ARCHIVE OF 5 AUTOGRAPH LETTERS

Letters. Faint creases from mailing, about Fine. A collection of 5 Handwritten Letters, 12 full pages of writing, all SIGNED by Sanger with her initials to Peggy [Mrs. Stephen Whitney Blodgett] on various size stationery and dates, mostly about personal matters but also containing references to her work to promote Birth Control. The first two letters are dated 14 January 1947 and 31 January 1947 from Tucson. In the second Sanger says, "I think this national drive is so important to the future of civilization thru our Research program that I've decided to plug all I've got to contribute to this one drive + let the Y W + Y M + Red Cross etc etc [?] time (truncated) until we get a cheap simple contraception that our own slum parents can use as well as the Indian, Chinese, Japanese, + all Orientals. When this is developed it will be more constructive + powerful than splitting the atom -- + Peace on Earth will reign." In the third letter, dated 7 December 1948 also from Tucson and consisting of 4 pages, she says, "Our hopes of a decent world through the discovery of a simple cheap contraceptive depends so very much on the vision and Scientific attitude of members of the NRC [National Research Council] which is the only group at present known to be encouraging such researches toward such discovery." The remaining two letters, one dated 28 June 1949 on "The Crossways" stationery and the other dated 28 August 1957 on International Planned Parenthood Federation stationery, regard personal matters. Also with a 1961 Typed Letter from the Watumull Foundation to Mrs. Blodgett mentioning that Sanger spent a month there in Honolulu.

In her job as a nurse for maternity cases for mostly poor mothers in New York, Sanger often observed women resorting to self-induced abortions. Mrs. Sanger nursed one mother, close to death after a self-inflicted abortion, back to health, and heard the woman plead with a doctor for protection against another pregnancy. "Tell Jake to sleep on the roof," the physician said. The mother died six months later during a second abortion, and Sanger soon renounced nursing forever: "I came to a sudden realization that my work as a nurse and my activities in social service were entirely palliative and consequently futile and useless to relieve the misery I saw all about me." (Inventory #: 019671)