The latest instalment of The white feather diaries, an online project of British Quakers, goes live today. Updated daily on @wfdiaries, they tell of the challenges faced by five people who followed their consciences as the horror of World War I enveloped their lives. All of them were, or became, Quakers – Bert Brocklesby, John Hoare, Hilda Clark, Howard Marten and Laurence Cadbury.

The date is late 1915: the threat of conscription is imminent and opposition to war is censored. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, Quakers work for individual conscientious objection to be recognised by the state.

The white feather diaries storytelling project contains an up-to-date twist, posing questions for readers. How important is it to challenge majority opinions if you hold a different view? Are there times when it is easier to keep quiet rather than speak out? How can we support people facing abuse because of their beliefs? Parallels are drawn between events a century ago and the choices we make in the world of today.

If you’ve followed the project before, or read about it on here, you’ll know that The white feather diaries include rich background material about the diarists, their contemporaries, and the issues they faced, some of it researched here in the Library.

We highlighted some of the Library’s resources for World War I research in a series of Quaker Strongrooms blogposts last year.

Since then World War I interest and work continues to flourish, and the Library welcomes all who want to delve deeper. A wide range of researchers – peace activists, academics, playwrights, curators, novelists, Quaker meetings, local historians, genealogists and others – have been busy using the material highlighted in last year’s blogposts and other World War I resources offered by the Library. We’ve been able to add more archival material from the period to our online catalogue, such as the huge archive of the Friends Emergency & War Victims Relief Committee, and the small but fascinating collection of FAU motor stores records. World War I Friends Ambulance Unit record cards have been digitised and put online for all to see. And Cyril Pearce’s magnificent Register of conscientious objectors, the product of many years research in this Library and elsewhere, has at last been added to the Imperial War Museum’s Lives of the First World War website, where it can be freely searched.

Quaker Strongrooms blog will return to explore some more World War I themes in 2016, as the anniversary of the introduction of conscription approaches.

Meanwhile, for an insight into the lives of individuals who confronted the horror of World War I a century ago, drawing parallels with our own lives and times, you can follow the latest White feather diaries. Engage with them online on https://www.facebook.com/wfdiaries and @wfdiaries.

The fifth in our series of readers’ stories is by Liz O’Donnell, who first used the Library 20 years ago. Her original research focused on local Quaker women in the north east in the 19^th century, but she found valuable additional resources here at Friends House. We’re glad to see her back in the Library working on her latest project – researching the life of Newcastle Quaker Teresa Merz (1879-1958)

In 1994, at the age of 42, I had the astonishing good fortune to be awarded a three year PhD studentship at the University of Sunderland. I was to be the first student of the newly-established Centre for Quaker Studies (now located at Woodbrooke Centre for Quaker Studies), set up through the enthusiasm of the late David Adshead, then a Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies at Sunderland. I was also granted three years’ leave of absence from my teaching post in a college of Further Education and supported by a modest bursary jointly funded by the university and Sunderland Meeting. My area of interest was the link between women Quakers and ‘first-wave feminism’ in the 1860s, and it was this that brought me to the Library of the Society of Friends for the first time in April 1995, clutching a letter of recommendation from David and a long list of sources that I wanted to consult.

To be honest, it was not primarily an interest in the Society of Friends which led me to apply for the studentship. For my MA dissertation a few years earlier, I had examined Newcastle Ragged and Industrial Schools, started in the 1840s in response to the large number of child vagrants on the city streets. The same surnames – Richardson, Watson, Priestman, for example – cropped up repeatedly in the schools’ management committees, and eventually the penny dropped – the leading figures were all Quakers. Further poking around revealed the same people involved in every social and political reform movement of the period. I thought I knew a lot about the economic and social history of north-east, but I could not recall reading anything that specifically highlighted the importance of Quakers in the development of the region’s civic culture. I was particularly fascinated by the activities of women Friends and their place in the fight for women’s rights. I wanted to shine a light on this corner of hidden history, but family and work got in the way until, in the early summer of 1994, I spotted the advertisement for the Quaker studentship in the Guardian. By October, I had set out on my research adventure.

Jane Sturge, Sarah Ann Richardson, Catherine
Richardson, Elizabeth Spence Watson and Emma Pumphrey of Newcastle Monthly
Meeting (1918). Friends and relations, they all feature prominently in my thesis. From the private collection of Kate Palmer

This was ‘only’ 20 years ago, but technologically it was a very different world for researching and handling large amounts of data. Yes, personal computers were around, but I had written my MA dissertation on an Amstrad word processor and had very limited experience of using the new technology as anything other than a glorified typewriter. The internet was slowly coming into its own, but digitised archival records were limited and there was no facility for tracing individuals and making genealogical connections without leaving the comfort of your own home. Part of my thesis involved an analysis of 619 activists in Newcastle Monthly Meeting of Women Friends between 1785 and 1903. The meeting records, on microfilm at Tyne and Wear Archives, yielded a lot of information but I needed material only available at the Library of the Society of Friends at Friends House – the Dictionary of Quaker Biography, a full run of Annual Monitor and The Friend, for example. Eventually I managed to dig out biographical details for 527 women, enabling me to understand something of their domestic lives, economic status, and so on (this is not the place to examine my methodology; suffice it to say that it involved index cards, colour coding and a lot of floor space!).

The Library also yielded essential sources in the form of private papers, tracts and other publications. I recently found the list I brought with me for a visit to the Library in late January 1997 – it included F. Smith, On the Duty of a Wife (1810); Henry Corder, A Short Life of Elizabeth Spence Watson (1919); A Map of the Meetings Belonging to the Quarterly Meetings of Lancaster, Westmorland, Cumberland, Northumberland, Durham and York (1773); and a long list of women about whom I lacked sufficient details. Many of the names had been ticked, indicating that I was successful in my quest to find them.

Teresa Merz as a girl. Her mother was the sister of Elizabeth Spence Watson.
From the private collection of Ben Beck

When I finished my studentship and returned to work, visits to Friends House Library unfortunately tailed off, but my research interest in Quakers did not. I have had several articles published in Quaker Studies and contributed to The Oxford Handbook of Quaker Studies, for example, as well as giving talks to many local history societies and taking an active part in my local bicentennial commemoration of the abolition of the slave trade in 2007 (those women activists again!). These undertakings have often involved a flying visit to the Library from my home in Northumberland. And over the last couple of years, now working part-time, I have at last been able to go back to the stories of the women of Newcastle Monthly Meeting. I am currently looking into the life of Teresa Merz (1879-1958) – suffragist, volunteer with the Friends’ War Victims Relief Committee in Serbia, member of the War and Social Order Committee and indefatigable amateur social worker in Newcastle-upon-Tyne until two days before her death – intending to rescue her from undeserved obscurity and enjoying a renewed relationship with the ever-helpful and friendly staff and marvellous resources of the wonderful Friends House Library.

Dr Elizabeth A. O’Donnell

Thesis title: Woman’s Rights and Woman’s Duties: Quaker Women in the 19^th Century, with special reference to Newcastle Monthly Meeting of Women Friends (PhD, University of Sunderland, 2000)

Though we are well into January, here’s a look back at some of the exciting and varied work done over the past year to preserve the Library’s collections for future generations of users.

We were delighted to have back the final two volumes in our Swarthmore Manuscripts conservation project, dis-bound, conserved, photographed and sewn into slender fascicles, thanks to a grant from the National Manuscripts Conservation Trust. This was the last phase of a programme, carried out over several years, to preserve one of our most well-known, and well-used, collections, a key resource for the study of early Quakerism and seventeenth century history. Cause for celebration – and an opportunity to explore the Swarthmore Manuscripts through a forthcoming Quaker Strongrooms blogpost later this year.

A folio from Swarthmore Manuscripts volume 6 (MS Vol. 358) before repair. Photograph by Elizabeth Neville

One of the most frequently consulted items in the Library reading room is a bound set of The Friend: the Quaker weekly journal, published continuously since 1843. Rich in articles, reports, biographical detail and photographs, the heavy leather bound volumes take a great deal of use. Despite careful handling (including using an unbound set or microfilm for any copying), the sheer weight of the volumes means that simply lifting them off the shelves and opening them causes strain to their structure and consequent damage. Three volumes of The Friend were re-cased in 2015.

The Friend 17 February 1939 (volume repaired 2015)

Users of the Library will know that the reading room also houses a wealth of 19th and 20th century books of vital importance for Quaker studies, including an unparalleled collection of Quaker biographies (men’s and women’s shelved separately – an unusual feature of our 1920s classification scheme with unexpected resonance for researchers in the era of gender studies!). Ostensibly less rare and vulnerable than the older closed stack material, many of these heavily used books show signs of wear and tear. Last year we started a programme of repair to books on the open shelves: 25 of them were repaired, re-sewn and re-bound or re-cased, always retaining unique characteristics, such as former owners’ bookplates, inscriptions, or special bindings.

One of the reading room books conserved in 2015, from the library of John Bright (Proceedings at the presentation of a portrait of John Greenleaf Whittier to Friends’ school, Providence, R.I. … 1884)

Our ongoing retrospective cataloguing project provides the opportunity to note the condition of items being catalogued. Under the direction of the project cataloguer, our fabulous NADFAS team of volunteers has been visiting the Library once a fortnight for several years to prolong the life of many 19th and 20th century pamphlets by removing staples and re-sewing. As they steadily progress through the collections, they highlight more serious problems that require professional conservation. Several dozen have received treatment over the past year – cleaning, skilful paper repair (and removal of damaging old repairs, such as the dreaded sticky tape), re-sewing and re-casing, as necessary.

A handful of the pamphlets conserved in 2015

A rather more visually appealing conservation project was Benjamin West’s Elements of drawing, a set of engravings from West’s paintings published in 1820, the year of his death. The engravings (not previously catalogued) were welcomed as a donation to the Library in 1935, because of West’s Pennsylvania Quaker origins. We know of only one other copy in the country, held at the British Library. The sheets were dry cleaned, treated for foxing, repaired and rehoused in a clamshell box.

Sheet from Elements of drawing (1820) after treatment. Photograph by Sussex Conservation Consortium

We continued our programme of conservation of the Library’s tract volumes – over 600 bound volumes of pamphlets dating back to the 17th century. They have a varied and fascinating provenance, including many identifiable as from the personal libraries of early Friends. And they present the conservator with equally varied problems. Is the volume’s structure still working? Can it be handled and contents still read without risk of further damage? How can we preserve the volume, which may have folded, damaged or protruding contents, while retaining important original features and ensuring that any treatment is reversible? Over the past year 16 tract volumes have received professional conservation treatments, including sewing, surface cleaning, paper repairs, attaching loose items, strengthening and consolidating leather covered spines, boards and corners, re-hinging boards, and repairing joints and headcaps.

By their very nature, broadsides – large single sheet publications – are unlikely to survive as long as books. Which makes volume 67 of the Hawkins Collection particularly remarkable. Frequently consulted, it was an unwieldy composite of three substantial works (George Fox’s Great mistery of the great whore unfolded, the Battle-door for teachers & professors to learn singular & plural – Fox’s wonderful defence of plain speech, and For the King and both Houses of Parliament, the 1660 appeal to King Charles on behalf of those suffering for their testimony against oaths) sewn together with a whopping 58 broadsides, mainly published during the years 1659 to 1661. The volume’s structure was damaging to its contents, the sewn-in broadsides with multiple foldings were dirty and torn – and a nightmare to unfold for use. After careful consideration of treatment options, the broadsides were withdrawn from the binding, flattened, repaired, and stored in a new clamshell box alongside the conserved volume, preserving the original components of the earlier binding. You can read more about the fascinating story of the Hawkins Collection in an earlier blogpost.

Unless otherwise stated, all this conservation work was made possible by our BeFriend a Book fund. We are hugely grateful for the generosity of BeFriend a Book donors, who have enabled so much to be done to preserve the Library’s unique and irreplaceable collections.

The Military Service Act came into force on 2 March 1916, and Quakers nationally are marking the centenary. Our new online exhibition Matter of conscience: Quakers and conscription gives an overview of the introduction and impact of the Act.

The story involves the hard work of three Quaker MPs who fought for the Act to include an exemption for men who had a religious or moral objection to violence and military service; furthermore they fought for the exemption to be based solely on an individual basis, not aimed at groups, such as former exemptions from military service which had been granted to certain groups in society including the Quakers themselves.

All three men would suffer for taking this stance, facing charges of encouraging shirkers and being painted in an unpatriotic light at the time of greatest distress for the nation. It would also cost all three their seats at the next election in 1918.

The Quaker MPs were Arnold Stephenson Rowntree (1872-1951), T. Edmund Harvey (1875-1955), and Sir John Emmott Barlow (1857-1932). The Library holds a small collection of parliamentary election addresses for John E. Barlow and more extensive collections of personal papers for Rowntree and Harvey, as well as various publications by and about them. Rowntree and Harvey were very active Friends and therefore also feature heavily among the central archives of the Society, from the Friends War Victims Relief Committee, which Harvey was involved with creating, to the Friends First Day Schools Association, which engaged much of Rowntree’s time after the war.

Arnold Stephenson Rowntree was a member of the close knit network of Quaker Rowntree and Cadbury families. He was educated at Bootham School in a fiercely anti-conservative environment, and became a Liberal MP for York in 1910. While at Bootham he became close friends with T. Edmund Harvey who would later become his brother-in-law. After Bootham he started working for his uncle, Joseph Rowntree at the confectionery company of the family name, where he would end his working life on the Board of Directors, retiring in 1941.

1918 election flyer for Arnold S. Rowntree (Library reference: TEMP MSS 588/1)

His attitude to the war was quite complex. Although a pacifist, he was a committed Liberal and believed everything possible had been done to avoid the war. He also understood the urge to self-sacrifice which drove young men to sign up, which helped shape his belief in non-combatant alternative service. This led to his central role in the establishment of the Friends Ambulance Unit in 1914.

T. Edmund Harvey was also educated at Bootham, then at Yorkshire College (now University of Leeds) and Oxford. He spent time studying in Germany and France, developing an understanding of these countries that would stand him in good stead in the years to come. After a time working at the British Museum, he became warden of Toynbee Hall in the East End of London, the first university settlement – a centre of social service and reform.

He entered the House of Commons in 1910 as a Liberal MP for West Leeds. He was an impressive orator and his speech during the debate on the Military Service Bill was a key moment for pacifists; Arnold Rowntree described it as a great moment and claimed he did not bother to speak after, as planned, as he could not better it. Harvey also argued for kind treatment of Germans resident in Britain during both World Wars. He helped set up Friends War Victims Relief Committee in 1914 and contributed to the relief effort throughout the war and after into the 1920s.

Carnet d’etranger for T. Edmund Harvey issued for foreign relief work in World War I. (Library reference: FEWVRC/MISSIONS/3/1/2/1)

While both Rowntree and Harvey worked hard to gain a civilian option for alternative service for conscientious objectors (C.O.s) who refused to come under military command, even in non-combatant roles, many absolutists saw this as a compromise and therefore a betrayal. Their attitude is reflected in a letter from Rowntree to his wife, 6 Jan 1916:

“I have Richard Roberts here tonight and he says all the Fellowship of Reconciliation men are dead against alternative service and I think are out to break the machine.”

John Emmot Barlow, Liberal MP for Frome, Somerset, came from an old Quaker family near Stockport. Educated at Grove School, Tottenham, he became a business man in his father’s Manchester firm dealing in import and export of various goods. He married Anna Maria Heywood Denman, who campaigned for women’s suffrage and international understanding, and herself stood for Parliament in 1922.

Barlow’s family reflected the divisions of the time: although he was strongly opposed to conscription, one of his sons served in the army and was severely wounded in World War I. Another son joined the FEWVRC in foreign relief work. Barlow didn’t play on his son’s military actions in the next election though, when faced with accusations of letting his country down, and lost his seat in 1918.

All three men would suffer at the 1918 election for their association with the anti-conscription pacifist movement. While Harvey stood down in 1918, Barlow and Rowntree both lost the election to Conservative candidates.

1918 Election poster, Arnold S. Rowntree (Library ref: Box L 228/4)

John Barlow continued to be involved in local government into later life, and Rowntree and Harvey would go on to be engaged in various areas of work tackling social issues and taking on roles in Quaker committees.

We hold two main collections of personal papers from Arnold S. Rowntree which give slightly different angles on his work during the war. TEMP MSS 558 is a collection of personal papers including letters. The wartime letters show the stress he was under, how busy a time it was, and give personal insight into the people he was working alongside and their reactions to unfolding events.

TEMP MSS 977 consists mainly of working papers and official correspondence from Rowntree’s time as an MP, providing an insight into how a backbencher lobbies and influences to gain ground on an unpopular position.

Among other material on T. Edmund Harvey, we have his papers as chairman of the Committee for Work of National Importance (the Pelham Committee, of which he became chair following Lord Pelham’s death) TEMP MSS 835. As well as official documents such as minutes and papers, this collection contains a large amount of correspondence from and on behalf of COs, and is an important resource for World War I researchers. Again this adds a very personal dimension, as well as the official view of the effect conscription had on men in World War I.

Examples of the hundreds of letters sent to T. Edmund Harvey by, and on behalf of C.O.s when he served on the Pelham Committee (Library reference: TEMP MSS 835/1/A-B6)

For more information, please check out our online exhibition Matter of conscience: Quakers and conscription.

Read more about continuing Quaker work for Peace

Look out for more displays and blog posts on World War I throughout the year, here and on our Facebook page.

For Women’s History Month, we look at the lives of three remarkable women of the 20th  century – Joan Mary Fry, Elizabeth Fox Howard and Francesca Wilson. Each of them in their own way responded to the challenges of world war, testified to their belief in international friendship and worked to relieve suffering.

Joan Mary Fry (1862-1955) is probably the most well-known of the three (you may remember her face on the “Britons of distinction” postage stamp). She was one of a large family with a strong interest in questions of political justice, several of whom went on to devote their life to public service (her sister Margery was a penal reformer, and principal of Somerville College, Oxford; another, Ruth, was a prominent peace campaigner).

Joan Mary Fry (1862-1955) (Library ref. F91)

In her Swarthmore Lecture (1910) Joan Mary Fry spoke of the way that spirit and action are not separate in Quakerism, saying that “Quakerism is nothing unless it be … a practical showing that the spiritual and material spheres are not divided… the whole of life is sacramental and incarnational”. Her own life demonstrated her belief in that of God in all people, and the importance of acting on our beliefs.

During World War I she was a prison chaplain, visiting conscientious objectors in prison, and attending military tribunals and courts martial to support them. After the war she travelled to Germany to investigate famine and help organise food relief programmes. You can read about the work in her book In downcast Germany 1919-1933 (1945), and in the journal letters she sent back from Germany between 1919 and 1933, as well as other unpublished papers.

In the 1920s, as unemployment soared in Britain, Joan Mary Fry became deeply involved in work to alleviate distress in mining communities, including self-help schemes and allotment projects. She acted as Clerk of the Friends Allotments Committee from 1931 to 1951, and wrote about the work in Friends lend a hand in alleviating unemployment: the story of a social experiment extending over 20 years, 1926-1946 (1947).

Friends Allotments Committee poster. Allotments for the unemployed: what an allotment can give you! (Library ref. PO Allot. Com. 4)

Elizabeth Fox Howard (1873-1957) was not brought up as a Quaker, though she had Quaker family connections. She joined the Society of Friends as an adult in 1903 and was soon recognised as one of the Quaker leaders of her generation. She attended the Scarborough Conference of 1905, and travelled to visit American Friends in 1912.

Like Joan Mary Fry, she acted as a Quaker chaplain during World War I, visiting absolutist conscientious objectors who were imprisoned for their refusal to support militarism in any way. And, also like her, she formed strong links with Germany and Germans after the war, visiting the country again and again, returning after the Second World War to work with displaced persons in her seventies. As she wrote in Barriers down, the second of her two books on work with Germany, “for twenty-five years my connections with Germany had been closer than with any other country except my own, and I had spent months each year on some form or other of relief or reconciliation work, leaving Frankfurt, indeed, only a couple of weeks before war broke out in 1939”. When English Friends had opened the Quaker rest home at Falkenstein and then at Bad Pyrmont in 1933, to care for victims of the Nazi regime, Elizabeth Fox Howard served as one of the hosts. During the six years the rest home was in operation, it offered recuperation to some 800 people, Jews, Catholics, Lutherans, Communists and other victims of the regime.

Quaker House at Bad Pyrmont (Library ref. Album 7)

Elizabeth Fox Howard’s account of her arrest in Germany 1935 – extract (Library ref. Temp MSS 83/3)

Elizabeth Fox Howard also worked tirelessly in her own local community and her international interests were wide. Gandhi visited her home in Buckhurst Hill during his 1931 visit to London, for a quiet day away from public affairs. She published many articles, poetry, books about relief work in Germany, and memoirs, and continued to make friendships with people of all nations throughout her life.

Elizabeth Fox Howard, Midstream: a record of many years (1945)

Francesca Wilson (1888-1981) was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, some years later than Joan Mary Fry and Elizabeth Fox Howard. Unlike them she went to university (Newnham College, Cambridge), to study history. With her interest in travel and languages she was led into relief work with Friends in 1916, and worked with French refugees at Samoens, later becoming involved in caring for wounded Serbian troops in Corsica and North Africa under the auspices of the Serbian Relief Fund. After some time working as Hilda Clark’s interpreter in Vienna where Quakers and Save the Children Fund were organising a child feeding programme, she went in 1922 to work for famine relief in the Buzuluk region of Russia.

Francesca Wilson (Library ref. MSS 1006/8)

As a teacher in Birmingham in the 1930s she obtained leave to go to Spain during the Spanish Civil War, visiting three times to organise housing and medical care for children. During the Second World War and afterwards she worked with Spanish refugees in the south of France, with Polish refugees in Hungary, and after the war worked with displaced persons in Germany under UNRRA. Her home was open to all sorts of lodgers, including refugees from Nazi Germany and Russia, and she adopted several young people, providing them with a home and opportunity for education.

She was a prolific writer, including contributions to The Friend and the Manchester Guardian, made radio broadcasts and television appearances. She wrote a best-selling account of her experiences, In the margins of chaos (1944).

Francesca Wilson, In the margins of chaos: recollections of relief work in and between three wars (1944)

The Library holds books, articles and unpublished papers of all three women, as well as the archives of the Quaker organisations for which they worked.

Further reading

Joan Mary Fry

 Published sources

Oldfield, Sybil, ‘Joan Mary Fry (1862–1955), relief worker and social reformer’ in Oxford Dictionary of national biography (2004) http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/38522  (log in using most local public library cards)

Fawell, Ruth, Joan Mary Fry (Friends Home Service Committee, 1959)

Moore, Katharine, Cordial relations: the maiden aunt in fact and fiction (Heinemann, 1966. Chapter 19 includes transcript of interview with Pamela Diamond about her childhood and her aunts, Joan, Isabel & Margery Fry.

Diamond, Pamela, Joan as she was to us children (Undated typescript. Library reference: Box L27/25)

Johnson, Dale A., ‘From pilgrimage to discipleship: Quaker women’s ministries in nineteenth century England’ in Quaker history, Vol.91, no.2 (Fall 2002), p.18-32

Morgan, Nigel, ‘Joan Mary Fry and The Communion of Life’ in The Friend (14 December 2010) https://thefriend.org/article/joan-mary-fry-and-the-communion-of-life

Obituary in The Friend (2 December 1955)

Manuscripts and archives

Joan Mary Fry Journal letters from Germany and America (Library reference: Temp MSS 66)

Joan Mary Fry Papers, concerning work in Germany 1919-1954 (Library reference: Temp MSS 87/7)

Joan Mary Fry Papers, including report on a visit to German prisons (Library reference: Temp MSS 99/2)

Allotments Committee records (http://quaker.adlibhosting.com/Details/archive/110006641)

Elizabeth Fox Howard

Published sources

Howard, Elizabeth Fox, Upstream: a family scrapbook (privately published, 1944)

Howard, Elizabeth Fox, Midstream: a record of many years (privately published, 1945)

Howard, Elizabeth Fox, Downstream: records of several generation (privately published, 1955)

Haseldine-Jones, Lynn, ‘Elizabeth Fox Howard’ in Loughton and District Historical Society Newsletter (Jan-Feb 2013) http://www.theydon.org.uk/lhs/Downloads/LHS%20News%20196.pdf

Manuscripts and archives

Elizabeth Fox Howard Papers – including World War I relief work, letters written while a prison chaplain at Dartmoor Prison, description of a day spent with Gandhi, journal and letters about her arrest in Germany in 1935 (Library reference: Temp MSS 83)

Francesca Wilson

Published sources

Roberts, Siân. ‘Wilson, Francesca Mary (1888–1981), schoolteacher and refugee relief worker’ in Oxford Dictionary of national biography (2013) http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/103379 (log in using most local public library cards)

Wilson, Francesca, In the margins of chaos: recollections of relief work in and between three wars (John Murray, 1944)

Wilson, Francesca, Aftermath: France, Germany, Austria, Yugoslavia, 1945 and 1946 (Penguin, 1947)

Horder, June (ed.), Francesca Wilson: a life of service and adventure (privately published, 1993)

Manuscripts and archives

Francesca Wilson Papers – including correspondence, diary extracts, articles and talks (Library reference: MSS 1006)

Friends Emergency & War Victims Relief Committee records of relief missions (Library reference: YM/MfS/FEWVRC/MISSIONS/)

Every archive is faced with the problem of growing backlogs of material waiting to be added to their online catalogues and made accessible for users. It is a skilled and time consuming task to update old catalogue entries in paper format to digital ones with modern standards. We were lucky enough to be able to secure funding for a project to update catalogue entries for a large backlog of manuscript collections and add to our online catalogue.

Over the course of 15 months, our project cataloguer Jane Kirby, created top level catalogue entries for around 600 collections. This has opened up these collections to a wider public and we started noticing the impact straight away in the reading room – with collections being ordered up that had rarely been looked at by readers – and even some new discoveries for staff!

The project faced various hurdles: often older collections had scant accession paperwork and needed extra research into their provenance. Some of these mysteries remain unsolved….Other collections needed extensive repacking and cleaning, or had to be earmarked for professional conservation work. We chose to focus on top level entries only, with a basic overview of each collection, as we wanted to get as much of the backlog onto the online catalogue as possible. For larger collections we will need to do further work on expanding their catalogues so that people can find the records they need.

There are all sorts of collections within the manuscripts, including collections from organisations that were not centrally managed by the Yearly Meeting, but that are closely linked with Quakers, such as Friends Ambulance Unit, Friends Temperance Union, and Central Board of Conscientious Objectors.

There are also collections of personal papers of notable Quakers, many of whom carried out work under the auspices of the central organisation, or were closely linked with the Society and wished to leave their papers to the Library. These papers give a complementary personal insight and emotional resonance to the official archives, which tell the story of Quaker work often from a purely administrative perspective.

We have highlighted three interesting collections of personal papers that show the personalities of the people behind the political and social movements and issues interesting Friends in the 20th century.

Lucy Backhouse was an active Friend who sat on many committees, including Friends Service Council, Friends Committee for Refugees and Aliens, Armenia Committee as well as Meeting for Sufferings. Her obituary in The Friend, the weekly Quaker magazine, highlights that one of her strengths was her extensive letter writing to support Friends carrying out missionary and relief work abroad. It was remarked that her address at 50 Higher Drive, Purley, must have been well known all over the world!

We have several collections of her papers in the Library including at TEMP MSS 511 and TEMP MSS 673.

Featured is an example from her papers of her support for Daniel and Emily Oliver who went to Brummana, Syria (later part of Lebanon) in 1895 to run the Friends Mission School there. During the First World War, after the Turkish invasion, they witnessed the orphan crisis there and set up an orphanage, pictured here in 1936, in a photo sent to Lucy Backhouse.

(Daniel and Emily Oliver Orphanage, Ras-el-Metn, Syria, 1936, Library ref: TEMP MSS 511/2/1)

Reverse of photo: “With good wishes and greetings from the orphans & staff at Ras-el-Metn, Nov 2 1936”

Lucy Backhouse’s familiar address on letter from Daniel Oliver

Aline Atherton-Smith has an interesting collection of papers TEMP MSS 776 mainly about the Land Settlement movement of the 1920s, which she pioneered in Austria, earning her the title ‘Mother of the Settlements’.

She worked in Austria as Head of the Land Settlement Department of the Friends International Centre in Vienna, after the First World War, attempting to ease the poverty and housing issues there. Many Viennese citizens had fled the city for the surrounding areas and set up makeshift homes there. The settlement movement sought to instil co-operative organisation into these settlements and foster good community relations.

Atherton-Smith would seek to export this model to try to solve poverty and housing issues in England and elsewhere in the world. The letters in her collection show great warmth and gratitude from the Settlers towards Atherton-Smith, and a report from the FIC reads: “Her promotion of interpolitical co-operation had been of tremendous value to the movement.” It was also work that would bring her under the watch of the Nazis in the next decade. Her collection includes photographs of the building of the settlements in Austria, as well as correspondence about the movement.

“Siedlergruppe” Group of settlers, Austria, 1920s (Library ref: TEMP MSS 776/2/7)

“Hausergruppe. Objekt III, IV, V” Settlement houses (Library ref: TEMP MSS 776/2/7)

Mauricle Hussey’s papers TEMP MSS 544 are a colourful collection of drawings and sketches as well as family photographs and photos of farflung places. Hussey was an artist and one of her lively sketches is featured below. She was active on committees including Meeting for Sufferings and Friends Service Council, and seems to have travelled widely, writing articles on her travels in Russia, where in the 1950s she was one of the first British women to travel to Irkutsk. Below are some negatives of photos in Russia.

Drawing by Mauricle Hussey (Library ref: TEMP MSS 544/3/1)

Negatives of Russia, c.1950s (Library ref: TEMP MSS 544/3/5)

Since the 17^th century Friends have held an annual assembly known as Yearly Meeting. It’s changed a lot since its early days. Meetings regularly take place away from London, and what was once known as “London Yearly Meeting” has changed its name to “Britain Yearly Meeting”, a more accurate and inclusive expression of its identity. This year it will be taking place at Friends House, in London, 27-30 May, and the building will soon be buzzing with huge numbers of Quakers.

If you’re attending Yearly Meeting this year, whether for the first time or as a seasoned attender, we hope you’ll look in on the Library in whatever time you have spare between sessions, special interest meetings and lectures.

Detail of La Panne by Donald Wood (1916) (Library reference F183) – now on display on the first floor of Friends House

We’ve mounted two new displays on the topic of World War I conscientious objection, to mark the centenary of introduction of conscription in 1916. Besides the display in the reading room cabinet, there’s a further display on the first floor – bringing our collections out into other parts of the building with more passing traffic. Notice the newly conserved paintings by Donald Wood, showing Friends Ambulance Unit at La Panne, France, hanging alongside the display panels. And we’ll be putting more items from our collections out on display daily in the reading room, for all to see over the four days of Yearly Meeting, including documents and artefacts to illustrate the new Friends House garden timeline, and material relating to the “foundations of a social order” (see below).

Some of the special interest meetings over YM will be taking place in the Library reading room. The Saturday lunch break will see a discussion on the Foundations of a true social order, facilitated by Rachel Muers and Rhiannon Grant:  they’ll begin with the story of the “foundations”, deliberated on by Friends a century ago, as the starting point for reflection on contemporary Quaker social testimony.  Reading Quaker faith & practice is the theme of a meeting in the Library during the Sunday mid-day interval – an opportunity to share what you may have learned or done as part of “Reading Quaker faith and practice” project, and get creative ideas for groups or personal reflection, as well as an update of the work of the Revision Preparation Group. But it’s the last group gathering in the reading room that promises to make the most noise – the Leaveners will be leading group singing in the Library from 7 to 8 on Sunday evening. We think this must be a first!

Annual lectures are a regular feature of the Yearly Meeting weekend. Sometimes their format is far from what you might expect – the Salter lecture this year is to be a performance of Red flag over Bermondsey: the Ada Salter story, written and performed by Lynne Morris (Friday, 12.30-14.00 in the Large Meeting House). Richard C. Allen’s Friends Historical Society Presidential Lecture on the origins of the London Peace Society, one of the earliest peace societies, sounds fascinating (“Providing a moral compass for British people: the work of Joseph Tregelles Price, Evan Rees and the Herald of Peace”, Sunday 17.30-18.30 in the Small Meeting House). And of course the Swarthmore lecture – this year’s lecture by Cécile Nyiramana and Esther Mombo is on Quaker peace building in East Africa. There are plans for it to be live-streamed (more information here).

It’s worth noting that Swarthmore lectures for the last 50 years are available for loan from the Library, as well as reference copies of the entire run; we can also supply spares of out of print lectures to meeting libraries or reading groups (contact us for more information). But a lecture’s live delivery is often especially enthralling, so it’s great to know that recordings of several Swarthmore lectures are available for free download from Woodbrooke.

Swarthmore lectures

Check out the Yearly Meeting timetable for full details of events. Yearly Meeting documents and practical information are also available online.

If you’re attending Yearly Meeting and planning to visit the Library to use the collections, there will be an opportunity for quiet research on Friday morning and Monday (we’ll be closed to the general public, but open for YM attenders). Do let us know in advance if you want to request material, so we can ensure it’s ready for your visit. Otherwise, please drop in at any time over the four days to look at the exhibits, browse the magazines and newsletters, read a book, attend a special interest group, or just say hello. We’re looking forward to seeing you all!

This blog post introduces some of the periodicals that document British Quakers’ activity in the foreign mission field from the second half of the nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century. Mission work was reported and promoted through annual reports, newsletters, and circulars. These are today an invaluable resource for anyone wanting to find out more about the work and the individuals involved.

As the nineteenth century progressed, Friends became more interested in evangelisation both at home and abroad. To this end in 1868 British Friends founded the Friends Foreign Mission Association (FFMA). The FFMA started out with 20 missionaries in 1868, reaching a peak by 1917 with 120 missionaries. By the time it became Friends Service Council in 1926, a total of 345 people had served with the organisation. Friends were active in China, India, Sri Lanka, Madagascar, Pemba and the Middle East. This work was not without its controversies with the Society of Friends, as described by John Ormerod Greenwood in Vines on the mountain (volume 2 of his Quaker encounters trilogy, York, 1977).

The Library holds annual reports of the FFMA for its entire history (1868-1926). These often feature photographs from the mission field (including mission buildings and British and local missionaries).

FFMA annual report 1881, with map showing Hoshangabad District

Our missions (its magazine published 1894-1917) looked at the work of Friends Foreign Mission Association, featuring reports on specific mission projects and discussion about mission work. It is important to bear in mind, as Greenwood points out in Vines on the mountain, that the accounts in these periodicals deliberately downplayed the controversies, difficulties and hardships of missionary life.

Photograph of FFMA workers in Madagascar, from Our missions, no. 144 (December 1905)

In 1911 foreign mission work began to be reported in another periodical, The Quaker at home and abroad.  In 1913 it became Workers at home and abroad, and absorbed FFMA’s Our missions in 1918. In 1922 Workers at home and abroad changed its title again to become The Wayfarer (which continues today as Quaker voices). The Wayfarer continued to cover the work of the FFMA and later Friends Service Council. FFMA’s work also got coverage in the Monthly record, which started out as a periodical covering “home and foreign missions, first-day schools, temperance and other other Christian work in the Society of Friends”, and later focused more extensively on adult schools, illustrating the overlap between “home” mission work and work abroad.

The Friends Foreign Mission Association and its successor, Friends Service Council, published a periodical for children called Here & there (1920-1942). Attractively illustrated with photographs, stories and activities, many of its articles were aimed at giving children an idea of daily life and customs in the countries where the FFMA worked.

Here and there (June 1922)

Substantial projects run by or assisted by the Friends Foreign Mission Association, such as the Medical Mission at Antananarivo (Madagascar) and the Friends’ Syrian Mission run by Theophilus Waldmeier, often produced their own annual reports, which provide valuable insight into the work.

Friends Syrian Mission report 1895

The Library also holds reports of projects independent of the FFMA, such as the Friends Mission in Brittany run by Charles D. Terrell , the Friends Armenian Mission in Istanbul established by Ann Mary Burgess, and Henry Gurney’s refuge in Tangiers.

The Missionary Helpers Union founded in 1882 helped support the work of the FFMA. Among publications relating to the Missionary Helpers Union are annual reports for 1884-1911. Some of its publications were aimed at children and young adults, and some focused on work in specific countries (China, Syria, and India).

As a result of the First World War, Friends became increasingly concerned with issues around international conciliation and peace building. The experience of Quaker organisations in providing relief during and after the war (and the formation of the American Friends Service Committee) also had an influence on this change in direction. The Council for International Service was formed in 1919 to support projects promoting international understanding, such as the Quaker International Centres that flourished in the interwar period. The Library holds annual reports of the Council for International Service between 1919 and 1927 as it worked alongside the FFMA. The two bodies merged to form the new Friends Service Council in 1927. Quaker world service, the new monthly published by Friends Service Council between 1927 and 1934, reflects this change in focus.

Quaker world service (September 1932) – title and contents illustrate the focus

Last, but not least, it is also worth noting that the Quaker weekly magazine The Friend also included current news of Friends’ foreign mission work, particularly letters from those engaged in the field.

Selected periodicals on Friends’ foreign missions

Friends Foreign Mission Association. Annual reports (London: Friends Foreign Mission Association, 1868-1926)

Monthly record (Birmingham: White & Pike, 1869-1891)

Missionary Helpers Union. Annual reports (Leominster: Orphans Printing Press, 1884-1911)

 Our missions: a magazine of foreign mission work carried on by Friends (London: West, Newman and Co., 1894-1917)

The Quaker at home and abroad (London: FFMA; Friends Home Mission & Extension Committee, 1911-1913)

Workers at home and abroad (London: FFMA, 1913-1921)

Council for International Service. Annual reports (London: Friends Council for International Service, 1919-1927)

The Wayfarer (London: Friends Home Mission & Extension Committee; Friends Service Council, 1922-1964)

Here & there (London: FFMA; Friends Service Council, 1920-1942)

Quaker world service (London: Friends Service Council, 1927-1934)

We’re lucky to have Beth Franklin, a student conservator, volunteering at the Library this autumn. She’s working on-site to conserve some of the Library’s nineteenth and twentieth century pamphlets. We asked Beth about the kind of work she’s doing here and what drew her to a career in conservation.

Carrying out tape removal In the studio at Camberwell

How did you come to volunteer at the Library of the Society of Friends?

Beth: I’m a second year student on the Conservation M.A. course (Books and Archival Materials pathway) at Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts London, finishing in 2017, and looking for every opportunity to practice my skills. My undergraduate degree was in Theology and Biblical Studies, so I was interested in Quakerism. When my mentor Ian Watson, a conservator at Lambeth Palace Library, suggested a placement here I jumped at it. After my two week placement last spring I offered to come back one day a week through the autumn.

What did you do here during your first two week placement in the spring?

Beth: I broke up books! I had to dis-bind a set of nineteenth century pamphlet volumes. Like all conservation work, it required a steady hand and great care, and it was actually useful for understanding the structure of bound volumes, complementing what I had learned during my course so far.

You’re volunteering at the Library throughout the autumn. What kind of work are you doing now?

Beth: I’m working on the pamphlet material that the Library’s NADFAS team of volunteers have identified as needing more extensive work than they can do. I spent a day working with Ian at Sussex Conservation Consortium’s studio, and he helped decide what treatments were appropriate for me to carry out on site in the Library at Friends House, one day a week. Most of my work is repairing paper tears, reattaching covers and removing damaging staples – ones that are hard to get at because they are covered by the pamphlet bindings.

Beth’s tool roll – portable essentials

How does this fit in with the M.A. course you’re taking at Camberwell?

Beth: It’s useful experience. It gives me the opportunity to practise what I’ve learned in a classroom environment in a real life library and archive setting.

How long does each pamphlet take to treat?

Beth: It all depends – how long is a piece of string? A simple pamphlet might take ten minutes for careful staple removal and sewing; applying paper hinges to covers using wheat starch paste is longer, with drying time about an hour. I make up the wheat starch paste each time I visit the Library – it goes off in a week and smells horrible! One pamphlet that took a lot of time to treat was published in 2006 (Grow up or blow up, by Charlotte Waterlow). It was a thick pamphlet – 60 pages – with staples all the way through. I had to remove the staples, sew the pages together using the existing staple holes and re-attach the cover with Japanese paper hinges. Taking out the staples led to some loss of spine tape, which needed to be remedied with careful toning.

Wheat starch paste, made up for each visit to the Library

What’s the most challenging item you’ve treated so far this term?

Beth: A 19^th century pamphlet about a visit to Ireland by James Hack Tuke (Irish distress and its remedies. The land question. A visit to Donegal and Connaught in the spring of 1880, Box 77/19). This was a well-used pamphlet whose covers had fallen off. It had been sewn but the stitching had gone, and I had to re-stitch the sections and sew them onto two cords, on site, with only the basic equipment I had here. My mentor Ian advised that it was do-able, and I’m pretty pleased with the result, considering I didn’t have the use of a sewing frame. I made a new paper cover, with a Japanese paper spine and I also had to remove some sticky tape (the bane of conservators).

Could you tell us about some of the other conservation work you’ve been doing?

Beth: I worked for a month over the summer at Lambeth Place Library, repairing three leather bindings by re-attaching boards and making a new leather spine – my first opportunity to work with leather bindings in a real life library context.

At the moment I’m also volunteering at the V&A Museum once a week, in their Blythe House store, making book wraps – bespoke enclosures for leather bound books with “red rot”, designed to protect neighbouring volumes (and users!) from the red flaking dust that comes off the volumes.

Enclosure for a book with “red rot”

What drew you to book and archive conservation in the first place?

As an undergraduate I used university special collections for my research at Liverpool Hope University, and I loved it. I ended up volunteering there, and did some basic repair work, which got my interest going. In the future I’d like to work as a conservator in a religious library or archive.

Finally, what’s your favourite piece of conservation equipment?

My Teflon bone folder. A bone folder is the conservator’s best friend! But I also love my Japanese bristle brush with bamboo handle, which is beautiful as well as useful.

What’s going to be in your Christmas stocking? Something good, we hope! For our final blogpost of 2016 we want to celebrate some of the “gifts” you’ve shared  over the past twelve months. There have been some heartening acts of generosity – both regular and surprising. We have many reasons to be thankful!

Every fortnight a dedicated group of NADFAS volunteers gather in the Library reading room to de-staple and re-sew our modern pamphlets – a Herculean task they’ve been working on for over six years. Over the autumn we’ve also had the help of a student conservator, who’s been treating some more challenging items. Through this painstaking and unglamorous work a great many rare late 19^th and 20^th century pamphlets are being protected from the damaging effects of rust on paper.

A small team of other volunteers offer their skill and time regularly too. Between them, they carry out basic paper repairs in-house, check large collections of donated material, and provide invaluable support to the retrospective cataloguing project. Thank you, volunteers, for your time, good will and constancy!

Without a paid ministry, Quaker meetings run on the voluntary service of their members, who may undertake a range of roles. One of these is the role of “meeting librarian” (meetings are encouraged to maintain libraries for the use of Friends and attenders, as an aid to the life of the meeting and outreach). Earlier this year Quaker Life Network formed a new “Quaker Meeting Librarians Cluster” (inspired by an earlier discussion group set up and run for over a decade by Nic Wright, former librarian at Bolton Meeting), intended as a forum for sharing experience, discussing books and swapping tips.

Not long after the cluster was established, a reader came to us looking for a loan copy of The Communion of life, Joan Mary Fry’s 1910 Swarthmore lecture. As a shot in the dark, we emailed the cluster. Suddenly, and quite unexpectedly, there were messages from meeting librarians all over the country generously offering to track down and lend the book from their own collections. The reader was delighted, and so were we. And a bit awed. Meeting librarians are amazing: you clearly have a passion for sharing!

We’ve blogged before about how much we and our other users owe to the generosity of researchers who share their own work with the Library. A large proportion of new accessions – scholarly historical works, biographies, articles, novels, local history and more – are presented to the Library by their authors, and this year was no exception.  Topics included politics, theology, the role of women, radicalism, peace, voluntary service, and individual people and places, across four centuries, reflecting the broad compass of our collections. Here’s a random selection of some of the 2016 accessions:

To ensure the survival of our collections for the future, professional conservation treatment is sometimes needed, funded by our BeFriend a Book scheme. So we were delighted when the recent blogpost about our student conservator’s project prompted one reader to make a generous donation to the fund. Thanks to everyone who has donated, whether it’s a lot or a little, for making this work possible!

Among items conserved this year were 16 tract volumes – volumes of separately published works collected and bound up together (mainly 17th-18th century). Their significance as physical objects is enhanced by their associations with places and people, so any trace of former ownership (inscriptions, marginal notes, bookplates, etc.) is meticulously preserved. Here are tract volumes 294, 326 and 517, three of those conserved in 2016 with noteworthy provenance:

And those are just a few of the kindnesses we’ve witnessed in 2016. Thank you all, friends, whether you’ve shared your time, your money, your own research, or – not least – your good will.

Very warm wishes to users and friends of the Library for Christmas and the new year!

Reimagining a True Social Order is a new AHRC funded website exploring the historic background and contemporary significance of the Eight Foundations of a True Social Order, first agreed by London Yearly Meeting in 1918. Inspired by the richness of the new resource (produced by academics at Leeds, in collaboration with Quakers in Britain, Woodbrooke and others), this blogpost aims to highlight some of the Library material which relate to the origins and development of the Eight Foundations.

Display of material for Yearly Meeting 2016 special interest group on the 8 Foundations

The war of 1914–18 made Friends more vividly aware of the close connection between war and social order. Many progressive social thinkers at the time blamed the failings of capitalism for the descent into war, and saw the masses caught up in fighting for their countries as pawns in the games of empire led by politicians, royalty and wealthy businessmen.

Nine months after the outbreak of war, London Yearly Meeting was inspired by the words of the 18th century Quaker John Woolman:  May we look upon our treasures, the furniture of our houses, and our garments, and try whether the seeds of war have nourishment in these our possessions (A Word of remembrance and caution to the rich, republished by the Fabian Society in 1897).

British Friends established a War & Social Order Committee in 1915 to look into all issues surrounding social inequality and the social conditions that make war possible. The Committee presented their findings to Yearly Meeting in 1918, leading to the adoption of eight ‘Foundations of a true social order’, ideals still included in Quaker faith and practice today(http://qfp.quaker.org.uk/passage/23-16/).

The War & Social Order Committee (WSOC) would later become the Industrial & Social Order Council (ISOC) which existed until 1962.

The most obvious starting place for anyone interested in finding out more, is the papers of these two committees.

For the War & Social Order Committee, 1915-1928, we hold the minutes of the main committee and the sub-committees, as well as conference minutes. For a full description of the records, go to our online catalogue entry: http://quaker.adlibhosting.com/Details/archive/110010972

For the Industrial & Social Order Council, 1928-1962, we hold similar records and also two scrapbooks of photographs and pamphlets. For a full description, go to our online catalogue entry: http://quaker.adlibhosting.com/Details/archive/110010392

‘Those much discussed Eight Points’, Industrial and Social Order Council scrapbook, 1955-1956′, Library reference ISOC/6/1

However for those wanting to dig even deeper, there are other collections which are worth a look.

Papers from committees and people which shed a light on their wartime activities are important for getting a feel for how the war was influencing Quakers and in many cases leading them to new and more radical positions.

WSOC member Hubert Peet was already a Socialist before war broke out (acting as editor of The Ploughshare, journal of the Socialist Quaker Society), but as secretary of the wartime Friends Service Committee, he would have had contact with a large variety of young men from diverse backgrounds which may have also shaped his political and social views. His 1916 correspondence forms part of the Service Committee records here on the catalogue: http://quaker.adlibhosting.com/Details/archive/110010918.

Some of the members of the War & Social Order committee were absolutist conscientious objectors, and when reading the letters and diaries of COs in our collections you can see how this experience led them to mix with other conscientious objectors through the No-Conscription Fellowship, and while imprisoned alongside these men. Often other COs objected on political grounds, and held strong socialist views. To find out more about this read our earlier blogpost on COs in prison https://quakerstrongrooms.org/2014/04/30/library-resources-for-researching-world-war-i-prison-experiences-of-conscientious-objectors/

Page from clandestine CO prison newspaper featuring cartoon with socialist and pacifist themes, page 24, Winchester Whisperer, Library reference: Vol S 77

We also hold a variety of publications and collections from other members of the committee (http://www.quakersocialorder.org.uk/people/) which you can find by searching their names on our catalogue.

Notable collections include:

Maurice L. Rowntree papers (Library reference: TEMP MSS 480)

Rowntree had also served time in prison as a conscientious objector during World War I and his letters and notebooks written in prison show the huge impact this had on him especially with regards to prison conditions and rehabilitation. He went on to publish several works on war and social order, and this collection includes extensive research notes for his writing. The collection also includes research notes written on areas of industry – it seems Rowntree went ‘undercover’ and obtained jobs for periods in labouring work in order to get a better understanding of working conditions.  He also documents adult education projects and clubs for the unemployed in working class areas.

Joan Mary Fry papers                            (Library references: TEMP MSS 66; TEMP MSS 909 etc.)

Joan Mary Fry was a wealthy Quaker, daughter of a Judge, and sister of Roger Fry, the art critic, and Bloomsbury Group member.

She had served as a prison chaplain in World War One, before joining the relief effort in Germany after the war. Among other tasks on the War & Social Order Committee, she headed up the allotment sub-committee, promoting allotment work for the poor.

She published articles and books on issues to do with pacifism and social order, particularly focussing on unemployment, but also on religious and pastoral topics. Find out more about her publications by searching our online catalogue (see also our recent blogpost on Fry and others).

John Turner Walton Newbold papers                                       (Library reference TEMP MSS 225)

Walton Newbold was a journalist and politician, who became the first Communist MP in Britain. He was much influenced by his Irish Quaker father and espoused Quaker beliefs, although in later life he was drawn to Catholicism.

He was a pacifist and campaigned for the No-Conscription Fellowship through World War I although was ruled out of having to contest conscription on medical grounds.

His politics were complex and he moved from the Independent Labour Party to the radical Left, joining the new Communist Party of Great Britain in 1921. After a period of intense representation on domestic and international issues, which led to a suspension from parliament in 1923, he resigned from the Party in 1924 and renewed his allegiance to Labour.

We hold a collection of letters of Newbold to contemporaries such as Hubert Peet.

These collections provide further historical insight into the thinking behind the Eight Foundations, adding to the rich resources on the new Reimagining a True Social Order website.

For Women’s History Month this March, we offer a broad overview of some of the great women’s history resources the Library has to offer. Whether you’re interested in the lives and thought of particular Quaker women, in the history of the Society of Friends and Quakerism, or in women’s history more generally, we hope this blogpost will give some pointers to fruitful sources for research and reading.

Archives of women’s meetings

Quaker women gathered together regularly in London from the late seventeenth century, though an official Yearly Meeting of Women Friends was only formally established in 1784 (having first been proposed in 1753). It was finally laid down in 1907. The records of the Women’s Yearly Meeting include minute books from 1759 to 1907, and epistles 1753-1906.

Yearly Meeting of Women Friends. Minute book 1759-1785

Meetings around the country also had their own separate women’s meetings. London and Middlesex women’s meetings records are here in the Library, including those of the Women’s Two Weeks Meeting and Box Meeting. Surviving records of other local women’s meetings are deposited locally along with other monthly meeting archives. For more information about specific local women’s meeting records and their whereabouts, contact us.

Womens Two Weeks Meeting. Minute book 1779-1783

Women’s published writings

17th century Quaker publishing was remarkable both for its abundance and for the unusual number of women authors, at a time when women’s public writing was as uncommon (and as deprecated) as women’s preaching. It’s not surprising that many researchers have found the Library a rich resource for early modern women’s writing and publishing.

Some key reference works and anthologies for research into 17th and 18th century Quaker women’s published writing include:

• Booy, David, Autobiographical writings by early Quaker women (Ashgate, 2004)
• Foxton, Rosemary, “Hear the word of the Lord”: a critical and bibliographical study of Quaker women’s writing 1650-1700 / Rosemary Foxton (Bibliographical Society of Australia and New Zealand, 1994)
• Garman, Mary [et al], Hidden in plain sight: Quaker women’s writings 1650-1700 (Pendle Hill Publications, 1996)
• Skidmore, Gil, Strength in weakness: writings of eighteenth-century Quaker women (Altamira Press, 2003)
• Smith, Hilda L., and Cardinale, Susan, Women and the literature of the seventeenth century: an annotated bibliography based on Wing’s Short-title catalogue / compiled by Hilda L. Smith and Susan Cardinale (Greenwood Press, 1990).

Quaker women have of course gone on writing on a wide range of topics and in a variety of forms ever since. Not only does the Library aim to collect all Quaker publications, but it also holds a representative range of books by Quakers on unrelated topics, including works by women authors who wrote for a living, such as botanical books for children by Priscilla Wakefield (1751-1832), or the poems and fiction of the novelist Amelia Opie (1769-1853).

So if you’re looking for the writings of a particular Quaker woman, or a particular title, your first stop should be the Library’s online catalogue. We’ve produced some catalogue search tips, to help focus your search – for instance by genre and date – and make good use of the results.

Women’s diaries, letters and other personal papers

Women’s stories have often gone untold through lack of documentation. Any surviving personal papers – diaries, correspondence, note books – can be invaluable sources for learning more about women’s public and private lives. You will find many examples of these, from the 17th to the 20th century, in the Library’s collections, including travel journals and spiritual diaries, which, by their nature, are more likely to have been preserved for posterity.

The most iconic are probably the diaries of Elizabeth Fry (1780-1845), prison reformer, whose presence in recent years on the five pound note gives an indication of her continuing fame. The recently conserved diaries (MS Vol S 255-271) give a fascinating insight into the inner life of a Quaker minister and social reformer, documenting her private moral and spiritual struggles as well as her philanthropic activities.

Here is a selection of some other women’s diaries to whet your interest (click on the links for full catalogue descriptions of these manuscripts, or contact us for a longer list).

Eighteenth century

• Freeborn, Susanna (fl. 1704-5). A journal of the travels of Susanna Freeborn and Esther Palmer from Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, America (1704). MS Box X1/10
• Weston, Mary (1711/2-1766), of Southwark and Wapping. Journal 1735-1752, including her travels in the ministry in North America between 1750 and 1752. MS Vol 312
• Darby, Abiah (1716/7-1794), of Sunderland and Coalbrookdale. Diary c.1744-1769, with an account of her earlier years. MS Vol 310
• Wilson, Rachel (1720-1775). An account of her religious visit to Friends in America carefully transcribed from her manuscript, 1768-1769. MS Vol S 20
• Chorley, Elizabeth (1752-1809). Diaries of Elizabeth ‘Betty’ Chorley, born Fothergill, 1769-1770. MS Vol S 51/1-3
• Bishop, Betty (1751-1801). Diaries 1779-1801; and one (by Anne Bishop, one of her daughters?) 1809. MS Vol S 83
• Hill, Lydia (1754-1816). Diary written while keeping a school in Frenchay, Bristol, Somerset, 1780-1783. MS Box Q5/1
• Ransom, Mercy (1728-1811), born Bell. Journal of a visit to Bristol and Bath, 1792. MS Box 2/11/3
• Day, Susanna (1747-1826), of Stepney and Saffron Walden. Diary 1797-1804. Temp MSS 36/3

Nineteenth century

• Reed, Rachel (1786-1845). Diary, 1805-1820. MS Box P1/3
• Robson, Elizabeth (1771-1843). Journals, lists and accounts of meetings visited in America etc., 1813-1837. MS Vol S 129-133, 135, 137-139, 141-143, 145
• Yeardley, Elizabeth (-1821). Diaries, 1815-1820; 1819-1821. MS Box R2/11
• Capper, Anne (1817-1882). Journals 1824-1830. Temp MSS 310
• Godlee, Mary (1820-1894). Domestic diaries of the life and travels of Mary Godlee, 1828 – c.1846. MS Vol S 497-500
• Alexander, Catherine (1806-1878). Diary of travels in the West Indies with her husband, 1849-1850. MS Vol S 124
• Braithwaite, Martha Gillett (1823-1895). Journals (1837-1895) including a journal of a visit to France and Italy in the ministry, 1875 (MS Vol S 332). MS Vol S 301-332
• Braithwaite, Catherine L. (1864-1957). Journal, concerning journeys to France, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany (1892) and to Norway (1897). MS Vol S 298-299
• Gilpin, Helen (1834-1907). Journal while a missionary in Madagascar, 1884-1887. MS Vol S 461

Twentieth century

• Cowles, Sylvia (1881-c.1975). Diaries written while working for the American Red Cross in France during World War I, and for the Society of Friends Anglo-American Mission in Germany and Poland after the war, 1915-1922. Temp MSS 198/1
• Renton, Sara (1867-19–). Diaries while a Friends War Victims Relief Committee worker at Châlons-sur-Marne, France, 22 January 1917 – 31 August 1918 and 1 September 1918 – 6 April 1919. MS Vol S 446-447
• Wilson, Francesca (1888-1981). Typed transcripts of diary extracts, 1919-1964. MS 1006/2
• Caton, Ann (fl. 1921). Journal of a Journey to Buda Pest and Serbia, February 1921. Temp MSS 840
• Radley, Myrtle Aldren (1903-1991). Journal concerning the Young Friends General Conference, America, summer 1932. MS Vol 272
• McNeill, Margaret, 1909-1985. Margaret McNeill papers. Including: Journals 1945-1948. Temp MSS 981
• Henkel, Dorothy (1886-1983). Journal extracts for years 1948, 1956, 1957 and 1962. Temp MSS 1003/9/2/1

Secondary sources

Besides published biographies of individual women or families, the Library holds historical studies of Quaker women of different periods, written from various standpoints. Mabel Brailsford’s Quaker women 1650-1690 published over a century ago was the first substantial study in the field, taking the biographical narrative approach which continued to be favoured in popular works on the subject, often for a mainly Quaker audience. More recent historical writing has been influenced by the increasing academic professionalisation of history, but also by the growth of social and economic history, women’s history and gender studies, and the study of material culture (particularly in the domestic sphere). These developments, along with the impetus to tell untold stories and publish anthologies of source material on less well documented areas, have led to a proliferation of valuable secondary sources for anyone interested in studying Quaker women. Here’s a short selection of some of these important and useful works.

General

• Garman, Mary Van Vleck ‘Quaker women’s lives and spiritualities’ and other chapters in Angell, Stephen and Dandelion, Pink, The Oxford handbook of Quaker studies (Oxford University Press, 2013) 097   ANG

Seventeenth century

• Brown, Sylvia, ed. Women, gender and radical religion in early modern Europe (Brill, 2007) 093.4   BRO
• Crawford, Patricia, ‘Women’s published writings 1600-1700’ in Prior, Mary, Women in English society 1500-1800 (Methuen, 1985) 096.02   PRI 
• Feroli, Teresa, Political speaking justified: women prophets and the English revolution (University of Delaware Press, 2006) 096.04   FER
• Gill, Catie, Women in the seventeenth-century Quaker community: a literary study of political identities 1650-1700 (Ashgate, 2005) 097.01   GIL
• Mack, Phyllis, Visionary women: ecstatic prophecy in seventeenth-century England (University of California Press, 1992) 097.01   MAC
• Nevitt, Marcus, Women and the pamphlet culture of revolutionary England 1640-1660 (Ashgate, 2006) 096.03   NEV
• Trevett, Christine, Quaker women prophets in England and Wales 1650-1700 (Edwin Mellen Press, 2000) 097.01   TRE 
• Wilcox, Catherine M., Theology and women’s ministry in seventeenth century English Quakerism (Edwin Mellen Press, 1995) 097.01  WIL 

Eighteenth century

• Jennings, Judith. Gender, religion and radicalism in the long eighteenth century: the “Ingenious Quaker” and her connections (Ashgate, 2006)       092.4   KNO/JEN
• Larson, Rebecca, Daughters of light: Quaker women preaching and prophesying in the colonies and abroad, 1700-1775 (Knopf, 1999) 097.02   LAR

Nineteenth century

• Anderson, Bonnie, Joyous greetings: the first international women’s movement 1830-1860 (OUP, 2000) 051.2   AND
• Brown, Heloise, “The truest form of patriotism”: pacifist feminism in Britain, 1870-1902 (Manchester University Press, 2003) 051.59   BRO
• Holton, Sandra, Quaker women: personal life, memory and radicalism in the lives of women Friends, 1780-1930 (Routledge, 2007) 097.03   HOL
• Kett, Anna Vaughan, Quaker women, the free produce movement and British anti-slavery campaigns: the Free Labour Cotton Depot in Street,1853-1858 (University of Brighton PhD thesis, 2012) Theses 051.69 KET
• McFadden, Margaret H., Golden cables of sympathy: the transatlantic sources of nineteenth-century feminism / Margaret H. McFadden (University Press of Kentucky, 1999) 051.2   MCF 
• Midgley, Clare, Women against slavery: the British campaigns, 1780-1870 (Routledge, 1992) 051.69   MID
• Morgan, Sue, Women, religion and feminism in Britain, 1750-1900 (Palgrave, 2002). 096.05   MOR 
• O’Donnell, Elizabeth, Woman’s rights and woman’s duties: Quaker women in the nineteenth century, with special reference to Newcastle Monthly Meeting of Women Friends       (Thesis (PhD) – University of Sunderland, 1999) Theses 097.03   ODO

Twentieth century

• Logan, Anne, Feminism and criminal justice : a historical perspective (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008)
• Mombo, Esther Moraa, A historical and cultural analysis of the position of Abaluyia women in Kenyan Quaker Christianity, 1902-1979 (University of Edinburgh PhD thesis, 1998)
• Oldfield, Sybil, Women humanitarians: a biographical dictionary of British women active between 1900 and 1950 (Continuum, 2001) Ref. shelves
• Ronan, Alison, “A small vital flame” : anti-war women in NW England 1914-1918 (Scholars Press, 2014) 051.59   RON
• Storr, Katherine, Excluded from the record: women, refugees and relief 1914-1929 (Peter Lang, 2009) 066.46       STO

 And much more…

This short blog post has merely scratched the surface of what’s available for the study of women’s history in the Library. We have omitted general biographical sources, such as the Dictionary of Quaker biography. And we haven’t even mentioned images and artefacts (photographs, cartes de visite, art works by and about women Friends, costume, museum objects), despite their importance for the study of women’s everyday lives. It’s clearly impossible to produce a single conspectus of all relevant Library sources, given the wide compass of possible topics relating to women’s history, and the range of potential users of the collections. Thankfully, the online catalogue will take you much further – and of course we are always ready to welcome new readers and answer enquiries about the collections.

Above all, we hope you will all join us in celebrating Quaker women’s lives and history, whether you’re a seasoned researcher or just dipping your toe in for the first time.

The Quaker Meeting, oil painting attributed to Egbert van Heemskerk, late 17th century (Library reference: F070)

The Library’s latest reading room display focuses on our poster collection. The posters are a historic visual record of Quaker values. These values – or ‘testimonies’ – of peace, equality, simplicity and sustainability, and truth and integrity are the founding principles of Quakerism.

Quakers live out their faith, acting according to these testimonies in their everyday lives. Quakers are perhaps best known for their peace testimony, which leads them to ‘witness’ against all war and violence.

Quakers have a history of publishing, which dates back to the days of the Society’s founder, George Fox. Early Quakers called themselves the ‘First Publishers of Truth’ and spread the faith by preaching and writing.

In 1656, while in prison, George Fox wrote: “Let all nations hear the word by sound or writing. Spare no place, spare not tongue nor pen, but be obedient to the Lord God and go through the world and be valiant for the Truth upon earth.” (Quaker faith & practice 19:32).

In 1660 George Fox and fellow Quakers presented a petition to Charles II declaring who Quakers were and the principles by which they live. The petition was also published as a pamphlet and is often known as the first peace testimony. The pamphlet was widely distributed to make the public aware that Quakers were nonviolent Christians who posed no threat.

Since the late 19th century, posters have been a popular way of advertising products or making announcements. To capture the public’s attention, posters have a few key words to convey a message and are illustrated with a striking image or design.

The Library holds the archives of the central organisation of Quakers in Britain. The committees administered by Quakers in Britain have produced many posters, pamphlets and cards. Committees and departments have evolved over the years but all of this material encompasses a wide range of interpretation of what these testimonies mean to a modern, ever-changing society.

Quaker public awareness campaigns have focused on world events, social values and spiritual fulfilment.

Peace

Quakers’ ardent campaigning for peace, at both national and local levels, led to the establishment of the Friends Peace Committee in 1888. The Peace Committee used its influence to promote peace on Christian grounds. Members attended peace conferences, wrote to magazines, newspapers, faith bodies and MPs about peace and arbitration, and distributed peace literature to the public.

Today Quaker Peace & Social Witness (QPSW) takes action on peace and social justice. It supports Quaker witness in local communities and schools in Britain and overseas – it works for peace in Palestine and Israel and in East Africa. The Quaker United Nations Office(QUNO) is based in Geneva and New York and facilitates positive social change on a range of issues including peacebuilding and disarmament.

Equality

Quakers believe everyone is equal. This means working to change the systems that cause injustice and hinder true community. It also means working with people who suffer injustice, such as prisoners and asylum-seekers. This testimony has led Quakers to campaign on issues like human rights, housing justice, the Living Wage and same-sex marriage.

Simplicity and sustainability

Quakers are concerned about the excesses and unfairness of our consumer society and the unsustainable use of natural resources. Quakers try to live simply and to find space for the things that really matter: the people around us, the natural world, our experience of God:

“We all need to take personal responsibility to make whatever changes we are called to. At the same time, we need to pledge ourselves to corporate action. The environmental crisis is enmeshed with global economic injustice and we must face our responsibility as one of the nations which has unfairly benefited at others’ expense, to redress inequalities…”

From minute 36, Yearly Meeting 2011

Truth and integrity

Guided by integrity, Quakers try to live the truth of word, power and spirit of God. This testimony raises awareness of making the world a better place through faith by working together as a community as well as individually.

The posters of the Friends Temperance Union (1877–1990) encouraged abstinence from drinking and gambling, both of which were closely linked to social deprivation and poverty. The F.T.U. campaigned to help curb these vices, and Quakers toured the country, giving lectures illustrated with lantern slides to publicise the harm drinking and gambling caused to individuals and families. F.T.U.’s successor, Quaker Action on Alcohol and Drugs, no longer takes an abstinence only approach to alcohol, but continues to work within the Quaker testimony of abstinence and moderation, seeking to address gambling and the use and misuse of all substances, legal, illegal and prescribed, within a framework of Quaker values.

As part of the ongoing work to improve access to the Library’s printed books and pamphlets we have now added the Richardson Collection to our online catalogue. Unlike the other early books catalogued as part of the project, these books were not included on our old card catalogue, so they were in effect hidden. From their well-thumbed appearance though, they had heavy use in the days of their former owner, Richard Richardson (1623?-1689), the Quakers’ second Recording Clerk.

Richard Richardson, Quaker

Richard Richardson had a background in teaching. As a schoolmaster he was tried at Chelmsford and imprisoned from 1670-1672 for teaching without licence and refusing to take the oath of allegiance. In 1674 he was appointed as master of a school for the children of poor Friends at Devonshire House, Bishopsgate. He assumed the role of Recording Clerk of the Society of Friends in 1681. His learning was valued by Friends: George Fox consulted him in 1679 in preparation for his tract on marriage True marriage declared or Severall testimonyes from the reccord of Scriptvre concerning the true marriages and such as are not according to the truth. Among other duties, he was responsible for procuring two copies of every book written by Friends and one copy of every book written against them, as minuted by the Second Day’s Morning Meeting in 1673 – the foundation of this Library’s remarkable and comprehensive collection of Quaker publications.

The Richardson Collection

The books in the Richardson Collection, however, were not Quaker writings, but part of the working library of an early Quaker Recording Clerk. As cataloguing progressed, a picture emerged of the importance for early Friends of this small scholarly collection of Old and New Testament editions, church history, post-Reformation theology, civil and ecclesiastical law, and dictionaries.

We found that while a dozen of the books (published between 1538 and 1679) were printed in London, the remaining 16 were published on the continent at Paris, Louvain, Lyons, Basle, Geneva, Zurich, Frankfurt, Nuremberg, Amsterdam and Rome. They indicate a breadth of study, and the range of resources that Friends needed in order to defend their beliefs and practice against the attacks of their opponents, during an era of fierce theological controversy. Richardson was certainly well educated, reading Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, German and Dutch, and even Arabic and Ethiopic.

Richardson Collection 5. Ludolf, Hiob, Lexicon Æthiopico-Latinum (1661)

Contemporary catalogues and lists of Richardson’s books

Cataloguing the collection revealed some puzzles about Richardson’s original library. Though he left his books to Friends, we do not know the full extent of his original library. And one book at least could not have come from Richardson (Sir Walter Rawleigh’s ghost (1652), inscribed by a later owner in 1702).

Piecing together the details of thirty titles listed on a handwritten 17^th century document entitled Catalogus Riccardi Riccardson (in “A catalogue of Friends books bound up in severall volums” , archive reference CAT 1, shelf reference: SR1/113/2/6 Box 2) shelf reference: SR1/113/2/6 Box 2) produced little correlation with the surviving books.

Catalogus Riccardi Riccardson, in “A catalogue of Friends books bound up in severall volums” (archive reference CAT 1, shelf reference: SR1/113/2/6 Box 2)

Three of the Catalogus books are held elsewhere in our collections (including the Treatise on oaths, (1675), co-authored by Richardson with William Penn and others), but a close examination of those copies uncovered no conclusive evidence of Richardson’s ownership. Titles from the Catalogus not held here include works by classical Latin writers, and continental reformers such as Erasmus (1466?-1536), Johannes Brenz (1499-1570), Urbanus Rhegius (1489-1541), Heinrich Bullinger (1504-1575) and Bartholomäus Keckermann  promoter of the colony of Virginia.

Between the leaves of one of the surviving Richardson books we came across a manuscript headed “14.6mo.88. A note of ye books sent by G. Watt”. George Watt died in the following month: George Fox wrote a testimony, or spiritual obituary, for him (A testimony concerning our dear Friend and brother George Watt, London, the 6th of the 9th moneth, 1688). This manuscript listed three book titles, one of which was the volume in which the manuscript was found (the writings of Flemish monk and mystic Louis de Blois – D. Ludovici Blosii abbatis Lætiensis nostri secvli laudatissimi Opera (1622), Richardson Collection no. 18). George Watt’s name is inscribed on its title page. The other two, by John Selden, were no longer with the Richardson Collection. To our delight we identified one of them – Selden’s De synedriis & præfecturis juridicis veterum Ebræorum libri tres (Amsterdam, 1679) – as a copy held in the Library’s general collection. It was clearly inscribed with the name of the earlier owner, George Watt, but not identified as part of the Richardson Collection.

All these books are now on our online catalogue, and we have reported the details of holdings to major bibliographic databases such as English Short-Title Catalogue, Short-Title Catalogue Netherlands, and the Verzeichnis der Drucke des 16. Jahrhunderts. Once again they are available for use, and their existence widely recorded.

We are grateful for the help given by Peter Salinger of University College London in identifying and cataloguing the collection’s two Hebrew Torahs, printed in Geneva in 1617-1618 and Amsterdam in 1630.

We welcome enquiries about the books in the Richardson Collection. For further information, or a list of the books catalogued, please contact us.

Sources

Skidmore, Gil, ‘Richardson, Richard (1622/3–1689)’, Oxford dictionary of national biography, (2004) http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/69118

Dictionary of Quaker biography (unpublished typescript, Library of the Society of Friends, London)

Penney, Norman, ‘Our Recording Clerks: no. 2 Richard Richardson’, in Journal of the Friends Historical Society, vol. 1 (1903), p. 62-8

Littleboy, Anna, ‘Devonshire House Reference Library’ part 2, in Journal of the Friends Historical Society, vol. 18 (1921), p.66-80 (p. 66-67 refer to Richardson)

Cadbury, Henry J., ‘Hebraica and the Jews’, in Howard H. Brinton, Children of light: in honor of Rufus M. Jones (1938), p.137-8

Refugee Week starts next Monday and here at Friends House we are having a series of events including a small exhibition in the Library on Monday open to all (http://www.quaker.org.uk/our-work/social-justice/migration).

The exhibition will consist of banners giving an overview of Quaker work to help refugees, mainly in the mid-twentieth century, culminating in the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to American and British Quakers in 1947. We will also have some archive and contemporary published material on display.

Why do Quakers help refugees?

At the root of the Quaker faith is a belief that there is something of God in everyone, that each life is sacred. Quakers are guided by a set of values known as ‘testimonies’: peace, equality, truth and simplicity. They try to live out these values in the world and to be guided by their faith into action.

The peace testimony is a core expression of Quaker faith and, from the early days of the movement, has led Quakers to reject war and military service, and to work with others on a wide range of peace and relief work, not just in the UK but around the world. A key principle has always been that help and support are offered in a non-political and non-partisan way, also reflecting the testimony of equality.

Quakers have been led by their testimonies to help victims during times of crisis. This has included victims of war such as those whose homes were destroyed, victims of persecution such as those living under violent regimes, and people fleeing economic devastation, disease and famine.

Historical examples

Although the term ‘refugee’ is relatively modern, and subject to different definitions, there are early examples of Quakers helping refugees. From the 1824 report of a committee established to respond to an application for relief of refugees in Greece, to the establishment of a Friends War Victims Relief Committee (FWVRC) in 1870 to aid victims of the Franco-Prussian War, there were several periods of crisis in the 19th century which caused displacement of people and drew support from Quakers.

However, the 20th century brought refugee crises on an unprecedented scale. There were many opportunities for Quakers to assist and offer relief.

World War I

World War I saw the destruction of swathes of homes in Belgium and northern France, leaving thousands homeless. Friends Emergency & War Victims Relief Committee (FEWVRC) and the Friends Ambulance Unit (FAU) assisted these refugees, both with short term aid, and in rebuilding housing and reconstructing industry and farming.

Revolution and the ensuing civil war in Russia caused many to flee southwards, while the breakdown of empire in Europe and territorial carve-up at the end of the war caused further population chaos. This mass movement of people caused the widespread outbreak of contagious disease. Again the FEWVRC was able to offer medical aid, food, and reconstruction.

The aftermath of war left many central European countries, especially the defeated powers, suffering hunger and famine. British Quakers, mainly under the American Friends Service Committee’s management, undertook mass feeding programmes in Germany and Austria.

People whose homes have been destroyed near the Front in World War I (Library reference: LSF FEWVRC France pics 8_3_6 refugee family depart Oise)

Displaced people in Russian camp after World War I (Library reference: FEWVRC-PICS-RS-AL1-1)

Spanish Civil War

In the 1930s Europe suffered another crisis with the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War.

Quakers were able to assist people fleeing the war, both in areas of Spain and neighbouring France, and by assisting refugees who came to Britain.

You can find out more about Quakers and the Spanish Civil War by visiting Haverford College’s digital project Testimonies in Art & Action which includes material from our collections.

Spanish children fleeing the war (Library reference: LSF FSC photos_Spain refugees crossing over to France c1939)

World War II

As well as carrying out post-World War I relief work in Germany,  Quakers established international centres in Germany and Austria during the interwar period. This meant that Quakers in Britain had people on the ground relaying information about the political situation as it unfolded after Nazis took power in 1933. They became acutely aware of the danger for certain groups in society. From 1933, Quakers assisted people to leave Nazi Europe and this continued through the war.

After the war millions of people were displaced across Europe and the world. Quakers were involved in various aspects of relief for these people through Friends Relief Service (FRS) and Friends Ambulance Unit (FAU). You can read more about FRS and FAU in World War II on Quakers in the World.

Image from a pamphlet about caring for child refugees to Britain (Library reference: 066.34 FCRA 1_21 Caring for the child refugees)

In addition to offering assistance and aid to refugees in times of crisis, Quakers have also lobbied for changes in national and international policy towards those forced to migrate, and continue to do so today.

We invite anyone interested in Quakers’ work for refugees and relief to come along on Monday, from 11am-3pm, and view the exhibition.

We’ve touched on children’s magazines in a previous blog post about Quaker missionary periodicals. Another kind of publication concerning young people is the school magazine. Quaker schools generated a variety of these, some written by teachers, others by pupils, some aimed at the current school community, others produced by and for former scholars. This blogpost provides a brief introduction to the Library’s collection.

School magazines began to appear in the mid-19th century, as periodical publishing gained popularity. The earliest Quaker school magazines chiefly carried literary and scientific articles. By the twentieth century more content was contributed by current and former pupils, photography and illustration were highly important, and school news was a regular feature. One of the oldest school magazines held by the Library is Grove House Magazine for 1851- 1852, written for pupils of Grove House School, Tottenham, in existence from 1828 to 1877.

News of the Great Exhibition in Grove House Magazine no. 2 (May 1851)

Not surprisingly we hold several school magazines for Ackworth School, the second oldest of the Quaker schools still open. The longest running of these is The Cupola, published from 1925 to 1973, named after the school’s octagonal clock tower.

One of the more unusual “school magazines” in the Library’s collections is the Phonographic star, written in Pitman shorthand and first produced by John Newby at Ackworth School in 1844.

The Phonographic Star no. 11 (February 1845). Magazine in Pitman shorthand, edited by James Newby, a master at Ackworth School.

Further Ackworth school magazines include Ackworth School review (1888), Ackworth Recorder No. 1-5 (March 1st – June 24th 1890), and Ackworthian (1919-1920). There are also two magazines produced by pupils called Eye and Feet!

Bootham School first published its long running official magazine Bootham in 1902; Ayton school had The Beckside  (1919-1969) and Beckside Broadside (1974-1979), while Leighton Park School had The Leightonian (1895-1969/70).

Croydon School published a monthly magazine – The Croydon School monthly magazine, No. 1-12 (1846-1847). In 1880 the school moved to Saffron Walden, where it remained until closing this summer. Over the years it has produced The Waldonian, No.1- 10 (1906-1908) and The Avenue (1910-1968). Sibford School produced The Archway (1947-1965), and Sidcot School The Island (1907-1983).

These school magazines are a useful source of information such as news of former students, staff news, and obituaries, along with reports of the activities of various school clubs, school trips and lectures. They are also interesting as a visual record of the schools, as they include class photographs, staff portraits and photographs of events and school buildings. The magazines also regularly feature art works by students, creative writing and poetry.

Saffron Walden Friends School, The Avenue (July 1919). Report of the flu epidemic, opposite an illustration of the Boys Fifth Form Room, from a drawing by Edward Bawden, then a pupil at the school.

During the First World War, these magazines record the service of former pupils, both those who upheld the Quaker peace testimony and those who served in the armed forces. There are also first-hand accounts by former students of their service (including with the Friends Ambulance Unit), particularly in The Island and Bootham. Two recent publications have drawn heavily on these resources in their accounts of choices and actions taken by young boys and men during the conflict – Great ideals: Leighton Park School and the First World War, by John Allinson and Charlotte Smith (2014), and Still, small voice: Sidcot in the Great War, by Christine Gladwin (2014).

News of former pupils and staff after the introduction of conscription in 1916, The Avenue (Dec. 1916)

Some school magazines were produced by school clubs, reflecting the extra-curricular interests of the students. For example, Mount School Literary Society produced a magazine, White Cow (1928-1938), and Sibford School Science Society produced a journal called The Owl (1937-1945).

Sibford School Science Society, The Owl, no. 5 (Autumn 1939)

Some periodicals were produced jointly by several schools, most notably the Natural History Journal (1877-1898), a collaboration between the various Quaker schools’ natural history societies (Bootham had founded a pioneering Natural History Society in 1834 which still exists). This was succeeded by Past and present: a journal for scholars (old and young) of Friends schools (1900-1909).

Contents page of The Natural History Journal, vol. IV, no. 31 (15 May 1880), magazine of the Friends Schools’ natural history societies

A few of the smaller, less well known schools are also represented in our collections, such as the short-lived Carlisle school for girls run by Lucy Marianne Reynolds, which produced Devonshire House School magazine (1911-1915).

A portrait of the prefects and a debate on women’s suffrage from Devonshire House School Magazine no. 6 (1913)

Some other school magazines held by the Library include Stramongate School magazine, vol. 1-9 (1900-1932), The Brook: magazine of the Friends’ School, Brookfield, Wigton, vol. 1-4 (1948-1966), George Fox School. School magazine, no. 2-7 (June 1971 – June 1976) and Penketh School magazine, no. 1-10 (1914-1920). This journal contains a series of articles about Penketh Meeting  by Joseph Spence Hodgson – an example of the wide ranging topics covered by school magazines.

The Woodlands Journal, magazine of the boy’s boarding school, Woodlands, Hitchin, is housed with the Library’s manuscript collection. It is a handwritten magazine covering the years 1877-1889 (MS VOL S 12a-19).

Overseas Quaker school magazines are also represented, such as School echoes: the Friends School magazine, from Friends School, Hobart, Tasmania, and a number of magazines from Brummana High School, Lebanon.

One of the rarest school magazines we hold  is Die Weisse Feder (1932-1940), the magazine of the school run by Manfred and Lili Pollatz, who had lost their positions as teachers in Dresden when the Nazis came to power. They moved to Haarlem where they opened a school to provide education to refugee children. Geneva Quakers have digitised one issue of the magazine, which you can read here.

Die Weisse Feder (January 1940)

School magazines are a useful resource for those researching the history of education, local and family historians, biographers and historians of Quakerism. Find out more about researching Quaker schools from our subject guide to histories and records of Quaker Schools in Great Britain and Ireland (free to download here).

For Quaker Week 2017, our head of Library & Archives, Libby Adams, travelled to Penrith Meeting to give a talk on local Quakers living through “turbulent times” (this year’s Quaker Week theme). This blog post concentrates on Quaker stories from Cumbria, but highlights some of the sources the Library holds for studying the history of any local area.

While local Quaker records (mostly deposited in county record offices) are the primary record of local corporate Quaker activity, the Library here at Friends House holds archives of national Quaker bodies (with which local meetings corresponded), as well as personal papers of individuals (which shed light on local Quaker activity). Together these can provide a richer contextual picture. We’ve picked out some sources relating to Cumbria at three key historical moments – the 17th century, the end of the 18th century, and the First World War.

The first source is a collection of manuscript returns from meetings all over England and Wales describing how Quaker faith was first introduced, took root, and developed in each area, which were sent in to Yearly Meeting (later transcribed by Norman Penney, our first Librarian, and published by Friends Historical Society in 1907 as First publishers of truth).

‘Some short and breife account of the first rise and progress of truth in this City Carlisle and who was the first publishers of the day of salutation and who received them and how meetings was first obtained in this City’ (Library reference: MS Port. 7/12)

Following the leadings of the spirit, early Friends broke the law by holding illegal meetings for worship, traveling around preaching and prophesying, and refusing to pay tithes (church taxes to support the established national church). They were fined, imprisoned and suffered for their beliefs. In 1675 Friends set up a “constant meeting about sufferings”, appointing a “Recording Clerk” to gather and record reports of sufferings sent up to London by a network of correspondents in every county, as evidence of the unfair persecution of Quakers.  You can read more about records of Quaker sufferings in an earlier blogpost.

Great Book of Sufferings entry for Carlisle 1682 (Library reference: YM/MFS/GBS/3/1)

The 18th century was a turbulent time both nationally and internationally, with the rise of Enlightenment ideas about liberty and rights, the industrial revolution, American Independence, and the French Revolution. There was a growing campaign against the slave trade, in which Friends were prominent. This is a theme which emerges from the personal papers of three Cumbrian Quakers now held by the Library, alongside other general, religious and personal matters.

Elihu Robinson (1734–1809), of Eaglesfield, Cumbria, kept detailed diaries and memoranda recording his journeys to London for Yearly Meeting, as well as a visit by Thomas Clarkson, the antislavery campaigner, and records of his weather observations (of particular interest to contemporary researchers).

Account of travelling to London for Yearly Meeting 1765. Elihu Robinson’s diary (Library reference: MS Box R3/1)

Jane Pearson (c1735–1816) was from Newtown near Carlisle, married John Pearson, and had 7 children, moving to Whitehaven. She was a “recorded minister”, which meant that her gift of spoken ministry was acknowledged. The Library holds a collection of correspondence, 1784-1821, between her, Thomas Wilkinson and others, including ministers Rebecca Jones, Deborah Darby, and Esther Tuke.

‘Ah my Dears life is a slender thread’. Letter from Jane Pearson to her granddaughter Hannah Tipping. Library reference: MS Box 12/9/1

Thomas Wilkinson (1751–1836) was another Cumberland Quaker, with a wide circle of friends including William Wordsworth, and Thomas Clarkson – and of course local Friends Jane Pearson and Elihu Robinson. His papers held by the Library include accounts of visits to Scotland, Wales and the Yorkshire Dales, as well as Yearly Meeting in London, poetry and correspondence.

Thomas Wilkinson reports a critical review of his poem, An Appeal to England (1789), in a letter to Elihu Robinson 28 Nov 1790 (Library reference: Temp Mss 128/27/86)

Moving forward a century, to another time of great upheaval, we can see another example of how national records held by the Library can help us explore important themes at local level.

Quakers were instrumental in introducing legal provision for conscientious objection during World War I, as the Quaker Week poster timeline shows. But Quakers, in common with the rest of the country, made a range of personal decisions in response to the challenge of war: some signed up, others were absolutist “conchies” who endured lengthy prison sentences rather than cooperate in any way with the war effort, and yet others organised relief for war victims in England, Europe and Russia.

The Society of Friends’ Wartime Statistics Committee was set up in 1917 to obtain an accurate picture of what members, attenders, and “associates” of military age were doing. Monthly meetings were asked to send in “Returns of service during wartime” – record sheets for named individuals – which are now part of the official records for Britain Yearly Meeting (you can read more about these fascinating records in an earlier blogpost).

Complementing these are the personnel records of the Friends Ambulance Unit (FAU), an independent organisation set up by Friends in 1914, now digitised and available at http://fau.quaker.org.uk/.

The two sets of records were created for quite different purposes (data to report to a central committee or a relief worker’s service record) but when used together can provide a fuller picture of individuals in a local area than is often available from other official records kept at the time.

The Library holds varying sources for different local areas, and what you may find here depends to a great extent on the nature of the Quaker presence in your area. Local Friends also wrote and published books, pamphlets and articles (ranging from theological and devotional writings to social research, campaigning material and poetry). The Library has a comprehensive collection of publications by Friends, and useful secondary sources on Quakers and Quakerism, as well as some invaluable indexes to a wide range of sources, such as The Friend, reports to Yearly Meeting, testimonies, etc. There is also a rich collection of paintings, drawings, and photographs.

If you have been on one of the meeting visits to Friends House you’ve probably visited the Library and seen a display of items of local interest from the collections. If not, and your meeting would like to arrange a visit, contact details are here.

The Library is free and open to all. Find out opening hours, how to register, and practical information for planning a visit here, and search our online catalogue here.