Marilyn Fedelchak (later Marilyn Fedelchak-Harley) was a family farmer (1976-1981) in Churdan, Iowa, with her husband George Naylor. Fedelchak-Harley was involved in many movements to improve conditions for small-towns and family farms. She also served as a representative for the Iowa Farmers Association, trying to find solutions for the debt that family-farmers were accruing in the Midwest and promoting legislation that favored farmers over non-farmers. This collection includes publications such as news clippings, magazine articles, brochures, papers written by Marilyn Fedelchak-Harley, artifacts and audio-visual material. Most of the material relates to Fedelchak-Harley's interest in rural and small farmer activism, family farms, American agriculture, agricultural legislation, African-American farmers, and rural conservation.

Marilyn Fedelchak (later Marilyn Fedelchak-Harley) was a family farmer (1976-1981) in Churdan, Iowa, with her husband George Naylor. They did not own their farm, but instead were sharecroppers on land provided by an older generation of the Naylor family. Fedelchak-Harley was involved in many movements to improve conditions for small-towns and family farms. She also served as a representative for the Iowa Farmers Association, trying to find solutions for the debt that family-farmers were accruing in the Midwest and promoting legislation that favored farmers over non-farmers. She used her connections to promote her farm work by organizing protests and symposiums. After being a self-employed farmer, Fedelchak-Harley worked for the National Family Farm Coalition, National Archives and Record Service, Rural America, National Trust for Historic Preservation, Rainbow Ranch Lodge, Woodreams, Oberlin Historical Improvement Organization, and the Lorain County Historical Society.

This collection (1937-1991, undated) includes publications such as news clippings, magazine articles, brochures, papers and publications written by Marilyn Fedelchak-Harley, artifacts, and audio-visual materials. Most of the material relates to Fedelchak-Harley's interest in rural and small farmer activism, family farms, American agriculture, agricultural legislation, African-American farmers, and rural conservation.

A few of the papers within the collection were written during college, but most were written when she was a farmer and farm activist. In addition, copies of magazines that Fedelchak-Harley contributed to or is mentioned in can be found in this collection (including Groundswell). There are also publications referenced by Fedelchak-Harley such as bibliographies, papers, clippings, and an alphabetized collection of handwritten note cards that contain sources Fedelchak-Harley used in her writing. Fedelchak-Harley also wrote articles for Rural America, a newspaper concerned with farming ventures in middle America. Four issues of this newspaper, as well as individual articles that Fedelchak-Harley wrote, are included.

The collection also contains a number of artifacts, including a visor that bears the logo of the 1980 Black Hills Survival Gathering in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The Gathering was an international conservation awareness event.

Also included in this collection are various audiovisual materials such as slides, audiocassette tapes, and two VHS tapes. The slides are from Rural Conservation: Preservation in a Living Landscape which is a 17-minute presentation on conservation by the National Trust for Historic Preservation; two cassette tapes and a brochure for the presentation are also included. One of the VHS tapes was also released by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and is a recording of the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour in Washington, D.C. on September 25, 1989. The second VHS tape is titled Adventures of a Radical Hillbilly: Bill Moyers interviews Myles Horton. Most of the cassette tapes contain various interviews and debates as well as press releases about the rural farm movement.

Fedelchak-Harley is interviewed in the book What Can we Do?: A Food, Land, Hunger Action Guide (HD1765 1980 W47).

The collection is organized chronologically with biographical information at the front.