Haverford College
Magill Library
370 Lancaster Avenue
Haverford, PA 19041-1392
(610) 896-1161
www.haverford.edu/library/sc/sc.html

Contact People:

Elisabeth Potts Brown, Quaker Bibliographer, ebrown@haverford.edu

Emma Jones Lapsansky, Curator, Professor of History, elapsans@haverford.edu

Diana Franzusoff Peterson, Manuscripts Cataloger/Archivist, dfpeters@haverford.edu

 

Overview

Both the Special Collections and Quaker Collections are housed together within Haverford’s Magill Library; materials relating to the Society of Friends (Quakers) comprise the bulk of the collection. Used in conjunction with the resources at Swarthmore (see separate entry), this collection sheds light on the intersection of economic life and religious thought. Some of the greatest merchants in early America were also members of the Society of Friends (Thomas Pim [Pym] Cope, Samuel B. Morris, and the Pembertons, among others). These men enjoyed a large social network that shaped their economic ventures domestically and abroad. The records contained in this collection and the one at Swarthmore document both the lives of individual Quaker merchants and community economic practices; due to space limitations and a religious schism resulting in two separate Philadelphia Yearly Meetings, the records are divided between the Haverford collections and Swarthmore's library.

Haverford’s collections consist of manuscripts, books, and periodicals written by and about the Society of Friends. Materials relate to Quaker history and practice in the Philadelphia region and also cover other parts of the United States and Great Britain, tracing Quaker origins (during the 1600s) to the present. Manuscript records for Orthodox Philadelphia-area Yearly Meetings are located here, and a detailed inventory for these exists on-site. Local finding aids to the manuscripts are available at the repository, and are also in the process of being mounted on-line and accessible through Tripod (the combined library catalogues of Swarthmore, Haverford, and Bryn Mawr: www.tripod.brynmawr.edu). The collections’ printed materials (books and periodicals) are accessed via open stacks with the aid of the Quaker bibliographer. Newly-acquired manuscript collections are always being inventoried and catalogued for research access; the Manuscript Librarian/Cataloguer should be consulted about specific research projects.

Haverford has a library Quaker Reference Index, compiled from 1929-35, providing subject access from Quaker-related sources. For example, sources include the Biographical Catalogue, Being an Account of the Lives of Friends. . . (London: Friends’ Institute, 1888); biographical sketches from James Bowden’s History of the Society of Friends in America (London, 1850-4); Susanna Corder’s Memorials of Deceased Members. . . (London, 1845); and other biographical sources; the periodicals The Friend, vol. 1-105 (1827-1932), The Friends’ Library (1837-50), Friends’ Miscellany (1831-39), and PMHB.

 

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE COLLECTIONS:

 

BOOKS OF DISCIPLINE:

The collection Rules of Discipline was published yearly, for various Meetings (including New England, New York, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Oregon, and Great Britain) during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (check Tripod for specific holdings). They outline codes of conduct for Friends, giving them guidance regarding keeping slaves, drinking alcohol, gambling, and conducting trade.

 

EPISTLES:

These are sermons which discuss everything from morals to social conduct. Within these, one can find many references to business dealings, including the definition of fair prices, beliefs regarding creditor and debtor status, and general proper business conduct.

 

JOURNALS, DIARIES:

For the period 1683-1954 (collection #975), approx. 670 volumes.

   - manuscript books “of all descriptions – journals, diaries, commonplace books, scrapbooks, account books, memorandum books, collections of letters, type-written copies, and other miscellaneous items.”

   - highlights: 45 vols. of journals and memorandum books of Joshua Longstreth Baily (1826-1916); diaries of Thomas Pim Cope (1768-1854), founder of the steamship company operating the Cope Packet Ships – Cope Packet Ships: “Logbooks [really bound volumes of letters from ships’ captains] 1817-1876. 9 vols.”; packet ships including Algonquin, Lancaster, Monongahela, Montezuma, Saranak, Susquehanna, Thomas P. Cope, Tuscarora

   - of great importance is an addendum – a preliminary list compiled from cards and survey of shelves (done in 1993) sorted by author but also including genre (account book, memorandum book, e.g.), subjects, and inclusive dates.

 

MANUSCRIPTS:

The library has many finding aids for these collections, though they are not generally of significant value for economic research.

 

Charles Roberts Autograph Letters Collection:

Many of these letters have important historical content and have been catalogued individually and organized by subject. Relevant categories include: #330 (“Political Economists and Politicians,” including Jeremy Bentham, Lorin Blodget, Henry C. and Mathew Carey, Thomas Cooper, Tench Coxe, Irving and Redwood Fisher, and Adam Smith); #335 (“Financiers, Bankers, and Capitalists,” including the Bank of the US, Baring brothers, Nicholas Biddle, Stephen Girard, Schuylkill Navigation Co., Thomas B. McCabe, and George Simpson); #340 (“Merchants and Manufacturers,” including William Appleton, Thomas P. Cope, Hamilton Disston, Pierre S. DuPont, Thomas Fitzsimons, Stephen Girard, Charles Macalester, Robert Morton, Samuel Morton, Israel Pemberton, Charles R. Shipley, Edward Shippen, Thomas John Watson, Joseph Jr., Samuel, and Robert Wharton, and Thomas Willing); #712 (“Stamp Act Congress,” including William Bayard, John Cotton, John Dickinson, John Morton, Timothy Ruggles, and Edward Tilghman); #724-732 (Revolution-related materials); and #733 (miscellaneous Robert Morris papers)

 

#955: Edward Wanton Smith (1875-1940) collection, dating from 1681 and comprising approx. 3800 items, including legal and financial papers, business accounts including inventories.

 

#962: Taylor collection, dating from 1755, approx. 3300 items in all

   - “These papers give a picture of the social, business, religious, and emotional relationships of two closely connected Quaker families, the Taylors and the Shoemakers, beginning in Burlington, N.J., and Philadelphia in the early 19th century and extending westward, as Abraham Merritt Taylor (1799-1873) went to Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1825, founded a tanning business there, and eventually brought his friend Isaac Shoemaker and his brothers, Dr. Joseph W. Taylor (helped found Bryn Mawr) and Jacob M. Taylor, to Cincinnati and took them into partnership.” The papers reflect westward expansion during the mid 1800s. Members traveled to CO and CA, and there are descriptions of the surveying of the Acheson, Topeka, and Santa Fe RR

 

#968: Allinson collection (Samuel Allinson [1739-1791] attorney and Surveyor-General of NJ and friend of Anthony Benezet; Samuel Allinson [1808-1883] NYC farmer; William James Allinson [1810-1874] NJ druggist), dating from 1710, approx. 2000 items. Papers include diaries, commonplace books, deeds, legal and financial papers, etc.

 

#971: Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Epistles and Extracts from Minutes (manuscript version)

 

#1008: Morris-Sansom family papers, dating from 1715, approx. 6400 items.

     - “A collection of papers of several generations and descendants of Anthony Morris and Samuel Sansom. . . reflecting two centuries of cultural and religious life, and particularly informative on social and economic developments.”

     - including Samuel B. Morris commerce and shipping accounts, bills of lading, receipts, insurance 1798-1815; John Sansom, Samuel Sansom, James Sansom, et.al. letters and papers 1737-1801 relating to commerce, finance, and family matters; papers relating to Schuylkill Permanent Bridge Co., 1801; Frankford & Germantown Turnpike Road Company accounts, 1853

     - Samuel Buckley Morris (1791-1859) born in Philadelphia, son of Luke Wistar and Elizabeth Buckley Morris; became member of shipping firm Waln & Morris in Phila., one of first directors of Philadelphia Saving Fund Society; one of the founders of Haverford

 

#1024: Moses Brown family papers, dating from 1815, approx. 263 items

     - Moses Brown (1793-1878) ran the family dry goods business

     - including legal, land, estate papers, account book recording wages; letters written by MB re: business matters.

 

#1036: Pemberton papers, dating from 1741; approx. 112 items

     - personal and business papers of the sons of Israel Pemberton (1684-1754): Israel Pemberton (1715-1779); James Pemberton (1723-1809); and John Pemberton (1727-1795); the James Pemberton letters deal almost exclusively with business matters

 

#1163: Dunn-Osborn-Battey papers, dating from 1744; 9 boxes of material

      - Nathan Dunn (1782-1844) was disowned by Philadelphia Monthly Meeting because of bankruptcy in 1816; in 1818 he traveled to China and traded under the firm of Nathan Dunn & Co.; he returned in 1832 and paid off all his creditors.

     - including correspondence of families, account books, receipts, bills, other financial papers; trade with China; household and farming bills and receipts.

 

#1166: Josiah White papers, dating from 1796; 12 boxes and 7 packages

   - Josiah White (1781-1850), born in Mt. Holly, NJ, “was the builder of the first major economically sound canal in North America used to bring coal to Philadelphia by way of the Lehigh River, inventor of the world’s first wire drilling method in the world, the world’s first wire suspension bridge (at Falls on Schuylkill River in Philadelphia), and designer of schools based on spiritual and manual labor education for deprived children in Iowa and Indiana.” He also was one of the founders of the Schuylkill Navigation Co. in 1812, was a founder of the Lehigh Coal and Navigation Co., and served as engineer for the Delware Canal project.

   -- papers include letterbook, 1832-3 detailing involvement with Lehigh Navigation and Coal Mine Co. (“The Lehigh Company was started in 1818 with a lease and later purchase of coal lands and with a grant of authority from the legislature of Pennsylvania to improve the navigation of the Lehigh River to enable White and partners to send their coal to Philadelphia. A test of the market suggested it would be profitable to build a canal from Mauch Chunk to Philadelphia by the Delaware Canal and to New York by the Morris Canal. Much of the scope and creativity of this endeavor is expressed in the letterbook.”); business papers “deal with capital investment. . . business agreements, inventions. . .”; papers of the Manual Labor Schools; other financial correspondence from others.

 

#1177: Cadbury-Brown family papers, dating from 1804; 2 boxes, including business papers related to merino wool business of John Brown (1783-??) ca. 1804-1840s

 

#1179: Taylor family papers. In these, see especially the George Washington TaylorPapers, 1854-1875, and Free Produce Association Records, 1845-1851. Taylor was a storekeeper in Philadelphia, where he sold free labor produce. Documents include receipts for goods; manuscript list of subscribers to Free Produce Friends; premiums for free labor cotton; Free Produce Association Records including by-laws, reports, minutes, and letters.

 

#1170: Cope-Evans Family Papers, 1732ff. (ca. 2800 items), consist mainly of personal letters between family members of the Cope, Evans, Brown, Drinker, and Haines families. However, the letters are dominated by the business matters of brothers Henry, William D. and Alfred Cope. Henry and Alfred continued the Cope family shipping business begun by their father and William D. Cope established a farm in Susquehanna Co., PA, where he looked after his father’s land interests. The finding aid is housed in one binder, arranged chronologically; these lists are followed by “contents” lists providing an alphabetical index of each letter’s contents, date, and author.

 

#1013: Thomas Pim CopeCollection, 1795ff. (ca. 550items), contains the records at Haverford of this founding family member. Cope (1768-1854) left letters about business and civic activities, including remission of penalties incurred for carrying prohibited goods during the War of 1812, and an account of his estate; also letters during sojourn to Paris and Brussels during English suit over one of his packet ships; letters 1799-1847 regarding slavery, immigration of free blacks to Haiti, War of 1812, business conditions, etc. Cope was a member of Philadelphia City Council and PA Legislature; married Mary Drinker in 1792; he had a mercantile shipping firm based in Philadelphia that traded with England and the Far East. Sons Henry and Alfred later took over the business and renamed it Cope Brothers in 1869 after the death of Thomas Pim; the company was sold in 1880. [see also Hagley and Winterthur entries]

 

David Bacon Diary, 1813-1865 (2 vols.), is a good resource on banking and panics of the era, as well as Bacon's household economy. Bacon was a gentleman farmer in Greenwich, New Jersey.

 

Joseph Gibbons, Ledger, 1789-1842 (220 pp.), shows the connections between this Philadelphia merchant and top-level importers such as the Drinkers. Gibbons was also involved in finance and currency exchange.

 

The Quaker Reference Index: an in-house card file, compiled from 1929-35, providing subject access from Quaker-related sources; in-house description: “Index to historical articles and biographical sketches of Quaker interest, in printed periodicals and books, as well as in the manuscript ‘Memorials’ of John Smith and miscellaneous information cards.” Sources include: Biographical Catalogue, Being an Account of the Lives of Friends. . . (London: Friends’ Institute, 1888); biographical sketches from James Bowden’s History of the Society of Friends in America (London, 1850-4), Susanna Corder’s Memorials of Deceased Members. . . (London, 1845), and miscellaneous additional biographical sources, and also the periodical The Friend, vol. 1-105 (1827-1932), The Friends’ Library (1837-50), Friends’ Miscellany (1831-39), and PMHB.

See Jack Eckert, comp. Guide to the Records of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (Haverford College, Records Committee of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, Swarthmore College, 1989) for detailed introductory notes about the scope of the holdings between Haverford and Swarthmore. This resource lists only the vital records contained within the manuscripts; consult the staff at Haverford for more detailed inventories.