Cope-Evans Family papers

Collection includes letters (with accompanying poetry, acrostics, drawings, clippings, etc.), marriage certificates, photographs, friendship book, estate related papers, account books, and computer disks. Primarily letters of the closely related Quaker families of Cope and Evans of Germantown (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania); other families include Brown, Drinker, and Haines.

Letters primarily discuss family, friends, and home life, reflecting the social environment of these relatively well­-to-­do Quaker families. Letters of Mary Cope (1766­-1825) to her children at school are full of affection and advice, both practical and spiritual. Thomas Pim Cope's letters include those to his son Henry at Westtown School, as well as letters reflecting on his business interests, including a copy of an 1805 letter to his then partner, J. Thomas, requesting they end their business association because of Thomas's sloppy book­keeping habits.

Business matters dominate the letters of brothers Henry, William D., and Alfred Cope: Henry and Alfred continuing the Cope family shipping business begun by their father, and William D. Cope (1798­-1873) establishing his farm in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, where he looked after his father's land interests.

The letters of Anna S. Cope (1822-­1916) and Francis R. Cope (1821-­1909) discuss home life and children as well as family and friends activities; many of Anna S. Cope's letters were written from family vacation spots in New England, where she often went to escape the hot summer months in Philadelphia. Letters of Francis R. Cope include letters written while in Virginia on Freedmen's Relief Association business after the Civil War (1866) as well as letters related to the sale of Pennsylvania Freedmen's Association property in Washington, D.C.

The letters of sisters Clementine, Caroline, and Annette Cope include many travel letters from Europe. Clementine Cope's letters also include those written while teaching at a Freedmen's Association School in Baltimore in 1865.

There are a number of letters written by children; of particular interest are those written by brothers Henry, Francis, and William D. Cope while a Westtown Boarding School in the early 1800s, and letters of brothers Francis R. Cope (1821­-1909) and Thomas P. Cope (1823-­1900) while at Haverford College in the 1830s.

The letters of Elizabeth S. Cope relate family and travel news; letters after the death of her husband Alexis T. Cope in 1883 express her loss.

Letters of Rachel and Jonathan Evans discuss children, family, home life, and health concerns and contain much information related both to their roles as parents and to their love for each other. Rachel's letters include information on the illness, treatment, and recovery of their oldest child, Anna Cope Evans, who was sent to "Bournewood" (Brookline, Massachusetts) after a nervous breakdown in 1900; also letters of Anna Cope Evans (b. 1875) from "Bournewood."[Note: many handwritten comments on letters in the collection are in the hand of Elizabeth S. Cope (1848­-1937)].

Also marriage certificates; copies of original photographs of members of Hartshorne, Yarnall, Stokes, Garrett, Wistar, Haines, Drinker, and Bright families; friendship book of Francis R. Cope at Haverford College (1835­-1838); and papers and account books of estate of Thomas Evans.