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Correspondence, memoranda, photographs, documents, manuscripts, wire recordings, and printed materials dealing mostly with Russian War Relief, Inc. (The American Society for Russian Relief, Inc.), 1940-1954. There are some materials on the Institute of Pacific Relations and its investigation by the McCarran Committee in the early 1950s. Also, personal and family correspondence, photographs, and other memorabilia. Correspondents include Hugo L. Black, Henry Sloane Coffin, Andrei Gromyko, John Hersey, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Arnold Toynbee.

The papers include correspondence, subject files, photographs, and printed materials. The majority of the collection concerns the mission of the American Red Cross to Russia in 1917-1918; Thacher served as a secretary of the mission. There are letters and telegrams by W.B. Thompson and Raymond Robins, records of supplies, shipments, and distribution reports and over 600 photographs from Russia, China, and Romania. There is substantial correspondence from 1918-1919 concerning Russia, including letters by Louis Brandeis, Felix Frankfurter, and Lillian Wald. A substantial part of the collection concerns Russian war relief in 1941-1942, an area in which Thacher was active. Printed materials include a pamphlet and an article on Russia prepared by Thacher after his return from that country in early 1918.

This collection includes records from the Chinese Industrial Cooperatives (CIC, 工業合作社/工业合作社), China Aid Council (CAC, 美國援華會/美国援华会), and United Service to China (USC, formerly United Relief to China/URC, 美國援華聯合會/美国援华联合会/美國援華救濟聯合會/美国援华救济联合会). The records contain correspondence of individuals who participated in the cooperative and those associated with it; typewritten reports of sub-units to the parent organization; periodicals and other publications issued in Chinese by the three regional headquarters (the early ones are probably quite rare); publications in English by these headquarters and by American committees formed to aid in the movement; mounted photographs showing the work of the cooperatives and their leaders; albums of newspaper clippings on the movement, emanating from the U.S. and abroad; maps showing locations of cooperatives; pencil sketches and watercolors of cooperatives at work; and other material concerning this important organization which was largely responsible for China's ability to feed and clothe, and care for the people during the war.

The reports and correspondence relating to UNRRA were arranged according to the nine administrative divisions of that organization that generated the documents: Bureau of Administration (26 reels); Office of the Diplomatic Adviser (4 reels); Office of the Director General (20 reels); Office of the Economic Adviser (4 reels); Office of Far Eastern Affairs (9 reels); Office of the General Counsel (19 reels); Office of the Historian (16 reels); Office of Public Information (1 reel); and Secretariat Executive Office (3 reels). Within each division, subsidiary bodies are typically separated into subject and country files.