Call Number:

MC.950.095

Repository:

Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections

Extent:

.2 linear ft. (3 folders)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Joseph Haines papers (HC.MC.950.095), Quaker & Special Collections, Haverford College, Haverford, PA.

Date:

1917-2002 (inclusive)

Creator:

Haines, William Henry and Haines, Joseph H.

Form:

Correspondence and clippings (information artifacts)

Abstract:

This collection is comprised of three folders of the papers of Joseph H. Haines.

Joseph Howell Haines (1878-1957) was the son of William Henry Haines and Mary [Howell] Haines, and a member of Germantown Monthly Meeting. He graduated from Haverford College in 1898. With the establishment of the American Friends Service Committee, Joseph Haines served in France with its [WWI] Reconstruction Unit at Gruny (Somme) and in the Paris Office. In 1920, he was in England, later in the Paris Office and attending the Executive Committee meetings of the Friends War Victims Relief Committee. He returned home briefly in 1920, then traveled back to England. In 1921, he traveled in France with Ben Hoffman and George Lippincott, and then in England. Joseph Haines married 1. Helen Whitall and 2. Margaret Mary Clark. On April 30, 1917, representatives of Five Years' Meeting, Friends General Conference and Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (Orthodox) (all Quaker bodies) met and created the Friends National Service Committee, soon renamed the American Friends Service Committee. The original vision was to provide conscientious objectors with opportunities to do relief work in France during World War I, which consisted of building, repairing, agriculture, horticulture, sanitation, medical aid, social work and feeding. Haines seemed to consider this work to be his calling.

This collection is comprised of three folders of the papers of Joseph H. Haines. The collection includes primarily letters of Joseph Haines to his father, William H. Haines, dated 1917-1921, reporting on conditions in France during World War I and giving detailed accounts of a day's activities for Haines working for the Reconstruction Unit of the American Friends Service Committee, including building and repairing houses and schools, assisting local people, and altogether offering a picture of life in Gruny and other parts of France, especially Paris, during World War I (ca. 125 items). There is also a single folder of newspaper clippings related to World War I.