NEWARK — For more than 50 years, the pro-life movement has been active in Delaware. Over the course of that time, the leaders of that community have collected boxes of material about the issue in the First State. Now, those resources are available to the public for research and education.
Delaware Right to Life and the Delaware Pro-Life Coalition held a reception Oct. 26 at Morris Library at the University of Delaware to introduce a new archival collection that now has a permanent home in the library’s special collections department. Pro-life leaders are hopeful that this will draw interest from members of the university community and the public eager to learn about the work that has been done for the past half century.
Bess McAneny, active in the pro-life movement for many of those years and former leader of the Delaware Pro-Life Coalition, had been holding on to much of this material at various locations before Oblate of St. Francis de Sales Father Tim McIntire, the former pastor of St. Thomas More Oratory near the campus, suggested she contact officials at Morris Library. Many of the books McAneny had collected were being stored at the oratory.
McAneny contacted the library about a year and a half ago, beginning the process that resulted in the October event.
“They were looking for more diversity in the library,” she said. “I told them, ‘If you want more diversity, abortion is the most diverse topic that we talk about.’ It was their first encounter with something like this, and fortunately they were open-minded.”
Hillary Kativa, the head of special collections at Morris Library, said there are pro-life archives in other university libraries, including the University of Michigan. The University of Delaware, she said, is always looking to add to its special collections.
The process usually begins with someone contacting the library. Library staff researches how the materials would assist the research and teaching functions of the university, and they examine the current collections and assess their interest.
“We collect a lot in the area of Delaware history, especially related to social issues and public policy, so this collection is a nice complement to that,” Kativa said.
“It’s an interesting mix of historical materials.”
McAneny said the collection “started with Dee Becker. She originally asked me, when she was moving, she asked me to take all her files and her books and her manuscripts. It was overwhelming. I had trailers full coming to my basement.”
Becker, who died in 2020, was the founder of Delaware Right to Life and a vice president for the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C.
The Diocese of Wilmington allowed McAneny to store some items in a house on North Broom Street that once served as the headquarters for the Catholic Youth Organization, she said. When that building was sold, the material was moved to a building on the campus of Holy Spirit Church in New Castle, but that was not accessible to the public. Some of it went to St. Thomas More Oratory and a lot to McAneny’s basement.
She hopes that educators and students “will continue their quest for truth in this whole discussion. And they’re not really going to find it online. They have to go back to the original notes.
“Little by little, you put all the pieces together and you get that respect for life. You’ve got to hear it. You’ve got to digest it.”
Moira Sheridan, the president of Delaware Right to Life, said it is important to have an organization like the University of Delaware library staff organize and make public accessible all of the information that has been submitted.
“It’s something that needs to be out there and accessible … in a public library in a university setting,” Sheridan said. “It provides a perspective. If they have a question, they can come and research it.”
According to the “finding aid” created by the special collections department at the University of Delaware, the collection includes information about Delaware’s pro-life leaders and organizations; legislation; study guides, conferences, reports and speeches; miscellaneous brochures; pro-life convention brochures; March for Life Fund annual reports; and various media, such as audio cassettes, compact discs, DVDs and VHS tapes. The information will be digitized and made available online in the future.
Kativa said the exhibit is open to the public. The special collections department is on the second floor of the library. No appointment is necessary, although anyone who comes in will be asked to fill out a registration card.
One of those who came by the opening reception was Teresa LoPorto, a parishioner at St. Mary of the Assumption in Hockessin. She said she appreciates that she will be able to visit Morris Library to do research for proposed legislation, for example with the help of the librarians. Otherwise, she said, she wouldn’t know where to look.
“There’s so much about the pro-life movement that I don’t know,” she said. “There’s 50 years’ worth of history.”
All photos by Mike Lang.
