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SFHL/FHL/RG5. Family and Personal Papers

 Record Group Term
Identifier: SFHL/FHL/RG5
The largest category of collections in Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College is that of Personal and Family Papers. These materials include correspondence, journals and diaries, and property records of Quaker individuals and family groups they date from the mid 17th century to the present.

Found in 32 Collections and/or Records:

Anna S. Palmer Collected Papers

 Collection
Identifier: SFHL-RG5-304
Overview

Family and Quaker papers collected by Anna S. Palmer (1881-1973), a member of Falls Monthly Meeting. Included is a manuscript volume containing copies of letters, genealogical information, and memorials concerning John Simpson (1739-1811), Quaker minister; collected postcards of Quaker meeting houses; and other miscellaneous Quaker manuscripts.

Dates: circa 1840-1910
Found in: Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College

Purdy Family Papers

 Collection
Identifier: SFHL-RG5-243
Overview The collection contains account books, financial papers, family correspondence, and miscellaneous papers of William Purdy, a New York Quaker preacher, and his family. He was a member of Amawalk Monthly Meeting, attending Croton preparative and worship meetings, and traveled in the ministry, leaving an undated record of the Friends and meetings that he visited. Purdy was donated money, land, and labor towards building a new bridge and school house in Cortlandt. Collection also includes...
Dates: 1801-2004
Found in: Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College

Richardson-Yarnall family papers

 Collection
Identifier: SFHL-RG5-187
Overview The collection contains personal papers, primarily correspondence, of members of the Richardson and Yarnall families, Pennsylvania Quakers who emigrated to America in the 1680s. The families were united by the marriage in 1816 of Nathaniel Richardson and Hannah Yarnall of Byberry. Of special significance are the diaries of Quaker ministers Peter Yarnall (1754-1798) and his second wife, Hannah Haines Thornton Yarnall (1765-1822) and their correspondence with family and fellow ministers. ...
Dates: 1722 - 1962
Found in: Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College

Sharpless-Reeve family papers

 Collection
Identifier: SFHL-RG5-325
Overview The collected papers of the Sharpless and Reeve family of New Jersey and Philadelphia. Much of the correspondence is between Edward Sharpless (1831-1894), a New Jersey Quaker minister, and his sister, Anna N. Sharpless, who married John Newbold Reeve in 1857. Their daughter, Mary Offley Reeve, worked as a school teacher when young and became involved in temperance and evangelical Christianity. She shared these interests, reflected in diaries and other writings, with Annie Way Smith, a...
Dates: 1852 - 1957
Found in: Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College

Smedley Family Papers

 Collection
Identifier: SFHL-RG5-319
Overview The collection contains correspondence, journals and other writings, business and legal papers, and miscellaneous items of the Smedley family, a large and prominent Quaker family of Penncrest Farm, Middletown Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania. The family was related to the Kite and Sharples/Sharpless families of Chester and Delaware Counties. The papers include significant correspondence of the Kite family, especially Thomas Kite (1785-1845) and Mary Kite (1792-1861), both prominent...
Dates: 1751 - 1996; Majority of material found within 1821 - 1950
Found in: Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College

Charles and Priscilla Townsend Family Papers

 Collection
Identifier: SFHL-RG5-350
Overview

Members of the Charles and Priscilla Townsend family were active in the Society of Friends in Philadelphia and in Quaker concerns, especially penal reform, abolition, and the natural sciences. The collection includes journals, correspondence, and writings in addition to transcripts and reference material on family members. Much of the material is available in published form.

Dates: Majority of material found within 1811 - 1858; 1793-2020
Found in: Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College

Travilla-Speakman Family Papers

 Collection
Identifier: SFHL-RG5-352
Overview The collection is composed largely of correspondence and related papers of Anna Travilla Speakman and her husband William Williams Speakman, Quakers of Swarthmore and Buck Hill Falls, Pennsylvania. Also represented is Anna's mother, Martha Newport Travilla, a Quaker minister who corresponded regularly with Samuel Willets. The Speakmans had a wide circle of friends in the extended Quaker community, particularly in Swarthmore College. The collection contains family photographs, some...
Dates: ca 1850-1950
Found in: Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College

Alson D. Van Wagner New York Yearly Meeting Papers

 Collection — Othertype RG5-274
Identifier: SFHL-RG5-274
Overview

Contains research, drafts and correspondence collected by Alson D. Van Wagner concerning two New York Yearly Meeting publications, Quaker Crosscurrents: Three Hundred Years of Friends in the New York Yearly Meeting, published in 1995, and New York Yearly Meeting Directory 1993. Of particular interest is the research done on identifying New York Yearly Meeting women ministers.

Dates: 1992 - 1994
Found in: Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College

Samuel Walton Family Papers

 Collection
Identifier: SFHL-RG5-254
Overview The Waltons were prominent Quakers in Philadelphia, Pa., and Belmont County, Ohio. Joseph Walton (1817-1898) taught at Westtown School, edited the Quaker periodical, The Friend, and served as Clerk of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (Orthodox). His brother, Samuel Walton (1827-1899), moved to Ohio in 1847 and in 1854 married Sarah James Edgerton at Stillwater Monthly Meeting, the center of Wilburite Quakerism in Ohio. The family was deeply involved in matters relating to the Society of Friends....
Dates: 1813-1890
Found in: Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College

George H. and Elizabeth G. Watson Papers

 Collection
Identifier: SFHL-RG5-268
Overview

Elizabeth Grill Watson was a Quaker minister, feminist theologian, Bible scholar, and writer. George H. Watson was a Quaker educator and President Emeritus of Friends World College. The collection primarily documents their ministries focused on social justice.

Dates: 1970-1999
Found in: Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College
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