Haverford College Quaker & Special Collections and the Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College announce the completion of the Quakers and Slavery Project, a publicly accessible database of primary source material on the topic of Quakers and Slavery, and an interactive website to accompany the online material.  Among the types of material included are photographs and lithographs, organization records, personal correspondence, and other publications. The interactive website includes commentary contributed by eminent scholars, Quaker researchers, and project staff.

Initial discussions about a joint digitizing project between the Quaker repositories at Haverford and Swarthmore Colleges began in 2007, when both were preparing for the 300th anniversary of the end of the slave trade in North America. Abolition was a cause whose beginnings and sustenance came largely from Quakers in northeastern America and England. The two colleges also began plans to join with the McNeil Center of Early American Studies at University of Pennsylvania to host an international conference on Quakers and Slavery in November 2010. This digitization project is timed to correspond with the conference, which will include material exhibitions by both Quaker repositories.

The materials selected for this project are available for research within the confines of our two Quaker repositories. However, these materials are unique or rare, and as such should receive limited physical handling in order to ensure their longevity. Digitization of these materials supports their long term preservation by reducing the amount they are handled, as well as providing greatly increased access to researchers who are not able to visit. Moreover, within each repository the documents span a range of material types and come from several collections, such that there is no easy way to bring them together physically. This project allows for the virtual reunification of these materials and collections.

The Religious Society of Friends was the first corporate body in Britain and North America to fully condemn slavery as both ethically and religiously wrong in all circumstances. It is in Quaker records that we have some of the earliest manifestations of anti-slavery sentiment, dating from the 1600s. After the 1750s, Quakers actively engaged in attempting to sway public opinion in Britain and America against the slave trade and slavery in general. At the same time, Quakers became actively involved in the economic, educational and political well being of the formerly enslaved.

The earliest anti-slavery organizations in America and Britain consisted primarily of members of the Society of Friends. Thus much of the record of the development of anti-slavery thought and actions is embedded in Quaker-produced records and documents. Friends Historical Library at Swarthmore College and the Quaker Collection at Haverford College are jointly the custodians of Quaker meeting records of the Mid-Atlantic region, including Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, New York and Vermont and these records illuminate the origins of the anti-slavery movement as well as the continued Quaker involvement, often behind the scenes, in the leadership and direction of the abolitionist movement from the 1770s to the abolition of slavery in the United States in 1865, and beyond.

Funding for the Quakers and Slavery Project was provided by the Federal Institute of Museum and Library Services, through a program stipulated by the Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA). This program is administered in Pennsylvania through the Office of Commonwealth Libraries for assisting libraries in providing all users access to information, developing partnerships, and increasing information access for persons who have difficulty gaining it.

Swarthmore College ‘s Externship Program is an opportunity for a current student to spend five days at the workplace of an alumnus/a in order to gain practical exposure to a career field.  Naomi Liang joined us in Special Collections this January:

From January 11 to January 15 I participated in an externship offered by David Conners, Digital Collections Librarian (Swarthmore alum ’03), at Magill Library’s Special Collections.  The Swarthmore Extern Program entails five days of job shadowing to allow undergraduates to explore a particular field of interest.  My current prospective majors are philosophy, English literature, and sociology/anthropology.  Since knowledge accession, reading culture and, generally, the process of research have long been fascinations of mine, I was happy to be able to absorb librarian life during my five days at Magill.

I spent much of my time working with David on digital archiving – scanning and photographing photographs used for classes, scanning books, reformatting digital audio, and cataloging art.  I sat in on a meeting of TAG, the Tri-College Technology Advisory Group, where librarians worked out the final logistics of the neat-looking new service Tripod Mobile (a mobile-friendly version of the catalog for use on smart phones).  During this time I also shadowed Ann Upton, Special Collections librarian and Quaker Bibliographer, who, along with David, guided me around the rare book vault and allowed me to pull out random items out of curiosity (including a beautiful 1854 edition of Walden and Christopher Morley‘s German literature notes from 1910).  Ann also showed me her process of deciding which rare books or Quaker books to add to the collection.  We also answered emailed reference questions regarding Quaker genealogies, and I spent a few hours working on the beginnings of a new project in Special Collections – the digitization of 19th century Quaker fiction illustrations for an exhibit on the popular depiction of Quakers.

Of course, my gathered gemstones of experience at Magill were not all from work.  During the coffee breaks and the all staff meeting I attended, “all staff” at Haverford consisting of only a little over 20 people, I was able to witness the collaborative and truly congenial atmosphere of a library workforce. I was amazed by and very grateful for the welcome I received by everyone, as well as for the stories I’ve heard from people in various stages of the library career – a current student, a recent graduate, and librarians who are well into their careers and love what they do, a number of whom began their life as college graduates with jobs completely unrelated to librarianship. I absolutely enjoyed my time at Haverford, and I am looking forward to my next visit to Magill’s Special Collections.

William Penn, Founder of Pennsylvania, 2006

Penn's Excellent Priviledge of Liberty & Property

Rare Books from the Haverford Collection and their most Modern Renditions

Haverford’s rare book collection is exceptional.  The rarity and beauty of  the books are assets that enhance enjoyment of the texts and exemplifies the best values of a liberal arts education.

A broad appreciation of literature today, however, includes graphic books. The literary experience is of a condensed account presented through intense illustration and is in striking contrast to that of the more traditional text-based book.

Experience and consider these differences for yourself. Each day during exam week, December 14-18, 2009,  a rare book and its graphic counterpart will be on display in Special Collections. Take a study break and be intrigued and challenged!

Antoinette Brown defended her post as Reverend of the Congregational Church in Wayne County NY in The Liberator on December 15, 1854. Brown was the first woman in the United States to be ordained a minister and was an associate of Susan B. Anthony and Julia Ward Howe.

The Liberator was an abolitionist periodical read by a broader spectrum of the reading public than subscribed to general interest journals and was more liberal in its perspective. The readership was sympathetic to Brown’s defense of “the position which Woman can now occupy in the clerical profession.”

Quaker, Margaret Fell, wrote on the right of women to preach two centuries earlier in 1667. Incongruously, Brown decries the Quakers for rejecting her as a “hireling minister.”

The Liberator is part of the Rare Newspaper Collection at Special Collections that contains over 250 titles from the US and Britain from the 18th through 20th centuries. The research value of these newspapers lies in the contemporary reports of what is now considered historical and their topical strengths of reform and anti-slavery activities.

The publication of Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus’s De revolutionibus orbium caelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres) caused a stir among both scientific and religious communities in the mid 16th century. Postulating that the earth turned on its axis and with the other planets orbited the sun, Copernicus’s work challenged the long-held theories of Ptolemy that claimed the earth was the center of the universe. Likewise, De revolutionibus was condemned by the Church for challenging the centrality of man and the literalness of the Bible. Haverford’s copy includes underlinings and marginal annotations in two hands, including passages to be censured. This volume is part of the William Pyle Philips Collection of Rare Books, which contains many fine volumes representative of Western humanistic thought.

The first printing of Shakespeare’s complete plays of 1623 is known today as the “First Folio” and it might rightly be considered the Holy Grail of rare book collecting. Haverford owns a copy of the First Folio as well as each of the three subsequent printings of 1632, 1663/64, and 1685. In addition to the texts of the comedies, histories, and tragedies, the First Folio contains what many consider to be the most authentic engraved portrait of Shakespeare. Originally selling for £1, surviving copies of the First Folio have set record prices at auction in recent years. Haverford’s four Folios were purchased at auction in 1946 by William Pyle Philips HC ’02 and together with over 100 other titles form the core of the William Pyle Philips Collection of Rare Books. The collection reflects Philips’ life-long interest in Shakespeare as it contains many of the poet’s works, texts that inspired him, texts of his time, and works inspired by him.

As 2009 is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary of the printing of On the Origin of Species, we recently went through the process of adding our First Edition copy to the official Darwin Census. 

The objectives of the Darwin Census are:

1. to establish the frequency of the known variants;
2. to identify any unknown variants; and
3. to locate missing presentation copies.

Eventually the results of the Census will be posted to Darwin Online.

In the process of registering our copy we noted that while ours is indeed a first edition text, it is housed in a second edition binding!  This was not an uncommon occurrence for books having seen some use to be re-cased in a newer binding at a later date.  Distinguishing features of a First Edition text include the publication date of 1859 and only two quotations on the verso opposite the title page.  It also has the word “speceies” misspelled on page 20, line 11.  The distinguishing feature of our Second Edition binding is a single full point (“.”) after the word MURRAY at the bottom of the spine!

Our copy is in good condition and the text is complete, including the advertisements at the back of the book.  It has some minor foxing and noticeable fingerprints at the bottom of many of the pages, a sure sign of use.  Our reader also noted the misspelling on page 20 and has crossed out the offending letter in pencil!  It contains a bookplate for previous owner John Hadmar Sticht, a doctor who received his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1952.  It was purchased by the College in 1970.

Our copy is now known as No. 10036 and, like all of our rare books, is available for viewing in the Special Collections Reading Room.

There are many books in the Rare Book Collection at Haverford – each notable and valuable in its own way. However, sometimes those distinguishing characteristics are most noticeable in contrast.

During exam week this semester, May 5 – May 9, 2008, a daily presentation of rare books will be on exhibit in Special Collections. Each day a LARGE book will be displayed juxtaposed with a small book – both sharing a common theme. You will be able to enjoy each book individually but also admire the contrasts that become evident by the comparison.

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