Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1945-1959 (Creation)
Level of description
Item
Extent and medium
1 volume ; 29 cm
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Journalist, editor and political activist Jennie Scott Griffiths was born on 30 October 1975 in the United States of America. Raised in Texas, she developed an early interest in law and radical thought, and first worked as a court reporter before travelling to Fiji where she married newspaper proprietor Arthur Griffiths and edited the Fiji Times. After moving to Sydney in 1913, she became vocal advocate for anti-conscription, women's rights and socialism. She performed editorial duties at the Australian Women's Weekly until she was dismissed for opposing conscription in 1916. She was active in the Labor Party, Women's Peace Army, and various other social organisations. By 1917, Griffiths had embraced revolutionary politics, supporting the general strike in New South Wales and later moving to Queensland, where she led protests, campaigned for imprisoned radicals, and played an important role in the 1919 Red Flag Riots. In 1920, disillusioned with the paling revolutionary movement, she returned to the United States where she remained politically active, contributing to the Industrial Workers of the World and the National Women's Party. She died on 29 June 1951 in San Francisco, survived by her husband, six sons and three daughters.
Repository
Archival history
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Bound duplicated scrapbook containing papers relating to Jennie Scott Griffiths. The papers comprise typescript poetry, newspaper cuttings of her poems and articles about Scott Griffiths, and correspondence either sent or received by her. Correspondents include the Australian Journalists' Association, Workers' Educational Association of New South Wales, Leon Herbert Spencer Brodzky (Spencer Brodney), and the Central Women's Organising Committee of the Australian Labor Party. Most of the cuttings of poetry are attributed to 'Jennie Wilson', a pen name. Also includes several pages of biographical information about Scott Griffiths by an unknown author, possibly her son. The date range in the title of the scrapbook is possibly a reference to when the works were written and/or published.
The poems, 68 in total, include: 'Fidelis'; 'I ask you'; 'Treasure'; 'The talisman'; 'Liberty'; 'Victory'; 'Toward the light'; 'The woman'; 'Resurgent'; 'Conflict'; 'Fame'; 'Vignette'; 'I have lived'; 'Completion'; 'A tropical island'; 'Sa Vucisa (I'm lazy)'; 'We are the mummers'; 'Luck'; 'Give me the road'; 'One asks for naught'; 'No Christian nations'; 'I should be glad'; 'Modern romance'; 'Fragments'; 'A Tukelau [Tokelau] burial chant'; 'The open gate'; 'Old George'; 'Law'; 'The boat'; 'The flag'; 'Palm trees'; 'I am my own'; 'An idyl'; 'It is not death I fear'; 'The woman speaks'; 'Why shouldn't you die?'; 'Less than'; 'To an enlisted son'; 'Remembering'; 'Meat'; 'Cycle'; 'I hold you bound'; 'Then'; 'Sanctuary'; 'Past'; 'To his wife - to his mistress'; 'Mental'; 'Whence and whither'; 'You are as free'; 'Men are marching'; 'Saved'; 'When pigeons fly at evening time'; 'No questions asked'; 'The messengers'; 'The friend'; 'A birthday wish'; 'The altar'; 'Courage'; 'The war-makers'; 'When I am dead'; 'Regret'; 'Courage' (2); 'My house'; 'Gulls'; 'Fate'; 'Pago Pago'; 'For I am dead'; and 'To a vanished tree'.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Unrestricted access.
Conditions governing reproduction
Out of copyright. Able to be reproduced without permission. Please attribute the Fryer Library.
Language of material
- English
Script of material
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Very poor photocopies.
Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Publication note
Material from this collection has been cited in:
Kirkby, David. 'Neither 'militarism' nor 'patriotic motherhood': Gender, law and citizenship in a nation at war, Australia 1914-18'. Law & History, Vol. 2, 2015: 177-201.
Publication note
The Australian women's register, AWH003702
Notes area
Alternative identifier(s)
Alma MMS ID
Millennium Local System Number
OCLC Number
Libraries Australia ID
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
- Griffiths, Jennie Scott, 1875-1951 (Subject)
Genre access points
Description control area
Description identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Status
Revised
Level of detail
Dates of creation revision deletion
Revised, Kymberley Doyle, 12-Feb-2025.
Revised, AM, 01-Jun-2020.
Migrated from LMS: April 2019, P.A.