Richard R. Wood family papers

Richard Reeve Wood Richard Reeve Wood graduated from Haverford College in 1920 with a degree in mathematics; he received an honorary degree of letters from his alma mater in 1971. In 1919 he served with the Mission Anglo-Américaine de la Société des Amis in France, and he also worked with the American Friends Service Committee in reconstruction work in France. He taught at Friends Select School in Philadelphia and for a short time at Whittier College in California. Richard also did graduate work at Harvard University but decided that his interest lay in the peace movement. He became secretary of the Friends Peace Committee of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (PYM) and also the editor of The Friend. As the Committee's secretary, he became president of the National Peace Conference which led him to be a consultant in the meetings leading to the formation of the United Nations in 1945. He was a member of Moorestown Friends Meeting, served as a clerk of PYM and was on the boards of the William Charter School, Friends Select School and Haverford College. In 1923 Richard married Nancy Morris and they had three children: Rebecca, Anne and Richard Jr.

Pennsylvania Society for the Promotion of Public Economy Founded in May 1817, the Pennsylvania Society for the Promotion of Public Economy was inspired by observations of poverty in Philadelphia in the winter of 1816 and a report on the causes of poverty and who was poor. Committees included those on the poor laws, on public prisons, on domestic economy, on the suppression of vice and immorality, and on the public schools. The Society sought to educate the poor and improve their management of their resources. While some of the founding members and officers of the Society were Quaker, it was not an exclusively Quaker organization.

Friends' Freedmen's Association was an organization of Philadelphia Quakers founded in 1863 as Friends' Association of Philadelphia and Its Vicinity, for the Relief of Colored Freemen. Its purpose was to provide relief and education to freed enslaved individuals during and after the Civil War. The name was changed circa 1873. Between 1870 and 1847, the Association supported the Christianburg Institute, a school founded in Montgomery County, Virginia to educate previously enslaved individuals. From 1947 to 1955 the Association supported Black students in schools and summer work camps. From 1955 to 1970 the income from investments was used to provide grants for scholarships for black students. From 1970, income and principal was distributed yearly primarily among Bryn Mawr, Earlham, Guilford, and Haverford Colleges. In January 1982 the Association was dissolved. The funds were distributed among the four colleges named above to be used as aid to Black students as the J. Henry Scattergood Scholarship Fund.