Call Number:

Ms. Codex 2253

Repository:

University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts

Extent:

.1 linear feet (1 volume)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Mary E. Parker notebook, circa 1884-1890s, Ms. Codex 2253, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania

Date:

circa 1884-1890s (inclusive)

Creator:

Parker, Mary E.

Form:

Autographs (manuscripts), Commonplace books, Lists (document genres), and Recipes

Abstract:

This notebook was created by Mary E. Parker, a Quaker woman in Westtown, Pennsylvania, in 1884. It contains sections that include a commonplace book, autographs (with signatures in the signer's own hands), recipes, and lists of poets, animals, birds, clouds, and flowers.

Although it is not certain, Mary E. Parker may have been born on November 27, 1865, the daughter of William W. and Anna Mary Parker, who lived in Popcopson, Pennsylvania, a town about six miles from Westtown, Pennsylvania. If so, she married Emlen Darlington in 1899 and was the mother of Hannah, Edith, Frances, Horace, and William. This family was Quaker and a member of the Kennett Monthly Meeting.

On the first page of the volume, Mary E. Parker wrote her name, Westtown, Pa., and the date, September 15, 1884. Beyond this inscription, there is nothing that provides information about Mary. It is almost certain that she was a Quaker based up the format of the dates; and her friends who contributed quotes were members of the New Garden Monthly Meeting and the Byberry Monthly Meeting. She appears to have read extensively and to have a wide interest in the natural world. It is unclear if some of this volume which includes lists of poets, animals, birds, clouds and flowers may have been a result of her schooling or if it was simply a documentation of her interests.

This volume contains sections that include a commonplace book, autographs (with signatures in the signer's own hands), recipes, and lists of poets, animals, birds, clouds, and flowers. The notebook begins with a commonplace book (pages 3 to 15 and 22 to 34) in which Mary E. Parker copied quotes from authors and poets including Robert Burns, Alice Cary, Benjamin Franklin, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russell Lowell, Sir Walter Scott, and Alfred Lord Tennyson, to name a few. There is a long entry by John Boyd Kinnear that was part of Woman's Work and Woman's Culture: A Series of Essays, edited by Josephine E. Butler. Longfellow's "The Wreck of the Hesperus" is copied on pages 31 to 34, in a hand that is not Mary E. Parker's. A list of proverbs by authors and poets including Burns, Byron, Cooper, Dryden, J.G. Holland, Pope, Scott, Shakespeare, Swift, and Wordsworth is laid into the volume between pages 48 and 49.

Autographs by friends are found from pages 15 to 20. Some of these friends include: Will Carlton, Sylvania Cooper, Mary Anna Forsythe, James Taylor, and members of the Williams family (Jonathan G., Hettie H., Susan E. and Susan R. Williams). A list of names listed last name, first name is laid into the volume between pages 68 and 69. The page of names is headed with "Miss McBride."

Recipes are found from page 75 to page 98. Many of the recipes are for sweets; however there are some for savory dishes as well. There are many recipes that include ginger, including soft gingercakes, drop gingercakes, gingercakes (6 recipes), soft gingerbread, ginger snaps, and rich molasses cookies. There are recipes for coffee, cakes (Mountain Cake, page 93) and frostings, biscuits, cookies (multiple recipes for jumbles), custards, and puddings (Cape May Pudding, page 81, and Plymouth Pudding, page 82). There are multiple recipes for corn cakes, eggs, oatmeal, omelets, oysters, rice, and sauces. A "table for boiling" can be found on page 96. There is a single housecleaning recipe (page 83) included. A recipe for corn muffins is laid into the volume between pages 72 and 73.

The final portion of the notebook contains lists and instructions that may have been a result of some schooling. On page 107, there are notes about the use of massage to strengthen muscles and stimulate the action of the skin and internal organs, as well as notes relating to respiration and pulse in infants, children, and adults. American poets, historians, Scotch poets, and English and Irish poets are listed, often by last name only, on pages 132 to 133. Names of different clouds and the principal narcotics used in different parts of the world are listed on page 134. Trivia about lead, salt, and orders of animal (described by Mary as fauna) are listed on pages 136 to 137. Types of plants with common and Latin names are listed on pages 139 to 140. A definition of specific gravity is laid into the volume between pages 104 and 105.

The volume is bound in marbled paper covers and is lacking a spine. There are blank pages throughout the volume: page 21, pages 35 to 74, pages 99 to 106, pages 108 to 131, page 135, page 138, and pages 141 to 143.