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 6 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
Julia Rouse Sharpless Diaries
Collection — Multiple Containers
Identifier: SFHL-RG5-300
Overview
The collection contains personal diaries of Julia M. Rouse Sharpless (1911-2004), a Quaker who attended Friends Boarding School in Barnesville, Ohio, and then Strayer Business College in Washington, DC. A member of the "Eye" Street Meeting, she was active in the cooperative Friends Meeting of Washington and worked in government offices until her retirement in 1969. The diaries and daybooks (with gaps) reflect her schooling and personal life, especially the years before her marriage in 1932...
Dates:
1925-2000 with gaps
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
Marion L. Bonner Smith papers
Collection
Identifier: SFHL-RG5-338
Overview
The collection contains diaries, 1934-1982, of Marion Bonner Smith, a Quaker born in Southeastern Pennsylvania. She married Newlin R. Smith, a Tufts University professor, in 1937. Eight small 5-year diaries with daily entries which record activities such as attending Quaker meetings, committees, family events, chores and some national news. Also included are Bonner and Smith family photographs and a small number of family letters, miscellaneous memorabilia, and genealogical...
Dates:
Majority of material found within 1934-1960, 1963-1982; 1807-1982
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
