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Lippincott 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
Horace Mather Lippincott was a Quaker editor and author. He was born on April 20, 1877, and died January 12, 1967. A birthright Hicksite Quaker, he was the only child of Philadelphia lumber merchant Robert C. Lippincott and Cynthia Shoemaker Mather Lippincott (1847-1880). She was the daughter of Penrose and Lydia Shoemaker Mather of Abington Monthly Meeting. After Cynthia Lippincott's early death, Robert married secondly Catherine Koons, and they also had one son, George Eyre Lippincott (1889-1979).
Horace M. Lippincott was descended from Joseph Mather who arrived in America in 1682 on the ship "Submission." He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1897 and remained deeply involved in alumni activities in addition to his Quaker and other activities. In 1914 he married Sarah Styer Jenkins (1887-1965), daughter of Walter H. and Esther Lukens Jenkins, at Gwynedd meeting house. Not afraid of controversy, he was a supporter of the U.S. involvement in the First World War and worked towards re-unification in the Society of Friends. He was a member of Abington Monthly Meeting.
Their son, H. Mather Lippincott, Jr. (1921-2010), was a prominent Philadelphia architect, a partner in the firm Cope and Lippincott Architects. He graduated from Haverford College in 1943 and the University of Pennsylvania School of Architecture in 1948. Active in many aspects of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, he served on the boards of the AFSC and Pendle Hill, a trustee of the Shoemaker Fund, and president of Friends Social Union. In 1949 he married Margaret ("Peg") Walker. She was the daughter of James F. Walker and Alice Nicholson Bell Walker. Her father was headmaster of the Westtown School where she grew up. Peg Walker graduated from Swarthmore College in 1945, and two of their four sons also were Swarthmore College graduates. In 1966, the family transferred their membership from Abington Monthly Meeting to Media Monthly Meeting and settled in Rose Valley, Delaware County, Pa.
Horace Mather Lippincott (1877-1967) was a Quaker editor and historian. The collection contains his published and manuscript writings and speeches on topics primarily concerning the Society of Friends and Philadelphia history. Of particular interest is the scrapbook he compiled in 1946 of papers and photographs of the 1913-1914 Joint Group which met weekly to study the Separation in the Society of Friends, along with other papers on the topic and on the first joint meeting of the two Philadelphia Yearly Meetings in 1946. The collection includes deeds, genealogical research by Horace Mather Lippincott and his brother George E. Lippincott, and some family papers including albums and a journal of Cynthia Mather who became the wife Horace M. Lippincott.
Organized in five series.
Publications by Horace Mather Lippincott and some of his manuscripts are cataloged in the FHL book collection.
Gift of H. Mather Lippincott, Jr., Acc. 2000.055
Gift of Margaret Walker Lippincott, Acc. 2014.029
In 2000 H. Mather Lippincott, Jr., donated books and materials concerning organizations in which his father, Horace Mather Lippincott, participated. Included were bound manuscripts which were organized chronologically. These were processed as RG5/251, Horace Mather Lippincott Papers. The accession was sorted and cleaned. Duplicate publications were added to FHL duplicates. Minutes from Media Monthly Meeting Long-range Planning Committee from the 1970s were transferred to RG 2/ Media Monthly Meeting Records. Minutes of the Friends Social Union (H. Mather Lippincott, Jr.. was president of the organization 1970-1972) were added to RG 4/039. Historic Structures Report, the Richard Wall House, 1981, and The Jenkins Town Lyceum were added to FHL books. The Whittier House memorabilia (contents of cornerstone salvaged by HML just before demolished for Friends Center, included sampling of newspapers, publications, deeds, architectural plans, etc., 1913) added to RG 4/058, Philadelphia Young Friends Association Records.
In 2014, Mather Lippincott's widow, Margaret ("Peg") Walker Lippincott, donated additional papers which were delivered by her son and daughter-in-law, Hugh and Marge Lippincott. These were largely genealogical, family deeds, and photographs. Included were additional Horace Mather Lippincott writings, many of which were duplicate copies already cataloged, and some Mather family papers.
In 2015, vital record pages in the family Bibles which were loaned at the same time as the 2014 accession were scanned and sent digitally to the Lippincotts. In February 2016 the Bibles were shipped to the four Lippincott sons.
In 2017, the second accession was sorted into four groups: Horace Mather Lippincott papers, genealogical research, H. Mather and Peg Lippincott papers, and Lippincott family papers. Photographs and photo albums were removed to be processed as a Lippincott picture collection. Deeds were flattened and stored in oversize.
Duplicate publications and mimeographed manuscript copies were removed to return to the family as well as duplicate copies of the family trees and print proofs used in the Penn alumni publications, etc. Materials were cleaned. Duplicates that were moldy or badly damaged were removed. Family trees and rolled documents were flattened and stored in oversize.
Chester Monthly Meeting (Hicksite), Women's Minutes (rough), 12 month 1828 through 5 month 1830, transferred 8/2010 to RG2, Chester Monthly Meeting Records.
Book of subscriptions collected by George E. Lippincott for Green Street Preparative Meeting transferred 2/2020 to RG2/ Green Street Monthly Meeting Records.
Family photographs were removed and processed as PA 182.
People
- Lippincott family -- Genealogy
- Lippincott, Horace Mather, 1877-1967
- Lippincott, H. Mather, Jr. (Horace Mather), 1921-2010
- Lippincott, Margaret Walker
- Mather family
- Walker family
Organization
- Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of Friends (Hicksite : 1827-1955)
- Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends
Subject
- Quaker Authors -- 20th century
- Church controversies -- Society of Friends
- Society of Friends -- Pennsylvania
- Society of Friends -- Hicksite Separation
- Land titles -- Pennsylvania
- Quakers -- albums (books)
- Real property -- Pennsylvania
- Quakers -- Diaries
- Quakers -- Genealogy
- Quakers -- Pennsylvania
- Quakers -- Social life and customs
- Society of Friends -- Reunification
- Quakers -- Pennsylvania -- 20th century
- World War, 1914-1918 -- Peace
- Architecture -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia
- Quaker church buildings
- Quakers -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia
- Quakers -- United States -- Civil War, 1861–1865
- Pageants
Place
- Publisher
- Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College
- Finding Aid Author
- Finding Aid Prepared by FHL staff
- Finding Aid Date
- 2017
- 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
The collection contains published and manuscript writings by Horace Mather Lippincott on topics primarily concerning the Society of Friends. Of particular interest is the scrapbook he compiled in 1946 of papers and photographs of the 1913-1914 Joint Group which met weekly to study the Separation in the Society of Friends, along with other papers on the topic and on the first joint meeting of the two Philadelphia Yearly Meetings in 1946. It includes an essay by Henry J. Cadbury titled "Theology in Quakerism, Present, Past, & Future."
Quaker history, Germantown Friends and other topics. Mimeographed or carbons. Presented to Friends Association and other groups
Physical Description1 folder
Quaker-organizations related correspondence, clippings concerning to war and Quaker response, Friends Historical Association, etc.
Physical Description1 folder
Essay on peace. Duplicates removed.
Physical Description1 folder
Correspondence, lectures, clippings
Physical Description1 folder
Lippincott was the featured speaker at Germantown's celebration of Bicentennial of birth of George Washington.
Physical Description1 folder
Drafts, related papers
Physical Description1 folder
Includes TMs of conversations between Young Friends in 1912 discussing reunification of Friends
Physical Description1 folder
Quaker topics, ms drafts and TMS
Physical Description1 folder
TMs, multiple copies, some edited. Correspondence concerning Lippincott's attempt to have manuscript published by the Yearly Meeting
Physical Description1 folder
TMs and related papers
Physical Description1 folder
Draft for book on Historic Homes in Philadelphia
Physical Description1 folder
Bound TMs, speeches and writing with related clippings. Includes "A Reasonable Faith" (1936), talks before the Friends Historical Association, clippings and speech concerning Abington MM 250th anniversary (1933). This selection by Lippincott duplicates some of the loose manuscripts in the 2014 accession.
Physical Description1 bound volume
Bound TMs of speeches and papers presented to various groups such as the Antiquarian Society, Old York Road Historical Association. Includes a copy of a letter to his son urging him not to participate in WWII, etc.
Physical Description1 bound volume
Bound editorials by HML appearing in the General Magazine of Historical Chronicles," Univ. of Pennsylvania.
He was editor of the publication 1912-1945 and received an Honorary Masters degree from Penn in 1940.
Physical Description1 bound volume
A "miscellany" compiled by Lippincott and privately published. Reviews are pasted into the front and back cover leafs.
Physical Description1 bound volume
Bound album compiled by Lippincott relating to the 1913-1914 Joint Group which met weekly to study the Hicksite-Orthodox Separation and re-unification effort. Includes an essay by Henry J. Cadbury titled "Theology in Quakerism, Present, Past, and Future," photos of the Joint Group, and related papers concerning the first General Meeting in 1946 of the two Philadelphia Yearly Meetings.
Physical Description1 bound volume
Correspondence and brochure for book. Published 1926: Philadelphia by Lippincott, Horace Mather, 1877-1967.; Oakley, Thornton, 1881-1953 illustrator. c1926.
Typed draft, explaned from 1926 version, with correspondence to publishers. The book covered the social history and institutions, to be accompanied by illustrations by Thornton Oakley
Typed drafts of short histories of meeting houses in Philadelphia area
Typed drafts, miscellaneous topics includes Quakers and articles probably written for Penn's alumni magazine.
Wide range of topics and venues, generally historic
Typed draft
This series contains informal writings, personal correspondence, and miscellaneous papers.
Poetry in Lippincott's hand? A printed Overseers letter from Lippincott is loose, inside cover
Physical Description1 folder
Scraps of childhood writings including a short essay on being a Quaker
Physical Description1 folder
Occasional verse, talks given at Friendly Club, Lyceum , etc
Physical Description1 folder
Childhood letters from Horace to his father. 1896 letters from Benjamin Shoemaker to Horace M. Lippincott concerning genealogy.
From Lydia Mather, widow of Penrose Mather. Horace apparently managed her finances
Physical Description1 folder
Sample of sympathy notes to Horace Mather Lippincott concerning death of his grandmother, Lydia Mather, on 11 mo 1902. Water damaged and moldy as received; illegible and worst were discarded.
Physical Description1 folder
Horace distributed remembrances of his grandmother to relations. Sample: Water damaged and moldy as received, illegible and worst were discarded.
Physical Description1 folder
An account of a visit with John Greenleaf Whittier a year before his death.
Membership lists, correspondence concerning Young Friends and other Quaker committees
Physical Description1 folder
Congratulations on engagement and his marriage, Gwynedd Monthly Meeting
Physical Description1 folder
Historic topics, etc.
Physical Description1 folder
1 folder
Used in publications
Physical Description1 folder
Printed Christmas greetings
Physical Description1 folder
Lippincott, Class of 1897, was a life-long loyal alumni, serving as Class Secretary, Secretary of the General Alumni Society, editor of the Alumni Register and Pennsylvania Gazette. File includes Carbon copy of essay "Coeducation in Pennsylvania," stating the case to keep undergraduate women's college separate; published writings and related papers
Physical Description1 folder
Penn graduation booklet, published articles, miscellaneous Quaker publications of interest, Board of Trustees report for Germantown Academy
Physical Description1 folder
Family research largely done by George E. Lippincott, brother of Horace Mather Lippincott, compiled from earlier research on the Lippincott family. Horace Mather Lippincott consolidated research on the immediate Lippincott and Mather families; George's notebooks on family
Bound compilation by Horace Mather Lippincott of research, photographs, and clippings. The photographs of pertinent sites are labeled, but loose in volume because glue dried.
Physical Description1 folder
Typed manuscript by Horace Mather Lippincott. Also edited carbon copy.
Physical Description1 folder
AMs and some TMs by Horace Mather Lippincott and/or George E. Lippincott
Physical Description1 folder
TMs
Physical Description1 folder
Material compiled by George E. Lippincott, acidic duplication of family line essays, some genealogical correspondence. Much of this appears in Horace's 1938 compilation. Included are photographs of sites taken by George E. Lippincott in 1938. Removed from acidic binder and foldered.
Physical Description1 folder
George E. Lippincott correspondence. Removed from binder
Physical Description1 folder
Related families, research by George E. Lippincott
Physical Description1 folder
Compiled by George E. Lippincott
Physical Description1 folder
Compiled by George E. Lippincott. He lived 101 Elm Ave, Swarthmore in 1970s. 266 W. Tulpenhocken St. in 1940s
Physical Description1 folder
Margaret Walker Lippincott was the daughter of James Walker, headmaster at Westtown School. The file included two marriage certificates and copy from French family Bible sent to her father. Certificates stored OE
Physical Description1 folder
Foulke family reunion, family burial locations. See also RG5/Foulke Family for more reunion materials.
Physical Description1 folder
Ancestors of Robert Cook Lippincott (1845-1916). Multiple copies, a blue print version includes additions. 2 moldy tattered copies discarded.
Physical Description1 folder
Constructed by E. Archie Bell. Alice Nicholson Bell married James French Walker, parents of Margaret Nicholson Walker Lippincott. 2 copies. Also Bell family ancestry tree printed, with the coat of arms
Physical Description1 folder
With few entries. A note adds Esther Roberts, grandmother of Alice Nicholson Bell. A published Robert family tree dated 1852 mounted on linen, poor crumbling condition, is a duplicate of copy in FHL. Returned to family.
Physical Description1 folder
She was the first wife of Horace Mather Lippincott.
Physical Description1 folder
Walter Hallowell Jenkins married Esther Peterman Lukens 1884. Original on tracing paper with copies.
Physical Description1 folder
Pieces taped together, print-out of ancestry of H. Mather Lippincott
Physical Description1 folder
Horace Mather Lippincott, Jr. (1921-2010), was an architect and historian. He married Margaret Walker in 1949. She was the daughter of James French Walker and Alice Nicholson Bell. Her father was headmaster at the Westtown School where she was raised. She graduated from Swarthmore College in 1945 and was active in social concerns.
Kept by his mother, Sarah Jenkins Lippincott. Includes photographs and ends with the births of his sons
Physical Description1 folder
Begun on his 21st birthday. January- September 1. Removed from acidic binder
Physical Description1 folder
University of Pennsylvania
Physical Description1 folder
Financial ledger
Physical Description1 folder
Peg's 75th birthday; 50th Anniversary party and cruise to Bermuda invitations, etc.
Physical Description1 folder
TL dated 1943 from a friends refers to Mather working on a farm during War. General letters to Mather's four children, photocopy of an account of a 1946 canoe trip; mimeograph of Walker travelogue, 1962, Alice and James.
Physical Description1 folder
Carbon of ancestry to 1963; mimeographed Recollections of James Walker, 1953, prepared for his children
Physical Description1 folder
Copy of remarks at presentation, including reference to his work toward unification of the yearly meeting
Physical Description1 folder
Westtown, Ohio public schools, University of Ohio, Harvard, Townhend Literary Society, Haverford College
Physical Description1 folder
Horace Mather Lippincott was the only child of Robert Cook Lippincott and his first wife, Cynthia Shoemaker Mather. Cynthia died in 1880 in her early 30s when he was a toddler. A small number of his mother's papers were preserved. Photographs of Cynthia and Mather as a baby that were enclosed with her papers have been removed to Lippincott Family Pictures. Robert Cook Lippincott married second Catharine Koons, and they also had one son, George E. Lippincott. George and Horace consolidated family genealogical research - George was interested also in collateral lines. The parents of Robert Cook Lippincott were George Eyre Lippincott (1810-1871) and Jane Quimby Lippincott (1805-1852), members of Green Street Monthly Meeting. After Jane's death, George E. Lippincott married Ruth Anna Rutter.
Most are identified, probably made in Philadelphia. A few, not identified, are badly foxed
Physical Description1 folder
Lippincott was a Philadelphia builder, Haines and Lippincott, and member of Green Street Monthly Meeting. Receipts, miscellaneous which includes poetry on courtship and two letters from his half brother, James Beatty, Ledyard, New York, which informed of the death of their mother (1831) and family news (1835)
Certificate, Life Member of Northern Dispensary of Philadelphia
Physical Description1 folder
Robert Cook Lippincott, administrator
Physical Description1 folder
Robert and Cynthia were married in 1871.
Physical Description1 folder
Robert Cook Lippincott and Cynthia Shoemaker Mather were married in 1871. She died in 1880.
2 vols. Journal and "Self-Confessional," 1867-1869, ends with her engagement to Robert Lippincott
Physical Description1 folder
Robert C. Lippincott and Cynthia S. Mather, Abington Monthly Meeting
Physical Description1 folder
ALsS from convicted felon in Spain who claimed his wife was Mary Lippincott, seeking help.
Physical Description1 folder
Loose poetry and essays
Physical Description1 folder
"Album of the Heart," autograph album. Horace Lippincott's bookplate glued inside cover.
Physical Description1 folder
Poetry and essays. Also loose pages in Horace's hand contain three Valentine poems dated 1911, 1913, 1914
Physical Description1 folder
Poetry copied into small leather bound volume
Physical Description1 folder
Robert C. Lippincott 1882 passport and 1888 obituaries; "At home" engraved plate return to family
Physical Description1 folder
"Conundrums" in small leather bound notebook
Physical Description1 folder
Chalkley Styer (1826-1915) was an uncle of Horace's wife, Sarah S. Jenkins Lippincott. Chalkley lived with Sarah's family in his old age. Contains sympathy notes on the death of his wife Abbie Potts Styer in 1896 and three small account books, 1890-1905.
Physical Description1 folder
Including an invitation from James and Lucretia Mott, wedding announcements. Cynthia died in 1880, and Robert remarried to Catharine Koons; the invitation is addressed to the only child from the first marriage, Master Horace Mather Lippincott.
Physical Description1 folder
George E. Lippincott military service ID card, 1918 discharge; family obituaries, photocopy of marriage license and certificate. George, younger brother of Horace, left the Society of Friends.
Physical Description1 folder
Pages from a Bible owned by George E. Lippincott; also scans of relevant pages of family Bibles which were returned to descendants of Mather and Peg Lippincott in 2015.
Physical Description1 folder
A member of Radcliffe Monthly Meeting, England. Correspondence with Horace Lippincott and publications.
Photographs, groups and H. C. Johnson as George Fox with Ellwood Hollingshead as O. Cromwell
250th anniversary of Abington Monthly Meeting. Announcements and labelel photographs
175th anniversary of Germantown Academy. Includes Lippincott's script for the pageant.
Typed transcript by George E. Lippincott. William Q. Moore (1840-1919). a member of Green Street Monthly Meeting during his wartime service. The entries begin while employed in Wilmington, Delaware, and he enlisted while a member of Wilmington Monthly Meeting. Diary covers his first enlistment, 1861, training and marches and encounters, ending with bivouac in Bolivar, West Virginia.
Physical Description1 folder
Appointment as Consul to India
Physical Description1 folder
Joseph Walker and Maria Holloway marriage, Flushing Monthly Meeting, Ohio. Grandparents of James F. Walker, father of Margaret Walker Lippincott.
Physical Description1 folder
Asa Holloway and Maria Warfield, Flushing, Ohio
Physical Description1 folder
Items include:
- 1752 Thomas Austin and wife to Abel Marple
- 1770 Joseph Phipps and wife to Joshua Morris
- 1775 Jonathan Richardson and wife to Hugh Hugh
- 1785 George M. Potts to Henry Hinkle
- 1787 Henry Hinkle and wife to Albert Davis
- 1789 Henry Davis and wife to George Brefsler
- 1791 John White and wife to Joseph White
- 1791 William Shoemaker to George Brefsler – Cheltenham
- 1798 Deed of Partition between Robert Turner and David Duncan (both free black men)
- 1799 Executors of Robert Kirkbride to Eleazer Fenton
- 1799 Isaac Kirk and wife to William McCalla Jr.
- 1799 Samuel Eastburn and John Longstreth (executors of Robert Kirkbride) to John Byerley
- 1801 Thomas Roberts and wife to John Black
- 1803 Joseph Reed to Atkinson Rose
- 1803 William Hamilton to Joseph Davis
- 1803 William Hamilton to Joseph Reed
- 1804 Joseph Conrad and wife to Joseph White
- 1804 William Magill to Septimus Evans
- 1805 Daniel Shoemaker and wife to Daniel Stroud
- 1805 Enoch Harvey and wife to Job Barton
- 1805 Joseph Davis to Atkinson Rose
- 1807 John Styer and Catharine Evans to John Conrad – Montgomery County
- 1808 John Black and wife to Septimus Evans – land in Bucks County
- 1808 patent of George Phillips to James Snodgrafs and Benjamin Watson – property called "Mounthope"
- 1808 William Magill and Jonathan McIntosh to Samuel Mason – Bucks County
- 1809 Lewis Rush and wife to Richard M. Austin
- 1810 Charles Shoemaker and wife to Thomas Shoemaker
- 1810 Daniel Stroud to Thomas Shoemaker
- 1810 John Rice and wife to Henry Seckel
- 1810 John Shoemaker and wife to Richard M. Austin, Cheltenham Township, Montgomery County
- 1810 William Magill and Jonathan McIntosh to Thomas Roberts, Warwick Township, Bucks County
- 1811 Daniel Carlile and George Bunges to John C. Ernst
- 1811 Richard M. Austin to Thomas Shoemaker
- 1812 George M. Potts to Joseph White
- 1812 John Bierly and wife to Thomas Roberts
- 1812 John C. Ernst and wife to Asher Miner
- 1813 Clement Sheppard to Christian Shearer
- 1819 Charles Dewees to Septimus Evans – the Estate of John Thaw
- 1820 Nathan and Homly Shoemaker to William Speece
- 1823 John Rofs and wife to John Kennedy
- 1823 John Rofs to Robert Kennedy – Abington Township
- 1825 Alexander McCalla Vothers, as signee to William Overington. Estate of Robert Kennedy
- 1825 Alexander McCalla Vothers, as signee to William Overington. Estate of Robert Kennedy
- 1827 Christian Snyder Sheriff to Thomas Mather - Abington Township
- 1827 William Overington and wife to Thomas Mather – Jenkintown
- 1834 Joseph and John Conrad to William Thomas
- 1864 Passing of John R. Styer's asset to Chalkley Styer, according to his will
- 1873 Edwin Roberts and wife to Penrose Mather William Armstrong to Daniel Warshire
1 folder
Property of Walter H. Jenkins, Agent, Gwynedd, Pa. Walter Hallowell Jenkins, b. 1859, was the father of Sarah Styer Jenkins who married Horace Mather Lippincott in 1914.
Physical DescriptionPages were removed from the account book, and the blank account book pages and binding were discarded, in 2024.