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Thomas Elsa Jones papers

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Held at: Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections [Contact Us]370 Lancaster Ave, Haverford, PA 19041

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.

Overview and metadata sections

Thomas Elsa Thomas (1888-1973) was born March 22, 1888, in Fairmount, Indiana. He graduated from Earlham College in 1912, attended Hartford Theological Seminary from 1912 to 1915, earned his master's from Columbia University in 1917, and received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1926. He married Ester A. Balderston in 1917, who died in 1967. Jones held various posts with Ester through Friends Mission in Japan (1917-1924), and was a professor of economics and political science at Columbia University Graduate School (1924-1926).

Thomas was the president of Fisk University from 1926 to 1946, and was the youngest college president in the United States at the time. He was the president of Earlham College from 1946 to 1958, and then was an administrative consultant for the Association of American Colleges from 1958 to 1962. In 1968, he married Elizabeth W. Furnas, who died in 1972. Thomas died in 1973.

(source: Dictionary of Quaker Biography)

This collection contains materials relating to the South African apartheid, including correspondence, notes, draft reports, reports, essays, and other materials related to apartheid, racial justice, and Quaker involvement in these movements.

Unknown.

Processed by Mary A. Crauderueff; completed March, 2016.

Publisher
Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections
Finding Aid Author
Mary A. Crauderueff
Finding Aid Date
March, 2016
Access Restrictions

The collection is open for research use.

Use Restrictions

Standard Federal Copyright Laws Apply (U.S. Title 17).

Collection Inventory

Reports of Friends Detention, undated.
Box 23 Folder 1
Scope and Contents

Includes typed and handwritten notes about South Africa and apartheid, also includes handwritten "Native Policy and the Society of Friends."

Apartheid materials, 1938-1939, undated.
Box 23 Folder 2
Scope and Contents

Includes correspondence, reports, and an essay titled "Quakers and Racial Justice." Correspondence includes copies of letters between Rufus M. Jones and Clarence Pickett, and letters to and from Thomas Elsa Jones, including with Rufus Jones and Clarence Pickett.

Oxford World Conference of Friends, 1952.
Box 23 Folder 3
Scope and Contents

Includes two drafts of Section IIIB - Friends and Racial Justice for a Joint Report of British and American Friends, for which Jones was a co-chairman.

Reports and Correspondence, 1939-1946.
Box 23 Folder 4
Scope and Contents

Contains drafts and correspondence relating to report called "Methods of Achieving Racial Justice," co-authored with John Harris of the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines Protection Society in England. Correspondents include Harris and Clarence Pickett.

Max Yeargan's paper, undated.
Box 23 Folder 5
Scope and Contents

Includes typed copy of paper and Thomas' handwritten notes. Topic of paper is South Africa and labor/wages.

Photographs, 1939.
Box 23 Folder 6
Scope and Contents

This folder includes photographs from a 1938 trip to South Africa by Jones. The photographs are mostly unlabeled, and include people, village scenery, and landscapes.

Print, Suggest