History of the Wilhelm Reich Archives
Before his imprisonment in 1957, Wilhelm Reich had stored his archives in two locations within the building known as the Orgone Energy Observatory:
- In a photographic dark-room on the first floor
- In a large closet off of his study and library on the second floor
In his will, Reich says of the archives:
“…I hereby direct that under no circumstances and under no pretext whatsoever shall any of the documents, manuscripts or diaries found in my library among the archives, or anywhere else, be altered, omitted, destroyed, added to, or falsified in any other imaginable way. … These documents are of crucial importance to the future of newborn generations. I therefore direct my Trustee and his successors that nothing whatsoever must be changed in any of the documents and that they should be put away and stored for 50 years to secure their safety from destruction and falsification by anyone interested in the falsification and destruction of historical truth.”
Unfortunately, when Mary Higgins, the newly appointed Trustee, entered the abandoned Orgone Energy Observatory in early 1959, Wilhelm Reich’s archives were gone: removed illegally the previous year by Aurora Karrer, the last woman in Reich’s life, who had transported the materials hundreds of miles away to the house that she shared with her mother in Bethesda, Maryland.
Mary Higgins traveled to Bethesda, Maryland, and during several uncomfortable, face-to-face meetings, Ms. Karrer repeatedly denied that she had these archival materials. Only when Mary Higgins took legal action against her did Ms. Karrer and her attorney produce many suitcases filled with these materials, which the Court subsequently turned over to the Trust.
But many archival materials were still missing, and the Trust’s legal efforts to retrieve additional materials from Ms. Karrer would stretch across over four decades.
For years after Mary Higgins had legally retrieved the bulk of Reich’s Archives from Aurora Karrer, she kept these materials at her home in Forest Hills, New York, where she lived until 2001. During this time, she visited several institutions looking for a permanent, safe and secure repository for the archives, including the Library of Congress and several university libraries.
Enter Roger Straus of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, the publishers who Mary had been working with to bring Reich’s writings back into print. Straus brought the Trust to the attention of the Countway Library of Medicine at Harvard University, one of the world’s premier medical libraries. Straus knew a man named Richard Wolfe, the Chief Librarian of the “Rare Books and Special Collections” department at the Countway. Mr. Wolfe felt that Reich’s legacy was an important one and that these archives would be a welcome addition to the library’s other collections.
Consequently, in October 1973 an agreement was made between the Trust and the Countway whereby Reich’s archival materials would be periodically transferred to the Countway Library over the years, to be stored in their Rare Books and Special Collections, with the Trust retaining all copyright and publishing rights, and control of access. This last stipulation, though unusual, was crucial, since Reich’s will directed that the archives should be kept under seal for 50 years after his death.
Over her decades of service as Trustee, Mary Higgins did allow for the publication of a limited amount of previously unpublished material from the archives in the journal the Trust created, Orgonomic Functionalism, and also edited four volumes of material from Wilhelm Reich’s personal diaries which were published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Since November of 2007–50 years after Reich’s death–the Reich archives have been accessible to scholars and researchers, subject to access policies outlined below. Until recently, the archives were stored and access provided at the Countway Library of Harvard University, in the section which had been renamed as “The Center for the History of Medicine.”
A new agreement between the Wilhelm Reich Museum and the Countway Library went into effect in September of 2021, whereby the museum regained physical control of the archives.
Access Policies and Procedures for the Wilhelm Reich Archives
Access Policies
- Like many scholarly archives, the Wilhelm Reich Archives are not open to the general public. To ensure, to the best of our ability, high standards of intellectual honesty and professional integrity among those accessing Reich’s Archives, and to better maintain the physical integrity of the archival materials, the Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust has opted for relatively restrictive access policies.
- Scholars and researchers who wish to access the Archives should apply to the Trust’s 3-person Archive Committee by following the Access Procedures listed below.
- Applicants will be expected to have demonstrated intellectual honesty and integrity in their scholarship and research regarding Reich. Today, more than 60 years after Reich’s death, the claim is often repeated that he promoted the orgone accumulator as a cure for cancer or as a sexual device for achieving orgastic potency, despite Reich’s published statements to the contrary. Those who continue to disseminate these and other falsehoods are either intellectually dishonest or intellectually lazy, two qualities that have always undermined truth and genuine knowledge.
- Copyright title and publishing rights to all materials in the Wilhelm Reich Archives are held by The Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust. Permission to publish must be received from the Trust prior to the publication of any archival materials.
- If your request is approved, fees for accessing archival materials will be determined on a case by case basis and stated in advance. Fees will depend on the quantity of materials requested for retrieval, the amount of time spent at our facility in Rangeley accessing materials and/or the quantity of material that must be digitized for remote access. If your request involves a great deal of digitization, there may be a significant delay in making those materials available.
Access Procedures
Applications for access to the Wilhelm Reich Archives should be submitted to The Wilhelm Reich Infant Trust electronically by emailing info@wilhelmreichmuseum.org.
Applications should include the following information:
- CURRICULUM VITAE, including:
- Education
- Professional / Employment history
- Professional affiliations
- A list of all Reich-related published work (both print and online) that you have contributed to in any way. Include copies of any print publications if they are not available online.
- A list of other published work (print or online) that you feel best represents your research and scholarship experience. Include samples of this work if they are not available online.
- YOUR RESEARCH PROJECT
- A description of your project and its aims, including footnotes of primary materials you are currently using or have consulted in the past. Please make it clear in your footnotes, by citing relevant page numbers and not merely the titles of entire works, that you are fully conversant with currently-available published primary sources. The more specific you can be, the better.
- Describe how you think (or hope) your research and your project contributes to further understanding of Reich’s life and legacy.
- ARCHIVAL MATERIALS OF INTEREST
- From the online INDEX OF THE WILHELM REICH ARCHIVES (see below) identify specific materials you wish to study by citing each of the following:
Category
Box Number
File Name
If later you wish to work with other materials than first requested, this will require a separate application. - Describe the significance of these archival materials to your research and project.
- From the online INDEX OF THE WILHELM REICH ARCHIVES (see below) identify specific materials you wish to study by citing each of the following:
- SCHEDULE
- Describe the time frame of your project and your requested schedule for accessing archival materials. It may be possible for some materials to be provided remotely in the form of digital files, otherwise, access will take place in Rangeley, Maine.
