN national organizations, field office staff, government agencies, other non-profit agencies, foster parents, and the general public.

Topics include fundraising, the establishment of new field offices, the relocation of PLAN headquarters from New York City to Warwick, Rhode Island, the enrollment and cancellation of foster children, public relations, PLAN anniversaries, and office automation.

The types of records include correspondence, memos, reports, bylaws of the organization, grant proposals, financial statements, operations manuals, policies and procedures manuals, press releases, and newspaper clippings.

The records are arranged alphabetically by subject or type of record and chronologically within folders.

Series 4. Quarterly Reports
This series consists of reports sent to PLAN'S international headquarters from field directors in program countries. The reports provide information on PLAN programs, include proposals for new programs, report on visits by headquarters staff, foster parents, political leaders, and celebrities, and provide insights into local politics and culture and their potential impact on PLAN programs and families. They include "on the spot" accounts of political upheaval in countries such as Haiti and chronicle the slow collapse of the South Vietnamese government before the onslaught of North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops. The reports also contain statistical summaries of the activities of the previous quarter including enrollment of foster children, health services provided, and quarterly expenditures.

The reports are arranged alphabetically by the name of the program country and chronologically within folders. Beginning in 1974 the statistical sections of the quarterly reports were separated from the narrative sections. Those statistical sections are grouped together at the end of the series under the heading of "Quarterly Report Statistics."

Series 5. Case Histories
The Case Histories series provides the most comprehensive documentation on the foster children enrolled by PLAN in the various program countries in which it operated. Although this series contains the records of only a small percentage of the children assisted by PLAN, it is especially significant in that it includes records of the earliest Spanish foster children, as well as children from war-torn China and Czechoslovakia from the late 1940s and Vietnam from the late 1950s.

The contents of the Case Histories vary widely. Some contain a simple one or two page form, while others include completed case history questionnaires, information about the foster child's biological family, photographs of the foster child at various ages, letters from the foster child, correspondence, and official notices from PLAN "canceling" the foster child's enrollment in PLAN.

The Case Histories are arranged alphabetically by the name of the country from which the child comes and, with the exception of Brazil, numerically by the "case history number" assigned to that child. Case Histories from Brazil are arranged alphabetically by the name of the foster child.

Series 6. Photographs
This series contains photographic prints and negatives of PLAN activities, PLAN staff, PLAN colonies in Europe, foster parents, foster children, celebrities, and general public relations photographs. The series has been divided into four sub-series as follows: Countries, Celebrities, Staff, and Public Relations.

Sub-series I, Countries, contains photographs documenting the activities of PLAN in the European and third world countries in which it was active. Included are photographs of children injured during World War II, photographs of "colonies" established to house children orphaned and made refugees by World War II and the Spanish Civil War, and photographs of PLAN field offices, projects, and programs. The photographs in this sub-series are arranged alphabetically by the name of the country and alphabetically thereunder by the subject of the photograph.

Sub-series II, Celebrities, consists of photographs of "celebrity" foster parents, primarily from the worlds of entertainment, letters, and politics. Among those represented are Talulah Bankhead, Gary Cooper, Bob Hope, Fiorello LaGuardia, Somerset Maugham, J.B. Priestley, Eleanor Roosevelt, Spencer Tracy, and Orson Welles. The photographs in this sub-series are arranged alphabetically by the name of the celebrity.

Sub-series III, Staff, contains photographs of PLAN field staff, headquarters staff, national organization staff, and board members. Included are photographs of PLAN co-founder Eric Muggeridge, international executive directors Edna Blue, Gloria Matthews, and George Ross, national directors Munro Ashkanase (Canada), John Coller (Australia), and Hein Koln (Netherlands), and field directors Elizabeth Brown, Frank Campbell, Ivy Mason, Glenn Rogers, and Donald Roose. The photographs in this sub-series are arranged alphabetically by the name of the staff member or the subject of the photograph.

Sub-series IV, Public Relations, contains photographs documenting and supporting PLAN's public relations/publicity activities. Included are "before and after" photographs of amputee children who were fitted with prostheses through the support of PLAN, photographs to support various fundraising and public relations campaigns, and photographs of PLAN activities in Vietnam for a magazine article. The photographs in this sub-series are arranged alphabetically by the subject of the photograph.

Sub-series 1. Countries

Sub-series 2. Celebrities

Sub-series 3. Staff

Sub-series 4. Public Relations

Series 7. War in Europe
Between 1939 and 1945, PLAN changed its name twice, survived two wars and two evacuations, and expanded its enrollment from Spanish children to any children suffering as a result of war in Europe. This series contains records documenting PLAN's early organization and attempts to assist children in Europe orphaned or made refugees, first by the Spanish Civil War and later by World War II. It also documents the changing circumstances and organizational structure of PLAN during the war years.

To reflect these changing circumstances and conditions, the records have been divided into four sub-series as follows: Biarritz, the London Committee, Spain, and Telegrams.

Sub-series I, Biarritz, contains records relating to PLAN's establishment and maintenance of hostels and colonies in the Biarritz area of France for children who were refugees of the Spanish Civil War and World War II. Many of the children in these hostels and colonies were evacuated to England when France fell to Germany in 1940. Included are correspondence, memos, reports, budgets, questionnaires, and lists of refugee children. Particularly informative is the correspondence between the hostel administrator Esme Odgers and PLAN's international executive director, Edna Blue. They discussed a wide range of subjects including the organization of the hostels, conditions for Spanish refugees, repatriation of refugees, and plans for evacuation after the fall of France. The records in this sub-series are arranged alphabetically by subject or type of record and chronologically within folders.

Sub-series II, the London Committee, relates to PLAN's activities in London during World War II. These activities were coordinated by a group known as the London Committee. Included are correspondence, reports, lists of refugee children in the PLAN colonies, minutes of meetings, newspaper clippings, and questionnaires. The correspondence between Edna Blue and English director Judy (Ivy) Mason is especially informative. Mason's almost daily letters to Blue, which can be found in the folders labeled "Correspondence," provided a detailed and comprehensive account of life in London during the German blitzkrieg bombing and describes the reactions of Londoners and children in the colonies to the daily devastation. The records in this sub-series are arranged alphabetically by subject or type of record and chronologically within folders.

Sub-series III, Spain, documents PLAN's attempts to assist children orphaned or made refugees by the Spanish Civil War. Included are appeals for assistance, articles about Spanish refugee children, a copy of a speech attributed to PLAN cofounder John Langdon-Davies, and bulletins of the National Joint Committee for Spanish Relief. The records are arranged alphabetically by subject or type of record and chronologically within folders.

Sub-series IV, Telegrams, consists of an exchange of telegrams between staff in New York and Europe in 1939 and 1940. Although they deal primarily with administrative and financial issues, the telegrams also include detailed information about the hostels and colonies, life in England during the German blitzkrieg, and the reactions of the children in the colonies to the bombing. The telegrams are arranged chronologically by date.

Sub-series 1. Biarritz

Sub-series 2. The London Committee

Sub-series 3. Spain

Sub-series 4. Telegrams

Series 8. Publications/Publicity
The Publications/Publicity Series contains records relating to PLAN's attempts to publicize its efforts to assist children in need in Europe and third world countries and to raise funds to support those efforts. Included are appeals for funds, articles by PLAN's international executive director Edna Blue, anniversary brochures, reports, informal histories of PLAN, press releases, and stories written by foster children.

The records in this series are arranged alphabetically by name, subject, or type of record and chronologically within folders.

Series 9. Miles for Millions
Miles for Millions was a project begun in 1967 by the Canadian government as a centennial project to focus attention on the needs of people, the "millions," in underdeveloped countries. Though government involvement ended within a year, the program was continued by local committees whose activities were coordinated by the Ottawa-based National Walk Committee.

The records in this series document PLAN's participation in the program. Included are correspondence, memos, newspaper clippings, committee reports, and project proposals.

The records are arranged alphabetically by subject or type of record and chronologically within folders.

Series 10. Donor Countries
The records of the Donor Country Series relate to the activities of PLAN's national organizations in the industrialized nations of the world. It is these industrialized nations or "donor" countries (Australia, Canada, Netherlands, United Kingdom, and the United States) that provide the bulk of the financial support for PLAN field offices and programs in underdeveloped or "program" countries. Each of the donor countries has a PLAN national organization/office, which coordinates fundraising efforts in the country. These funds are then funneled through PLAN's international headquarters to the various field offices and programs in underdeveloped countries throughout the world.

Included are correspondence, memos, publications, agenda and minutes of meetings, annual reports, field office reports, bylaws, budgets, procedure manuals, and newspaper clippings. The correspondence files for each donor country are especially useful in that they provide insights into the often differing interpretation between PLAN's international headquarters and the national organizations on the role that the national organizations were to play in PLAN.

The records are arranged alphabetically by the name of the donor country and alphabetically thereunder by subject or type of record.