Institute of Pacific Relations Records

Institute of Pacific Relations Records: Manuscript M004 (link to bibliographic record)  | also | Holland/Hooper Supplemental Collection to the IPR Records: Manuscript M021

• This page:
  • Overview of the IPR Records
  • Overview of the Holland/Hooper Supplemental Collection to the IPR Records
  • Scope Notes, IPR Records and Holland/Hooper Supplemental Collection
• Historical Note
• Inventory: IPR Section A, IPR Councils
• Inventory: IPR Section B, IPR Conferences
• IPR Section C, IPR Finances (inventory not available)
• IPR Section D, Honolulu Branch (inventory not available)
• Inventory: IPR Section E, Correspondence Files: Significant Names (pdf)
• IPR Section F, Personal Papers (inventory not available)
• Inventory: Holland/Hooper Supplemental Collection

Overview: IPR Records

Collection Name: Institute of Pacific Relations Records

Collection Number: Manuscript M004

Inclusive Dates: 1922-1959

Size of Collection: 33 linear ft.

Creator of Records: Institute of Pacific Relations

Introduction to the IPR Collection at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

How the Institute of Pacific Relations (IPR) records at the University of Hawaiʻi came to the Archives is not entirely clear. In the early 1970s Professor Paul Hooper, a University historian, heard that the records were in Sinclair Library of the University of Hawaiʻi and discovered the largely unidentified materials stored there. After identifying the collection as pertaining to Institute of Pacific Relations, he pieced together as best he could an account of the provenance of the collection as follows.

The IPR, the first substantial non-governmental organization concerned with international and intercultural issues in the Pacific region, was formed in Honolulu in 1925. Its central administrative body, the Pacific Council, had headquarters in Honolulu from 1925 until 1934, when the headquarters moved to New York City. National councils were established in all the major Asia-Pacific nations and those European nations with regional colonies in the Asia-Pacific area; local branches were created in a number of major US cities, including Honolulu. The IPR continued expanding it conference, research and publication programs until well into the 1950s when the McCarthy movement raised charges of pro-communist activities, leading to the demise of the IPR by the end of the decade.

In 1953 the Honolulu Branch renamed itself the Pacific and Asian Affairs Council (PAAC), severed its formal connections with the IPR and initiated an independent program. Nevertheless, the IPR records that remained in Honolulu continued to be housed by PAAC officials for some time despite the severance of institutional ties.

Sometime during the 1950s the PAAC staff apparently decided that it could no longer continue to store the IPR materials. According to Professor Hooper, it appears that Mrs. Ann Yardley Satterthwaite, a person long active in the Pan-Pacific Union and local chapters of other international organizations, provided storage space for them at her home. Following her death in October 1963, they apparently were transferred to the University of Hawaiʻi, although the details of the transfer are not clear. Receiving permission to search through the uncataloged manuscript materials, Dr. Hooper located them and subsequently arranged and inventoried them. See the Historical Note and the Scope Notes for further details.

In subsequent years, University archival workers weeded published items from the collection; performed basic preservation work by rehousing the materials in acid free folders and boxes, removing metal fasteners, and photocopying or retyping fading or highly acidic documents; and revised the inventory to update it and put it in a more consistent format. The one major exception to separating out published materials was the decision to retain the published report of the investigation by the McCarran subcommittee of the U.S. Senate into the IPR.

In his initial arrangement, Dr. Hooper organized the records into five series: IPR Councils (materials on the Pacific Council and the various national councils); IPR Conferences; IPR Finances; IPR Honolulu Branch; and Correspondence Files (organized under names of individuals associated with the IPR). While evidence exists that this was not the original order, the Archives staff continued it since too little evidence remained to reconstruct the entire original filing system. Each series has been assigned a letter which accompanies the box number; box numbering starts with one in each series. Likewise, the folder numbering begins at one in each box. Frequently as staff weeded, removed metal fasteners or rehoused items to limit the number of sheets of paper per folder, they had to divide the contents of one box into two boxes. In these situations, to avoid renumbering all the boxes to the end of the series, they added lower case letters to the box number, resulting, for example, in boxes D-2a and D-2b.

Inventories for the Councils, Conferences, and Correspondence series are on-line while the Finances and Local Branch series are accessible only in hard copy in the Archives Reading Room. Initially, the Correspondence series (Series E) had only folder level entries. Several years later, Dr. Hooper volunteered to work on the series to improve access. Going through each folder in Series E, he made a notation for each document containing organizational matters. He did not cite seemingly routine items, and the cited documents only amount to approximately twenty percent of the total. In depth research will require patrons to look through each appropriate box. In addition, users need to be aware that, while we have tried to be consistent, references to individuals may vary regarding the use of initials and given names. Common names of countries with IPR connections are used interchangeably (e.g. “Holland,” “Dutch” and “Netherlands”). Finally, the use of “communist,” “McCarthyism” and related terms almost always refer to post-WWII anti-communist activities in the United States.

Overview: Holland/Hooper

Collection Name: Holland/Hooper Supplemental Collection to the Institute of Pacific Relations Records

Collection Number: Manuscript M021

Inclusive Dates: 1922-2005

Size of Collection: 8 lin. ft.

Creator: Professor Paul Hooper

Introduction to the Holland/Hooper Supplemental Collection to the IPR Records

Over several decades of Institute of Pacific Relations-related research, Professor Paul Hooper assembled a substantial personal collection of relevant materials, most of which came to him from long-time IPR leader William L. Holland. Following his volunteer work with the IPR collection, Hooper donated this personal collection to the Archives and then processed it as part of his continuing volunteer work under the direction of the archivist. These materials, having a separate provenance from the IPR records, form the Holland/Hooper Supplemental Collection to the IPR records. The Supplemental Collection shares the IPR finding aid, but has a separate collection number, Manuscript M021.

Scope Notes: IPR Records (Manuscript M004) and Holland/Hooper Supplemental Collection to the IPR Records (Manuscript M021)

The Institute of Pacific Relations records in the University Archives & Manuscripts Department at the University of Hawaiʻi Library consists of approximately thirty-three linear feet of materials documenting the international council, national councils, conferences, finances, and local chapter. It has been divided into five series: Councils, Conferences, Finances, Hawaiʻi Chapter, and Correspondence files. The majority of the records pertain to the period from the inception of the IPR to the move of the Pacific Council and IPR headquarters to New York City in 1934. This removal reduced the amount of IPR records held in Honolulu. World War II brought with it restrictions in mail and shipping between the Mainland and Hawaiʻi, further reducing the volume of records found here.

The original accession of IPR records included records of the early years of the Pacific and Asian Affairs Council (PAAC). As the PAAC records are also held by the Archives & Manuscripts Department, the archivist at the time decided to separate these materials from the IPR records and add them to the collection of PAAC records. Folders 8-21 of box D-17, and all of boxes D-18 through D-20 of the IPR collection were removed and became boxes A1-A4 of the Pacific and Asian Affairs Council records (Manuscript M014).

Many of the items in the IPR records are carbon copies; if originals of these documents survive, they are most likely to be in the IPR Collection held by Butler Library at Columbia University. Other collections of significance are the IPR records at the University of British Columbia, the E. C. Carter papers at the University of Vermont’s Bailey-Howe Library, the Genji Okubo papers at Hitotsubashi University, and the Yasaka Takagi papers at Tokyo University.

The Holland/Hooper Supplemental Collection to the IPR records consists of approximately eight linear feet of materials, mainly correspondence (primarily of Holland, 1937-1978 and of E. C. Carter, 1936-1952); documentation related to problems of the McCarthy era; records of the activities of the International Secretariat, the American Council, and local branches (particularly Hawaiʻi); and the principal theses and dissertations concerning the Institute. The supplemental collection also includes a copy of F. V. Field’s autobiography and biographical material on William Holland and Paul Hooper.