What do Emma Goldman, Djuna Barnes, and the Provincetown Players have in common?

Provincetown Players playbill

Provincetown Players. The Seventh Bill (second Review Bill) April 25 … New York.

They were all represented by Harry Weinberger, a native New Yorker and lawyer who was admitted to the bar in 1908. A staunch believer in civil liberties, Weinberger defended many aliens, immigrants, labor activists, anarchists, and other radicals, including Emma Goldman. He also developed an expertise in copyright law and represented several writers and artists, including Djuna Barnes and the Provincetown Players.

Weinberger’s papers, held in Manuscripts and Archives, document 116 cases. The files include correspondence with clients, legal briefs, and writ prepared by Weinberger and his staff, as well as other material relevant to the cases. Among the gems in the collection are Weinberger’s voluminous files on the Goldman and Berkman cases, which include correspondence and copies of The Blast, an anarchist newspaper, and files on compulsory vaccination, which Weinberger opposed.  The papers are a treasure for those studying radical New York in the inter-war years as well as civil liberty in the US.

The Guide to the Harry Weinberger Papers is now available online at http://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/mssa.ms.0553 .

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