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Mary Ellicott Arnold (1876-1968) Papers

 Collection
Identifier: SFHL-RG5-003

Scope and Contents

The collection includes correspondence, financial papers, notebooks, reports, and clippings concerning Mary Ellicott Arnold's varied activities. Correspondents include Wallace J. Campbell, Moses Coady, Darlington Hoopes, George Meany, Richard H. Rhoads, and many others.

Dates

  • 1888-1970

Creator

Limitations on Accessing the Collection

Collection is open for research.

Copyright and Rights Information

Permission to reuse, publish, or reproduce items in this collection beyond the bounds of Fair Use or other exemptions to copyright law must be obtained from the copyright holder or their heirs/assigns. See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-RUU/1.0/.

Biographical / Historical

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 Indians 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, including cafeterias and an apartment building in New York City, miners' housing in Nova Scotia, cooperative credit unions among lobster fishermen in Maine, and the Tanguy and Cheyney Cooperative Homesteads in the Philadelphia area. She was an early Treasurer of the Cooperative League, was very active in the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, and was a member of Providence Monthly Meeting, Media, Pennsylvania. Mabel Reed died in 1962, and Mary Ellicott Arnold died on May 23,1968, in Media, Pa.

  • 1876 Born, April 23, at New Brighton, New York City.
  • 1894 Attended Drexel Institute, Philadelphia, Pa.
  • 1901-6? Farming on the Reed family farm with Mabel Reed, her lifelong companion.
  • 1908 Work with the Karok Indians in California.
  • 1910-14 Organized two cafeterias in Ithaca, New York to instruct students at Cornell in dietetics.
  • 1915-16 Special studies in economics at the University of California.
  • 1918 Chief Organizer, U. S. Employment Service for the State of New York.
  • 1919-37 Managed 10 cafeterias and a 12-story cooperative apartment house for the Consumers Cooperative Services in New York City.
  • 1937-39 Organized three cooperative housing projects for coal miners in Nova Scotia.
  • 1939-40 Administrator of land settlement program for fishermen in Newfoundland.
  • 1940-42 Organized credit unions for lobster fishermen in Maine.
  • 1942 Visit to relocation camp for Japanese-Americans at Poston, Arizona.
  • 1943 Began work with the Philadelphia Area Cooperative Federation.
  • 1947-49 Organized, cooperative housing project, Tanguy Homesteads, Glen Mills, Pa.
  • 1949 Interim Coordinator, Eastern Cooperatives, Inc.
  • 1950-52 Planning for Cheyney Cooperative Homesteads, Cheyney, Pa. Proposal abandoned before work began, 1952.
  • 1954-57 Chairman, Finance Committee of the Pennsylvania Branch of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom; Treasurer, Jane Addams House, Philadelphia, Pa.
  • 1958-63 Work for Indian rights.

Biographical chronology

1876
Born, April 23, at New Brighton, New York City.
1894
Attended Drexel Institute, Philadelphia, Pa.
1901-6?
Farming on the Reed family farm with Mabel Reed, her lifelong companion.
1908
Work with the Karok Indians in California.
1910-14
Organized two cafeterias in Ithaca, New York to instruct students at Cornell in dietetics.
1915-16
Special studies in economics at the University of California.
1918
Chief Organizer, U. S. Employment Service for the State of New York.
1919-37
Managed 10 cafeterias and a 12-story cooperative apartment house for the Consumers Cooperative Services in New York City.
1937-39
Organized three cooperative housing projects for coal miners in Nova Scotia.
1939-40
Administrator of land settlement program for fishermen in Newfoundland.
1940-42
Organized credit unions for lobster fishermen in Maine.
1942
Visit to relocation camp for Japanese-Americans at Poston, Arizona.
1943
Began work with the Philadelphia Area Cooperative Federation.
1947-49
Organized, cooperative housing project, Tanguy Homesteads, Glen Mills, Pa.
1949
Interim Coordinator, Eastern Cooperatives, Inc.
1950-52
Planning for Cheyney Cooperative Homesteads, Cheyney, Pa. Proposal abandoned before work began, 1952.
1954-57
Chairman, Finance Committee of the Pennsylvania Branch of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom; Treasurer, Jane Addams House, Philadelphia, Pa.
1958-63
Work for Indian rights.

Extent

8 Linear Feet (16 boxes)

Language

English

Overview

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 Indians 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 was an early Treasurer of the Cooperative League, was very active in the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, and was a member of Providence Monthly Meeting, Media, Pennsylvania. The collection includes correspondence, financial papers, notebooks, reports, and clippings concerning Mary Ellicott Arnold's varied activities. Correspondents include Wallace J. Campbell, Moses Coady, Darlington Hoopes, George Meany, Richard H. Rhoads, and many others.

Arrangement

The collection is divided into eleven series:

  1. Biographical material
  2. General correspondence
  3. Special correspondence
  4. Early work with cooperatives
  5. Consumers cooperatives
  6. Cooperative housing
  7. Indians of North America
  8. Other activities of Mary Ellicott Arnold
  9. Quaker activities and writings
  10. Pictures and Memorabilia
  11. tebooks of Mary Ellicott Arnold

Physical Location

For current information on the location of materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Donor: David and Marian Elkinton, 1975, 1979. Later accrual: Accession 1998.064

Related Materials

See also:

  1. DG 43, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, 1954-1958, in Swarthmore College Peace Collection. Mary Ellicott Arnold was chairman of the Finance Committee of the Pennsylvania Branch of WILPF and Treasurer of the Jane Addams House, Philadelphia, from 1954-1957. Bulk of papers are financial records kept by MEA.
  2. Mary Ellicott Arnold papers, Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe College

Separated Materials

The following published material, originally part of the collection, has been removed and cataloged with FHL books:

  1. Arnold, Mary Ellicott. The story of Tompkinsville. The Cooperative League, NY, 1940.
  2. Arnold, Mary Ellicott and Mabel Reed. In the land of the grasshopper song. Vantage Press, NY, 1957.
  3. Coady, MM. Masters of their own destiny. Harpers and Brothers Publishers, NY, 1939.
  4. Fowler, Bertram B. The Lord helps those... The Vanguard Press, NY, 1938.

Processing Information

Partially processed by Marian Elkinton. Processing completed by FHL staff and stored in RG 5.

Title
An Inventory of the Mary Ellicott Arnold Papers, 1888-1970
Author
FHL staff
Date
1979
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
English
Sponsor
Encoding made possible by a grant by the Gladys Kriebel Delmas Foundation to the Philadelphia Consortium of Special Collections Libraries

Find It at the Library

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