The Esther Mechler Papers consists of papers and artifacts documenting Mechler's interest and participation in the animal rights and animal welfare movement. It includes writings by individuals and organizations, as well as published volumes and periodicals. Correspondence about animal or animal rights-related issues and the background work for two of Mechler's animal rights projects are also present, as well as audiovisual materials and memorabilia from various animal rights or animal welfare groups and events.
Esther Mechler has been involved with the animal rights and animal welfare movement since the 1970s. An instrumental figure in several organizations, she was a founding member of both the Fairfield County, Connecticut branch of Friends of the Animals, and the national Animal Rights Network. Mechler worked to create and distribute animal protection related audio-visual materials and has also been particularly active in the area of preventing pet overpopulation. In 1990 she founded Spay/USA, a national referral service for low-cost spay/neutering.
Esther Mechler has been involved with the animal rights/animal welfare movement since the 1970s. An instrumental figure in several organizations, she was a founding member of both the Fairfield County, Connecticut branch of Friends of the Animals, and the national Animal Rights Network. Mechler worked to create and distribute animal protection related audio-visual materials and has also been particularly active in the area of preventing pet overpopulation. In 1990 she founded Spay/USA, a national referral service for low-cost spay/neutering.
Esther Rosenthal Mechler attended Bates College, where she spent her junior year abroad in Geneva studying with psychologist Jean Piaget. She received her Bachelor's Degree in 1964 and her Master's and Sixth Year degrees in education from The University of Rochester. She began her career in education, but has been involved with the animal rights/animal welfare movement since the 1970s. She started the Marian Rosenthal Koch fund with her parents. Named for Mechler's sister, the goal of the fund was to provide money for animal rights projects. Mechler was an instrumental figure in several organizations. Among her distinctions are serving as co-founder of Animal Rights Hawaii in the late 1970s and helping establish Animal Advocates in Massachusetts. A founding member of the Fairfield County, Connecticut branch of Friends of the Animals, she left that group and became a founding member of the Animal Rights Network in 1979. She served as an officer in that organization until her resignation in 1982. In the 1980s, Mechler worked to create newsletters for teachers and filmstrips for students. She started Focus on Animals to create, collect, and disseminate animal protection related audio-visual materials. Since this time, she has also co-produced two animal welfare videos.
Mechler has been particularly active in the prevention of pet overpopulation. In 1990 she founded Spay/USA, a national referral service for low-cost spay/neutering. Originally a program of the Marion Rosenthal Koch Fund, Spay/USA began with one vet. In 1993 the program was transferred to the direction of the North Shore Animal League International. As of 2005, it is considered to be the largest spay/neuter advocacy and referral program in the world, with spay/neuter programs and clinics in 1000 locations nationwide and about 8,000 veterinarians in the network. Mechler also worked to spread her message on an international level. Several international organizations have been started based on her SPAY/USA model, including Spay/Israel, Spay/Costa Rica, and Spay/Panama, as well as various programs in Europe and Asia.
For her work, Mechler won the first Geraldine R. Dodge Award for Humane Ethics in Action in 1995, Outstanding Women of Connecticut in 2003, and the Bates College Alumni Community Service Award in 2014..
The Esther Mechler Papers contains papers, audiovisual materials, and artifacts documenting Mechler's interest and participation in the animal rights movement. The Writings include published volumes, periodical publications, and writings by organizations and individuals on animal rights related topics, as well as article clippings on a variety of subjects. The Correspondence series consists of letters and notes to and from publications, political figures, fellow activists, or friends. The majority are about animal or animal rights-related issues. Two of Mechler's projects, "Animal Rights: The Issues, the Movement" Film Strip and the 1986-1987 Wildlife Calendars, are the subjects of the Projects series. The Audiovisual Materials include photographs, slides, films, and a cassette tape. The Memorabilia series contains an assortment of artifacts from various animal rights/animal welfare groups and events.
The collection includes materials dating from 1974 to 2008, but the bulk of the collection dates from the late 1970s to the late 1990s.
The collection is arranged in five series: Correspondence, Writings, Projects, Audiovisual Materials, and Memorabilia.
The nature of the NC State University Libraries' Special Collections means that copyright or other information about restrictions may be difficult or even impossible to determine despite reasonable efforts. The NC State University Libraries claims only physical ownership of most Special Collections materials.
The materials from our collections are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study, pursuant to U.S. Copyright law. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Any materials used for academic research or otherwise should be fully credited with the source.
This collection may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations. Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which North Carolina State University assumes no responsibility.
[Identification of item], Esther Mechler Papers, MC 00322, Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh, NC
Received in a series of donations from Esther Mechler in June 2002, November 2003, February 2004, and April 2005; June 2011 (Accession 2011.0122)
Processed by Jennifer McElroy, September 2005
Encoded by Jennifer McElroy, October 2005;Updated by Judy Allen Dodson, June 2011; Updated by Babi Hammond, September 2011; addition processed and finding aid updated by Shima Hosseininasab, January 2021.
The collection is organized into five principal series:
This series contains two subseries: one consisting of Esther Mechler's letters to and from a few Major Correspondents and one of her more General Correspondence.
This subseries includes individual letters and notes written to and from Esther Mechler, as well as several in which she is neither correspondent. The majority are about animal-related issues and written to publications, political figures, fellow activists, or friends. This subseries is arranged chronologically with undated letters at the end. The undated letters are further divided between outgoing and incoming correspondence, and then arranged alphabetically.
This subseries contains correspondence written between Esther Mechler and individuals involved in the animal rights movement. This includes letters and notes, as well as clippings, more substantial writings and the drafts of to-be-published works which accompanied them. It is organized alphabetically by sender and then chronologically.
This series is divided into four subseries: Individuals, Organizations, Periodicals, and Clippings.
The Individuals subseries consists of animal-related writings authored by individual people which may or may not have been published. They are arranged alphabetically by the name of the author.
The Organizations subseries contains written materials related to animals, animal protection, or animal rights which were published by or for various organizations. Pamphlets and brochures are included, as well as more substantial writings. They are organized alphabetically by name of the organization.
The Periodicals subseries consists of various periodical magazines and newsletters related to animals and animal rights. Many are the publications of animal rights organizations, but some are more general publications. Accompanying some of the publications are Mechler's handwritten notes about the content. These materials are arranged alphabetically by periodical title and then chronologically within each title category, with notes following the title to which they pertain.
The Clippings subseries includes clipped and copied articles and columns collected by Esther Mechler. They are divided into general subject categories and these larger subjects are then arranged alphabetically. Clippings of articles by or about Mechler are included.
Esther Mechler's two projects represented in the collection are the "Animal Rights: The Issues, the Movement" Film Strip and the 1986-1987 Wildlife Calendars. Each subseries contains background information, correspondence, and drafting related to its respective project, as well as examples of the final product.
This subseries contains papers documenting the process of creating the filmstrip "Animal Rights: The Issues, the Movement." This includes background information, drafts of the script and teacher's guide, correspondence about obtaining slides and reviewing/editing drafts, artwork (including artwork created by the filmstrip's artist not used in this project), financial records, and the final product-a filmstrip with an audio-cassette and teacher's guide-in several different packagings. (Due to space and size constraints, the filmstrip from the third set is has been separated and is located in Box 14.) Also included in this subseries are correspondence and legal paperwork connected to Esther Mechler's copyright dispute with The Animal Rights Network (ARN) about the filmstrip.
This subseries consists of documents concerning the production of Wildlife Calendars for 1986 and 1987. Coordinated by Esther Mechler, this project was a collaborative effort between Esther Mechler's Animal Rights Associates and Luke Dommer's Committee to Abolish Sport Hunting (CASH) in 1986, and an Animal Rights Associates project in 1987. Included are chronologically arranged correspondence, some of which contains drafts of text or artwork, as well as a variety of other materials, including other text and art drafts, contracts, and the final 1986 calendar.
This series consists of a number of audiovisual items related to animals and animal protection. It is arranged according to format. This includes slides grouped in their original order, some of which were used in the production of the filmstrip "Animal Rights: The Issues, the Movement," as well as color photographs. A few of these depict people and events, but the majority portray deer hunting and are accompanied by the protest flyers in which they were originally wrapped. A cassette tape and two 16 mm films are also in this series.
The Memorabilia series includes animal rights-related memorabilia in a variety of forms, including buttons, t-shirts, bumper stickers/labels, artwork, postcards, programs, and posters from various animal rights and animal welfare groups and events. It is arranged according to the items' formats.
This collection is open for research; access requires at least 48 hours advance notice. Because of the nature of certain archival formats, including digital and audio-visual materials, access to digital files may require additional advanced notice.
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[Identification of item], Esther Mechler Papers, MC 00322, Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh, NC
The nature of the NC State University Libraries' Special Collections means that copyright or other information about restrictions may be difficult or even impossible to determine despite reasonable efforts. The NC State University Libraries claims only physical ownership of most Special Collections materials.
The materials from our collections are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study, pursuant to U.S. Copyright law. The user must assume full responsibility for any use of the materials, including but not limited to, infringement of copyright and publication rights of reproduced materials. Any materials used for academic research or otherwise should be fully credited with the source.
This collection may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations. Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which North Carolina State University assumes no responsibility.