Lewis-Fussell Family Papers

Bartholomew Fussell was a Quaker minister who married Rebecca Bond at Abington Monthly Meeting in Pennsylvania in 1781. He was a member of Uwchlan Monthly Meeting of Friends at his death in 1838. The couple had eight children, viz. Esther, William, Sarah, Joseph, Jacob, Bartholomew, Rebecca, and Solomon. Esther married John Lewis in 1818, and they had four children, among whom was Graceanna Lewis, Quaker scientist and humanitarian. Joseph Fussell married Elizabeth Moore in 1814, and their eldest son, Henry Bartholomew, married Maria Lewis. Rebecca Fussell married Joseph Trimble in 1837, and their only daughter, Esther Jane, married Isaac Lippincott.

Graceanna Lewis (1821-1912) is the most prominent of the members of the Lewis and Fussell families included in this collection. Her mother, Esther Fussell Lewis (1782-1848), and later for a time Graceanna herself, managed the family farm near Kimberton, Chester County, Pennsylvania. Educated at Kimberton Boarding School, Graceanna at various times supported herself as a schoolteacher, beginning in York, Pa., from 1842-1844 where she taught at a boarding school for girls managed by her uncle, Bartholomew Fussell. While she was devoted to social reform, working for abolition of slavery, temperance, and women's rights, by the 1860s her efforts were directed mostly to the sciences, especially ornithology and botany. After intensive studies in the sciences in the 1860s in Philadelphia, Graceanna Lewis was elected to the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia in 1870. She applied unsuccessfully for teaching posts in 1868 and 1877 at Vassar College after which she resumed teaching at preparatory schools, including the Foster School for Girls at Clifton Springs, N.Y. from 1883-1885. In 1885 Graceanna Lewis retired to Media, Pensylvnia, where she spent her remaining years. She applied her artistic talents to her study of science, and the Lewis Papers contain many of her drawings of plants and birds.

The collection also includes the correspondence (1836-1890) of Henry Bartholomew Fussell (1815-1890) with his observations on politics and the Civil War, and that of Linnaeus Fussell (1842-1907) joined the Union army but soon became a Navy doctor. Many of his letters describe his travels while in the Navy, especially in China and other parts of Asia, 1867-69, while aboard the U.S.S. Unadilla. A few letters mention the Darien expedition (near Panama) in 1871. The early life of the artist, Charles Lewis Fussell is mentioned in the correspondence of his mother, Rebecca Lewis Fussell; the letters of the former are also part of this collection. Other correspondents include Rebecca F. Trimble, Esther Jane Trimble, Esther Lewis, Henry M. Fussell, Rebecca L. Fussell, and many other family members.