Scope & Contents

The papers of E. F. Doree were placed in the Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs by Ellen Doree Rosen, the daughter of Mr. Doree, in July of 1996 and January of 1997 and were opened for research in January of 1997.

Edward F. Doree worked as a national organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World [I.W.W.] and served as treasurer of its General Defense Committee. He, along with his brother-in-law, Walter T. Nef, secretary-treasurer of the Marine Transport Workers Industrial Union No. 100 in Philadelphia, was caught up in the mass arrest and imprisonment of I.W.W. members in 1917-1918 for alleged violation of wartime anti-sedition acts. At the time of his arrest, he was secretary-treasurer of Textile Workers Industrial Union No. 1000 in Philadelphia. Before receiving a presidential pardon in September, 1922, Mr. Doree was released twice from the federal penitentiary at Fort Leavenworth to visit his critically ill son in Philadelphia.

The E. F. Doree Collection consists of photocopies, primarily of Mr. Doree’s prison letters to his wife, Ida S. Doree, but also of material related to efforts to obtain amnesty for Mr. Doree and other political prisoners and to the publicity surrounding his visits to his son. The original documents may be found in the Labadie Collection of the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections of the Harlan Hatcher Library at the University of Michigan.