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Hunn-Karsner Photograph Collection.
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Held at: Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College [Contact Us]500 College Avenue, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania 19081
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the 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
Ezekiel Hunn (1841-1926) married Anna Eliza Jenkins in 1876 under the care of Camden Monthly Meeting (Delaware), and the family became members of Philadelphia Monthly Meeting (Hicksite) in 1890. Ezekiel's family was involved with the Underground Railroad in Delaware and owned a farm, "Wildcat," in Kent County. Ezekiel and Anna Eliza Hunn had nine children. Their youngest, Katherine Hunn (1899-1993) married Joseph Reed Karsner in 1930 under the care of Philadelphia Monthly Meeting (Hicksite). He was a railroad executive until his retirement in 1950. Joseph and Katherine Karsner lived in Rose Valley, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, and then moved to Westtown in 1952. They retired to the Harned in Media, Pennsylvania in 1969. Both were active in Philadelphia Central Monthly Meeting and Philadelphia Yearly Meeting committees. Joseph especially was involved in peace concerns, serving on the Peace Committee and as a traveling minister. Katherine worked for the American Friends Service Committee and wrote poetry and prose for Quaker and other publications. Their daughter Mary Ann Karsner was born in 1932 and was accepted into Quaker membership on the request of her mother.
Mary Ann Hunn Karsner attended the School in Rose Valley and graduated from Friends Central School in 1950. She attended college at the University of Alaska where she met Theodore Lewis ("Ted") Kegler. They were married in 1954 and had three children. In 1971, Mary Ann Karsner Kegler, with her husband Ted, requested membership in Philadelphia Central Monthly Meeting for her children; the clerk expressed reservations because of the distance. Beginning in the early 1950s Mary Ann and Ted with others established an unprogrammed meeting for worship in the Fairbanks area of Alaska. This evolved into Chena Ridge Friends Meeting, a member of Alaska Friends Conference. Ted and MaryAnn Kegler moved to Anchorage in 1966. Mary Ann died in 1983, and her husband later remarried.
The collection contains photographs of the family of Quakers Ezekiel Hunn and Lydia Jones Sharpless Hunn and their granddaughter, Katherine Hunn Karsner who married Joseph Reed Karsner in 1930. Compiled Katherine Hunn Karsner, it includes 19th century family albums, early twentieth century photographs, also focuses on Katherine's daughter, Mary Ann Karsner Kegler (1932-1983), who moved to Alaska as a college student and was one of the founders of Chena Ridge Monthly Meeting.
Arranged in two series, albums and loose photographs
Gift of the estate of Katherine Hunn Karsner, FHL 2019.009
The Hunn-Karsner Papers were shipped from Alaska to Friends Historical Library in February 2019 and the photographs sorted separately by staff. Lydia Sharpless Hunn, a neice of Katherine Hunn Karsner, assisted in identifying 20th century family members.
People
- Karsner family
- Kegler, Mary Ann Hunn Karsner, 1932-1983
- Hunn family
- Jenkins family
- Hunn, Ezekiel, 1841-1926
Organization
Subject
- Publisher
- Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College
- Finding Aid Author
- Susanna K. Morikawa
- Finding Aid Date
- January 2020
- Access Restrictions
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Collection is open for research.
- Use Restrictions
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Permission to reuse, publish, or reproduce items in this collection beyond the bounds of Fair Use or other exemptions to copyright law must be obtained from the copyright holder or their heirs/assigns. See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-RUU/1.0/.
Collection Inventory
Cartes-de-visites, all labeled with family notes:
Samuel Jones and second wife Lydia Crosley Jones.
Lydia Jones Hunn (1818-1911), siblings, and children: Wood, Heberton, Brown, Sharpless, Van Buren, Brinton, Hunn, Jenkins
Loose in album, a MUSEUM cut silhouette of Joanna Townsend (married Jesse Sharpless)
Final photograph in album is tintype of "E. Hunn, Jr., in mourning for Lincoln"
Physical DescriptionThick brown rectangular photo album with two metal clasps. Front and back of album are textures with designs and faux studs, and spine of book has design with word "album" in center. Cover loose.
Cartes-de-visite, cabinet cards and other formats, all labeled. Jenkins and Hunns, including the children of Ezekiel and Anna Eliza Jenkins.
Physical DescriptionBrown leather album with some gold accents, thick brass clasp, and "Album" in gold on spine.
Cartes-de-visite, cabinet cards, snapshots and other formats, labeled: Grandmother Elizabeth Jenkins to Charles S. Hunn (1880-1912) in 1908.
Physical DescriptionRed fabric album with flower embroidered on cover and silver clasp.
Small commercial album contains tintype of Lydia Jones Hunn and silhouettes of her son Ezekiel and his family - wife Anna Eliza and all their children. Loose is photograph of "Mama and [infant] Katherine."
Physical DescriptionSmall allbum with leather spine and glossy hard covers. Front of album has image in center of Water Gap and Kittatinny Hotels from Jersey Shore, and back of album has image of Caldeno Falls, Delaware Water Gap, PA.
Cabinet sized and carte-de-visite album, labeled. The first images, Ezekiel and Lydia J. Hunn followed by her siblings and then extended family: Hunn, Sharpless, Wood. Includes copy photographs made 1880s by F. Gutekunst from earlier daguerreotypes. Donor noted that the images were identified by Katherine Hunn Karsner, in her handwriting.
Physical DescriptionLarge red-orange leather photo album with large silver buckle as clasp.
Snapshots, labeled, of family and friends. Taken at Wildcat and other locations.
Physical DescriptionSmall album with cardboard covers. Photos glued to gray construction paper.
Album of informal photographs, not all labeled. Family, children at farm, Wildcat. "Ned's children" (Edward Hunn, Katherine's older brother). Photographs of Grace Stanton. Katherine Hunn married Joseph R. Karsner in July 1930.
Physical DescriptionSmall black scrapbook, photographs glued onto black paper.
Not labeled, but marriage of Joseph Karshner and Katherine Hunn, July 1, 1930.
Physical DescriptionSnapshot mounted into small, ornate carte-de-visite album.
Snapshots of the historic Isabella Furnace.
Physical DescriptionSmall album stored in box with newspaper clipping about the historic furnace.
Vacation photos, beach and Camp Onas? Family photo portraits, clippings, and informal photographs. Joseph and Katherine with infant, Mary Ann, 1932, and Mary Ann as young child. Lydia Sharples Hunn of Philadelphia identified some of the people, information added to scrapbook in brackets.
Physical DescriptionScrapbook tied with string. Snapshots glued on on black scrapbook paper.
Mary Ann Hunn Karsner, 1933.
Katherine Hunn Karsner, undated.
Mary Ann Karsner, circa 1950
Physical DescriptionTwo portrait photographs in acidic display folder. Removed, stored in mylar sleeve with other loose Karsner photographs
Likely compiled as farewell gift for Katherine and Joe Karsner, 1969, when they moved from their home on Shiloh Road, Westtown, to the Harned, a retirement home in Wallingford, Pennsylania. Includes exterior and interior views, family pictures. Also Naisby home - Elizabeth (Libby) Hunn, a neice of Katherine, married John (Jack) Naisby.
Physical DescriptionCommercial self-adhesive album. Photographs removed and deteriorating album discarded. Stored in mylar, folder.
Photographs of Joseph and Katherine Karsner and his extended family. Lydia Hunn provided additional identifications in 2019.
Physical DescriptionSnaphots were mounted in deteriorated and moldy self-adhesive loose-leaf album. Removed and stored in mylar sleeves.
Mary Ann Karner Kegler and husband Ted Kegler, photographs of their home and family in Alaska, visits from Mary Ann's parents, and their visits to Westtown. The album probably was compiled by Katherine Krasner; some images are labeled on reverse by her and Lydia Hunn added additional identifications in 2019. The Karsners visited Alaska in 1956 and 1963. Loose at back are pages from an older, undated photo album, not identified but apparently vacation travels. Sketches of Kegler Alaskan house, probably by Mary Ann, and birchwood art collage.
Physical DescriptionLarge soft cover photo ablum with moounting corners used to attach images. Loose images stored in mylar sleeves.
Identified on reverse by Katherine Hunn Karsner. Includes portraits of Ezekiel Hunn (1810-1903; Ezekiel Hunn (1841-1926), interior group photograph of his Philadelpia law office; Anna Eliza with infant Katherine Hunn; group: Ezekiel and Lydia J. Hunn with Ezekiel (b. 1841) and Ezekiel (b. 1879); Ezkekiel Hunn (grandfather) fishing in the Brandywine; Anna Eliza with her four daughters; four generations of Hunns, Ezekiel (3 Ezekiels with Anna Eliza); Mary Hunn as a child; Katherine Hunn, about age 15; William R. Hunn and Margaret Cooper Hunn family; Aunt Bess Jenkins, Grandma Jenkins. Kitty and Lydia Hunn Williamson. Katherine's older siblings: Betty, Ezekiel, Charles, Edward (Ned), Lydia, and Ann Hunn.
Also Patience Hunn (1805-1884), sister of Ezekiel, who married first George Wahington Jenkins and second Jabez Jenkins. Townsend S. Hunn, brother of Ezekiel (1841-1926)
Family and activities. Joseph Karsner with John M. Douglas and William Hughes at Conference of European Friends, Birmingham, England, 1957.
Katherine Hunn Karsner, photographs of the AFSC sewing group at varioius locations, date - warehouse, Westtown, members homes.
Joseph Karsner with Harold Chance and others, Whittier, California, undated.
Katherine Karsner's photographs, includes groups and individuals. Most are labeled by her on reverse.
Includes: Groups with Clarence Pickett, circa 1929. AFSC dinner in Chinatown, Philadelphia. Katherine and assistant outside headquarters, 1952. Party for AFSC workers and families at Karsners' Westtown home, 1958. Sewing group, undated.
Individuals labeled, not filed indiviually.
Includes Mary Ann with class a the School in Rose Valley; with friends as a teenager; after her wedding in Westtown, 1954; son Charley's graduation
Benjamin Franklin Keller was the son of Ann Hunn, Katherine's older sister. She married John S. Keller in 1913 and died in 1926 from tuberculosis. Ben spent much of his youth with the Karsners and remained close to his "Aunt Kitty" and Mary Ann. Includes a photogrpah of Ann Hunn Keller shortly before her death and many photos of Ben's two children.
Succeeding generations of neices and nephews sent to Lydia Hunn Williamson and Katherine Hunn Karsner. Sorted by Lydia Hunn in 2019 into family groups. Includes Cooper, Naisby, Jones, and other descendents. School and family photographs.