The Peace Resource Center (PRC) at Wilmington College creates a vital connection between the campus community and efforts toward non-violence, social justice, and global peace.
The PRC was founded in 1975 by the Quaker peace activist Barbara Reynolds (1915-1990) who worked ceaselessly toward creating a world free of nuclear weaponry and war and to helping atomic bombing survivors share their stories of the tragedy of military conflict. In the late 1950s, Barbara and her husband Earle became icons of the global peace and antinuclear movement after sailing their yacht the Phoenix into a US nuclear test site next to the Bikini Islands in the Pacific Ocean.
Currently, the PRC develops events and programming that encourages dialogue on the Wilmington College campus about how to resolve conflict from the personal to the global level. The PRC assists faculty and students in creating student-led projects, internships, and local/global collaborations so that Wilmington College and its local region can become an even greater part of a global community of peace.
In addition, the PRC is the home of the unique archive, “The Barbara Reynolds Memorial Archives,” with its vast collection of materials related to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the Cold War U.S.-Japan Nuclear DisarmamentMovement. Scholars from across the globe and throughout the United States have visited the PRC to utilize these valuable resources.
The Peace Resource Center’s non-violence, social justice, and global peace programming, as well as a priceless archive and collection of historical documents, makes it a unique “Hands On” space that promotes and affirms peace as a core value of the Wilmington College mission.
Funds Donated to PRC in Support of Students and Mission
A scholar in Japanese history gave the Peace Resource Center at Wilmington College a $55,000 gift earmarked for financially supporting an archivist and programming associated with the PRC’s upcoming 50th anniversary in 2025.
Visit The PRC
Hours
Monday through Friday | 10 a.m. to 4 p.m or by appointment by contacting prc@wilmington.edu
Location
51 College Street (Wilmington College) Wilmington, Ohio
Reflecting Upon 75 Years of Nuclear Weapons
In commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, August 6 and 9, 1945, the Peace Resource Center live-streamed a 12-hour vigil. The vigil was recorded in four parts, which you can view below:
The Response Project
October 1-2, 2020
In commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, August 6 and 9, 1945, the Peace Resource Center is partnering with Wilmington College Assistant Professor of Music and Concert Pianist, Brianna Matzke in the latest of her “Response Project” series throughout the spring, summer, and fall of 2020. The brainchild of Matzke, the “Response Project” will ask artists representing genres ranging from music and two-dimensional art to filmmaking and poetry to respond to something they experience while visiting the Peace Resource Center’s (PRC) Barbara Reynolds Memorial Archives, with its unique focus on the human experience of the atomic bombings and the legacy of nuclear war. It could be a photograph they see, a document they read, an audio recording they hear or even an overarching theme they sense as they encounter the collection. The works created will be performed and exhibited in conjunction with the 30th Annual Westheimer Peace Symposium, October 1-2, 2020. The 2020 Westheimer Peace Symposium will focus on “Peace and the Nature of War” through the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and 75 subsequent years of the nuclear threat.
PICTURED: Virginia-based poet, Jody Rambo reads atomic-bombing survivor accounts, looking for something that might inspire a new way to commemorate their experiences through a new work of poetry.
Peace Resource Center Secures NEH Grant for Collection Preservation
Funds Will Allow Purchase of Environmental Monitoring Equipment, Shelving
The National Endowment for the Humanities awarded the Peace Resource Center at Wilmington College nearly $10,000 to be used for preserving its unique collection of 40,000 materials relating to the atomic bombings during World War II.
PICTURED: Dr. Tanya Maus, director of the Peace Resource Center and Quaker Heritage Center, displays one of the PRC’s resources that will be protected from deterioration with the new equipment. It’s a book about a Japanese doctor who conducted relief work in the wake of the atomic bombings.
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