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 339 Collections and/or Records:
Mary Ellicott Arnold (1876-1968) Papers
Collection
Identifier: SFHL-RG5-003
Abstract
Mary Ellicott Arnold (1876-1968) was a Quaker writer and social activist, known for her work with consumer cooperatives. After an unsuccessful farming venture in her youth, Mary Ellicott Arnold and her lifelong companion, Mabel Reed, worked with the Karok tribe in California as employees of the United States Indian Bureau. After a period as chief organizer for the U.S. Employment Service in New York State, she and Mabel Reed were involved in a number of successful cooperative ventures. She...
Dates:
1888-1970
Painter Family Papers
Collection
Identifier: SFHL-RG5-110
Abstract
The Painter family was an early Pennsylvania Quaker family that married into the Minshall family of Delaware County. In 1681, William Penn granted Thomas Minshall a land tract which now includes the Tyler Arboretum. The property was home to eight generations of the same family. The collection includes family correspondence, business and legal papers, property records, papers on interests and concerns of the Painter brothers, genealogical papers, and miscellaneous deeds and other papers...
Dates:
1687-1948
Smedley Family Papers
Collection
Identifier: SFHL-RG5-319
Abstract
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
Truman-Underhill Family Papers
Collection
Identifier: SFHL-RG5-151
Abstract
The Truman and Underhill families were prominent Philadelphia-area Quaker families with close ties to Swarthmore College and active in social concerns. Best known is George Truman (1798-1877), Quaker merchant and doctor and a recognized minister who visited Indigenous Peoples in the American West and former Quaker settlements in the West Indies. He was one of the founders of Swarthmore College. This collection contains chiefly the papers of Benjamin Mott Underhill (1863-1930), with some...
Dates:
1755-1930
Zebedee Haines Papers
Collection
Identifier: SFHL-RG5-056
Abstract
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
Lightfoot Family Manuscripts
Collection
Identifier: SFHL-RG5-184
Abstract
The Lightfoot family was a Pennsylvania Quaker family descended from Thomas Lightfoot, a Quaker minister who emigrated from Ireland to Kennett Monthly Meeting in 1716 with his family. The collection includes three journals which have been attributed to his grandson Thomas on the basis of contextual detail. These accounts document visits to meetings in the mid Atlantic region, New Jersey to Virginia, from 1757 to 1760. Jacob Lightfoot, a son of Thomas and Sarah Lightfoot, married Mary...
Dates:
1737-ca. 1948
Richardson-Yarnall family papers
Collection
Identifier: SFHL-RG5-187
Abstract
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
Sharples-Paschall Family Papers
Collection
Identifier: SFHL-RG5-324
Abstract
Contains collected papers of the Sharples-Paschall family, Quakers of Philadelphia and Chester County, Pennsylvania. The family descended from Nathan H. and Martha (Price) Sharples and Thomas and Anne (Price Gibson) Paschall. The collection includes deeds, estate and other legal papers, and a small amount of family correspondence compiled by Alfred D. Sharples and his son, Alfred Roberts Sharples. The legal records include apprenticeship agreements, deeds relating to Rees, Price, and...
Dates:
1684 - 1948
Turner Family Papers
Collection
Identifier: SFHL-RG5-152
Abstract
This collection centers around the family and descendants of Joseph Turner, Jr., (1790-1850) and his wife Rebecca (Sinclair) Turner (1787-1877), members of Baltimore Monthly Meeting-Western District. They raised eight children and had fifty-four grandchildren. As a young man, Joseph left the family plantation near Still Pond, Kent County, Maryland, and became a lumber merchant in Baltimore. He served as Clerk of the Lombard Street Meeting. Rebecca was a recorded minister and traveled widely....
Dates:
1776-1954