Access
Publication Rights
Preferred Citation
Separated Materials
Related Collections and Materials
Acquisition Information
Biographical Information
Scope and Contents
Indexing Terms
Title: Violet Orr oral history
Date (inclusive): 1919-1976
Date (bulk): 1976
Collection Identifier: MS
3516
Creator:
Orr, Violet.
Extent: Transcript: 2 folders (0.1
linear feet); Tapes: 15 audiocassettes
Contributing Institution:
California Historical Society
678 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA, 94105-4014
(415) 357-1848
reference@calhist.org
URL: http://www.californiahistoricalsociety.org/
Location of Materials: Collection is stored onsite.
Language of Materials: Collection materials are in
English.
Abstract: Transcript and sound recording of Lucille Kendall's
1976 interviews with Violet Orr, including a brief interview with Violet's husband
Paul Orr; an interview history; and one folder of Orr family papers and photographs,
dated from 1919 to 1976. The interviews document Violet Orr's childhood and
marriage; her trip with Paul Orr to the Soviet Union in the 1920s; her activities as
a Communist Party organizer in the 1930s and '40s in California, including her
involvement in the San Francisco laundry workers' union and work for the radical
newspaper, the
People's World; and the Orrs'
experiences during the post-war Red Scare.
Access
Publication Rights
Copyright has been assigned to California Historical Society. Materials in these
collections are protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.) and may not
be used without permission of California Historical Society. Use may be restricted
by terms of CHS gift or purchase agreements, privacy and publicity rights, licensing
terms, and trademarks. All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from, or otherwise
use collection materials must be submitted in writing to the Director of Library and
Archives, North Baker Research Library, California Historical Society, 678 Mission
Street, San Francisco, CA 94105. Restrictions also apply to digital representations
of the original materials. Use of digital files is restricted to research and
educational purposes.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Violet Orr oral history, MS 3516, California Historical
Society.
Separated Materials
The original sound recording from which the Orr oral history was transcribed is
stored separately on cassettes 30.1-30.15.
Photographic portraits of Violet and Paul Orr have been removed to the California
Historical Society's Portrait Collection.
Related Collections and Materials
Related Collections
The following oral histories were prepared by Lucille Kendall in her effort to
document the lives of women labor activists and radicals for the California
Historical Society's "Women in California Collection":
Clemmie Shuck Barry oral history, MS 3251
Dorothy Elizabeth De Losada oral history, MS 3522
Elaine Black Yoneda oral history, MS 3524
Helene Powell oral history, MS 3518
Katherine Rodin oral history, MS 3517
Louise Lambert oral history, MS 3520
Marion Brown Sills oral history, MS 3525
Mildred Edmondson oral history, MS 3523
Sonia Baltrun Kaross oral history, MS 3515
The following oral histories were prepared under the auspices of "The Twentieth
Century Trade Union Woman: Vehicle for Social Change," a project of the Institute of
Labor and Industrial Relations, The University of Michigan-Wayne State
University:
Angela Ward oral history, MS 3536
Caroline Decker Gladstein oral history, MS 3025
Other Related Materials
Orr, Paul and Violet.
1993, the world of tomorrow: timely look
into the future
. Altadena, California: Pacific Progress Publishers,
1968.
Acquisition Information
This oral history was transcribed from four interviews with Violet Orr conducted by
Lucille Kendall for the California Historical Society in 1976.
Biographical Information
Communist and peace activist Violet Orr was born in San Francisco in 1904. She spent
her childhood in San Francisco, Iowa, Oregon, and finally Palo Alto, graduating from
Stanford University. She married Paul Orr in 1926, and together they traveled to the
Soviet Union, living there for two years, from 1928 to 1930. Active in the Friends
of the Soviet Union, the Orrs joined the Communist Party in 1932. As a Communist
Party activist, Violet Orr filled many positions in Northern and Southern
California: as an organizational secretary in Oakland in the early 1930s; a
candidate for the California State Assembly from Richmond (1934); a laundry worker
and labor organizer in San Francisco (1935-1937); and an advertising and circulation
manager of the
People's World in San Francisco and
Los Angeles (1937-1946). Throughout this period, she played an energetic role in
California's radical print culture, not only as a manager of the
People's World, but also as a founder of the San
Francisco laundry workers' newspaper, the
Shake Out;
a contributor to the
Western Worker; and a leafleteer
among Richmond refinery workers. During the 1934 General Strike, the Orrs' Point
Richmond home was ransacked by vigilantes.
After World War II, Violet and Paul Orr worked as school teachers in Oregon,
returning to California in 1951 after losing several jobs in the early years of the
post-war Red Scare. They continued to feel the strain of rising anti-communist
anxiety in Pasadena, where Paul was fired from his job at the California Institute
of Technology for refusing to disavow his Communist Party membership. In Pasadena,
Violet was active in the Methodist Church and in various peace movements. She and
Paul co-authored a utopian novel,
1993, the World of
Tomorrow
, which was published by Pacific Progress Publishers in
1968.
Scope and Contents
This oral history collection consists of a transcript and sound recording of Lucille
Kendall's 1976 interviews with Violet Orr, including a brief interview with Violet's
husband Paul Orr; an interview history; and one folder of Orr family papers and
photographs, dated from 1919 to 1976. The Orr interviews were conducted under the
auspices of the California Historical Society's "Women in California Collection" as
part of an oral history project documenting the lives of women labor activists and
radicals in California.
The interviews document Violet Orr's personal experiences, family life, and radical
activism, from the early 1900s to 1950s. In particular, the interviews shed light on
her childhood, education, and marriage; her trip with Paul Orr to the Soviet Union
in the 1920s; her activities as a Communist Party organizer in the 1930s and '40s in
California, including her involvement in the San Francisco laundry workers' union
and work for the radical newspaper, the
People's
World
; and the Orrs' experiences during the post-war Red Scare.
Indexing Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the
library's online public access catalog:
Orr, Paul.
People's world (San Francisco,
Calif.).
Communism--California.
Communists--California.
Laundry workers--Labor unions--California--San
Francisco.
Audiocassettes.
Oral histories.
Radicalism--California--Newspapers.