The Van Sickle Leftist Pamphlet Collection, 1900-1993 contributes to PRISM: Political & Rights Issues & Social Movements, a collaborative digitization project of the libraries and special collections departments of Florida Atlantic University (FAU), and the University of Central Florida (UCF), is composed of materials focusing on a wide range of political and rights issues and social movements which provide insight into the prevailing leftist and liberal views of the times from countries all around the world; from the United States to Korea and India to Canada.
UCF's contributions focus on a collection of political pamphlets on socialism and communism collected by Miss Van Sickle, a staunch Canadian Socialist from the 1920s through the 1970s. Topics covered in the pamphlets include liberal or leftist causes from the time period collected such as: world pacifism, anti-racism, anti-Semitism, British and world labor movements, communism, socialism, women's rights, and the "ban-the-bomb" movement. Many of the items in the collection are extremely rare, and possibly unique to the UCF collection. Over 2,000 pamphlets have been catalogued and can be searched using the library's online catalog. Another 150 pamphlets are uncatalogued and can be searched using the Uncataloged Van Sickle Pamphlets Guide.
The PRISM: Political & Rights Issues & Social Movements contains materials, graphics and artifacts that may be offensive and disturbing. Librarians and archivists strive to preserve this history in a sensitive manner, providing historical context and updating biased terms in metadata description. The University of Central Florida Libraries recognizes the description of digital and archival materials is an iterative and imperfect process and will continue to consult the misrepresented and underrepresented communities for updated language.
