Sacco and Vanzetti collections: Mrs. Walter Frank Collection, 1927-1963, 1927-1963 | Brandeis University

This collection was a gift of Mrs. Walter Frank (Adelaide Schulkind) in 1968. She was the acting secretary for the Sacco-Vanzetti National League (New York) from about 1930-1932. Much of the collection consists of correspondence to, and from, the Sacco-Vanzetti National League.

The collection's importance lies chiefly in the correspondence from 1927-1932, which was written by and to people who belonged to either the Sacco-Vanzetti National League (New York)or the Sacco-Vanzetti Defense Committee (Boston). This correspondence illustrates the aftermath of the Sacco-Vanzetti trial; what was done by people convinced of their innocence to keep the issue of injustice alive. Important correspondents include Robert Morss Lovett, Gardner Jackson, and Felix Frankfurter.

The correspondence from the 1960s divide into two series; letters written to Frank Russell that look back upon the Sacco-Vanzetti trial, and letters exchanged between Tom O'Connor and Vincenzina Vanzetti. The O'Connor-Vanzetti letters, written nearly forty years after the trial, show two people who continue to hope that Sacco and Vanzetti's innocence could still be proven.

The several photographs in the collection were taken of some of the principal members involved in the Sacco-Vanzetti trial. A few of the photographs include members of the Sacco and Vanzetti families.