Call Number:

Ms. Coll. 1570

Repository:

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

Extent:

.2 linear feet (1 box)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

Fellowship House Farm photograph album, 1956 June-September, Ms. Coll. 1570, Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts, University of Pennsylvania

Date:

1956 June-September

Form:

Photograph albums

Abstract:

This photograph album chronicles an unidentified woman's time working at the Fellowship House Farm as an "intern cook" in the summer of 1956. Fellowship House Farm was a nonprofit education center dedicated to fostering interracial and interfaith relations in Pottstwon, Pennsylvania.

Fellowship House Farm was an outgrowth of Fellowship House, which Marjorie Penney Paschkis (1908-1983) opened in 1941. Fellowship House was a nonprofit education center dedicated to fostering interracial and interfaith relations in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Fellowship House purchased a 120-acre farm located near Pottstown, Pennsylvania in 1951. The Farm was initially used for summer programs, including conferences on brotherhood, training for educators and youth leaders in combating prejudice and racial discrimination, and for those simply seeking volunteer opportunities to help around the farm. The Farm also served as a vacation retreat for Philadelphians who could not afford to take one otherwise. It became the organization's permanent headquarters in 1973 after divesting itself of its other buildings in Philadelphia. The Farm hosted thousands of people who sought to seek commonality across ethnic, religious and racial lines until closing in 2016.

Source: Hassler, Alfred. "Fellowship House in Philadelphia: "The Arrows Are Coming"." Fellowship, vol. 19, no. 6, 1953, pp. 10-17. ProQuest, https://proxy.library.upenn.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/fellowship-house-philadelphia/docview/1958597050/se-2.

This photograph album contains 74 mounted black and white photographs of Fellowship House Farm. An unidentified woman who worked as an "intern cook" on the farm from June through September 1956, compiled the album. Many photographs of the farm are labeled and identify fellow workers, administrators, visitors, events, buildings, and environs. Identified subjects in the album include Judge Hastie, Elaine Brown, director of the Fellowship House choir; Marjorie Penney Paschkis, founder and director of the farm; and Dee Orenstein, business manager. Her travels away from the farm include photographs of the "old" and "new" Fellowship House buildings in Philadelphia and an affiliated meetinghouse in Media, Pennsylvania.

Researchers should handle the album with care as the pages are extremely brittle and some of the photographs have become detached.