Refocusing Family Planning: Selections from the Abraham Stone and Alan Guttmacher Papers

Abraham Stone and Alan Guttmacher were instrumental in the development and growth of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America from the 1950s through the early 1970s. Both were responsible for shifting the focus of the organization to include fertility services, marriage counseling, and the prevention of global overpopulation by collaboration with international colleagues while continuing to provide birth control and family planning education in the United States. Stone’s collaboration with Margaret Sanger, particularly on global overpopulation prevention during the 1950s, was continued by Guttmacher in the 1960s and 1970s in his travels promoting family planning and his efforts to foster a tighter bond between the Planned Parenthood Federation of America and the International Planned Parenthood Federation.

This exhibition chronicles the work of Abraham Stone and Alan Guttmacher in their roles as Director of the Margaret Sanger Research Bureau and as the President of Planned Parenthood-World Population, the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, respectively.