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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 9 Collections and/or Records:

Allen Family Papers

 Collection
Identifier: SFHL-RG5-001
Overview Contains the papers of the Allen Family, a Quaker family of Philadelphia and Delaware County, Pennsylvania, which traced its ancestry back to one of William Penn's commissioners. Includes papers relating to the Allen and related Breidenhart, Casdorp, Gibbons, Hubley, Jacobs, Matlack, and Samuel families. The Allen family papers contain extensive genealogical material, family correspondence, journals and memorials which provide excellent source material on Quaker family life in the 19th...
Dates: 1700-1954

Biddle family Papers

 Collection
Identifier: SFHL-RG5-177
Overview This collection contains the papers of Philadelphia Quaker Owen Biddle (1737-1799), his son, Clement Biddle (1778-1856), and numerous descendants. Owen Biddle, a scientist and merchant, was a member of Philadelphia Monthly Meeting and helped in the establishment of Westtown School (1799). Owen Biddle's papers, 1772-1793, (Series 1) include correspondence, and journals, some of which relate to his Revolutionary War activities. Three of his letterbooks, 1778-1779, have been microfilmed. The...
Dates: 1793-1951

Joseph Brinton Family Papers

 Collection
Identifier: SFHL-RG5-233
Overview

Joseph Brinton, an outspoken member of the Society of Friends from southeastern Pennsylvania, was active in the Wilburite schisms of the 1850s and 1860's in New England. His family papers include his own journals, as well as his extensive correspondence. This collection also includes the correspondence of his two wives, Mary H. Brinton and Anna H. Brinton.

Dates: 1758-1931

Emlen Family Papers

 Collection
Identifier: SFHL-RG5-038
Overview Contains papers relating to the Emlen family, residents of Middletown and West Chester, Pennsylvania. Chiefly correspondence (1817-1849) of Sarah Foulke Farquhar Emlen (1787-1849), Quaker minister, relating to her travels to visit Friends' meetings in England, Ireland, New England, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Virginia. Also correspondence of Quaker ministers 1740-1790, copybooks, and memorabilia. Includes material relating to Westtown School, a Quaker boarding...
Dates: 1740 - 1886; Majority of material found within 1817 - 1849

Foster-Meyers Family Papers

 Collection
Identifier: SFHL-RG5-221
Overview Contains the papers of the Foster Family, a Wilburite New England Quaker family of Rhode Island, and the Meyers Family, conservative Orthodox Quakers of the Midwest. The families were united in 1924 by the marriage of Henry Cope Foster (1895-1987) of Warwick, Rhode Island, and Thyra Jane Meyers (1898-1984), born in West Branch, Iowa. The collection contains extensive personal correspondence of five generations of the Foster and Meyers families, school materials, diaries, writings,...
Dates: 1765-2006

Zebedee Haines Papers

 Collection
Identifier: SFHL-RG5-056
Overview Zebedee Haines (1843-1923) was a Quaker who was active in the work of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of Friends and of its Indian Committee in the late 19th century. Zebedee was also a student, teacher, administrator, and school committee member at Westtown School. The Haines family ran a dairy farm in West Grove, Pennsylvania. The collection contains family correspondence and diaries. Also includes letters of Zebedee Haines to his wife, describing his visits to Tunesassa and to native...
Dates: 1857-1922

Lydia Jones Sharpless Hunn Papers

 Collection
Identifier: SFHL-RG5-070
Overview

Lydia Jones Sharpless Hunn (1818-1911) was a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Orthodox Quaker. The collection contains diaries (1881-1908), reminiscences (1893), and other family papers.

Dates: 1881-1908

Patience Hunn Jenkins Papers

 Collection
Identifier: SFHL-RG5-288
Overview

Patience Hunn Jenkins (1805-1884) was a Quaker minister of Camden Monthly Meeting, Delaware. The collection contains journals, a letter book, and miscellaneous correspondence reflecting her life in the ministry and social concerns. Her brother, John Hunn (1818-1894) with whom she was very close, was a major participant in the Underground Railroad.

Dates: 1841-1860

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