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Morgan Bunting Genealogical Research Papers, ca. 1710-1938 (inclusive)

Extent:
0.75 linear ft. (2 boxes)
Abstract:
Morgan Bunting (1863-1929) was a member of the Society of Friends in Darby, Pa., and a descendant of Samuel Bunting (1692-1759) who emigrated from England in the early eighteenth century. An architect by occupation, Bunting had an avid interest in Darby history and genealogy. The collection includes correspondence and genealogical papers concerning the Sellers, Cadwallader, Bartram, and Coleman families. There are also some original documents concerning the Bunting family, including deeds, wills, and an acknowledgment of Samuel Bunting to the Darby Monthly Meeting (1755), as well as a letter from William Poole to Edward Garrigues, 1825.

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

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Lightfoot Family Manuscripts, 1737-ca. 1948 (inclusive)

Extent:
1.5 linear ft. (3 boxes)
Abstract:
The Lightfoot family was a Pennsylvania Quaker family descended from Thomas Lightfoot, a Quaker minister who emigrated from Ireland to Kennett Monthly Meeting in 1716 with his family. The collection includes three journals which have been attributed to his grandson Thomas on the basis of contextual detail. These accounts document visits to meetings in the mid Atlantic region, New Jersey to Virginia, from 1757 to 1760. Jacob Lightfoot, a son of Thomas and Sarah Lightfoot, married Mary Bonsall, a prominent Quaker minister. The journal of her 1757 religious visit with Grace Fisher to Quaker meetings in the Concord Quarter is included in the collection. Mary and Jacob's grandson, Thomas Lightfoot, was an Indian Agent in southeastern Nebraska during the period of Quaker involvement in President U.S. Grant's "peace policy." Another descendent, Thomas Montgomery Lightfoot, did extensive genealogical research on the Quaker families that settled in Maiden Creek. The papers of Thomas and Mary...(see more)

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

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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]

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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]

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Leon Gardiner collection of American Negro Historical Society records, 1860-1890 (bulk) 1715-1962, undated (inclusive)

Extent:
8.5 linear feet (, 15 boxes, 35 volumes)
Abstract:
The American Negro Historical Society was founded in 1897 by a group of Philadelphia blacks to study and preserve materials documenting the American black experience. Among the founders and early members were Robert Adger, W.M. Dorsey and Jacob C. White, Jr., who donated materials to the society, some of which are present in the collection. The collection is composed of administrative records of the society and materials collected by some of its members, including correspondence, minutes, reports, financial documents, membership lists, records of lectures and debates, library catalogues, baseball lineup and scorecards, speeches, printed matter, and portraits of distinguished black leaders and abolitionists.

Held at: Historical Society of Pennsylvania [Contact Us]

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Simon Gratz autograph collection, 1343-1928

Extent:
190.0 linear feet (; 633 boxes (18 volumes in boxes))
Abstract:
The collection was assembled by Simon Gratz, Philadelphia lawyer, school board member, and trustee of the Free Library. He began collecting at age 17 and, by the time he died, amassed about 175,000 manuscripts and portrait engravings and lithographs. Many of the latter he personally commissioned. In 1916 he became a vice-president of the Historical Society. Gratz continued until the end of his life to deal with such notable American collectors as George Brinley, Louis J. Cist, Adrien Joline, Charles J. Jones, E.H. Leffingwell, and Joseph J. Mickley. The dealers with whom he dealt included Charavay in Paris, Naylor and Maggs in London, Cohn in Berlin, Benjamin in New York, and A.S.W. Rosenbach in Philadelphia. The records of his transactions survive from 1861 to 1925 in his "Autograph Journals." On January 1, 1925, Gratz noted that his collection had, because of astute sales and exchanges, "cost less than nothing." Gratz acquired his collection by exchange with and purchase from a...(see more)

Held at: Historical Society of Pennsylvania [Contact Us]

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Simon Gratz autograph collection, 1517-1925 (inclusive)

Extent:
130.4 linear feet (; 326 boxes)
Abstract:
This autograph collection was created by Simon Gratz, starting in his late teens. A myriad of documents are included and represent Gratz’s philosophy of collecting and the many relationships he formed with other collectors in the United States and abroad. Contained here are autographed letters, legal documents, and artifacts from many prominent and well known figures and personalities in the arts, religion, government, education, and military. While there are some non-substantive letters written to Gratz much of the collection includes correspondence between prominent women and men across classes, professions, and nationalities. The collection dates from the sixteenth century to the early twentieth century. Besides date range, this collection differs slightly from the Simon Gratz collection (#250A) in its alphabetical arrangement, compared to the arrangement by categories/subjects (Case) in #250A. One other distinction in this collection are the personal letters and papers of Simon...(see more)

Held at: Historical Society of Pennsylvania [Contact Us]

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Andrew Atkinson Humphreys papers, 1850-1879 (bulk) 1708-1930, undated (inclusive)

Extent:
69.0 linear feet (120 boxes, 76 volumes, 15 flat files)
Abstract:
The papers of Andrew Atkinson Humphreys span the course of Humphreys's career, including his service in the Second Seminole War, his work as a civil engineer on surveys along the U.S. coast and the Mississippi River, as chief of staff for General George Meade; and as head of the United States Corps of Topographical Engineers. The collection consists of correspondence, orders, reports, payment vouchers, ephemera, maps, survey data, drafts and published works. The most significant groups of materials in this collection are documents from the Civil War, including muster rolls, reports, orders, and payment vouchers, which may have been collected when Humphreys served in the Army of the Potomac; and papers related to the survey of the Mississippi River in the 1850s and 1860s. Also of interest are Humphreys's later reflections on the Civil War in his notes and manuscripts for Gettysburg to the Rapidan and The Virginia Campaign. Also included in this...(see more)

Held at: Historical Society of Pennsylvania [Contact Us]

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Robert Proud collection, 1681-1811 (bulk) 1681-1903 (inclusive)

Extent:
2.8 linear feet (; 7 boxes and 1 flat file)
Abstract:
Robert Proud was born on May 10, 1728 in Yorkshire England, and was trained formally in a Quaker school in classical studies. He moved to Philadelphia in 1759, and by 1761 was teaching Latin at the Friends School. Proud was a staunch Loyalist. From 1775 to 1780, Proud left his teaching post and went into seclusion, where he began writing on various subjects. Most of his writings were never published. Also during these years, he worked extensively on what became his most best-known work, The History of Pennsylvania in North America. The book was highly unsuccessful, due to its Loyalist leanings, and some very strong inaccuracies. Robert Proud died in 1813 at the age of 85. The collection is arranged into two series, the first consisting mostly of handwritten copies and drafts of The History of Pennsylvania in North America, and primary source materials used in the book. The second series consists of memoranda, poetry, and other personal papers.

Held at: Historical Society of Pennsylvania [Contact Us]

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