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This first series is further divided into two sub-series: (1) autobiographical and biographical; and (2) family correspondence.

Fully one-seventh of the Link Papers are composed of a highly eclectic professional correspondence with many significant academicians and social activists from the political left. Sensitive to the abuses of capitalism, tempered by the Great Depression and New Deal politics of Franklin Roosevelt, Link and his associates were firmly committed to social and economic justice for all, absolute free speech, and religious tolerance in a pluralistic society. Link's professional correspondents include: Herbert Aptheker (long time director of the American Institute of Marxist Studies); Lee Ball (director of the Methodist Federation of Social Action, 1960-73); Cyril Bibby (noted British scholar on the Huxley family and Principal of Kingston upon Hull College of Education, 1959-76); Merle Curti (professor and professor emeritus of American history at the University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1947-1996) (approximately 200 letters); Buell Gallagher (professor of Christian ethics, champion of academic freedom and civil rights, and president of the City College of New York, 1952-69); Arnold Johnson (national legislative director of the Communist Party, U.S.A. for nearly forty years); and Corliss Lamont (noted political, philosophical, and economic critic of capitalism).

Link first joined the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) in 1935 while he was teaching history at Mt. Hermon School for Boys in Northfield, Massachusetts. At that time, Link's principal concern was to resist the signing of a teachers' oath and Governor [of Massachusetts] James M. Curley's attacks on the freedom of speech and the academic exchange of ideas. Link became a founding member of the United University Professions (UUP) and attempted to establish teachers unions wherever he taught in the 1930s-1950s (South Carolina, New Jersey, and Colorado). Link's work in the AFT and UUP is illustrated by this series (although only since the year 1966). Especially noted is his role as Vice President of the State University Federation of Teachers in the early 1970s; his leadership in the area of Membership Development for the UUP (even after retirement from active teaching in 1977, Link travelled around the country helping to organize higher education unions on seven other campuses while offering advice to organizers on countless others); his inspiration in the creation of the Council of Active Retired Members (CO-ARM); and his support of union activities in many fields throughout the world.

Despite his multifold interests, Link was first and foremost a teacher of social history. His long teaching career, which spanned nearly five decades, is illuminated by two subseries dealing with institutional correspondence and lecture notes.

This series is divided into four subseries: (1) articles (organized by decade); (2) published manuscripts; (3) unpublished manuscripts; and (4) correspondence.

In this series are publications (mostly journal articles) of interest to Link that were produced by other authors. In a certain sense, they can be categorized as specific and non-specific (although they are not divided into actual subseries).

This is one of the most voluminous and significant series in the Link Papers. Harry F. Ward (1873-1966) was an ordained minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church; professor of Christian ethics at Union Theological Seminary from 1918-41 (and emeritus after 1941 until his death in 1966); a founder of the Methodist Federation of Social Service in 1907; and chair of the American Civil Liberties Union from 1920-40. Deeply influenced by the Social Gospel of Washington Gladden and Walter Rauschenbusch, Ward, in turn, impressed the credo of social justice upon hundreds of his student ministers at Union Theological Seminary. Link was one of these students. After serving as Ward's graduate student assistant in the early 1930s, Link followed his theological mentor in the direction of extreme social activism. The large series of Ward materials acquired by Link throughout most of his adult life is testimony to the substantial impact that Ward had upon a more youthful Link.

Organized by Harry F. Ward in 1952 at the suggestion of Methodist pastor, Lee Ball (who was largely reacting to the McCarthyism of the times), the RFC had a national membership of lay people and clergy pledged to work to maintain free exercise of religion as granted by the Bill of Rights. The national executive committee of the RFC consisted of thirty-five and an administrative committee of seventeen consisted of Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish members who were both black and white. The steering committee which was the true energizing force of the RFC included Ward, Ball, Richard Morford (long-time director of the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship), and William Howard Melish, an Episcopal priest. The lawyer of the group was Royal France, whose wife, Ruth, was an active admirer of Ward.

This series contains two items that, because of size and subject, do not fit easily into any of the other series. The two items are a religious instructional book given to the Link family in 1944 by Clarence V. Hourell and the 1979 plaque awarded to Link by the International Who's Who of Education.