Subject: Quaker women / Language: English / Year: <span class="single" data-blrl-single="1839">1839</span> - Philadelphia Area Archives Search Results

Extent:: 7 linear ft. (17 boxes (plus photographs))
Abstract:: Emily Howland (1827-1929) was a Quaker humanitarian and educator who is particularly known for her work with formerly-enslaved African Americans in Virginia during and after the American Civil War. A birthright Friend, Emily Howland was the only daughter of Slocum and Hannah (Tallcot) Howland of Sherwood, N.Y. She was educated locally and for a brief period in Philadelphia, and then moved to Washington, D.C. in 1857 to teach at the Miner School for Freedmen. During the war she worked at a contraband camp in Virginia, establishing a school and coordinating relief activities. She returned to Sherwood after her father's death in 1881 and contributed time and money toward the maintenance of the Sherwood School. She continued her interest in the education of African-Americans in the south, and was also involved in woman suffrage and temperance. Emily Howland never married, and died in Sherwood at the age of 102. The collection contains correspondence, journals, other manuscripts,...(see more)

Held at: Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College [Contact Us]

Extent:: 4 linear ft. (9 boxes)
Abstract:: The collection contains diaries, ledgers, and albums of Ann Price Gibson Paschall Jackson (1792-1874) and her family. Related to many Pennsylvania Quaker families including Price, Sharples/Sharpless, Paschall, and Townsend, Ann P. Paschall (later Ann P. Jackson) was recorded as a minister of Darby Monthly Meeting (Hicksite) in 1831. Series 1 is composed of her diaries, 1814 to 1874. The detailed entries concern religious and practical matters. Series 2 contains diaries, ledgers, and albums of related family members including the journals of her first husband, Thomas J. Paschall. Of special interest is the small number of miscellaneous manuscripts in Series 3, particularly a 1709 bill of sale for an enslaved woman to Thomas Paschall, Jr.

Held at: Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College [Contact Us]

Extent:: 6 linear ft.
Abstract:: Contains the collected correspondence of the Bringhurst family, largely compiled by C. Marshall Taylor. It includes correspondence, 1780-1806, of Philadelphia Quaker businessman James Bringhurst and his letters received from John Murray of New York City. Bringhurst corresponded with family and prominent friends including John Dickinson, Job Scott, Nathan Hunt, James Pemberton, Jesse Kersey, Lindley Murray and Moses Brown. Of particular interest are descriptions of life in Philadelphia and the conditions of free blacks, as well as Quaker religious and social concerns and visits from traveling ministers. A second group of letters contains primarily letters from Joseph Bringhurst, the brother of James, to his niece, Elizabeth Foulke while she was traveling in the ministry.

Held at: Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College [Contact Us]

Extent:: 1 linear ft. (2 boxes)
Abstract:: The collection contains papers of Mira Sharpless Townsend, a major Quaker social activist and reformer in Philadelphia. Mira Sharpless Townsend (1798-1859) was born in Philadelphia, attended Friends Select School, and in 1828 married Samuel Townsend (1800-1887). He was a member of Philadelphia Monthly Meeting by whom she had six children, only two surviving to adulthood: Emily Sharpless Townsend who married Powell Stackhouse and Clara Gordon Townsend, married William Penn Troth. During the 1840's, Mira Townsend became an active and vocal social activist who wrote and published a variety of poetry and articles which reflected her strong views regarding women, slavery, temperance and capital punishment. She also was the driving force behind the founding of the Rosine Association. In January 1847, at a meeting of the Society for the Abolition of Capital Punishment, she announced her desire to form a society "to open a house for the reformation, employment and instruction of...(see more)

Held at: Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College [Contact Us]