Special Collection: The Guither Archive

This archive contains materials related to the Humane Society of the United States, collected in the 1980s and ’90s by Harold D. Guither, an agriculture economics professor at the University of Illinois. Guither retired in 1995, and his papers are in the University of Illinois Archive.

Some of this material informed the writing of Guither’s 1998 book Animal Rights: History and Scope of a Radical Social Movement.

Below are links to, and summaries of, the major documents within each PDF. Because the files are large, we strongly suggest you save them to your hard drive before opening them, by right-clicking and selecting “Save Link As.”

Fundraising Material | Governance, Speeches, and Interviews | HSUS Publications | HSUS Catalogs | Miscellaneous Files | Assorted Oversize Papers

For a full listing of the documents, download this spreadsheet.

Fundraising Material

This file includes an HSUS calendar, holiday appeals, membership fundraising letters, requests for money in conjunction with specific issues, promos for HSUS’s VISA card, and a promo for HSUS’s pet “registration” service.

Governance, Speeches, and Interviews

This file includes the text of a speech that then-HSUS President John Hoyt gave to the California Farm Bureau Federation in 1990, Guither’s notes from an interview with Hoyt, year-end financial statements for 1991 and 1992, HSUS correspondence with Board nominees, and proposed amendments to HSUS’s bylaws.

HSUS Publications

This set includes catalogs of HSUS’s specialty items and audio/visual material, and “Close-Up Reports” for a variety of issues(such as animal research, ivory trade, whaling, and pet overpopulation).

HSUS Catalogs

This document is a collection of HSUS gift catalogs from 1998 and 1999. Products offered by HSUS include boxer shorts with dog prints, a cat floor mat, holiday cards, address labels, Sherpa bags, and dog bowls.

Miscellaneous Files

This set includes writings from former HSUS Vice President Michael W. Fox in the early 1980s, a 1991 article from The Animals’ Agenda magazine titled “HSUS in Hot Water Again,” and reports from HSUS’s North Central Regional Office (which covered Illinois, where Guither lived).

Assorted Oversize Papers

These larger handouts include a copy of a New York Times ad co-signed by HSUS titled “A Joint Resolution,” a separate New York Times ad from Animal Rights International, and an anti-meat handout from the Farm Animal Reform Movement (FARM), which later changed its name to the Farm Animal Rights Movement.

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