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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 10 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

William Hobson Papers

 Collection
Identifier: SFHL-RG5-062
Overview

William Hobson, 1820-1891, was a Quaker minister and farmer from North Carolina, Iowa, and Oregon. The collection contains chiefly diaries (1859-1891) describing rural life in Iowa and ministerial visits to California, Kansas, Missouri, and Oregon; together with autobiographical fragments and notes for sermons.

Dates: 1851-1891

Hunn-Karsner Family Papers

 Collection
Identifier: SFHL-RG5-322
Overview The collection contains correspondence, writings, and other papers of the family of Ezekiel Hunn and Lydia Jones Sharpless Hunn, Philadelphia and Delaware Quakers. The papers were compiled by their granddaughter Katherine Hunn Karsner (1899-1993). She was a Philadelphia Quaker minister and married Joseph Reed Karsner in 1930 under the care of Philadelphia Monthly Meeting (Hicksite). The bulk of the collection is composed of correspondence from their daughter, Mary Ann Karsner Kegler...
Dates: 1809 - 1985; Majority of material found within 1947 - 1974

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

Patricia Loring papers

 Collection
Identifier: SFHL-RG5-316
Overview Patricia Loring was a Quaker author, teacher, and retreat leader, most active in her related work in the 1980s and 1990s. She was the author of a widely read Quaker spiritual guide, Listening Spirituality, vols. 1 and 2. For eight years her ministry was supported by Bethesda Friends Meeting, Bethesda, Maryland. This collection includes a variety of Patricia Loring's papers, largely beginning when she joined the Religious Society of Friends. Much of the collection consists of papers from...
Dates: 1982 - 2015

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

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

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