Subject Vertical Files

The Subject Vertical Files Collection consists of approximately 8,500 folders containing ephemeral materials such as flyers, handbills, leaflets, and clippings on a variety of topics centered on radical history and social protest. Each folder is named with a topical descriptor, most of which take the form of a subject heading like one of the following:

• Anarchism -- Conferences -- Michigan
• Civil liberties -- Blacks -- Mississippi
• Colonialism and Imperialism -- Africa
• Labor -- International Organizations -- IWW -- Strikes -- Textile
• Peace Corps -- Committee of Returned Volunteers (CRV) -- Vietnam
• Spain -- Civil War -- International Brigades
• Youth and Student Protest -- Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) -- Michigan

Click here for a searchable list from which you can request folders for use in our Reading Room.

Approximately 75% of the material in this collection is in folders with names that begin with one of the following:

• Anarchism
• Civil Liberties
• Colonialism and Imperialism
• Communism
• Ecology
• Labor
• Pacifism
• Prisons and Prisoners
• Radical Right
• Religion
• Sexual Freedom
• Socialism
• Underground Press
• Women
• Youth and Student Protest

Other potentially useful search terms include Action, Against, Alliance, America, American, Amnesty, Animal, Association, Black, Campaign, Center, Commission, Committee, Conference, Convention, Federation, Free, Gay, Institute, League, Lesbian, Liberation, Movement, National, Organization, Party, Peace, Rights, Society, and Union.

Place names are represented as continents (e.g. Asia, Africa, North America), regions (e.g. Latin America, Southeast Asia, Middle East), countries (e.g. Cuba, Philippines, South Africa, Vietnam), states (e.g. Michigan), and cities (e.g. Ann Arbor, Detroit).