Mary Bye papers

Table of Contents

Summary Information

Background note

Scope and content note

Administrative Information

Related Materials

Controlled Access Headings

Collection Inventory

Activism

Native Americans

Peace Activism

Anti-Nuclear Activism

Energy

Environment

Animal Rights

Friends/Religion

Personal

Summary Information

Repository

The Historical Society of Pennsylvania

Creator

Bye, Mary, 1913-

Title

Mary Bye papers

ID

3202

Date [bulk]

Bulk, 1974-1991

Date [inclusive]

1969-1992, undated

Extent

5.6 Linear feet ; 15 boxes, 4 flat files

Author

Finding aid prepared by James R. DeWalt

Language

English

Abstract

Mary Bye (1913-2002) was a Quaker activist who lived in rural Bucks County. She became involved in the anti-war movement during the 1960s. She was also active in causes relating to social justice and the environment. During the 1970s she became involved with anti-nuclear activism, and was a principal opponent of efforts to expand the nuclear facilities at Limerick, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere. Late in life she became increasingly concerned with environmental protection, famously attempting to save a stand of oak trees near her home from destruction. Her other major causes included Native American rights and a continuing devotion to the anti-war movement. She was a Convener of the Friends Environmental Working Group, a leading figure in the Central Bucks Clean Energy Collective and the Movement for a New Society, and a supporter of numerous local and national activist organizations. The Mary Bye papers consist of 5.6 linear feet of textual documents recording Mary Bye’s activist career from 1969-1992 (bulk 1974-1991). The documents in this collection relate primarily to her activity in opposition to nuclear energy and her efforts and concern for environmental protection. Of particular importance are documents relating to numerous local organizations in the form of newsletters, meeting notes, and correspondence, as well as a significant collection of documents relating to the nuclear facilities at Limerick, Pennsylvania, and the related Point Pleasant Pumping Station, a facility 30 miles to the east designed to bring water as coolant from the Delaware River to the Limerick station. Other topics include the American Indian Movement and the anti-war activities of the Plowshares Eight.

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Background note

Mary Bye was born on April 25, 1913 to Mary Maitland DuBois McCarty and Harry Downman McCarty, a prominent Baltimore physician. She graduated from Swarthmore College in 1936, where she studied mathematics and natural sciences, and later attended the School of Horticulture, now part of Temple University, where she studied landscape design. After practicing horticulture for several years, she married the watercolorist Ranulph de Bayeux Bye (1916-2003), known for his paintings of rural Bucks County scenes. They had five children: Dennis Latham (born 1942), Barbara Downman (born 1944), Richard Edwin (March 12, 1951-May 10, 1951), Stephen Gerard (born 1952) and Catherine “Katie” Maitland Castor (born 1955). Originally an Episcopalian, after marrying Ranulph Bye she became a Quaker and moved to rural Bucks County where she remained for the rest of her life. Mary and Ranulph Bye later divorced.

Mary Bye became active in the anti-war movement during the Vietnam War. During her years as a peace activist, she was arrested ten times and jailed for civil disobedience after reading the names of war dead on the Capitol steps in Washington, D.C. She was detained by police while protesting a visit by Richard Nixon at Independence Hall, fired on with water hoses while protesting at a munitions plant in New Jersey, and arrested at a demonstration in support of the Harrisburg Seven, a group of anti-war activists led by Father Philip Berrigan, who were being tried in 1972 on several counts of conspiracy. She frequently opened her home to visiting peace activists and hosted community forums in support of the movement. She commuted daily to Philadelphia where she worked for the Peace Committee of the Society of Friends, and was an active member of the anti-war coalition Concerned Citizens of Bucks County. She was a long-term tax resister, refusing to pay a portion of her taxes to the IRS in opposition to American military spending. Her other early causes included support of Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers, and opposition to apartheid in South Africa. She was active in the local group Movement for a New Society and its affiliated organizations.

During the 1970s she became increasingly involved with anti-nuclear activism and opposition to nuclear reactor facilities. She participated in demonstrations and other direct actions at the Barnwell, South Carolina facility in 1978, and later became a determined critic and opponent of the nuclear facilities at Peach Bottom and Limerick, Pennsylvania and the related Point Pleasant Pumping Station, a facility designed to bring water as coolant from the Delaware River to Limerick. She participated in demonstrations and other actions aimed at directing attention to the dangers of nuclear energy, and consistently lobbied government officials on behalf of local anti-nuclear organizations such as Central Bucks Clean Energy Collective and Limerick Ecology Action. Concurrent with her opposition to nuclear energy, she became an advocate of energy conservation and supporter of alternative energy sources, notably solar energy, attempting to convert her home to solar photovoltaic cell technology.

Later in life, Mary Bye became more broadly concerned with ecology and the environment, natural habitat, clean air and water, and animal rights. She served for several years as Convener of the Friends’ Working Group on Stewardship of the Environment (later Friends Environmental Working Group). She became a celebrity in her Bucks County community and beyond because of her 1988 attempt to save a stand of oak trees from cutting by literally hugging the tallest tree and refusing to leave. Her efforts were unavailing, and the trees were cut down. She continued to be involved in issues of social justice and peace activism, corresponding frequently with imprisoned members of the Plowshares Eight, a group of anti-war activists led by Philip Berrigan and his brother Daniel, who in 1980 damaged nuclear missile components at the General Electric Nuclear Military Facility in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. She suported several civil and human rights organizations, and opposed military intervention in Central America. She became an advocate of the American Indian Movement, supporting activists Dennis Banks, Russell Means and Leonard Peltier. Mary Bye entered a retirement home in Newtown, Bucks County sometime in 1991 or 1992. She died on November 1, 2002.

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Scope and content note

The Mary Bye papers comprise 5.6 linear feet of textual documents with additional flat and object files related to the political, social and environmental activities of Quaker activist Mary Bye, from 1969 to 1992 (bulk 1974-1991). The documents include correspondence, direct action planning documents, informational mailings and solicitations, organizational newsletters, meeting notes, and newspaper clippings. The collection contains documents directly related to Bye, as well as organizational mailings intended for a general readership that Bye kept for her own use, often with personal annotations and comments in the margins. The files are especially useful in documenting the activities of local activist organizations, many of which appeared as ad hoc groups for specific purposes, some continuing for several years, others later repurposed or defunct. The papers in this collection reflect a general repositioning of Mary Bye’s activist career away from her early efforts in the anti-war movement of the 1960s and early 1970s toward a more concerted activism in support of environmental protection, and in opposition to nuclear energy. Personal and family papers are not well represented in the collection.

The collection is divided into nine series: Series 1. Activism, including general topics of social and political activism;  Series 2. Native Americans, concerned mostly with Bye’s activities in support of the Native American Movement;  Series 3. Peace Activism, including the activities of various Friends and other peace organizations;  Series 4. Anti-Nuclear Activism, documenting Bye’s activities with various activist groups, demonstrations and direct actions, especially involving the Limerick Nuclear Reactor;  Series 5. Energy, focusing on alternative sources of energy, especially solar;  Series 6. Environment, concerned with environmental protection, clean air and clean water;  Series 7. Animal Rights, protection of wildlife and the humane treatment of animals;  Series 8. Friends/Religion, including documents related specifically to Friends’ religious concerns and spirituality; and  Series 9. Personal, a collection of strictly personal letters and documents.

Researchers should note that Mary Bye’s name appears in a bewildering confusion of forms, misapplications and misspellings. For the record, her full unmarried name was Mary DuBois McCarty. Her full married name was Mary McCarty Bye (sometimes Mary DuBois McCarty Bye). This collection contains two forms of her printed letterhead, Mary McCarty Bye, and simply Mary Bye.

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Administrative Information

Publication Information

 The Historical Society of Pennsylvania ; 2016.

Restrictions

Open to researchers without restrictions.

Provenance

Gift of Mary Bye.

Processing note

The Mary Bye papers originally consisted of ten linear feet of documents. The majority of these were housed in rough folders or envelopes gathered together by general topic, some obviously by Mary Bye herself, others probably not. They included direct mailings and solicitations from a number of organizations of every type, many of them unopened, requesting donations and including in their mailings newsletters, information brochures, photocopied news clippings, and petitions. Most of this material was duplicated many times over. A sampling of the direct mailing was kept with the collection, either in a miscellaneous file by series, or when appropriate with the organization file concerned. Informational material from the direct mailings was sometimes extracted by Bye and kept in a separate file, often with annotations added in the margins. These have been maintained in the arrangement in which they were found. Duplicated and repetitive mailings have been discarded, including most national newsletters and magazines. All documents concerning Mary Bye or any of the organizations or direct actions in which she was involved have been kept, including newsletters, as well as all documents connected in any way with local organizations and Friends groups.

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Related Materials

Related materials

At other institutions:

Mary Bye papers (Collection RG5/024), Friends Historical Collection of Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania

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Controlled Access Headings

Corporate Name(s)

• Barnwell Nuclear Fuel Plant.
• Bucks County Conservancy.
• Central Bucks Clean Energy Collective.
• Clean Air Council.
• Creation Spirituality.
• Critical Mass Energy Project (U.S.).
• EcoJustice Working Group.
• Friends Committee on Unity with Nature.
• Friends Environmental Working Group.
• Limerick Atomic Power Station (Pa.).
• Limerick Ecology Action.
• Mobilization for Survival (Organization).
• Movement for a New Society.
• Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station (Pa.).
• Philadelphia Quaker Women's Workshop.
• Plowshares Eight (Group).
• Point Pleasant Pumping Station (Pa.).
• Sierra Club.
• Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant (Pa.).

Personal Name(s)

• Banks, Dennis
• Fox, Matthew, 1940-
• Heinz, John, 1938-1991
• Kabat, Carl
• Kostmayer, Peter H.
• Massey, Marshall
• Means, Russell, 1939-2012
• Peltier, Leonard
• Redding, Stephen
• Schuchardt, John
• Silkwood, Karen, 1946-1974
• Specter, Arlen

Subject(s)

• Animal rights.
• Antinuclear movement.
• Disarmament.
• Ecology.
• Energy conservation.
• Environmental protection.
• Native Americans.
• Nuclear power plants.
• Pacifism.
• Peace--Societies, etc.
• Quaker women.
• Quakers--Pennsylvania
• Social justice.
• Solar energy.

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Collection Inventory