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St. David's Church (Radnor, Pa.) records
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Held at: Historical Society of Pennsylvania [Contact Us]1300 Locust Street, Philadelphia, PA, 19107
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 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
At the end of the seventeenth century, Welsh settlers had begun to settle the land in what is now Radnor, Pennsylvania. These Welsh settlers were followers of the Church of England and were left without a minister to lead them in services. On September 2, 1700, the first service of the parish was led by a missionary named William Davis, who was sent by the Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts. When he returned to England, the community petitioned the Society for a Welsh-speaking minister and religious books. Reverend John Clubb was appointed the missionary to Radnor Oxford and the cornerstone for the church was laid May 9, 1715.
The parish experienced internal strife several decades after its founding when war broke out between the colonies and England. The pastor at the time was Reverend William Currie, who felt compelled to follow the doctrine of the Church of England even as his parishioners, including his sons and General Anthony Wayne, took up arms against England. He soon found he was unable to ignore the opposition of even his family members, and Currie resigned in 1776.
St. David’s Church found itself without a minister during the Revolutionary War. By 1788, Reverend Slator Clay was the pastor of St. David’s Church as well as St. Peter’s Church and St. James’ Church. Clay also sought the incorporation of the parish and drew up a charter in 1792.
The parish continued to grow as it entered the nineteenth century, and the parish’s first school was established in 1820; this was also the first year for confirmation services conducted by Bishop William White. Then in the 1830s, the expanding railroads changes the make-up of the parish. More urban parishioners were now able to attend services at St. David’s Church, so a new rectory was built in 1844, making this the first addition to the parish structures since the establishment of the church.
In 1924, a parish house with room for the school was added to the church grounds, and then enlarged in 1950. The construction done in 1950 occurred during the tenure of Reverend John Knewstub, who served as rector of St. David’s Church until 1966. Following the construction of the parish house, a chapel and the Knewstub building (an education facility) were erected in 1956 and 1965, respectively. 1965 was the same year that the parish celebrated its 250th anniversary, which included a visit from the bishop of St. David’s Church in Wales. Currently St. David’s parishioners number over one thousand families.
The records of St. David’s Church span three hundred years, from 1706 to 2006, with some materials lacking dates. The bulk of the collection dates to the late twentieth century. The records offer insight into the activities of the parishioners, the responsibilities of the different parish committees and groups (e.g., the vestry), the tenures of the clergy persons, and the history of the church. The records have been divided into four series – Administration, Parish history, Sermons of Thomas G. Clemson, and Printed materials and images. The majority of the collection can be found in the administration series and the smallest amount of materials is found in the parish history series. The collection totals thirty boxes, with the originally- processed portion in Boxes 1 to 22 and recently-proccessed additions in Boxes 23 to 30; thirty-four volumes; and fifteen flat files.
The first series, Administration, is comprised of six subseries ( Registers; Vestry committee; Other committees; Financial and legal; Clergy files; Miscellaneous) and spans 1706 to 2005. It represents the largest and most comprehensive series in the collection. The registers encompass the parish’s service records, registers of the different ceremonies performed at the church (e.g., marriages, baptisms), and guest registers, which contain visitor information. The vestry committee records as well as the third subseries of other committees are comprised mainly of meeting minutes and a small amount of correspondence. The fourth subseries in Administration consists of a small amount of financial and legal papers pertaining to the church. The fifth subseries, Clergy files, is a record of many of the clergy persons who have held positions at St. David’s Church for three centuries. The files are in alphabetical order according to clergy person and the materials and biographies appear to have been compiled around 2002. The last subseries contains miscellaneous items including architectural papers, correspondence, and donations and memorials for the church.
Books, other printed materials, and notes on the history of St. David’s Church have been placed in the second series, Parish history. Two figures are represented among these materials, Francis James Dallett, and Henry Pleasants, both of whom compiled notes on the history of the church and published works about St. David’s. Of note is Dallett’s research concerning Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who wrote a poem about his visit to the church in the nineteenth century. The papers concerning several parish anniversary celebrations have been placed in this series.
The third series, Sermons of Thomas G. Clemson, is comprised of five boxes of Clemson’s sermons mainly from 1859 to 1881 and several letters from the late twentieth century discussing his sermons. There are a group of sermons that are in poor condition and, since they need further repairs, are not available for research at this time.
Printed materials and images consists mainly of the publications of St. David’s Church – The Record, Newsletter, and The Dove. There is also a great number of photographs in this series, mostly of the exterior and interior of the church from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A scrapbook containing pictures of the church and articles about the church created by Francis James Dallett in 1978 has been placed in this series. Other pictures in this series are scanned photographs from parish events. Most of the materials in this collection, including vestry minutes, the publications, photographs, donations and memorials information, and the clergy files, have been saved to compact discs (Boxes 22 and 30). Many of these CDs were most likely created in 2002 in preparation for the donation of some materials to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania by a parish committee. They have been placed in this series.
Series I. Administration, ca. 1706-2005
a. Registers, ca. 1706-2001
b. Vestry Committee, 1737-2005, undated
c. Other committees, 1713-2005, undated
d. Financial and legal, 1791-2004, undated
e. Clergy Files, [1714]-2005, undated
f. Miscellaneous, 1871-2003, undated
Series II. Parish history, ca. 1740-2003, undated
Series III. Sermons of Rev. Thomas G. Clemson, 1821-2001
Series IV. Printed materials and images, ca. 1811-2006, undated
Early records dating from 1705-1961 were deposited by St. David's Church in 1947 and 1961. Remaining records are gifts of of the church, c/o John Montgomery, 2001-2010.
Accession numbers: 010402.10, 2004.035, 2005.113, 2006.048, 2010.064
Box 21 contains sermons from Series 3 that are still in need of extensive conservation and are not serviceable to researchers.
People
- Clemson, Thomas G. (Episcopalian minister).
- Dallett, Francis James, 1927-.
- Hughes, Griffith, b. 1706 or 1707.
- Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 1807-1882.
- Pleasants, Henry.
- Wayne, Anthony, 1745-1796.
Organization
- Episcopal Church – Clergy.
- Episcopal Church – Pennsylvania.
- Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (Great Britain).
- St. David’s Church (Radnor, Pa.) - History .
- St. David’s Church (Radnor, Pa.) – Anniversaries, etc.
- St. David’s Church (Radnor, Pa.) – Articles of incorporation.
- St. David’s Church (Radnor, Pa.) – By-laws.
- St. David’s Church (Radnor, Pa.) – In literature.
Subject
- Cemeteries–-Pennsylvania
- Church bulletins
- Church records and registers—Pennsylvania
- Church--Anniversaries, etc
- Church--Archives
- Church--Articles of Incorporation
- Church--By-laws
- Church--Registers
- Episcopalians--Sermons
- Episcopalians--Social life and customs
- Marriage records--Pennsylvania
- Registers of births, etc.--Pennsylvania
- Religious architecture--19th century
- Religious architecture--20th century
- Selling cemetery lots –- 20th century
- Vestry papers
- Welsh Americans--Pennsylvania
Place
- Publisher
- Historical Society of Pennsylvania
- Finding Aid Author
- Finding aid prepared by Joanne Danifo.
- Finding Aid Date
- , 2007.
- Sponsor
- Processing made possible by generous donations from St. David's Church.
- Access Restrictions
-
The collection is open for research.
Collection Inventory
The Service Record books provide the following information: date of service, time, number of people in attendance, nature of service (Holy Communion, Children’s service litany, Sunday school), officiating clergy, and monetary offering total. Whether the service took place in the chapel or the church was also noted. Frequently remarks were made about the weather conditions the day of the service. Volume 2 has the combination for a safe on the inside front cover. In Volume 4, a confirmation service and font dedication are noted.
In the marriage registers, the church documented the marriage ceremonies in chronological order and each volume contains an index. Both the name of the groom and the bride are indexed in the front of each register offering the page with their marriage record. Each marriage record includes the name of the bride, groom, and their parents; the ages and residences of the bride and groom; whether the parties were widowed at the time of the marriage; and the signatures of the witnesses to the ceremony and the officiating minister. Often, the marriage license number is noted at the top of the page as well as the county in which it was obtained. Also, the location of the wedding was noted if the ceremony did not take place at St. David’s Church. Two other documents relating to marriages in the parish are a note certifying the marriage of Elizabeth Lewis and Thomas Gibson on May 18, 1741, and a list of marriage licenses on file at St. David’s Church as of February 5, 1952. This list documents the names of the licensees, the date of their marriage, and the county in which it occurred.
A visitor signed his or her name and provided the day of the visit and hometown in the guest registers (volumes 19-23). Sometimes there was a space to indicate who introduced the visitor to the church. The guest register from 1982 to 1991, which has been removed from its binder and foldered, consists of the visitors’ names, home address, date they visited the church, and general comments. Examples of some comments were that the church was a “peaceful place,” “impressive,” and “quietly inviting.” The guest registers span from 1926 to 1991 with few gaps in the record.
The parish register combines the lists of communicants, baptisms, marriages, confirmations, and burials into one volume with an index of names. The communicants section of the book provides the date one entered the church and notes concerning marriages and deaths. The baptism section consists of the name of the baptized person; birth date; location of birth; baptismal date; gender; the names of his or her parents; the names of the sponsors; and the officiating minister. Besides noting the date of the ceremony, the confirmation section provides the name of the officiating bishop. The marriage section has the same information that is provided in the previously mentioned marriage registers. The location of interment; cause of death; date of death; and minister are listed in the burial section of this volume.
The register of communicants (Volume 25) contains the same information as the communicants section of the parish register. This includes the name of the communicant, date received, how and when received, and memoranda. The volume has a name index.
A record book (Volume 26) has been placed in this series, which contains some of the earliest information about the church in this collection. With information dating to about 1706, this volume consists of various meeting minutes (e.g. vestry, congregation, Society for Propagating the Gospel); birth dates of parishioners including various members of the Morgan family; subscription (frequently for pews) and debt payments received by the church. The vestry men often settled disputes arising from the purchase of land for pews. In 1747, brothers Isaac and Francis Wayne each laid claim to a pew location belonging to the late Anthony Wayne (most likely the grandfather of Revolutionary general Anthony Wayne) and John Hunter. Eventually the matter was settled and each brother received part of the land on which the pew was located. There are also records of payments made for building maintenance – “settled with Samuel Pugh for his mason work at the church wall and horse block.” The church’s article of incorporation dated July 24, 1791 has also been recorded in this volume. Volume 27 is a photocopy of this Volume 26.
Volume 28, the rector’s record, contains a combination of the records previously mentioned. The parish’s baptisms, marriages, and burials were recorded in this volume. Of note in this volume is 1903 correspondence between former pastor Thomas Yocom and J.H. Lamb in which Yocom informed Lamb of a mistake in an entry for a marriage from 1861.
The parish directories (membership list in 1956) are alphabetical listings of the clergy and parishioners of St. David’s Church and were mostly given to the people in the parish. In the earlier directories, the parishioners’ street addresses and phone numbers are listed, but by 1989 the directories took the form of a photo album. Parishioners submitted pictures of their families to be placed in the directory with captions identifying those pictured without giving further personal information.
Registers dated 1982-1991 are in Box 16, Folders 27-28.
The Vestry Committee consists of about 12 members of the parish and has an administrative role in the parish as set forth in the act of incorporation from March 22, 1951. For example, the members tended to church business in the absence of the rector. The Vestry Committee of St. David’s Church held its meetings in several locations, including the vestry room (main location), the racquet club, and the parish house. This subseries is comprised mainly of the committee’s meeting minutes. The earlier minutes (volumes 29-30) represent a small portion of the vestry records in this collection. The 1902 meeting minutes are a memorial to the late rector George Alexander Kellor.
From the 1940s to the 1960s, the committee was concerned with a variety of activities in the parish. Meetings were held about every two months and the rector’s report and warden’s report were read aloud. The warden was the financial officer and his report offered information about the incomes and expenditures for the parish’s graveyard accounts, memorial parish house, and missions. There were also Real Estate and Finance committees within the Vestry Committee. The former oversaw the sextons and the church grounds.
Events of note in the meeting minutes of this time period, include the retirement letter of Reverend Crosswell McBee (April 2, 1945) and discussion of his successor (June 1, 1945) and the planning of the parish’s 250th anniversary. The April 1957 minutes shed light on the different people involved with the vestry – secretaries, treasurer, sexton (who was a salaried employee), organist, choirmaster, Real Estate, Finance, and Audit committees, and delegates to diocesan convention. Also mixed throughout the meeting minutes are the annual congregation meeting minutes; “regulations governing the sale, use, and care of burial lots;” and a large amount of financial information, such as operating account information (see 1.d. for further financial information). The 1966 minutes note Rector Reverend Knewstub’s death and the parish’s attempt to aid his family, which was in debt after his death (June-July 1966).
Starting in the 1970s, meeting minutes discuss the endowment; the establishment of a “St. David’s memorial fund” to care for the “grounds and buildings with priority given to the old church and graveyard” (1973); the nursery school’s enrollment; outside projects (e.g., daycares, blood drives); building of a new rectory, school building, and chapel; the addition of an atrium room to the Knewstub Building; the establishment of the “every member visitation” committee, which was charged with block collections for the church; and profiles of different commissions within the vestry. These committees included: Worship (people involved in services-acolytes, music), Fellowship (men and women’s fellowships, coffee hour, fair committee), Youth, and Christian Education (people in charge of getting speakers, organizing dinners, prayer group).
The correspondence of various members of the Vestry Committee has been placed in this subseries. William P. Morris served as the secretary of the vestry in the early twentieth century and his correspondence touches on the proposal to replace the church’s pulpit in 1912; the relationship between church funds and money placed in the Old Eagle Legacy Fund; and the closure of Church Road (see 1.d. for more about Church Road). The letters of Accounting Warden Henry P. Conner, Francis R. Wood, and R. Brognard (the latter two were most likely wardens too) were also concerned with the closure of Church Road.
The correspondence of William P. Drake and Rector John Knewstub occurred after the tenure of Morris, Conner, Wood, and Brognard. Drake was secretary of the vestry in the 1950s and his letters date to 1955. He wrote to the congregation about the church expansion and the congregation meeting; these printed, formal letters were most likely widely circulated. Knewstub’s correspondence, which has been placed in this subseries, informed the congregation about parish meetings, Sunday school, a new group therapy program, and money needed for capital improvements. There is also a letter to Knewstub from Charles Caroll Suffren, in which Suffren recollects the circumstances under which Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote his poem about St. David’s Church. The general vestry correspondence has been placed here.
Vestry meeting minutes from July 1990 to December 2001 are in Boxs 23 to 25. A copy of the vestry meeting minutes (1894-1990, 2002-2005) is on a CD found in Box 22, except for the folders labeled “secretary’s file.” These papers are most likely more informal minutes for the use of the vestry secretary with his personal notes.
Besides the Vestry Committee, there were several other committees that held various roles at St. David’s Church. In this subseries, the oldest records were produced by the Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts. There are typed abstracts of meeting minutes that date to the 1700s. They discuss the appointment of Mr. Clubb as the church’s missionary, most likely to Barbados.
The committee of Episcopal Churchwomen was reactivated in 1977 in order to help with the church fair, meals on wheels, and hospital visits. According to the committee records, the members “provide a working background for spiritual growth and leadership among the women of our parish, to aid our Church where we are able, and to minister to the needs of others.”
There are also records relating to the Altar Society and its later incarnation, the Altar Guild. This body oversaw the objects placed on the church’s altar – candles, plates, and linens. The papers include member lists, correspondence thanking people for donations, handbooks, and lists of altar hangings and who they memorialize.
According to its records, the Historical Committee was appointed in 1950 to “preserve the books, records, and relics relating to St. David’s Church.” The materials in this part of the collection relate to the committee’s activities tracing the history of the parish, its grounds, and parishioners; the committee is most likely responsible for the biographical information in the clergy files (see 1.e.). Of note are the 1953 meeting minutes, which mention that the church gave some records (3 record books and a minute book) to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania for safe-keeping. When the committee reformed in the 1980s, the records show that it had begun to organize the church materials and create an archives and a type of collections management system. The members were separating manuscripts, photos, maps, scrapbooks; making inventories for each category, and recording the supplies needed. The members divided themselves into three groups to accomplish their organizational goals – manuscripts, books, and photographs. Martin Snyder was the chairman of the committee in the 1950s and his correspondence dealt with donations of pictures, the preservation of the church, and the history of changes to the building.
The other committees represented in this collection are the Parish Fair, Horticultural, and Parish Council committees. They are mainly meeting minutes and lists of members. The Parish Fair Committee records are rich with information about the planning of the annual event (e.g., expenses for booths, floorplans).
The financial records in this collection consist of bills, receipts, fundraising papers, stewardship program papers, budget information and appeal letters. Most of the records are from the twentieth century, but some bills and receipts date to the 1800s. One bill is for “work done on the Radnor church burial ground in 1809.” There is also information about the church’s account with John Brook and his payment for “bushels of limes.” Another set of items reveals that parishioners were not happy with decisions by the church administration regarding use of money from fundraising efforts; some people wrote letters withdrawing from the parish. There are many legacies, which represented money someone gave “to be invested in legal securities” with profits going to the upkeep of their burial plot. There are also records concerning the Old Eagle School Legacy Fund (the church put money in this fund) with financial reports.
The church’s constitution and by-laws; burial plot records; and materials dealing with the closing of Church Road comprise the legal records. The burial plot records include a 1916 deed allowing subdivision of land for burial plots. The church’s articles of incorporation (both original and subsequent copies) are also among the legal records and they offer specific information about the roles of the vestry and rector, administration of the church land, and investments. The majority of legal records discuss the closing of Church Road as early as 1913. Radnor Township decided on July 28, 1916, that the road should be closed because it was burdensome but the church opposed this decision. On August 19, 1916, the rector, church warden, and vestrymen filed for a jury of review in Court of Quarter Sessions in Delaware County stating that the closure would cause “loss, inconvenience, and damage to the people of St. David’s.” In 1919, the courts overturned the decision and opened the road. The appellants’ books from the case are also included.
The clergy files are folders containing biographical information, articles, family pictures, programs, letters, papers produced by the clergy person, and other papers concerning clergy persons who have served St. David’s Church. These files, arranged alphabetically, were most likely compiled by the Historical Committee in 2002. Each file has a research sheet and biographical information created by historian Francis James Dallett (see Series 2). The facts on the biographical sheets specify the clergy persons’ church position (e.g., temporary rector), birth date, death date, dates at the church, family information, education, and responsibilities at St. David’s. Dating these materials was difficult because many are scans or photocopies. Brackets around a year signify the year the original document was produced, but that the document in the collection is a reproduction. Also included, an article by Dallett, “Griffith Hughes Dissected,” profiles Hughes, a naturalist and missionary to Barbados.
The clergy files are included on the CDs in Boxes 22 and 30.
The records in this subseries mainly include various inventories and donation lists. People purchased many items for the church, such as linens, candles, and communion plates. There is also information about appraisals done by Samuel T. Freeman and Company. The vestry room was inventoried around 1975 and that list is among these papers. There is correspondence between Rev. Richard Hess and Richard DuPont regarding the history the “DuPont Chair,” which was donated to the church. A list of the records the church donated to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in the 1950s is among these materials.
There is also a group of records concerning the vestry room and architecture projects. Correspondence between Henry Pleasants and Joseph Sharp discussing the vestry room addition dates to 1871 (letter is a scan of the original). Then a letter from 1874 mentions the construction of a walkway on the church grounds. Also included are an 1893 article protesting architectural changes accompanied by the architect’s specifications, a timeline tracing architectural changes to the church and graveyard between 1700 and 1993, and several large sketches and blueprints.
In 1940, George Harrison, treasurer of the Philadelphia Branch of the American-English Ambulance Corps, wrote to Reverand Crosswell McBee urging him to donate to the war effort after he had said it was not the church’s “affair.” The church gave the corps $1350 on October 3, 1940, for which there is an acknowledgement, newspaper picture, and two photographs.
The other items in this subseries include burial lot plans, gravestone rubbings, and a lecture penned by an unknown author titled “On Atonements,” with a written reflection on the lecture.
The donation and inventory information can be found on CD in Box 22.
other miscellaneous items dealing with the past events of the parish, its establishment, and its place in the history of Pennsylvania. Much of the parish history materials consists of the research and writings of University of Pennsylvania archivist Francis James Dallett and Henry Pleasants. Another copy of Dallett’s article “Griffith Hughes Dissected” has been placed here as well as his correspondence. Dallett corresponded with Reverend Hess of St. David’s in the 1970s about his research into the parish’s history. Dallett was also interested in Longfellow’s connection to St. David’s and he wrote to Andrew Hilen, a professor at the University of Washington, who sent Dallett copies of Longfellow letters that were in his possession. Also among Dallett’s papers is research into Longfellow and General Anthony Wayne, who was a member of the parish. There are typed transcriptions of Longfellow correspondence (Box 10 Folder 25). “The Beginning of the Church” was a thesis written by William Hershey in 1964 and the copy in this collection has corrections written by an unknown person.
A scan of an Anthony Wayne letter was a gift to the church. In the letter, Wayne tells Wilkinson, who is at Fort Jefferson, about the state of affairs with several Native American tribes. Wayne writes that a white man living among the Indians (captured at one point) told him that British agents were dissuading the Indians from peace talks and were giving them arms as long as they continued to fight the Americans.
Materials dealing with various parish anniversaries have been placed in this series, because they often include historical sketches of the church. There are programs, articles, and an address delivered by Samuel Pennypacker profiling the church at the 200th anniversary in 1915. In 1976, the church organized a special tour of St. David’s in commemoration of the nation’s bicentennial. The tour guide book contains a lot of information about the history of the parish in order to aid the people conducting the tours. The 300th anniversary of the parish was noted by the 106th Congress on September 28, 2000 (Box 16 Folder 30). The House of Representatives declared March 1st “St. David’s Day” in honor of Welsh Americans (Box 16 Folder 31).
The church’s application for Pennsylvania’s Register of Historic Sites and Landmarks was resubmitted in 1977 and has been placed here because Dallett was involved in the application. Two other items that are loosely connected to parish history and can be found in this series are George Robison’s music and vocals book and a lecture titled “On Atonements” by an unknown author. The music and vocals book consists of short odes written for several towns in the United Kingdom. These two objects have been placed with the parish history items due to their age – the book is from 1785 and the lecture is from some time between 1740 and 1835.
Copies of the anniversary papers can be found on CD in Boxes 22 and 30.
The sermons of Reverend Thomas G. Clemson, who was the rector of St. David’s Church from 1861 to 1866, represent some of the oldest materials in this collection. Most of the sermons were written between 1859 and 1872. Each sermon is a little hand-written pamphlet and the date reflects the year the sermon was first delivered (subsequent years are often listed on the sermon). The sermons also have various locations listed on them, most likely referring to the placed where the sermons were delivered. The following Pennsylvania and New York locations are mentioned: Radnor, Holmesburg, Claymont, Port Kennedy, Amsterdam, Potsdam, Morristown, Clyde, and Aurora.
The sermons are numbered 1 to 255 with some miscellaneous Lenten sermons at the end. Each sermon begins with a scripture passage and often has a title. Some titles include: “The Intellectual Difference From the Spiritual,” “The Study of the Bible,” “Mercy and Not Sacrifice,” “The True Philosophy of Religion,” “Good and Bad Foundations,” and “Missions: The Necessity of the Missions and the Glory of the Work.”
1980s correspondence discussing the donation of the sermons has been placed with them. Eleanor Smith gave the sermons to Reverend Hess and the historical committee in 1983, and then John L. Montgomery, who was in charge of the church’s archives, corresponded with the American Philosophical Society in 2001 to see what Clemson materials could be found there.
There are sermons that require further conservation in Box 21 and are not available to researchers until the conservation is completed. They do not appear to be part of the sequence of sermons 1 to 255.
Due to their poor condition, the sermons in Box 22 are closed to researchers until further notice.
There is a large number of pictures in this collection and they range in date, with many lacking dates. There are many shots of the church (especially the exterior), the graveyard, and the grounds. There are also several pictures of church doorways and the altar. If no date was noted, someone often tried to pinpoint the year by observing the different architectural features present in the photograph. For example, one picture dates to before 1811 because it is “without the Wayne monument.” Many pictures have been scanned and these scans accompany the original picture, photograph, engraving, or postcard. The more recent pictures show architectural projects for Harrison Memorial Parish House and chapel in 2002. There are also scanned photographs from the parish fairs and choir trip that have been printed out. The pictures that are on CD in Box 22 have been printed out as well and placed in Box 16 (the files are numbered 1-94); the originals can be found throughout the collection. Most of the pictures on the CD have a caption describing the scanned picture, photograph, or postcard.
John Montgomery scanned a photo album belonging to his uncle Edward Halsey. Montgomery stated that the pictures depict “Uncle Ned’s Wayne” and wrote a biography of his uncle that accompanies the pictures. Francis James Dallett compiled pictures and articles with information dating to the nineteenth century into a scrapbook in 1978 (Volume 34).
The printed materials in this last series mainly consist of the St. David’s Church bulletin. This publication was originally titled The Record, then The Newsletter from 1969 to 1975, and The Dove after 1975. Originally issued on a quarterly basis and then more frequently after the 1950s, the bulletin announced events, updates on construction, deaths, baptisms, weddings, communicants, activities of the different social groups, and the church fair. The first issue of The Dove mentions the origins of the name: the legend of St. David says he was giving a speech, having been known as a great orator, and the ground below him raised and a dove perched on his shoulder.
A separate publication, Mission and Ministry, showcased the ways in which parishioners could be involved at the church and highlights the work of different church groups (e.g., Fellowship Commission, Christian Education Commission, Youth Commission, Worship Commission, St. David’s Supper Club). It seems to have been released annually.
In 1978, the Women’s Auxiliary of St. David’s Church compiled A Cookbook for All Seasons with recipes from parishioners.
The ephemera consist of scans of flyers and The Dove articles relating to the church fair and auction art show, anniversary, and Christmas pageant articles. Other items in this series include a poster for an art exhibition and sale, a few articles about Anthony Wayne’s gravesite, three copies of the seal for the Society for Propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts, and some church stationery.
Most of the images depicting the church and grounds and parish events, the postcards, and issues of The Record and The Dove until 2005 are represented on CDs in Boxes 22 and 30.
The CDs in Boxes 22 and 30 contain scans of material that have been or will be delivered to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and cover the contents of twenty-five of St. David’s library albums of archival material. Additional research material has been added and updated by the donor. The majority of the material on the CDs is the images and publications found elsewhere in this series.