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Cooper-Richardson Family Papers
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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
The Cooper family were Quakers of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, attending meetings in the Woodbury and Byberry areas. Materials in this collection focus on the children of William E. and Elizabeth Roberts Cooper, their spouses and children. William Evans Cooper (1812-1856) married Elizabeth Matlack Roberts (1815-1902) at Woodbury Monthly Meeting in Gloucester County, N.J., in 1836. They had 8 children: Annie who married Ezra Lippincott, Sarah, Mary Kaighn who married Nathaniel Richardson, Elizabeth Roberts, Joseph Morgan, Lucy who married Elisha Hunt Walker, William Alfred who married Mary Bagg, and Henry R. Cooper who married Jessie Bagg. Sarah and Anna C. Richardson, daughters of Mary K. and Nathaniel Richardson, were both teachers and active Friends. Their father was an acknowledged minister.
Includes correspondence and family memorabilia of the children and grandchildren of William Evans and Sarah Cooper. William E. Cooper was the son of William and Sarah (Morgan) Cooper. Correspondence focuses on family matters and includes general family news. Two family chronologies log the births, deaths, and travels of the Coopers. The latter part of the collection stresses the lives of the daughters of Nathaniel and Mary K. (Cooper) Richardson, Elizabeth C. and Anna, neither of whom married. Of special interest is the Anna's journal of a two month trip to California in 1904. Anna and two companions traveled to Los Angeles and then north into Canada. The journal includes interesting descriptions of the slums and opium dens of Chinatown in San Francisco and notes prominent sites along the route. Photographs and postcards have been glued into the journal and are commented on extensively.
The collection is divided into five series
- Biographical and genealogical
- Correspondence
- Family Memorabilia
- Journals
- Publications
Donor: Caroline D. Bain, 1987, 2006.004, 2009.018
The collection was given by Caroline Dwight Bain, descendant of the Cooper family through Henry R. and Jessie (Bagg) Cooper.
The collection was initially processed in 1987 as Cooper-Bain Family Papers. The name was subsequently corrected to Cooper-Richardson Family Papers.
In 1987 photographs removed from the collection were placed in Individual Portraits and meeting house files. The album was placed in PA 48 and pamphlets in FHL reference. In 2013, photographs were removed to PA 118 with a separate inventory.
In 2015 additional oil and watercolor paintings were added to the collection (FHL 2009.018) and the finding aid revised and updated.
The following pamphlets donated to collection and removed:
- Religious Views of the Society of Friends, Howard M. Jenkins, 1893.
- The Book of the Street [High Street]. Sarah Lowrie and Mabel Ludlum, J.B. Lippincott, 1926.
The following photographs, listed by individual and group family names are cataloged in PA 100 and meeting house photographs:
- Cooper
- Richardson
- Bagg
- Stiles
- Matlack
- Roberts
- Meeting Houses, including: (General meeting house File)
- Abington
- Woodbury
- Byberry
- Cecil (MD)
- Cooper and Richardson residences, New Jersey. (Residences)
- Album, "Cooper." (PA 48)
- Photographs. (PA 118: separate finding aid)
People
Subject
Place
- Publisher
- Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College
- Finding Aid Author
- FHL staff
- Finding Aid Date
- 1987
- Sponsor
- Encoding made possible by a grant by the Gladys Kriebel Delmas Foundation to the Philadelphia Consortium of Special Collections Libraries
- Access Restrictions
-
Collection is open for research.
- Use Restrictions
-
Some of the items in this collection may be protected by copyright. The user is solely responsible for making a final determination of copyright status. If copyright protection applies, permission must be obtained from the copyright holder or their heirs/assigns to reuse, publish, or reproduce relevant items beyond the bounds of Fair Use or other exemptions to the law. See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/.
Collection Inventory
photocopy
Additional notes by Elizabeth Cooper
She records family and national events. Includes later additions by daughter Elizabeth ("Bessie) C. Richardson after Mary's death in 1912. Notes release of her suffragist cousin by marriage, Amelia Himes Walker from prison, 1917, and her first opportunity to vote in 1920.
Ms family history written for her sister and brother-in-law. The collection includes a a slightly different version that Sarah wrote for her brother Henry and his wife.
Physical Description1 bound volume
Starts with emigration of William and Margaret Cooper to Camden, NJ, from England in 1679; information about early Quakers; detailed information on succeeding generations, including memorials.
Physical Description1 bound volume
Includes letter 4 mo 1865, Sarah Cooper to sister Mary with an account of President Lincoln's death.
Includes letters from Henry Cooper including 12 mo 18, 1868, to his sisters describing Christmas festivities and presents.
Letters to Jessie Bagg Cooper. Also includes letters of congratulations from members of the Cooper family on the announcement of Henry Cooper's engagement to her.
AlsS from Anna Richardson to her father and sisters.
Letters from "Tot" concerning family history to family members. "Bep" is Elizabeth M. Cooper. Stanley Bagg Cooper was an uncle of the donor.
Including ms memorial for Anna Richardson, 1929, by her cousin, Elizabeth M. Cooper.
Photocopy of brochure for school for girls. Walnut Street, Philadelphia. Also ms copy of Rules to be observed in Friends Female School, Woodbury.
Includes unsigned watercolor of building attributed to ERC by donor. Additional larger works stored in oversize RG 5/032. Many are signed on verso as gifts to family members and were collected by her great-niece Caroline Bain.
Obituary published in the Philadelphia Inquirer, 1973. Frances Richardson, active in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and Byberry Monthly Meeting, author of reminiscences published in 1970 and graduate of Swarthmore College.
Accounts of the special occasions and daily lives of her nieces and nephews. The second volume was continued by Henry and Jessie Cooper's daughter, Elizabeth Morgan Cooper (b. 1891), who graduated from Radcliffe and taught at the Baldwin School. She recorded the events of her siblings and their children.
Physical Description2 vols.
Anna and two companions traveled to Los Angeles and then north into Canada. The journal includes interesting descriptions of the slums and opium dens of Chinatown in San Francisco and notes prominent sites along the route. Photographs and postcards have been glued into the journal and are commented on extensively.
TMs (photocopy), memoir of [Morgan]Cooper Walker, the son of Robert Hunt Walker (1882-1948) and Amelia Himes Walker (1880-1974) and grandson of Lucy (Cooper) and Elisha Walker. His parents were both graduates of Swarthmore College, Class of 1902. The memoir describes his childhood; discusses being raised on farm north of Baltimore, Md., particularly the African-Americans who lived with them and raised him; his uneasiness with Quakers, and his mother's feminist activities. Ameilia Himes Walker picketed the White House in 1917 and was sent to prison. She was active in the National Woman's Party, and Robert Hunt Walker served on the Board of Managers of Swarthmore College. Included are copies of early photos. Also photocopy of 1902-1921 notes written by Lucy Cooper Walker.