Overview
- Brief Narrative
- Ribbon and box accompanying the typewriter used by Reverend M.E.N. Lindsay to compose the sermon that he delivered on November 21, 1937 to his parishioners at the South Britain Congregational Church, as part of his protest of the planned camp of the German American Bund in Southbury, Connecticut. The Bund, an American Nazi organization, were planning to set up a training camp to indoctrinate Nazi values in young people. The group had established at least 20 training camps in rural areas throughout the country and had 25,000 active members. With a camp already established in nearby Waterbury, the Bund purchased 178 acres in the Kettletown area of Southbury, then a farming community of just 1,200. Lindsay and another local pastor, Rev. Felix Manley, rallied the residents to protest the project. The protest was successful and the town prevented the camp from being built.
- Date
-
use:
1937
- Geography
-
use:
South Britain Congregational Church;
South Britain (Southbury, Conn.)
- Credit Line
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Lois Lindsay Brown, Carol Lindsay Hagy, and Joan Lindsay Redford
- Markings
- b. upper section, printed, cream ink : L.C.Smith&CoronaTypewritersInc.
b. middle section, printed, red and green ink : Type Bar / LONG WEARING / Brand / TRADEMARK
b. lower section, printed, cream ink : Typewriter Ribbon / MADE IN (USA?) - Contributor
-
Subject:
M.E.N. Lindsay
Manufacturer: Corona Typewriter Company
- Biography
-
Mark Edgar Newson Lindsay (known as M.E.N.,1898-1987) was born in Hagerstown, Maryland and received a bachelor’s degree from Lynchburg College in Lynchburg, Virginia. He married Melcora Gruber (1899-1982) and they had three daughters Lois (1928-2017), Joan (b.1931) and Carol (b.1935). He received his Master of Divinity degree from Yale Divinity School in 1930, and was ordained as a minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). His first pulpit was that of a Congregational church in South Britain, Connecticut, where he, along with other town leaders, mobilized to prevent the establishment of a training camp for members of the German American Bund, a Nazi affiliated group, in 1937. In 1941 he and his family returned to Lynchburg, where he worked at Lynchburg College. In 1943, he was assigned as pastor of a Disciples of Christ congregation in Tazewell, VA, where he served during the 1940s and 1950s.
Physical Details
- Language
- English
- Classification
-
Office Equipment and Supplies
- Category
-
Writing materials
- Object Type
-
Typewriter ribbons (lcsh)
- Genre/Form
- Typewriter ribbons.
- Physical Description
- a. Square, cream colored metal tin base with rounded corners and silver interior. There is manufacturing information stamped on the bottom.
b. Square lid for tin (a) with rounded corners printed in olive green with a central cream colored band. There are narrow, rectangular, cream colored text boxes with diagonal corners and black type at the top and bottom and cream printed text below and above the text boxes. The central cream band has an illustration of a typewriter ribbon holder with red and green text.
c. Black spool of cloth typewriter ribbon wrapped loosely in silver foil with a diamond pattern. There are aqua and pink colored crystalline accretions at the center of the ribbon. - Dimensions
- a: Height: 1.625 inches (4.128 cm) | Width: 1.625 inches (4.128 cm)
b: Height: 1.875 inches (4.763 cm) | Width: 1.875 inches (4.763 cm)
c: Height: 1.500 inches (3.81 cm) | Width: 1.500 inches (3.81 cm) - Materials
- a : metal, ink
b : metal, ink
c : cloth, foil - Inscription
- a. bottom, stamped, black ink : N181
b. upper text box, stamped, black ink : CORONA NO. 3
b. lower text box, stamped, black ink : BLACK REC
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- No restrictions on access
- Conditions on Use
- No restrictions on use
Keywords & Subjects
Administrative Notes
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Provenance
- The typewriter ribbon and box were donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2015 by Lois Lindsay Brown, Carol Lindsay Hagy, and Joan Lindsay Redford, the daughters of Rev. M.E.N. Lindsay.
- Record last modified:
- 2023-08-25 08:08:09
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn610154
Also in Rev. M.E.N. Lindsay collection
The collection consists of a typewriter, boxed typewriter ribbon, broadsides, correspondence, leaflets, serial publications, and a typescript related to the role of Rev. M.E.N. Lindsay in leading the protest against the planned camp of the German-American Bund in Southbury, Connecticut in 1937.
Date: 1933-2012
Rev. M.E.N. Lindsay papers
Document
The M.E.N. Lindsay papers consist largely of correspondence that he received in the aftermath of the publicity that was generated by the anti-Nazi protest in Southbury, Connecticut in November 1937. While most of the correspondence originated from either Connecticut or New York, letters received from as far away as Tennessee, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and California showed that the story of the Southbury protest had been picked up by newspaper wire services and published around the country. Some correspondents simply sent letters or postcards expressing either their support or opposition to the actions in Southbury. Others, however, included newspaper clippings, as well as fliers, leaflets, and other printed material illustrating political viewpoints that ranged across the spectrum, from liberal mainline Protestantism, labor unions, and progressive political organizations; to anti-Communist and pro-American organizations, as well as groups that promoted anti-Semitism and segregationist views. Most of this material came unsolicited to Lindsay, and he apparently did not respond to most of those who sent him such materials. In one case, though, he responded to a letter writer who repeatedly sent him the anti-Semitic and racist publication The New Liberation, attempting to reason with this person and help him question the views espoused by this publication (see file 1:2, Anderson, Ebba). In addition to the correspondence and printed material received by Lindsay, the collection contains the typescript of a sermon that Lindsay delivered from the pulpit of the South Britain Congregational Church in November 1937, titled “Nazism: An Anti-Christian Menace.” Also included is a flier, signed “The Kettletowners,” that was placed in the mailbox of every resident of Southbury, along with a reprint of a magazine article about the German-American Bund, as an incentive to get residents to turn out for the town hall meeting of November 1937, at which Reverend Lindsay and other town leaders urged residents to mobilize in opposition to the planned Bund camp. A photocopy of a master’s thesis, written by Lillian Hicock, the niece of Judge Harold Hicock of Southbury, examining the events surrounding the Southbury protests, is also included (the original is located at the University of Virginia). For an event commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Southbury protest in 2012, a group of local residents researched these events, and made photocopies of documents that are held by the Southbury Historical Society in South Britain, Connecticut. These documents include correspondence sent to local leaders, including Judge Hicock and Jennie Hinman, as well as additional correspondence sent to Reverend Lindsay, as well as newspaper clippings. Although these photocopies were not a part of the M.E.N. Lindsay collection, they have been added to this collection because of their topical relevance.
Corona typewriter used by a US clergyman for an anti-Nazi sermon
Object
Typewriter used by Reverend M.E.N. Lindsay to compose the sermon that he delivered on November 21, 1937 to his parishioners at the South Britain Congregational Church, as part of his protest of the planned camp of the German American Bund in Southbury, Connecticut. The Bund, an American Nazi organization, were planning to set up a training camp to indoctrinate Nazi values in young people. The group had established at least 20 training camps in rural areas throughout the country and had 25,000 active members. With a camp already established in nearby Waterbury, the Bund purchased 178 acres in the Kettletown area of Southbury, then a farming community of just 1,200. Lindsay and another local pastor, Rev. Felix Manley, rallied the residents to protest the project. The protest was successful and the town prevented the camp from being built.
