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Archives & Manuscripts

Esther B. Rhoads papers

 Collection
Identifier: HC.MC-1153
The papers includes Esther Rhoads’ correspondence, documents, typescripts and manuscripts, pamphlets, albums, periodicals, blueprints, works of art on paper, photographs, notebooks, notes, scrapbooks, calligraphy, clippings, yearbooks, business cards, passports, diplomas, citations and miscellaneous items.

Some correspondents include: Kazuko Abe, Iwao Ayusawa, Gurney Binford, Hugh Borton, Gilbert Bowles, Minnie Pickett Bowles, Howard Brinton, Chichibu no Miya Setsuko (Princess), Janice Clevenger, Clarissa Cooper, J. Passmore Elkinton, Herbert Hadley, Anna C. Hartshorne, Seiju Hirakawa, Hirohito (Emperor of Japan), Hatsuko Ikeda, Masaharu Inagaki, Yukio Irie, Elmore Jackson, Thomas Elsa Jones, Michi Kawai, Ichiro Koizumi, Douglas MacArthur, Fumiye Miho, Lawrence McK. Miller, Nagako (Empress, consort of Hirohito), Herbert V. Nicholson, Inazo Nitobe, Mariko Nittono, Lucille Nixon, Alice Lewis Pearson, Caroline Paxson Rhoads, Edward G. Rhoads, Jonathan E. Rhoads, Margaret Paxson Rhoads, Margaret Whitall Rhoads, Ruth Ely Rhoads, Eleanor Roosevelt, Edith Sharpless, Orie Shimazaki, Harry Silcock, Jane Rittenhouse Smiley, Edward Wanton Smith, Sarah A.G. Smith, Hon Ham Sok, Sarah C. Swan, Mitsuo Tanaka, Toki Iwasawa Tomiyama, Masa Uraguchi, Elizabeth Gray Vining, Yoshi Watanabe, E. Raymond Wilson, Yoshi no Miya Masahito (Prince).

Dates

  • circa 1895-1979

Extent

31 Linear Feet (60 boxes and 1 album)

Additional Description

Overview

The Esther B. Rhoads Papers includes Esther Rhoads' correspondence, documents, typescripts and manuscripts, pamphlets, albums, periodicals, blueprints, works of art on paper, photographs, notebooks, notes, scrapbooks, calligraphy, clippings, yearbooks, business cards, passports, diplomas, citations, and miscellaneous items.

Biographical / Historical

Esther Biddle Rhoads (1896-1979), a birthright Quaker, was born in Philadelphia the daughter of Margaret Paxson Rhoads and Edward G. Rhoads, M.D. She grew up in a home environment of religious commitment, and surrounded by the kind of far-reaching, intertwined kinship network. She was one of four children in what she once described as a "happy, active" household. Her siblings were an older sister, Ruth Ely Rhoads; a younger sister, Caroline Paxson Rhoads; and a younger brother, Jonathan Evans Rhoads (who became a prominent Philadelphia physician and educator). Although the family made their home in Germantown, they also owned a farm called Maple Grove, outside of New Hope in Bucks County, PA. Maple Grove had been in the Paxson family for generations; for Margaret and Edward Rhoads, their children, and many of their relatives, it was a retreat for weekends, holidays, summers. Jonathan E. Rhoads, her paternal grandfather, was a Friends minister who visited Japan in1892. Margaret P. Rhoads was a member of the Women's Foreign Missionary Association of Friends of Philadelphia; as a child, Esther sometimes helped to make Christmas boxes for Friends Girls School in Tokyo. Edward G. Rhoads, in addition to being a physician, was an influential Friend and minister of Germantown Monthly Meeting. He, too, was strongly interested in missionary and peace work.

Arrangement

The two major divisions of the collection are correspondence and other papers. The noncorrespondence items are arranged in thirteen series.

Other Finding Aids

Box and Folder Listing and More Information

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Caroline P. Rhoads and Jonathan Rhoads, 1989.

Related Materials

Footprints of a Quaker--Esther Biddle Rhoads, a copy of which may be found among the Quaker Collection books. (Japanese)

Subjects

Administrative Information

Title
Esther B. Rhoads papers, 1895-1979
Description rules
dacs

Find It at the Library

Find It at the Library

Most of the materials in this catalog are not digitized and can only be accessed in person. Please see our website for more information about visiting Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections Library

http://library.haverford.edu/places/special-collections/
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Haverford PA 19041 USA US

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