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Truman-Underhill Photograph Collection

 Collection
Identifier: SFHL-PA-074

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of pictures removed from the Truman-Underhill Family Papers, RG5/151. It includes six albums (principally cartes de visite, snapshots, and cabinet cards) and three folders, one containing 24 hollow-cut bust silhouettes (created 1800-1850?), and two folders of miscellaneous photographs. 16 dagguereotypes and ambrotypes have been removed to the cased photograph collection PA 107.

Dates

  • Creation: 1819 - 1896
  • Creation: Majority of material found within 1860 - 1890

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is available for research use.

Explore Digitized Content

Note that the bulk of the collection has been digitized and is available in our Digital Library. Explore this collection online.

Conditions Governing Use

Friends Historical Library believes all of the items in this collection to be in the Public Domain in the United States, and is not aware of any restrictions on their use. However, the user is responsible for making a final determination of copyright status before reproducing. See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/.

Biographical / Historical

The Truman and Underhill families were Pennsylvania Quaker families with close ties to Swarthmore College and involved in social concerns. Best known is George Truman (1798-1877), Quaker merchant, dentist, and doctor and a recognized minister who visited Indians in the American West and former Quaker settlements in the West Indies.

Benjamin Mott Underhill (1863-1930) and his wife, Georgia Cook Myers Underhill (1877-1926) attended Swarthmore College. Benjamin Underhill graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine in 1895 and from 1908 until his death was a professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He was active in the Delaware County Institute of Science and in Providence Friends Meeting in Media, Pennsylvania. His maternal grandfather was George Truman (1798-1877).

The Truman family is related to two of the organizers of the First Women's Rights Convention at Seneca Falls, Jane Hunt (1812-1899), and Mary Ann M'Clintock (1800-1884). Jane Clothier Master Hunt, wife of Richard P. Hunt, was the sister of Catharine Hickman Master Truman (wife of George Truman). Mary Ann M'Clintock's daughter, also named Mary Ann M'Clintock (1822-1880), married one of George Truman's sons, James Truman (1826-1914). On July 9, 1848, Jane Hunt and Mary Ann M'Clintock gathered together with Lucretia Mott (1793-1880), Martha Wright, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton at the Hunt home in Waterloo, N.Y. On that day, they conceived of the idea of the Seneca Falls Convention "for protest and discussion" on the issue of Women's Rights.

See the Truman-Underhill family tree at http://www.swarthmore.edu/library/friends/truman_underhill/truman_underhill_tree.htm.

Extent

1 cubic ft. (2 flat boxes and 2 custom enclosures)

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

This collection consists of six photograph albums and other loose photographs, most dating from approximately 1860-1890, from the Truman and Underhill families, Philadelphia-area Quaker families with close ties to Swarthmore College and active in social concerns. In addition to the family members, prominent Quakers (some associated with the family, and some simply admired by them) and abolitionists and other social reformers are included in this collection. Some individuals of special interest include James and Lucretia Mott, Joseph John Gurney and Elizabeth Gurney Fry, Richard P. and Jane C. Hunt, Rachel and John Jackson, Franklin B. Gowan, and Fredrick Gutekunst.

Arrangement

The photographs are arranged in boxes according to photograph type.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Removed from the Truman-Underhill Family Papers, RG5/151.

Separated Materials

Removed from the Truman-Underhill Family Papers, RG5/151. Volumes IV and V of the George Truman Papers, RG 151, contain several original photographs in addition to copies of photos available elsewhere in the collection.

16 dagguereotypes and ambrotypes have been removed to the cased photograph collection PA 107.

Subject

Source

Author
Jissel Becerra Reyes
Date
2/8/19
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Find It at the Library

Most of the materials in this catalog are not digitized and can only be accessed in person. Please see our website for more information about visiting or requesting repoductions from Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College Library

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