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Buffalo Monthly Meeting Records

Notifications

Held at: Quaker Meeting Records at Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections and Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College [Contact Us]

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Quaker Meeting Records at Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections and Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College. 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

Buffalo Niagara Friends Group was established as a meeting for worship in 1939. In 1940 it became a United monthly meeting under Scipio United Quarterly Meeting. By the early 1950's, the meeting name did not always include Niagara, and Buffalo Meeting was used exclusively after 1953. This meeting remains active.

Records of Buffalo Monthly Meeting and of the Buffalo Niagara Friends Group, 1939-ongoing. Includes minutes (with most coverage pre-1970 and post-2012), the member files and related material of inactive members before 2020, newsletters, some material from the Ministry & Counsel Committee, and additional records, including a file on the Christ is the Answer International Fellowship, a meeting of Evangelical Friends under care of Buffalo. Minutes and newsletters deposited digitally beginning in 2020.

Divided into series: Minutes: 1.1 1939-1944, 1.2 1944-1955, 1.3 1955-1964, 1.4 1964-1970; Ministry & Counsel: 2.1 Clerk's files 1968-69; Newsletter: 3.1 1946-73, 3.2 1982-87, 3.3 1990-95; Miscellaneous: 4.1 State of Society Reports 1943-48, 4.2 Historical Notes on Vital Records 1982 & 1994, 4.3 Meeting History 1987.

Newsletters 1990-94 include minutes.

Transferred from Haviland Records Room by NYYM in 1997.

Deposit, 1997.

Publisher
Quaker Meeting Records at Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections and Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College
Finding Aid Author
Inventory prepared by: FHL Staff
Finding Aid Date
2007
Access Restrictions

Where available, access is through microfilm.

Use Restrictions

Information on reproduction policies available in the library.

Collection Inventory

RG2/NY/B837 1.1. Minutes, 1939-1944.
Volume 1.1
Existence and Location of Copies

Available on microfilm in the Library:

  1. Swarthmore: Microfilm MR-NY475
Physical Description

1 binder; 3.5 cm

Material Specific Details

Affiliation: United

RG2/NY/B837 1.2. Minutes, 1944-1955.
Box 1
Existence and Location of Copies

Available on microfilm in the Library:

  1. Swarthmore: Microfilm MR-NY475
Physical Description

2 folders

Material Specific Details

Affiliation: United

RG2/NY/B837 1.3. Minutes, 1955-1964.
Volume 1.3
Existence and Location of Copies

Available on microfilm in the Library:

  1. Swarthmore: Microfilm MR-NY476
Physical Description

1 binder; 3.5 cm

Material Specific Details

Affiliation: United

RG2/NY/B837 1.4. Minutes, 1964-1970.
Volume 1.4
Existence and Location of Copies

Available on microfilm in the Library:

  1. Swarthmore: Microfilm MR-NY476
Physical Description

1 binder; 4 cm

Material Specific Details

Affiliation: United

RG2/NY/B837 1.4. Minutes, 1974-1975.
Box 1
Physical Description

1 folder

Physical Location

Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College

RG2/NY/B837 1.5. Minutes, 1981-1998.
Box 1
Scope and Contents

This file is only occasional minutes from this time period.

Physical Description

1 folder

RG2/NY/B837 1.6-1.7. Minutes, 1999-2008.
Box 1
Scope and Contents

Minutes include gaps. Some months include reports from committees and treasurer's reports, most years include state of the meeting reports in some form.

Physical Description

2 folders

Material Specific Details

United

RG2/NY/B837 1.8-1.9. Minutes, 2012-2021.
Box 1
Scope and Contents

Minutes include gaps. Some months include reports from committees and treasurer's reports, most years include state of the meeting reports in some form.

Physical Description

2 folders

Material Specific Details

United

RG2/NY/B837. Minutes and advance documents (digital), 2020-2022.
Scope and Contents

File includes minutes of business meetings (with gaps), as well as some month's "advance documents" (agendas, committee and clerk reports, financial records, etc.)

Physical Description

34 files (DOC, PDF, XLS)

RG2/NY/N837 2.1-2.2. "Record Book I" [Membership files (inactive) and index], 1940-2016.
Box 1 Box 2
Scope and Contents

Removed from original record binders but maintained Buffalo MM's original order, with records in order of date of admission. The meeting also filed memorial minutes and related correpondence (applications for membership, reports from clearness committees, etc.) with the member record.

At end of file is an appendix of material with a table of contents, although not all material is present: "Historical Sketch of the Buffalo and Niagara Falls Monthly Meeting" (1946), partial list of births (1946), and partial lists of committee appointments and meeting service (1940-1954). At the end of the appendix is a name index of Record Book I.

Scope and Contents

2.1-2.2: Box 1; 2.3-2.4: Box 2

Physical Description

4 folders

Material Specific Details

United

RG2/NY/B837 2.5. Directories, circa 1940-1995.
Box 2
Physical Description

1 folder

RG2/NY/B837 2.6. Miscellaneous member files, 1975-2014.
Box 2
Physical Description

1 folder

RG2/NY/B837 2.7. Statistical Report, 1996, 1999.
Box 2
Physical Description

1 folder

Physical Location

Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College

RG2/NY/B837 4.1. State of Society Reports, 1943-1948.
Box 3
Physical Description

1 folder

Material Specific Details

Affiliation: United

RG2/NY/B837 4.2. Clerk's file, 1968-1969.
Box 3
Existence and Location of Copies

Available on microfilm in the Library:

  1. Swarthmore: Microfilm MR-NY476
Scope and Contents

Newton Garver's file of a year of clerking the Ministry and Counsel Committee. It has been paginated by an unknown hand (Haviland Records Room?) and includes a mix of Ministry and Counsel minutes, monthly meeting for business minutes, correspondence related to Ministry and Counsel business (including oversight of weddings under the care of the meeting and new member appeals), records related to Ministry and Counsel projects and proposals (including collaboration with Powell House), and reference material. Also includes correspondence to and from Louise Duus, clerk of Buffalo Monthly Meeting.

Physical Description

1 folder

Material Specific Details

Affiliation: United

RG2/NY/B837 4.3. Statistics and surveys, 1992-1994.
Box 3
Scope and Contents

This file includes scattered notes from the Ministry & Counsel Committee as well as a number of returned surveys from 1993 and 1994 to members about their spiritual experience in Meeting for Worship.

Physical Description

1 folder

RG2/NY/B837 5.1. Meeting History, 1987.
Box 3
Physical Description

1 folder

Material Specific Details

Affiliation: United

RG2/NY/B837 5.2. Peace and Social Concerns Committee and related Vietnam War pacificsm, 1967.
Box 3
Physical Description

1 folder

RG2/NY/B837 5.3. Christ is the Answer International Fellowship, 2010-2020.
Box 3
Scope and Contents

This file includes material related to the Christ Is the Answer International Fellowship, a preparative meeting under care of Buffalo that was begun by Evangelical Friend and pastor Ndanga Ramazani. The file relates to the community of Congolese emigrants who worship at the church as well as a grant to fund the translation of New York Yearly Meeting's Faith & Practice into Swahili. A printed copy, Imani Na Matendo, is included.

Physical Description

1 folder

RG2/NY/B837 3.9. State of the Meeting Report, 1998-1999.
Box 3
Physical Description

1 folder

Physical Location

Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College

RG2/NY/B837 3.1-3.8. Newsletters, 1946-2020 (bulk 1961-1973, 1982-2020).
Box 2 Box 3
Scope and Contents

Newsletter file includes gaps in coverage. Years covered are 1946, 1961-1973, 1982-1988, 1990-2009, 2016-2020, with some issues lacking for some years. Some folders filed chronologically, some reverse-chronologically, maintaining order upon receipt.

[Box 1] 3.1: 1946-1963; 3.2: 1964-1966; 3.3: 1967-1970; 3.4: 1971-1973; 3.5: 1982-1988; 3.6: 1990-1999;

[Box 2] 3.7: 2000-2009; 3.8: 2016-2020

Physical Description

9 folders

Material Specific Details

United

RG2/NY/B837 3.10. Newsletter, 1988-07.
Box 3
Physical Description

1 folder

Physical Location

Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College

RG2/NY/B837. Newsletter (digital), 2020-2022.
Scope and Contents

PDF issues of Buffalo Quakers, the quarterly newsletter (lacking Spring 2020).

Physical Description

13 PDF files

Print, Suggest