New York Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends

Letters, articles, and speeches by Linda Chidsey, former Clerk of New York Yearly Meeting and acknowledged minister. Of special interest are the materials that relate to the peace testimony after the attacks of September 11, 2001 and renewal in the Society of Friends.

The collectionn contains Mekeel's notes and abstracts concerning Quaker meetings in the Scipio and Farmington Quarterly Meetings of New York Yearly Meeting, particularly concerning the various nineteenth century Orthodox separations. There is also a small group of correspondence focused on Quaker meeting records.

Contains an accounting of funds raised for the War Victims Fund by members of New York Yearly Meeting (Orthodox), 1870-1871, together with cover letters for contributions made to the Fund.

Minutes of the Friends Equals Rights Association, 1900-1905 and 1915-1917, and miscellaneous papers.

The bulk of the collection is epistles, sorted roughly by topic. William Wood, the Clerk of New York Yearly Meeting who arranged the collection, was particularly interested in the issues of slavery, freedmen, peace testimony, and religious education. Also included are correspondence, Quaker documents, and miscellaneous papers. Correspondents include Moses Brown, William Rickman, John Pemberton.

This collection contains a map of all the Meetings belonging to [New] York Yearly Meeting. The first known Quaker meeting in New York took place in Manhattan, 1671. The New York Yearly Meeting held their first meeting in 1696 after setting up at the New England Yearly Meeting in 1695.

Formed in 1798 to give aid to the sick poor, the New York Female Association created the first public female school in New York in 1800. Until 1845, it worked with the Free School Society to establish and maintain public schools in New York while also continuing its efforts to help the indigent. Since 1845, the association has been a small gift-giving committee. The collection includes minutes and financial records.

The New York Friends Service Committee was established in 1917 following an appeal by New York Yearly Meeting to assist the American Friends Service Committee in its clothing appeal for European war relief. By 1922, the focus had changed to famine relief particularly for Russia, and the Committee was encouraged to work directly through AFSC. This small collection contains minutes, annual reports, and financial records.

Contains a collection of autographs of prominent Quakers and a few non-Quakers, most written as brief notes or subscription replies to Friends Book and Tract Committee between 1915-1920.

The collection contains a small number of miscellaneous papers relating to efforts within New York Yearly Meeting to support the manumission of enslaved people, abolition, and education of formerly enslaved people, 1778-1870. Most are copies of reports presented to New York Monthly Meeting or to the Yearly Meeting, compiled as a reference file.