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Friends Neighborhood Guild Records
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Held at: Temple University Libraries: Special Collections Research Center [Contact Us]
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Temple University Libraries: Special Collections Research Center. 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
The Friends Neighborhood Guild is a settlement house serving the Poplar section of North Philadelphia. In 1879 the Friends Beach Street Mission was established at Beach and Fairmount Streets; in 1899 it moved to Front and Fairmount and became the Friends Neighborhood Guild; subsequent moves were to Fourth and Green (1914) and to Eighth and Fairmount (1956). The current boundaries of the Guild's service area are Spring Garden, Broad, Berks and the Delaware River.
The Guild's association with The Society of Friends, originally was through the Philadelphia Quarterly Meeting and presently is through the American Friends Service Committee.
The Guild has, in the past twenty-five years, been deeply involved in the redevelopment of East Poplar. The Friends' Self Help Cooperative, begun in 1950, is one of the most successful housing cooperatives in Philadelphia. The cooperative subsequently purchased Penn Towne, a Redevelopment Authority housing project at Seventh and Fairmount Streets. The Guild's Operation Poplar is an extensive outreach program that involves the Guild in housing; community organizing, juvenile counseling, neighborhood-city relations, urban renewal, small businesses, and other facets of neighborhood life.
Several ethnic groups live or have lived in the Poplar area: Blacks, Puerto Ricans, Ukrainians, Jews and Kalmyks. The programs of the Guild, especially Operation Poplar, involved individuals and organizations of those groups.
The Friends Neighborhood Guild Records contain financial records, minutes, case records, publications, correspondence, photographs, and other records related to with work of the guild. This collection consists of six accessions: URB 32 (Accession 123), Accession 96, Accession 567, Accession 878, Accession 1029, and Photographs (PC-37). Inventories of URB 32, Accession 96, Accession 567, and photographs can be found below. No inventories exist for Accessions 878 or 1029. This collection includes preserved versions of the organization's website, available through Archive-It.
The collection is arranged into 7 series as follows:
- Series 1: URB 32 (PORTIONS RESTRICTED), 1922-1971
- Subseries 1.1: Education (PORTIONS RESTRICTED), 1944-1971
- Subseries 1.2: Administration, 1936-1971, undated
- Subseries 1.3: Finances, 1939-1968
- Subseries 1.4: Other Organizations, 1922-1969, undated
- Subseries 1.5: Community Work (PORTIONS RESTRICTED), 1879, 1945-1969, undated
- Subseries 1.6: Operation Poplar (PORTIONS RESTRICTED), 1948-1968, undated
- Sub-subseries 1.6.1: Reports and Studies , 1957-1967, undated
- Sub-subseries 1.6.2: Relocation Program, 1949-1963, undated
- Sub-subseries 1.6.3: Redevelopment Authority and Housing Authority, 1950-1966, undated
- Sub-subseries 1.6.4: Philadelphia Housing Association, 1958-1961
- Sub-subseries 1.6.5: Health and Welfare Council, 1948-1964
- Sub-subseries 1.6.6: Newsletters, 1960-1962
- Sub-subseries 1.6.7: Poplar Area Community Council, 1950-1962, undated
- Sub-subseries 1.6.8: Philadelphia City Planning Commission, 1948, undated
- Sub-subseries 1.6.9: Friends Self-Help Housing Project, 1950-1968
- Sub-subseries 1.6.10: Friends Housing and Friends Service, 1950-1965, undated
- Sub-subseries 1.6.11: Community Work, 1950-1968
- Sub-subseries 1.6.12: Youth and Gang Work (PORTIONS RESTRICTED), 1954-1965
- Sub-subseries 1.6.13: Guild House, 1958-1968
- Subseries 1.7: Miscellaneous, 1950-1966
- Series 2: Accession 96, 1943-1971, undated
- Series 3: Accession 567, 1926-1980, undated
- Series 4: Accession 878, circa 1961-1992, undated
- Series 5: Accession 1029, undated
- Series 6: Photographs, 1953-1963, undated
- Series 7: Website versions in Archive-It, 2008-2015
Additions to this collection are expected. Websites are captured using Archive-It periodically, and the latest additions may not yet be included in this finding aid. For information on material-physical and digital, including captured websites-that may have been added since the last finding aid update, please contact the Special Collections Research Center.
Accession 96 was donated by Francis Bosworth, Executive Director of the Guild, November 1971. URB 32 (Acc. 123) was donated by Francis Bosworth, July 1972. Accession 567 was donated by the Friends Neighborhood Guild, November 1983. Accession 878 was donated by the Guild, March 6, 1998. Accession 1029 was donated by the Guild, March 10, 2006.
Original audiovisual materials, as well as preservation and duplicating masters, may not be played. Researchers must consult use copies, or if none exist must pay for a use copy. Certain digital files may also be inaccessible. Please contact the Special Collections Research Center for more information.
Finding aid revised according to contemporary archival standards in March 2013 by Katy Rawdon, Coordinator of Technical Services. Finding aid revised to correct box count and linear footage in May 2016 by Courtney Smerz, Collection Management Archivist. Finding aid updated with captured website information in July 2016.
Organization
Subject
Place
- Publisher
- Temple University Libraries: Special Collections Research Center
- Finding Aid Author
- Machine-readable finding aid created by: Rajkumar Natarajan, Sky Global Services India (P) Ltd.
- Finding Aid Date
- May 2024
- Access Restrictions
-
Collection is open for research. Some materials in Subseries 1.1, Subseries 1.5, and Sub-subseries 1.6.12 are restricted and only available with permission of the donor, as noted in the inventory.
- Use Restrictions
-
The Friends Neighborhood Guild Records are the physical property of the Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries. Temple University holds literary rights only for material created by university employees and to material given to the university with such rights specifically assigned. For all other material, literary rights, including copyright, belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assigns. Researchers are responsible for determining the identity of rights holders and obtaining their permission for publication and for other purposes where stated.
Collection Inventory
Series 1, URB 32, contains records from 1922-1971.
Subseries 1.1, Education, contains material on local public schools, adult education, summer programs, FNG tutorial programs, integration, educational organizations, and reading programs.
Subseries 1.2, Administration, contains correspondence, Board of Directors papers, Fund-Agency reviews, and other papers.
Subseries 1.3, Finances, includes statements, Finance and Property Committees, 75th Anniversary Drive (1954), and other papers.
Subseries 1.4, Other Organizations, includes settlements, children's organizations, civil rights groups, city agencies, welfare groups, etc.
Subseries 1.5, Community Work, contains records on Franklin House (a halfway house for adolescent housekeeping project, exhibits, displaced persons, Kalmyks, Philadelphia Experiment in Services Children (PESC), skid row, youth programs, Puerto Ricans, social action, Philadelphia Center for Older People, aging, summer programs, recreation, and clubs.
Subseries 1.6, Operation Poplar, has been subdivided into the Sub-subseries: 1.6.1, Reports and Studies, 1.6.2, Relocation Program, 1.6.3, Redevelopment Authority and Housing Authority, 1.6.4, Philadelphia Housing Association, 1.6.5, Health and Welfare Council, 1.6.6, Newsletters, 1.6.7, Poplar Area Community Council, 1.6.8, Philadelphia City Planning Commission, 1.6.9, Friends Self-Help Housing Project, 1.6.10, Friends Housing and Friends Service, 1.6.11, Community Work, 1.6.12, Youth and Gang Work, and 1.6.13, Guild House (apartments for older people).
Subseries 1.7 includes materials on housing, crime, urban renewal, organizations, and mortgages on FNG properties (1925-1963).
Series 2, Accession 96, contains correspondence, subject files, clippings, and other materials.
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Series 3, Accession 567, contains correspondence, subject files, clippings, publications, and other materials.
Series 4, Accession 878, is unprocessed and has not been inventoried.
Series 5, Accession 1029, is unprocessed and has not been inventoried.
Series 6, Photographs, consists of undated and uncaptioned photos of children in various organized activities, as well as the displaced Sodbinow and Dambinow families, senior citizen apartments, Penn Town Council, play parades in Philadelphia and Cape May, NJ, and a rehabilitation project of Oscar Stonorov. A file "tuberculosis" contains images of x-rays and men in flophouses and on the street. Photographers include Carl Dahlgren, Hazel Kingsbury, Toshi Kitagawa, W.B. Nickerson, Benjamin Schnall, and Sam Spina.
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Series 7 contains preserved versions of the Friends Neighborhood Guild's website. To access these sites, see the Temple University Special Collections Urban Archives Archive-It web page.
Physical Description1 Archived Websites