Philadelphia Area Archives

Start Over Subject Quakers -- Diaries Year 1809

Samuel C. Davis diary, 1807-1809 (inclusive)

Extent:: 0.039 linear ft. (1 volume)
Abstract:: Samuel Cole Davis's diary details his illness with "cancer of the lip," as transcribed by Steven E. Kagle. Davis's diary entries include the particulars of his medical condition and the treatments that various doctors attempted to cure the cancer or alleviate pain. Later entries especially focus on his attempt to atone for his sins and seek salvation as he approaches his death.

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

Joseph Scattergood diary, 1792-1820 (inclusive)

Extent:: 0.125 linear ft. (1 volume)
Abstract:: Joseph Scattergood, an Elder of Green St. Monthly Meeting, was a signer of the first letter of concern by the Elders of Philadelphia to Elias Hicks regarding the doctrine he was preaching (1822). Diary entries describe Quaker meetings, social calls and family news, visits to family and friends in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, births, deaths, and marriages within the Quaker community, and Scattergood's work as a school teacher.

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

Joshua Sharpless diaries, 1798, 1965 (inclusive)

Extent:: 0.16 linear ft. (2 volumes)
Abstract:: Entries describe Sharpless's travel to, and time spent in, Cornplanter's village during 1798.

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

Emily Howland Family Papers, 1763-1929 (inclusive)

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]

Fisher-Warner Family Papers, 1684-1924 (inclusive)

Extent:: 7 linear ft. (17 boxes)
Abstract:: Miers Fisher (1748-1819), a birthright Quaker, was a prominent lawyer, legislator, philanthropist, merchant, and scientist in early Federal Philadelphia. Benjamin Warner, publisher and bookseller, married Fisher's daughter, Lydia, in 1814. Born in 1748 in Philadelphia, the son of Joshua and Sarah Rowland Fisher, Miers Fisher married Sarah Redwood in 1774. He was among a group of prominent Quaker merchants who were temporarily exiled to Winchester, Virginia, during the Revolution. Miers and Sarah had sixteen children, only five of which survived him. Their youngest son, Jabez Maud Fisher, was trained as an Engineer, and worked for a railway company and as a Naval Officer for the port of Providence; he moved to Denver, Colorado, in the early 1860's to be with his sons who had built a ranch. The collection includes journals, correspondence, and financial records of Miers Fisher, his daughter, Lydia Fisher Warner, his son, Jabez Maud Fisher, and their respective families.

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

Painter Family Papers, 1687-1948 (inclusive)

Extent:: 24 linear ft. (47 boxes)
Abstract:: The Painter family was an early Pennsylvania Quaker family that married into the Minshall family of Delaware County. In 1681, William Penn granted Thomas Minshall a land tract which now includes the Tyler Arboretum. The property was home to eight generations of the same family. The collection includes family correspondence, business and legal papers, property records, papers on interests and concerns of the Painter brothers, genealogical papers, and miscellaneous deeds and other papers collected by Minshall Painter. It is a rich source of information not only on the Painter family of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, and the origins of the Tyler Arboretum, but also on agriculture, social life and customs, and nineteenth century Quaker concerns through day books, account books, financial records, correspondence, and other documents.

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

Samuel Smith papers, 1740-1817 (inclusive)

Extent:: .1 linear ft. (.1 linear feet (8 folders.))
Abstract:: This collection includes 10 memorandum books of Samuel Smith, recounting his experiences as a travelling Quaker minister on his journeys in the eastern United States, Liverpool, London and Scotland. Also included is the copy book of a certain "S.B." of Darby Monthly Meeting, dated 1740-1746. This book contains tables of climates and distances, home remedies, and personal financial records. Notable are a list of the holdings of the Philadelphia library in 1741, an elegy to John Chalkley (1741), and an elegy to Robert Jordan.

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

Carman family papers, 1786-1894 (bulk)

Extent:: .1 linear ft. (.1 linear feet (13 folders.))
Abstract:: The collections contain journals, correspondence, and miscellaneous Quaker papers. A small journal kept by Thomas Carman, 1864 and 1867, describes his travels which included upstate New York, Baltimore, and Richmond (where he attended general Quaker meetings and visited African American services). Also a photocopy of a journal kept by Catharine Williams, describing a trip to Iowa in 1864 where she attended Yearly Meeting. Correspondents include Benjamin Angell, Edward Dorland, George M. Sisson, and Jeremiah Hubbard. Quaker materials include a 1786 manuscript describing a newspaper article on Quakers in France, an 1805 acrostic by William Hawkins devised for Mary Roach who was accompanying a traveling minister, copied poems and essays on religious themes, and a folder of miscellaneous materials which reflect the Carmans' support of organizations such as the Friends Academy at Union Springs, N.Y., a fair held in New York City to raise funds for freedmen, the Home for the Friendless...(see more)

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

Sharpless Family Papers, 1792-1892 (inclusive)

Extent:: 2 linear ft. (4 boxes)
Abstract:: The collection represents two branches of the Sharpless family of Pennsylvania descended from Joseph and Lydia (Lewis) Sharpless). It contains correspondence between extended Sharpless family relations including Sharpless, Hunn, Jones, Drinker families and journals of Joshua Sharpless, a Quaker minister who worked with Native Americans and visited Quaker meetings in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Canada. Correspondence covers various topics including the travels of women ministers, yellow fever, and contemporary events. The second series contains primarily nineteenth century correspondence of the extended family of Townsend and Mary Brinton (Jones) Sharpless. It includes letters written by Henry H. G. Sharpless during his European tour and extensive correspondence received by Ezekiel Hunn who served briefly in the Union Army during the Civil War.

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

Stackhouse Family Papers, 1804-1951 (inclusive) 1820-1916 (bulk) (bulk)

Extent:: 3.5 linear ft. (5 hollinger boxes and 1 carton)
Abstract:: The Stackhouse family was a Pennsylvania and New Jersey Quaker family with roots in the earliest settlement of America. The papers include diaries, ledgers, correspondence and other family papers and voluminous genealogical research conducted by Powell Stackhouse, Jr. They were united by the descendants of two sons of Amos and Mary (Powell) Stackhouse who shared an interest in family history. Powell Stackhouse, Jr., (1827-1900) was a real estate lawyer and conveyancer who pursued a "scientific" method of genealogical research in the 1890s. His cousin, Dr. Asa Matlack Stackhouse (1845-1916) also was interested in publishing a family genealogy, a project that was assumed but not completed by his son, William R. Stackhouse. Of special interest are family letters including a group which concerns Sharon Boarding School in Darby, Pennsylvania, and a small number of account books and diaries.

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