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 11 Collections and/or Records:
Ash-Schofield Family Papers
Collection
Identifier: SFHL-RG5-004
Overview
Samuel Shinn Ash and his wife, Sarah Jane Schofield Ash, were prominent Quakers, active in a variety of philanthropic activities, including anti-slavery, peace, temperance, women's rights, and education. Samuel Shinn Ash was apprenticed as an engineer and machinist and worked in manufacturing. This collection consists of family papers, manuscript letters and memorabilia, largely of a domestic nature. Includes some descriptions of Meetings and religious journeys, of the early struggles of...
Dates:
1796 - 1933; Majority of material found within 1833 - 1912
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
Howland-Kirby Family Papers
Collection
Identifier: SFHL-RG5-067
Overview
Howland and Kirby families were Quakers of Dartmouth, Fairhaven, and New Bedford, Mass. The collection contains primarily transcripts and photocopies of their papers. Of particular interest are dairies of Weston Howland, Jr., with notes on the arrival of whaling ships in New Bedford and details of a controversy over the New Bedford-Fairhaven bridge; those of Abby S., and Rachel, which describe a trip taken by Abby to New York, N.Y., and Washington, D.C. (1888) and women preaching at Friends...
Dates:
circa 1790-circa 1973
Ann Paschall Jackson Family Papers
Collection
Identifier: SFHL-RG5-186
Overview
The collection contains diaries of Ann Price Gibson Paschall Jackson (1792-1874) who served as a Quaker minister for over forty years. Ann P. Paschall (later Ann P. Jackson) was recorded as a minister of Darby Monthly Meeting (Hicksite) in 1831. In 1849, she moved to Birmingham Monthly Meeting where her children were members. The collection contains her manuscript diaries, 1814 to 1874, and a manuscript copy of extracts from her journals, 1813-1856, compiled by her daughter-in-law, Ann P....
Dates:
1776-1856 [bulk 1814-1874]; Majority of material found within 1814 - 1874
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
Oliver Family Papers
Collection
Identifier: SFHL-RG5-334
Overview
The collection contains the papers of the family of Wendell French Oliver, New England and Pennsylvania Wilburite Quakers. Gamaliel Wallis Oliver (1772-1849) was a successful Lynn, Massachusetts, shoe manufacturer who married Charlotte Breed in 1807. Two grandsons, Wendell French Oliver and William Theodore Oliver, were conscientious objectors in WWI and served with the AFSC in European Reconstruction. The collection includes journals, photographs, and related papers of Wendell, W....
Dates:
1706 - 2018; Majority of material found within 1830 - 1960
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
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
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
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
