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Trades Union Congress (TUC) Library Collections at London Metropolitan University

KAPP, Yvonne (1903-1999)

IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 1924 Kapp

Held at: Trades Union Congress (TUC) Library Collections at London Metropolitan University

Title: KAPP, Yvonne (1903-1999)

Date(s): 1941-1999

Level of description: Collection (fonds)

Extent: 2 boxes

Name of creator(s): Kapp | Yvonne | 1903-1999 | writer and activist

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

Born Yvonne Mayer, 1903; educated at King's College London; married the artist, Edmond Kapp, 1922; joined Communist Party of Great Britain, 1936, following a visit to the Soviet Union; worked with Basque and Jewish refugees, 1937-1938; Assistant to Director, British Committee to Refugees from Czechoslovakia, dismissed from her post by the Home Office, 1940, and wrote pamphlet British Policy and the Refugees, 1941; Research Officer, Amalgamated Engineering Union, 1941-1946; worked for Medical Research Council, undertaking field work in the East End of London, 1947-1953; editor and translator, Lawrence and Wishart (publishers), 1953-1957; died 1999. Publications: four novels under the pseudonym Yvonne Cloud, including Nobody Asked You, 1932 and The Houses in Between, 1938; Eleanor Marx, (2 vols 1972, 1976).

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers of Yvonne Kapp, mainly relating to her work for the Amalgamated Engineering Union (AEU), 1941-1946, comprising: reports of AEU Production Enquiries, 1941-1943; papers on AEU Health and Welfare Enquiry, 1944-1946; general papers on Kapp's work for the AEU, including record of work of the AEU Research Department, 1941-1945 and typescript of article by Kapp, on 25th anniversary of the foundation of the AEU, 1945; correspondence and papers on John Elliott Burns (1858-1943), including letters to Burns from Eleanor Marx (1888), May Potter (1893), George Mitchell (1893-1897), Joseph Edwards, editor of the Labour Annual (1895), Samuel McGowan (1897), and others, and correspondence on the disposal of Burns' library on the history of London and the early history of the Labour movement. [the books were divided between the London Library and the AEU]; Kapp's diary (mainly engagements), 1943; miscellaneous files on production, training and joint consultation, 1945-1965; copies of obituaries of Kapp, 1999.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: English

System of arrangement:

Papers arranged in five classes: Box 1: (1) AEU Production Enquiries (2) AEU Heath and Welfare Enquiry (3) General Work for the AEU; Box 2: John Burns papers, miscellaneous files.

Conditions governing access:

Open to bona fide researchers at the discretion of the Librarian.

Conditions governing reproduction:

At the discretion of the TUC Librarian and subject to copyright conditions.

Physical characteristics:

Finding aids:

List available at in the TUC Library.

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:

Accruals:

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Donated by Betty Lewis, 2000.

ALLIED MATERIALS

Existence and location of originals:

Existence and location of copies:

Related material:

The Institute of Germanic Studies, University of London, also holds a small collection of the papers of Yvonne Kapp and Margaret Mynatt, (Ref GB 0367 MYK), including Kapp's correspondence with Helene Brecht-Weigel and the Bertolt Brecht Archiv, Berlin; correspondence of Mynatt and Kapp with Phyllis Rosner, Elisabeth Hauptmann and Ilse Warnber [sister of Elisabeth Hauptmann]; minutes and papers of the Czech Refugee Trust Fund, [1938-1940]; correspondence, 1939-1941, inclding letters written under the pseudonym Yvonne Cloud; hand-written copies of poems on the Communist Party; refugee papers selected by Dr Charmian Brinson, 1997; 3 volumes of press cuttings on the 'Internment Crisis', July-Sep 1940; obituaries of Kapp from The Independent, The Times and The Guardian, 1999.

Publication note:

DESCRIPTION NOTES

Note:

Archivist's note: Compiled by Alan Kucia as part of the TUC Library.