Swarthmore College Special Collections Examples
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Friends Historical Library
- Organizational Records
- Collections that include references to East Asia, but are not primarily concerned with that region
- Individuals' Records
Friends Historical Library
Organizational Records
Includes:
- American Friends Service Committee Reference Files
- Friends' Opportunity in the Orient Records
- Friends World Committee for Consultation
American Friends Fellowship Council Records, 1933-1954. RG4/004
The American Friends Fellowship Council had its origin in the Fellowship Committee of the American Friends Service Committee. Founded in 1933, its primary purpose was to foster an increased interest in Quakerism throughout the United States and to draw all Friends groups into closer sympathy and fellowship. The Fellowship Council merged with the Friends World Committee, American Section, in 1954. The collection includes correspondence and administrative records, minutes, financial statements, membership lists, publicity, correspondence about new meetings, Intervisitation, and Wider Quaker Fellowship, 1933-1954.
BOX:
4 (Administrative Records: Japanese Students, Placement)
18 (General Correspondence: China; China Center; Shanghai, China).
38 (New and United Meetings: Shanghai, China)
American Friends Service Committee Reference Files, 1916-1944. RG 4/032
The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is a Quaker organization that was founded in 1917 to provide conscientious objectors with an opportunity to aid civilian victims during World War I. Today the AFSC includes people of various faiths and sponsors programs that focus on issues related to economic justice, peace-building and demilitarization, social justice, and youth in the United States, and in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. These reference files were collected and assembled by the American Friends Service Committee over many years to keep it informed of parallel service work by British and Irish Friends in the years 1916-1944.
BOX:
6 (Friends Service Council: China Committee, minutes, 1927*1944, 1946)
6 (Friends Service Council: Shanghai Sub-Committee, minutes, 1938-1940)
6 (Friends Service Council: West China Sub-Committee, minutes, 1928, 1933, 1935-1936)
6 (Friends Service Council: Far East (or China) Emergency Committee, minutes, 1937-1938)
7 (Friends Service Council:Joint China Committee, 1942)
Friends' Opportunity in the Orient Records, 1923-1924. RG 4/036
Friends Opportunity in the Orient was an unofficial Hicksite organization which sponsored a Quaker teacher in Canton, China, in the 1920s. The collection contains primarily correspondence with Margaret Hallowell Riggs, who was sponsored to teach at Canton Christian College and Canton Hospital.
1922*1924; 1 Box
Friends World Committee for Consultation. Section of the Americas Records, 1933-2000. RG 1/01
A Friends World Conference Committee, sponsored by the Fellowship Council of the American Friends Service Committee, was established in 1932 to promote better understanding among Friends world wide. The representatives at the Second World Conference of Friends, held at Swarthmore and Haverford Colleges, Pa., in 1937, approved the establishment of a continuing international organization, a Friends World Committee, to promote international contacts and cooperation among Friends. In 1958, it was formalized as Friend World Committee for Consulation which meets triennially at different locations all over the world. FWCC's World Office is in London, England, and it has four sections: Africa, Americas, Asia and West Pacific, and Europe amd Middle East. FWCC's Section of the Americas is based in Philadelphia, Pa. This collection contains the records of the office of Friends World Committee for Consultation. Section of the Americas.
BOX
SEE ATTACHED FILE
7 (Letter to Friends in China, 1943)
18 (Japan Friends News, 1945-1949)
25 (Japanese Conference against atomic and hydrogen bombs, 1956-1957)
26 (Peace Conference in Japan, 1953)
31 (China Delegation, 1958)
36 (London office: Secretary's travels. Includes Herbert Hadley's Travel Diary of his visiting journey to Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Area, 1959)
42 (Correspondence: Paul Sekiya. Includes "Japanese Reaction to Rearmament," including a handwritten draf, by Paul Sekiya)
43 (General Correspondence: Tr-Tz, 1950-1959. Includes "Friendly Travels: Notes from Japan" by Gretchen Tuthill)
53 (Correspondence: Japan projects, 1956-1957)
56 (General: United Nations: "Background Papers no. 79: The Question of Korea (1950-1953))
67 (Japan Friends News, 1950-1951)
73 (United Nations, Quaker Program minutes and reports, 1960 - Includes "Some Questions regarding the position of QUNP on the subject of China representation at the UN")
74 (United Nations: Quaker Program minutes and reports. Includes "The Civil War in Vietnam: Background and Prospects" by Robert S. Browne)
75 (Conferences: Quakerism in Korea, 1969)
75 (Inter-Faith Colloquia in Japan and India: Christians and Zen Buddhists, 1966-1967)
82, 88, 91 (World Conference: Japan, 1967)
88 (World Conference of Friends: Korea, 1967)
92 (Correspondence: Herbert and Gertrude Bowles, 1963-1964. Includes "History of Spiritual Growth of Friends in Korea" by Herbert and Gertrude Bowles)
93 (Correspondence: Errol T. Elliott. Includes a series of sixteen “Interpretation reports” written during Errol T. Elliott’s intervisitation travels to Hawaii, Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, India, Africa, and Athens.)
96 (Correspondence: Korea Friends, 1965-1966)
100 (Correspondence: Levinus Painter. Includes “Travel Epistles” of Levinus Painter from his travels in 1964 through Japan, Egypt, Greece, and Kenya.)
102 (Correspondence: Douglas Speere. Includes Reports of Douglas Steere's intervisitation trips taken to...Korea (1967))
108 (Correspondence: International Quaker Aid: Korea, 1966-1969)
109 (Korea Reserve Fund: 1963-1965)
112 (General: United Nations: Vietnam, 1967-1969. Includes "American Quakers and Vietnam" by Revecca Timbers Taylor and L. Emerson, Lamb.)
118 (Seoul [Korea] Monthly Meeting, 1961-1969)
128 (Mailings (literature): "Three Months in Vietnam" by Stephen G. Cary, 1966)
131 (Ad Hoc Committee to consider Persons, needs, projects, related to Seoul Friends Meeting, Korea minutes, 1974)
144 (Correspondence with Chinese individuals)
144 (Correspondence with Janice Clevenger, 1974-1976. Janice Clevenger was a Friend who spent a large amount of time in South Korea, particularly Seoul, and these files chronicle her extensive interaction with South Korean Friends.)
148 (Correspondence: Japan Committee, 1970-1973)
148 (Correspondence: T. Canby Jones. Includes "Visits with Friends in East Asia: Japan, Korea, Taiwan" by T Canby Jones, and "Korea is Lamb's War Country" by T Canby Jones)
150 (Korean Friends, 1969-1974. Includes a report of Floyd H. Sidwell's visit to Korea)
155 (Correspondence: Douglas and Dorothy Steere. Includes travel journals written during his travels in Japan, India, Hawaii, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Thailand, Nepal, Kenya, Germany, England, and South Africa).
Collections that include references to East Asia, but are not primarily concerned with that region
Mary Ellicott Arnold Papers
Visit to Japanese Relocation Camp
Joel and Hannah Bean Papers, 1825-1914, RG 5/012
1 Folder of Letters to Mary C. Whitney in Japan
58*59
67*69
Boxes 1-3
Rebecca Timbres Clark Papers, 1853-1999 [bulk 1920-1990], RG 5/026
Boxes 26 (Poems), 29 (Memories of Japan)
Cooper-Richardson Family Papers, 1863-1977, RG 5/032
1 Box
"Of special interest is the journal of Anna C. Richardson 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."
Holmes-Webb Family Papers, 1839-1972
RG 5/065
Box 3: Journal and Writings during trip to Far East
Elmore Jackson Papers, 1927-1985
RG 5/202
"Writings, correspondence, and other papers of Elmore Jackson (1910-1989), a noted Quaker author and former U.S. State Department official."
Box 13 (Professional File: "Japanese Panel", "Japanese Panel - Papers"), 15 (Subject File: "China"), 17 (Subject Files: "Vietnam")
Harvey Family Papers, 1851-2003
RG 5/245
Box 5 (Correspondence from KC Hou (China) to Cyril Harvey (1937) and report of Survey of China)
Charles Smith Odgen Family papers, 1681-1938
RG 5/108
TRAVEL DIARY: Charles Smith Ogden (1822-1904) was a Quaker businessman, genealogist, and civic leader. He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, educated in Friends' schools, and married Emma Corbit in 1848. He worked as a wholesale druggist before the Civil War, was active on the committee to elect Abraham Lincoln, and served as Consul to Quebec, Canada, 1860-1864. In 1886, he began a tour around the world, which is recounted in his travel diaries, 1886-1891.
Box 2 ("Diary notes of five-year around-the-world trip taken by Charles S. Ogden, 1886-1891), 4 (Misc: 1890-1894: ..."Life in Japan...")
James Morgan Read Papers, 1951-1987
RG 5/128
RECORDS: James Morgan Read (1908-1985) was a Quaker and president of Wilmington College from 1960-69. He also served as the United Nations Deputy High Commissioner from 1951-60, and was a vice president of the Charles F. Kettering Foundation from 1969 until his retirement in 1974.
Box 10 (Kettering Foundation: US-China Writers Conference, 1982-83)
Ruth P. Ringenbach's Friends World College Papers, 1975-1985
RG 5/247
RECORDS: In 1965, the NYYM approved the opening of a Friends World Institute program and the State of New York issued a provisional charter for a non-degree granting program. The first classes opened in September 1965 with forty-one students at a temporary home campus located at Mitchel Garden, Westbury, in Nassau County, New York. In 1968 the Institute was granted a provisional charter as Friends World College, permitting it to grant the Bachelor of Arts degree. Within the next few years, programs were established in Asia, Europe, Africa, Latin America, and rural Canada, and the home campus was moved to Lloyd Harbor, Huntington, NY. However, the College was unable to establish a secure financial base, and student enrollment remained undependable because the drop-out rate was high.
Friends World College Records
RG 4/082
Friends World College was conceived as an accredited, co-educational, degree-granting liberal arts college combining a residence program with the opportunity for foreign travel and study. Planned as a "college without walls," it was sponsored by the New York Yearly Meeting and opened in September 1965. The College flourished in the 1960s counterculture environment, but ran into financial difficulties in the 1970s. While much of its support came from Quakers, in 1975 it became officially non-sectarian. It was merged into Long Island University in 1991.
Niles Friends World College Collected Papers, 1957-1992
RG 4/116
BOX
8 (Correspondence: East Asia and Africa. 1968-1971)
12 (Correspondence: South Asia, 1973-1974)
32 (Annual Files: Japan Center, Japan Foundation, 1973)
35 (Annual Files: South and West Asian Center, 1977?)
Philip W. Smith Papers, 1906-1981
RG 5/224
Box 4 (Misc: Papers on Vietnam)
Stabler Family Papers, 1760-ca. 1988
RG 5/234
Box 8 (Correspondence from family members traveling to Asia and Europe to ETS), 15 (Correspondence from Louise Parker in Asia to Elizabeth Bosshard)
Margaret Walton Family Paper, 1812-1961
RG 5/169
Box 3 (Letter describes "beautiful Japan")
"Adventuring for the Peace of China" (Joseph E. Platt) 1922.
Journal regarding Friends’ peace efforts in China. Ms. (carbon typescript) Includes only 9p, chapters 1-3 and part of chapter 4 of what appears to be a journal
MISC MSS 004
Individuals' Papers
Inazo Nitobe Papers, 1890-1991, RG 5/107
"Inazo Nitobe (1862-1933) was a Japanese Quaker diplomat, agriculturist, and educator who sought to act as an emissary of understanding between Japan and Western nations. He was born in Morioka, Japan, in the waning days of feudal Japan and became a Christian during his studies in Sapporo. He was further educated at Tokyo University and in 1884 became one of the first Japanese students to study in the United States. He joined the Society of Friends in 1886, and in 1891, he married Mary Patterson Elkinton, a Quaker from a prominent Philadelphia family, under the care of Philadelphia Monthly Meeting (Orthodox). This marriage was highly controversial at the time and against the wishes of both families. Mary P. Elkinton (1857-1938) was the daughter of Joseph S. and Malinda (Patterson) Elkinton. The Elkinton family was prominently involved in social causes. After the W.W.I, Nitobe became Under Secretary-General to the League of Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, a post he held until 1926. He later returned to Japan where he held government positions and served as Chairman of the Institute of Pacific Relations. A state funeral was held in Japan attended by 3,000 people. and in 1984, his portrait was selected for the 5,000 Japanese yen note.
The collection chiefly contains secondary biographical material concerning Inazo Nitobe and his wife Mary Patterson (elkinton) Nitobe and their correspondence with the Elkinton family (1890-1938). [Elkinton Papers are listed separately at Swarthmore, uner RG 5/037]"
Elkinton Family. Papers. 1736- , RG5/037
Finding Aid currently under construction; here is an online one I've compiled
Nora Waln Research Papers, 1933-1990, RG 5/169
"In 1920 she sailed for China to visit the Lin family in Hopei Province and ended up living there for twelve years. While in China she met and married George Edward Osland-Hill. She and her husband lived in Germany from 1934-1938. Later, she traveled widely in Europe, Asia and the Americas, contributing articles to the Saturday Evening Post, Atlantic Monthly and other magazines."
Nora Waln Literary Papers, RG 5/265
Finding Aid (all three boxes)
Jenkins Family Papers, 1741-1877, RG5/211
"Of particular note are the journals and copybook kept by Jabez Jenkins, a Quaker merchant. The documents from Canton were apparently assembled for his children after the death of their mother and contain parental advice on a variety of subjects."
William Isaac Hull Papers, 1843-1939, RG 5/069
Finding Aid (Boxes 37, 39)
Francis A. Harvey Diaries, 1928-1942, 1962-2001, RG5/246
"Of interest are the travel diaries, particularly the trip to Japan, Hong Kong, Southeast Asia and Africa the winter of 1970-1971 which included visits to missionary friends."
Lewis-Fussell Family Papers, 1698-1978, RG 5/087
"...The collection also includes the correspondence (1836-90) of Henry B. Fussell, with his observations on politics and the Civil War, and that of Linnaeus Fussell, with descriptions of his travels in China and in other parts of Asia from 1867-69 while aboard the U.S.S. Unadilla." [Boxes 3, 12]
Hanbury-Aggs Family Papers, 1718-1914, RG 5/058
"The Hanbury and Aggs families were prominent English Quakers who were involved in a variety of mercantile and philanthropic activities, predominantly in the 19th century. They were pharmacologists, silk merchant in Shanghai, travelers, and philanthropists"
Nelson Fuson Family Papers, 1909-1996, RG5/261
"As the child of missionaries to China, his hope was to do relief service in China, and many of the papers deal with CPS China Units. However, the China Units were never activated and Fuson was assigned to camps in Maryland, Indiana, New York, and North Dakota."
Robert O. and Margaret C. Blood Papers, 1942-1999
"During one of their first summers together, Margaret and Bob worked with Japanese Americans in the internment camp in Rohwer, Arkansas. This led to a life-long interest in Japan. They lived in the Tokyo area in 1958-1959 as part of a Fulbright fellowship. After returning from Japan after a second long stay, 1967-1969, the Bloods joined the staff of Pendle Hill, the Quaker study center in Wallingford, Pa."
Jacobson, Barbara Sprogell. Foulke Research Papers, 1921-1989 [bulk 1987-1989], RG5/071
"Thomas Albert Foulke (1893-1962) and Eliza Moore Ambler Foulke (1893-1987) were prominent members of Gwynedd Meeting. They served for the AFSC in Japan (1949-1950) and were influential in the unification of the two Philadelphia Yearly Meetings in 1956."