Subject: Quaker women -- Diaries / Year: <span class="from" data-blrl-begin="1865">1865</span> to <span class="to" data-blrl-end="1869">1869</span> - Philadelphia Area Archives Search Results

Extent:: 12 linear ft. (23 boxes plus photographs)
Abstract:: The collection contains correspondence, journals and other writings, business and legal papers, and miscellaneous items of the Smedley family, a large and prominent Quaker family of Penncrest Farm, Middletown Township, Delaware County, Pennsylvania. The family was related to the Kite and Sharples/Sharpless families of Chester and Delaware Counties. The papers include significant correspondence of the Kite family, especially Thomas Kite (1785-1845) and Mary Kite (1792-1861), both prominent Quaker ministers, and Thomas's daughter, Susanna Kite (1809-1844) who married Aaron Sharpless. Their daughter, Elizabeth S. Sharpless married Edward G. Smedley of Middletown, thus merging the Smedley-Sharples-Kite families. In the 20th century, the property became the home of Edward Smedley's nephew, Walter Smedley (1862-1939), a Philadelphia architect, and his wife, Ida Wilkins Roberts Smedley (1896-1993). She married second C. Canby Balderston. The papers cover a wide range of subjects...(see more)

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]

Extent:: 2.5 linear ft. (5 boxes)
Abstract:: The collected papers of the Sharpless and Reeve family of New Jersey and Philadelphia. Much of the correspondence is between Edward Sharpless (1831-1894), a New Jersey Quaker minister, and his sister, Anna N. Sharpless, who married John Newbold Reeve in 1857. Their daughter, Mary Offley Reeve, worked as a school teacher when young and became involved in temperance and evangelical Christianity. She shared these interests, reflected in diaries and other writings, with Annie Way Smith, a long-time friend and member of Fishertown Monthly Meeting. The collection illustrates Quaker responses to early twentieth century social and religious trends.

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

Extent:: 0.5 linear ft. (1 document box)
Abstract:: Letters and diaries of Rebecca Singer Collins (1804-1892), a nineteenth-century Quaker well known for her religious philanthropic work.

Held at: Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections [Contact Us]

Extent:: 1.5 linear ft. (3 boxes)
Abstract:: Samuel Shinn Ash and his wife, Sarah Jane Schofield Ash, were prominent Quakers, active in a variety of philanthropic activities, including anti-slavery, peace, temperance, women's rights, and education. Samuel Shinn Ash was apprenticed as an engineer and machinist and worked in manufacturing. This collection consists of family papers, manuscript letters and memorabilia, largely of a domestic nature. Includes some descriptions of Meetings and religious journeys, of the early struggles of Samuel S. Ash in engineering and business, and references to the Schofield Normal and Industrial School in Aiken, S.C. of which Martha Schofield, one of the correspondents, was Manager. The exchange of letters between Mary S. Ash and her mother, Sarah Ash, describes student life at Swarthmore College in the 1890's.

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

Extent:: .1 linear ft. (.1 linear feet (3 folders.))
Abstract:: These papers include the journal of Edith Bushong from 1856 to 1858, detailing the life of the wife of a 19th century Quaker farmer. The papers also include essays and a copy book of Abraham Rakestraw, recording his editorial letters to newspapers under various pseudonyms.

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

Extent:: 1 linear ft. (2 boxes)
Abstract:: The collection contains diaries, 1934-1982, of Marion Bonner Smith, a Quaker born in Southeastern Pennsylvania. She married Newlin R. Smith, a Tufts University professor, in 1937. Eight small 5-year diaries with daily entries which record activities such as attending Quaker meetings, committees, family events, chores and some national news. Also included are Bonner and Smith family photographs and a small number of family letters, miscellaneous memorabilia, and genealogical information.

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

Extent:: 1 linear ft. (2 boxes)
Abstract:: Members of the Charles and Priscilla Townsend family were active in the Society of Friends in Philadelphia and in Quaker concerns, especially penal reform, abolition, and the natural sciences. The collection includes journals, correspondence, and writings in addition to transcripts and reference material on family members. Much of the material is available in published form.

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

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