Before  text messages, where each word might have monetary value, there were letter writers who did not feel the need to contain their verbal efflorescence.  The example below comes from a Special Collections manuscript collection containing the papers of many prominent Philadelphia families of the 18th & 19th centuries, some of whom were Quaker and others not, including Coates, Cresson, Vaux and others.  The letter writer is Sarah Hornor (1767-1848) for whom there is a box filled with correspondence and other papers, part of Families of Philadelphia, collection number 1184, which offers insight on the art of letter writing (with original spelling preserved).

A partial transcription of the letter to her brother-in-law Samuel Coates in Philadelphia follows.

Princeton 8 m 1 – 1795

The storm still continues to lower around us and the mind in degree, partakes of the weight of the atmosphere thou knowest me of old my brother, sometimes soaring in regions of mirth and Fancy at other times sunk perhaps rather humbly in the valley of gloom but thou must not conclude me a wanderer in the depths by no means, only a little sadness hangs on my spirits and tinctures my Ideas with something of a pensive melancholy – all this by way of prelude to welcome thy agreeable letter and at the same time appologise for the absence of vivacity or entertainment yet had I a memory as tenacious as many, or a mind capable of reflecting a ray of that brilliancy in which it has been sharing from the illuminated … Your distant sister Sarah Hornor

Special Collections was open on Saturday, October 24th, and we had about 35 visitors for Family and Friends Weekend.  Some came with very specific interests, including viewing the 1711 charter of the William Penn Charter School signed by Penn and with his great seal, but others came in as family clusters and were drawn to the displays we made available for them.  There was a good bit of ooh-ing and ahh-ing, as they inspected:

• The 1711 King James Bible and its miniature version
• A 1683 plat survey of Philadelphia by William Penn’s surveyor, Thomas Holme (see illustration), which is essentially the  lay-out of Philadelphia even today

• Amos Nattini’s lithographic illustrations of all 100 cantos of Dant’e Divine Comedy, along with a miniature version of the famous text
• The Germantown Quaker Protest Against Slavery, 1688, the first such protest in North America
• Maxims by William Penn published in the Select Works of William Penn, 1771, along with a miniature of the maxim on Time
• A photograph of a dorm in Barclay with army gear in evidence in the 1940s when a percentage of the students were army men
• A pointed letter by Supreme Court Justice, William O. Douglas to his friend Fred Rodell, class of 1926, indicating dismay at a meeting of the other justices while he (Douglas) was away that overturned his vote for a stay of execution in the Rosenberg spy case
• And last, but by no means least, the extraordinary illustrated chemistry notebook of Maxfield Parrish while a student at Haverford in 1890.

The event by all counts was most satisfactory.

Diana Franzusoff Peterson, College Archivist & Manuscripts Librarian, and John Anderies, Coordinator for Special & Digital Collections, will be attending the conference “Future Foundations: Mapping the Past – Building the Philadelphia GeoHistory Network” sponsored by the Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries at the Chemical Heritage Foundation, December 2-3, 2005.