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Biddle 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
This collection contains the papers of Philadelphia Quaker Owen Biddle (1737-1799), his son, Clement Biddle (1778-1856), and numerous descendants in six generations. The Biddles, who aligned themselves with the Hicksites following the separation of Philadelphia Quakers in 1827, were active in various causes, including Quaker education, public health, and the peace movement. Clement M. Biddle (1838-1902), Clement Miller Biddle (1878-1959), and Lucy Biddle served on the Board of Managers at Swarthmore College. Additionally, Lucy Biddle was responsible for the gift that was the basis of the Swarthmore College Peace Collection. Lydia Lewis Rickman's notes on the family genealogy are included in the collection.
For more detailed information, see the collection summary (below).
The collection contains correspondence, journal, letterbooks, and account books, together with other manuscript material reflecting the social and cultural life and religious activities of a prominent Quaker family of Pennsylvania and Delaware. Owen Biddle (1737-1799) was assistant forage master for the army of the American Revolution and some of the papers relate to that work. Papers of Lucy Biddle Lewis (1861-1941) are important for association with the women's suffrage movement and for early activities of the American Friends Service Committee. Other names represented in the collection are Jane Addams, Emily Greene Balch, Clement Biddle, Clement Miller Biddle, William C. Biddle, Dorothy Biddle James, Henry Hollingsworth, Thomas Mifflin, Thomas Parke, Thomas Richardson, Lydia Lewis Rickman, and Ann Biddle Stirling.
Item level checklist available in repository.
The collection is divided into five series.
Series 1. Owen Biddle, 1711-1887: Owen Biddle, a scientist and merchant, served as Deputy Forage Master General during the American Revolution. He became a member of the Free Quakers during the Revolutionary War, but in 1783 he was reinstated in Philadelphia Monthly Meeting and helped in the establishment of Westtown School (1799). Owen Biddle's papers, 1772-1793, (Series 1) include correspondence, and journals, some of which relate to his Revolutionary War activities. Three of his letterbooks, 1778-1779, have been microfilmed.
Series 2. Clement Biddle (1778-1856), his wife Mary Canby Biddle, their children, relatives and friends , 1792-1860: Clement Biddle (1778-1856), a sugar refiner in Philadelphia who was active in Quaker philanthropic work such as helping to establish Friends Asylum in Frankford in 1813 (now Friends Hospital), aligned with the Hicksites following the separation of Philadelphia Quakers in 1827. His papers (Series 2) contain mostly family correspondence, 1792-1860, of Clement Biddle, his wife, Mary Canby Biddle (1780-1849), their children, Martha C. Biddle (1811-1833), Robert Biddle (1814-1902), William Canby Biddle (1816-1887), Clement Biddle (1819-1895), Anne Biddle (1822-1901), relatives, and friends
Series 3. Clement Biddle (1838-1902), and his son, William C. Biddle, 1747-1929: Clement M. Biddle (1838-1902), grandson of Clement Biddle (1778-1856), was the son of William Canby Biddle, who founded with his brother Robert the R. and W. C. Biddle Company, a hardware firm in Philadelphia. Clement was involved in the hardware firm until 1873, when he became involved with the Centennial Exposition of 1876, serving on the Centennial Board of Finance. He had a special interest in Quaker education, serving on the Swarthmore College Board of Managers from 1874-1894 (his father also served on the Board), supporting Friends' Central School, participating in the Committee on Education of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (Hicksite). His correspondence is in Series 3 along with papers relating to the Centennial Board of Finance. Also included in this series are papers of William C. Biddle (1864-1942), oldest son of Clement M. Biddle (1838-1902). William Biddle's papers pertain to war relief work in France with the American Friends Service Committee, 1918-1920, and to Quaker adult education at the Woolman School, 1928-1929.
Series 4. Clement Miller Biddle (1876-1959), 1787-1921: Clement Miller Biddle (1876-1959) was the youngest son of Clement M. Biddle (1838-1902). Active in civic and philanthropic affairs in New York where he lived, Biddle was president of Biddle Manufacturing Company and served on the Board of Managers of Swarthmore College from 1927-1950. His papers (Series 4) include material on the Friends' Relief Mission in Vienna, 1920-1921, operated jointly by American and British Quakers. Biddle was involved in the child feeding program and other war relief efforts in Austria and Poland which were based at the Mission in Vienna. Also in the collection are an account book, 1835-1856, of Clement Biddle (1778-1856), and an account book, 1855-1871, of William Canby Biddle (1816-1887), other Biddle family papers, and papers of his wife, Grace Anna Brosius Biddle (b. 1877), which relate to her family and to her Swarthmore College Class (1897).
Series 5. Lucy Biddle Lewis and her daughter, Lydia Lewis Rickman, 1593-1951: Lucy Biddle Lewis (1861-1941) was the oldest child of Clement Biddle (1838-1902). A resident of Lansdowne, Pennsylvania, she was active in Quaker postwar reliefwork and the peace movement, serving on the American Friends Service Committee, as National Chairman of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, and for over thirty years, 1908-1941, on the Board of Managers of Swarthmore College. Her papers in Series 5 are letters, mostly to her family, about the International Congresses of Women held in the Hague in 1915 and in Zurich in 1919 and war relief work. While a member of the Swarthmore College Board of Managers, Lewis in 1930 persuaded Jane Addams of Hull House to donate her papers relating to peace and social justice to Swarthmore College. With this gift the Swarthmore College Peace Collection was established. Other papers of Lucy Biddle Lewis can be found in the Swarthmore College Peace Collection (see Guide to Sources on Women in the Swarthmore College Peace Collection). Also in this series are papers of Lydia Lewis Rickman, daughter of Lucy Biddle Lewis, pertaining to her trip to Russia, 1917-1918, with the American Friends Service Committee for war relief work there and papers she collected about the Biddle family's English ancestry, 1593-1711.
Accession information:
Donor: Anne Biddle Stirling (Series 2), 1928
Donors: Clement Biddle and Lydia Lewis Rickman (Series 4 and 5), 1947
Donor: Dorothy Biddle James (Series 1), 1949
Donor: Estate of William C. Biddle (Series 3), ca. 1959
The Biddle Manuscripts are arranged in five series according to provenance, distinguishing the five different donors. The papers of Owen Biddle [Series 1, formerly Biddle Manuscripts (J)] were donated by Dorothy Biddle James; those of Clement Biddle (1778-1856) and his family [Series 2, formerly Biddle Manuscripts (S)] were donated by Anne Biddle Stirling, his granddaughter; those of Clement M. Biddle (1838-1902) [Series 3, formerly Biddle Manuscripts (W)] came from the estate of his son, William C. Biddle; Clement Miller Biddle (1876-1959) gave his papers and those of other in the Biddle family [Series 4, formerly Biddle Manuscripts (C)]; and Lydia Lewis Rickman donated her papers, those of her mother, Lucy Biddle Lewis, and other Biddle family papers [Series 5, formerly Biddle Manuscripts (C).]
Biddle manuscripts (C) were catalogued fully in the FHL manuscript card catalogue before 1950, and there is a detailed checklist of the correspondence available in the Library. Biddle Manuscripts (J) were arranged chronologically. They include correspondence and diary of Owen Biddle, 1737-1799, and also were fully catalogued. (S) and (W) were catalogued briefly. Owen Biddle Letterbook, 1778-1 month 1779 were microfilmed in 1978 by the Presbyterian Historical Society.
Biddle Manuscripts were reviewed, reorganized, refoldered, and a revised checklist was prepared in 1988, and the collection was transferred to Record Group 5. Papers of Owen Biddle [formerly designated as Biddle Manuscripts (C)] became Series 1, Boxes 1-3. Papers of Clement Biddle (1778-1856) and his wife Mary Canby Biddle, their children, relatives and friends [formerly Biddle Manuscripts (S)] became Series 2 (Boxes 4-5). Papers of Clement Biddle (1838-1902) and his son, William C. Biddle [formerly Biddle Manuscripts (W)] became Series 3 (Box 6). Papers of Clement Miller Biddle (1876-1959), Lucy Biddle Lewis, and Lydia Lewis Rickman [formerly Biddle Manuscripts (C)] became: Series 4 Clement Miller Biddle (Box 7) and Series 5 Lucy Biddle Lewis and Lydia Lewis Rickman (Box 8).
Formerly cited at Biddle Manuscripts.
The following materials, originally part of the collection, have been removed to the Swarthmore College Archives (RG6):
- Grace Anna Brosius Biddle, papers concerning Swarthmore College, Class of 1897
People
Subject
- Quakers -- Pennsylvania
- Quakers -- Delaware
- Quakers -- Social life and customs
- Quakers -- Social service
- Quakers -- 18th century -- Diaries
- Quakers -- Suffrage
- Society of Friends -- Charities
- Society of Friends -- War relief and reconstruction
- Reconstruction (1914–1939) -- Austria
- Reconstruction (1914–1939) -- France
- Quakers -- Austria
- Society of Friends -- Pennsylvania
- Quaker businesspeople
- Women and Peace -- History
Place
- Publisher
- Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College
- Finding Aid Author
- FHL staff
- Finding Aid Date
- 1988
- Access Restrictions
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Use restricted to microfilm when available (Series 1). 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
Full inventory available in repository.
6 vols.
Approx. 1,000 letters and related papers, arranged alphabetically by author and/or recipient.
3 letters
2 letters
25 letters
5 items
26 letters
Includes accounts of visits to New York and Ohio.
Physical Description16 letters
26 letters
5 items
2 letters
19 letters
3 letters
Includes description life at Westtown School.
Physical Description32 letters
35 letters
2 letters
3 letters
2 items
2 letters
21 items
9 letters
Letters and grade reports from Westtown school
Physical Description14 items
6 letters
10 items
3 letters
Includes an 1802 letter to John Dickinson and a copy of an 1813 letter to Thomas Jefferson.
Physical Description4 letters
146 letters.
10 letters
22 items
5 letters
13 letters
9 letters
1 letter
19 letters
4 items
44 letters
1 letter
1 letter
8 letters
1 letter
12 items
1 letter
2 letters
1 letter
Full inventory available in repository
Includes family papers collected by him in addition to his personal papers.
In Austria, fresh milk plan for Vienna. In Poland, forms for office use in European relief centers.
Also includes Biddle family papers collected by Lydia Lewis Rickman. Papers are fully cataloged on cards in Repository.
Includes letters pertaining to the International Congresses of Women held in the Hague in 1915 and Zurich in 1919. Also includes letters concerning her association with Jane Addams, Emily Greene Balch and other women, and her efforts to support war relief work. See list in Repository.
Physical Description24 letters
mostly photocopies