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David S. and Mary W. Richie 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.
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David Shoemaker Richie, 97 years, 4 days, (July 11, 1908), of Moorestown, NJ, died peacefully Friday morning, July 15, 2005, at the home of his daughter. A birthright member of the Society of Friends, he was the son of Edward Laurence and Anna Bailey (Shoemaker) Richie of Moorestown, NJ. He married Mary Wright, of Norristown, PA on June 8, 1935, at Norristown Meeting House; she preceded him in death, Sept. 12, 1977. After graduating in 1930 from Haverford College -- where he had been an all-American soccer player with two of his brothers Robert and Tom -- he returned to teach social studies for nine years at his high school alma mater, Moorestown Friends School. From 1939 to 1973 he served as executive secretary of the Friends Social Order Committee of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. By 1940 he had established the concept of weekend work camps promoting educational opportunities for students to understand economic and social injustices, just as his parents had taken him on weekly trips to North Philadelphia to help provide for the poor when young. Weekend work camps became a 33 year commitment. In 1946 he was asked by the Foreign Services Section of the American Friends Service Committee to start the concept of work camps and cooperatives in Poland and Finland. With the help of British Friends, he distributed clothing, food, medical supplies, and later helped with reconstruction in England, Finland, Germany, and Italy. This was the start of a lifetime devoted to serving others through work camp programs worldwide, putting into action his personal philosophy of work is love made visible. By 1953 the Yearly Meeting's weekend work camps had grown to include 730 volunteers from 36 schools, engaged in 54 weekend work camps in West Philadelphia and Mantua neighborhoods, -- invited into the homes of 200 local families. David and a number of other PYM employees continued this work until 1973 when he retired, having served for 34 years -- possibly the longest-employed person in the history of our yearly meeting. He was the author of several publications. In 1973 he was presented with a unique honorary degree from Wilmington College (Doctor of Human Reconstruction). In the late sixties he launched Friends Housing Incorporated for low income families in Mantua, a community in South Philadelphia. A love of his was transporting Mantua adults to surrounding Friends' meetings, and organizing outings for their children to Friends' farms and lakes became a tradition during his retirement years.Work camps involve volunteers who labor together on community service projects and interact with members of that community. The concept of work camping had originated in postwar Europe in 1921, under the direction of Swiss pacifist, Pierre Ceresole. The AFSC began its involvement with Work Camps in 1934 when a water pipe was laid to a community of miners in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. David Richie and wife-to-be, Mary Wright, were participants in the first AFSC camp. The following year they served as residents in a program at the AFSC Bedford Street Mission (Philadelphia) while he was still teaching at Moorestown. Richie brought the program to Philadelphia Yearly Meeting in 1939 when he was appointed Secretary of the Social Order Committee. He originated the idea of weekend work camps in 1940, as a way to draw more young people into an awareness of social justice. David also started the college-aged Interne (Student)-in-Industry Project, co-sponsored by the AFSC, in 1944, directing the first two summer groups and serving on the project's advisory committee. A high school week-long program, "Close-up of Urban Problems," began the same year. In 1946, the AFSC sent David on the first of numerous trips to Europe; under the auspices of the Anglo-American Quaker Relief Mission, he worked on reconstruction in Poland, England, Finland, Germany, and Italy, returning to the US the following year. In 1957, he was invited by UNESCO to go to India to develop work camps and was elected as an advisory member of the Coordination Committee for International Work Camps. He made a five-month visit to Africa in 1960, the first of several trips funded by friends and former work campers. In 1966, a New York philanthropist provided seed money for a Friends' non-profit housing corporation. Friends Housing Inc. was formed to rehabilitate a section of East Mantua in Philadelphia. David Richie served as President of the Board of Directors which also included representatives from the community and members of the Mantua Belmont Joint Committee of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting. Mary Wright Richie was born on December 6, 1906. She attended George School and Norristown High School before graduating from Swarthmore College in 1928. She died on September 12, 1977, and is buried in Moorestown Friends Cemetery with David Richie.
Collection of correspondence and related personal papers of David S. Richie, 1922-2005. The bulk of the papers relate to his involvement in work camps, cooperatives, and/or conscientious objection.
Includes those files without direct connection to either the Social Order Committee or Friends Housing, Inc. for which Richie maintained the official records. Related materials can be found in all three collections at Friends Historical Library, and individual papers and records may be interfiled in each. Original order within the folders has been largely maintained. In Series 2, the folders are grouped in a broadly topical arrangement, as determined by the Archivist. The latter include the following:
- COs, CPS Camps, and Other Men-In-Service
- Domestic Workcamps
- International Workcamps
- Other AFSC
- Mantua/Friends Housing
- Philadelphia Yearly Meeting
- Consumers Cooperative
- Unions
Series 3 contains biographical documents, which mostly consists of David S. and Mary W. Richie's school documents from Haverford College and Swarthmore College, respectively.
- Building tomorrow: some Quaker explorations / published jointly by the Social Order Committee and the Committee on Economic Problems of the Philadelphia Yearly Meetings of Friends. Philadelphia: Friends Central Bureau, or Friends Book Store, [1943]
- John Woolman speaks. Fairmount, Indiana, 194? [Compiled and copyrighted by David S. Richie and Leonard S. Kenworthy.]
- Building tomorrow: a religious search for a better industrial. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, Social Order Committee, 1959.
- In Preston, Ralph Clausius, 1908-, ed. Teaching world understanding. New York: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1955.
- Memories and Meditations of a Workcamper. Wallingford, Pa.: Pendle Hill, 1973.
- Weekend workcamping, an opportunity: why, what and how / written by David Richie, revised by Mark Paulmier, Paul Goldschmit, Joy Hopton. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, 1983.
- Education by exposure. [S.l. : s.n., s.d.]
Gift of Martha Richie, daugther, 2006-2007; Acc.#s FHL.2006.007, 2007.010, 2007.017, 2007.006, 2007.001, 2010.003.
Gift of Barbara Judson Terry, 1997; formerly cataloged as SC/198 Richie Manuscripts, Acc.# FHL.1997.074.
The division of the collection was made by the FHL Archivist, but folder contents were maintained intact, and folder descriptions, when the folders were marked, were carried over to new labels; some of the folders were clearly either personal or committee, but others contain mixed records, and are housed with most relevant collection. Like many Quaker activists, Richie's activities were interrelated, and his papers reflect that.
Photographs removed to FHL Picture Collections.
People
Organization
Subject
- Publisher
- Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College
- Finding Aid Author
- FHL staff
- Finding Aid Date
- 2014
- Access Restrictions
-
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
Apart from the circular letters and writings, these files contain mostly loose correspondence, organized by date. The topical folders in Series 2 also contain correspondence in the context of related materials as arranged by Richie.
From the House of Senate, House of Representatives, White House, A. Eleanor Wildman
Physical Description1 folder
American Liberty League (1936), miscellaneous correspondence in response to Richie's concerns, congratulations, suggestions
Physical Description1 folder
Primarily mimeographed holiday letters, directed to family and friends. Provides an annual update on the Richies' activities during the preceeding year.
Physical Description1 folder
Includes "To the Clerk of the monthly meeting"
Physical Description1 folder
Regarding the Walden School Project: High Acres
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1 folder
1 folder
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1 folder
Includes correspondence concerning Richie's legislative concerns – American militarization and humanitarian relief in Europe; correspondents include Congressmen Charles R. Howell and Frank Thompson, Jr.
Physical Description1 folder
Includes letter from Max Kampelman
Physical Description1 folder
David S. Richie collected relevant quotations, poetry, etc. on slips of papers and as clippings. The folders were assembled by Richie and may also contain related materials.
DSR Notes, Clippings, poetry: Handwritten and typescript notes and clippings with inspirational poetry, etc
Physical Description1 folder
Miscellaneous Notes on Woolman and Miscellaneous
Physical Description1 folder
DSR Attention: From a folder of the same name: Notes (Implication of the Quaker testimony in Personal Life and Society), miscellaneous Bernard Waring correspondence on labor and management, International Workcamps newsletters, typescript of Richie's review of the Reynolds' Woolman book, as well as other correspondence, notes, clippings and other material
Physical Description1 folder
Thoughts: David Richie kept files of inspirational clippings, notes, poetry, etc.
Physical Description1 folder
Includes his own statement, "This I Believe," as well as inspirational clippings, etc.
Physical Description1 folder
1 folder
The Friends/Moorestown Quest was a project to survey the opinion of Moorestown voters on congress issues and represent these opinions at the federal level.
Moorestown Quest for Truth, "Whose Vote is Thrown Away?" 1935 official general election ballot, "Questionnaire for thinking voters", Survey of Public Opinion on the Meaning of Citizenship 1934
Physical Description1 folder
Political survey report, drafts of letters to editor, survey data, "The Park Stylus" 1935, "Friends Intelligencer" (1935), "The American Friend" (1935)
Physical Description1 folder
1 folder
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David Richie refused to register for the draft on moral grounds, but was reclassified as 4-D, Minister of Religion. He also represented a minority view in opposition to the AFSC administration of CPS Camps.
Arle Brooks was born in 1909 in Grimes, Oklahoma. In 1935, he received a degree from Texas Christian University. Brooks also studied at the Chicago Theological Seminary and did social work in Texas. In 1940 he worked for the American Friends Service Committee in a work camp. During World War II, he would have been exempted as a minister, but he refused to register for the draft. He was sentenced and served three years. Following his release from prison, Brooks rejoined the staff of the Quaker Service Committee as Secretary of the Prison Service Committee. He died of cancer in 1953.
Physical Description1 folder
Larry Gara was born in 1922 and received a B.A. degree from William Penn College (Iowa) in 1947, the M.A. degree in the following year from Pennsylvania State University, and the Ph.D. degree in history from the University of Wisconsin in 1953. Gara is a member of the Society of Friends and was sentenced to prison in 1943 for refusal to register for military service; he served three years.
Physical Description1 folder
Correspondants include Robert P. Gowell, Denny Wilcher, Donald Royer
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Richie's letter to Godfrey E. Boehm, interned in a German stalag, and correspondence received from Edward Boehm.
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1 folder
Includes responses both by AFSC Board members and CPS camp inmates.
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1 folder
A Prison Service Committee was established by the AFSC in 1943 to provide a spiritual ministry and practical assistance to some of the over 6000 men who were imprisoned for the sake of conscience. The work with conscientious objectors in prison led to an interest in working for basic improvements in the care and treatment of all prisoners and to the establishment of prison visitation programs throughout the country.
Physical Description1 folder
Includes various issues of camp newsletters like Germfask, Middletown, and Elkton (Rebel Clarion), as well as issues of the NCCO Newsletter, CPSU, Educational Secretaries News Letter (Friends CPS), Information, and the Reporter.
Physical Description1 folder
1 folder
This subseries includes a wide variety of workcamp materials, including Richie's logs, correspondence, and other records.
Peace Caravaners were group of people who are mostly students, and they attend the Institute of International Relations in the summer
Physical Description1 folder
Includes "Politics and Peace" by J.B. Matthews, "New Methods for Old in Unemployment Relief" by James Myers, correspondence with Federal Council of the Churches of Christ
Physical Description1 folder
1 folder
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Primarily correspondence received concerning work camps
Physical Description1 folder
Primarily AFSC correspondence, but also Social Order Committee materials concerning work camps and a typescript draft of an article by David Richie, "Behind the Iron Curtain," 1948.
Physical Description1 folder
Includes Quaker International Voluntary Service subcommittee memos etc., workcamp staff conference, log of Richies' projects in the summer of 1949, correspondence, etc.
Physical Description1 folder
Primarily inquires concerning AFSC Workcamps, but also includes work camps in Philadelphia as well
Physical Description1 folder
Assembled by Mary Richie
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David organized a reunion of the 1940 Reading Work Camp in 1993 at Pendle Hill. File includes correspondence and financial records.
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File includes handwritten notes, brochures from organizations needing volunteers, and correspondence. Richie received requests from service organizations and inquiries from volunteers.
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1 folder
A report on filming in Coal Country and a script, "A Cycle in the Hills"
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Organized with American Friends Service Committee
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Labor weekend, D.V. Steere weekend, Married Couples Weekend
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1 folder
1 folder
Correspondence and papers regarding the Young Friends Seminars, "The Answer of Quakerism to Racial Conflict", Young People Inter-Racial Fellowship Program
Physical Description1 folder
Registration cards, correspondence, essay, "Circuit Riding in the Twentieth Century" by Charles C. Webber, New Lisbon Student Conference, Housing Conference at Friends School
Physical Description1 folder
"Militarizing Out Youth" by Roswell P. Barnes, 1929 Young Friends' Eastern Conference, "The Young Friend" 1930, 1933 Yearly Meeting, 1930-1936 correspondence (some from Evan J. Williams)
Physical Description1 folder
1 folder
Mimeographed excerpts from Richie's log of work in Poland, as distributed by the AFSC in July of 1946
Physical Description1 folder
Includes correspondence received from Poland and Finland, as well as David's own Thoughts on Coming Home, Sept.1948. Also include many handwritten notes and clippings with inspirational poetry, etc.
Physical Description1 folder
1 folder
Correspondence received and sent
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1 folder
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1 folder
Concerning David's trip to India and the Far East as well as correspondence with Dharan Singh Chawli re: workcamps
Physical Description1 folder
David visited 14 countries in Africa to assess needs and visit work camps in 1960. Includes Richie's mimeographed report on that trip, as well as AFSC minutes (with gaps) of the Board Committee on Africa and the Friends Southern Africa Group, correspondence, and some margin notes.
Physical Description1 folder
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Correspondence and newsletters.
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1 folder
Participant lists, student logs, assistant director's report, participant newsletters, reading lists, and publications.
Physical Description1 folder
Reports, correspondence, AFSC Internes literature; also includes (student?) log of 1945 program
Physical Description1 folder
Program newsletter (1954) with AFSC Bulletin and clipping
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1 folder
Printed proceedings.
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Includes "Following Jesus" by Nelson West, "When a Christian Questions Himself" by Edward W. Evans (1963), Pendle Hill Bulletin, Congressional Record, Youth Service Division budget
Physical Description1 folder
1 folder
AFSC Bulletin, "Negro progress and achievement" 1927-1928 AFSC Annual Report, "Position of the Society of Friends in Regard to War" (1937, 1939), "Pacifist hand book" (1939), "A Report of a Called Conference of Quaker Economists" (1949)
Physical Description1 folder
"On oppression and war", quotes, drafts of "John Woolman Speaks"
Physical Description1 folder
1 folder
Congress of Industrial Organization, Race Street Forum, American Civil Liberties Union, International Relations Conference, PA Council of Churches Annual Report (1952), "The Philadelphia Society for Negro Records and Research", Pendle Hill Bulletin (1941)
Physical Description1 folder
Includes "Marriage and Sexual Harmony" by Oliver M. Butterfield
Physical Description1 folder
Includes notes and sign in sheets of visitation, the Strawberry Party (Mantua Reunion) in 1996
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1982 Annual meeting agenda and minutes
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1971, 1982 Housing Inc. account summary, 1982 Department of Housing and Urban Development memorandum – application for transfer of physical assets
Physical Description1 folder
Annual meeting agenda and notes, Mantua-Belmont joint summer program
Physical Description1 folder
1976-1978 financial statements, Housing Assistance Payments Program, notes on Board of Directors meeting
Physical Description1 folder
1 folder
1 folder
Correspondence received and sent concerning volunteers to Mantua Mobilization and weekend workcamps, summary workcamp comments, clippings, notes, assorted carbon copy and handwritten Friends Mantua Joint Committee minutes, and workcamp signup sheets.
Physical Description1 folder
David was one member of a small committee that solicited Quakers for donations of gifts and cash to be distributed to the needy in Mantua at Christmastime.
Physical Description1 folder
Richie maintained contacts with community groups as President of Friends Housing, Inc. Includes correspondence, clippings, committee lists, and handwritten notes.
Physical Description1 folder
Includes sign-up sheets for Friends Weekend Workcamp Projects, lists of participants, etc.
Physical Description1 folder
Job description, Mantua Gardens East, Inc. correspondence (1987), Financial statement (1987, 1989, 1991), correspondence to tenants (1991)
Physical Description1 folder
1 folder
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In 1969-70, the Social Order Committee was merged into the Meeting for Social Concerns, and David Richie was on its Executive staff. Richie retired from PYM in 1973, but continued to be active in committee work.
Address by Henry P. Kendall, A. O. Wharton, Otto C. Beyer Jr., E.K. Hall, Labor Leader Conference, Holland menu, reservations, RSVP cards, member list, Kieckhefer meeting – member list, reservation, correspondence
Physical Description1 folders
Reports of the Secretary, "A Statement of Economic Objectives" presented at the Friends General Conference, news clipping, minutes, agenda, letter asking for contributions, "For our neighbours" by Friend War Relief Service (1937), weekend fellowship correspondence about Leif Dahl, report of Secretary and Agendas (1939-1945), correspondence from Bernard G. Waring - the Chairman of SOC (1938), Book: "Reports to Yearly Meeting of the Social Order Committee" (1941-1960)
Physical Description3 folders
1 folder
"Workers as Consumers", information about National Recovery Administration, "Proposal to develop standards for consumer goods", "Consumers' interest in price-fixing" by Walton H. Hamilton (1934), "Implementing the consumer" by Caroline F. Ware (1934)
Physical Description1 folder
Business and Labor Leaders Conference on "Industrial Jurisprudence" and industrial co-operation, Quaker Employers' Conference: "Quakers and Economic Life" schedule and notes, "Truth: A Paper for Christian Workers" (1942), 1943 supper conference, correspondence
Physical Description2 folder
Supper meeting for SOC and Committee on Economic Problems
Physical Description1 folder
Includes "A Bill to protect New Jersey's Child Workers"
Physical Description1 folder
Interfaith conference on unemployment, "Mobilization for War or Peace" notes, "Defense or Despotism?" by Harold E. Fey, "Industrial Mobilization Plan" and "Real Intent of M-Day Plan Concealed in Secret 'Annexes'" by Warren D. Mullin, "What happens to labor if nation goes to war" by Charles M. Kelley, Book: "Unemployment: Some Points of Attack in lessening it in the Future"
Physical Description1 folder
1 folder
Includes contact list from 1940, "Conference on Building a Better Community", booklet: National Conference on Quaker Volunteer Service
Physical Description1 folder
1 folder
"The Devil of the Machine Age" (1942), "Wages and War Profits" by Philip Murray, correspondence
Physical Description1 folder
Includes "The Friend: A Religious and Literary Journal" (1942), correspondence 1945, 1943 conference schedule, mailing list, "How to lead discussions" 1942, "Let's Discuss: What is a fair price?" (1943), rural life conference 1943, "The Christian Rural Fellowship Bulletin" (1940)
Physical Description1 folder
David's circular letter of October 1969 soliciting monthly meeting clerks for individual donations to the Black Economic Development Conference, written in frustration with the Yearly Meeting's pace in deliberation over allocating PYM assets to that project. Also includes some background material.
Physical Description1 folder
Includes notes, correspondence, miscellaneous reports and minutes
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1 folder
Friends Weekend Workcamp Committee reports and minutes, with some notes to David Richie
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1 folder
1 folder
1 folder
Working papers prepared by Fred H. Blum
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1 folder
News clippings, correspondence about exchange systems, "The Barter News" 1933, "Co-op Magazine" 1947, "What is Consumers' Cooperation?" by James Peter Warbasse, "Consumers Defender" (1941)
Physical Description1 folder
1 folder
Includes "Christianity and cooperation", "Organization and Management of Consumers Cooperative" (1934), correspondence and bulletins regarding coop, "With the People" by James Norris, documents from Eastern Cooperatives, Inc. (1948)
Physical Description1 folder
1 folder
Financial documents, inventory, correspondence, by-laws
Physical Description1 folder
1 folder
1 folder
1 folder
Correspondence of Mrs. E.S. Brinton regarding the workers' union strike
Physical Description1 folder
News clippings, correspondence and papers about the conference, "Making History in Hosiery" by Lawrence Rogin
Physical Description1 folder
Toledo Industrial Peace Board (correspondence to Hugh Carter, Professor of Sociology), "Toledo's Plan to End Strikes", "Toledo Plan for Industrial Peace", "Quiet on the Toledo Front" by Frank J. Oliver (1935)
Physical Description1 folder
Correspondence of J. Howard Branson (Secretary) with Lief Dahl (United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing and Allied Workers of America)
Physical Description1 folder
Includes outline of plan for Labor Institutes, "The Witness" 1940, Farrers' Bulletin 1966, "The Fellowship Group as the way to a new society" by Arthur E. Morgan, 1945 minutes, 1945-1946 correspondence, news clippings, "Conference Regarding Collective Bargaining", "Witchcraft and Race Prejudice", 1946 annual report, Moorestown Meeting notes 1947, "Labor Education Guide", 1947 "Annual Report of the American Labor Education Service, Inc."
Physical Description1 folder
1 folder
1 folder
1 notebook
Physical Description1 folder
Miscellaneous correspondence (1942), Labor's Monthly Survey (1946), "Winston Churchill on the protection of private capital as a feature of economic justice", correspondence and papers regarding reconciliation camps (1942)
Physical Description1 folder
Includes report cards, financial aid letters, report about the incompetency of German 1 instructor, Centenary Program 1933
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Includes Swarthmore Declaration for Peace and Poll
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Includes description of each page for all of the scrapbook pages
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Includes program from General Young Friends Conference (1925), program from Young Friends' Eastern Conference (1925), costume design and programs from theater (1927, 1928), periodicals, 2 notebooks
Physical Description1 folder
Includes Swarthmore students' handbooks (1924-1925, 1927-1928), math examination papers, Sigma Xi diploma, correspondence from faculty and deans upon graduation, graduation week invitation and schedule
Physical Description1 folder