Historical News

HISTORICAL NEWS The Friends Historical Association held its annual meeting at the Arch Street Meeting House in Philadelphia on Monday evening, November 24, 1975. After dinner, President Edwin B. Bronner welcomed members and their guests, and the election of directors was held. The death of Frederick B. Tolles on April 18, 1975 was noted with deep regret and a memorial minute was adopted. The text of diis minute is given below. The principal speaker of the evening was Arthur J. Mekeel, die present holder of the T. Wistar Brown Fellowship in Quaker Research at Haverford College. Dr. Mekeel's address on "The Relation of Quakers to the American Revolution" is printed elsewhere in this issue. He is engaged in preparing a longer study of die same subject, based on his doctoral dissertation at Harvard University. The Friends of the Caleb Pusey House have published in pamphlet form Caleb Pusey's Account of Pennsylvania, with an Introduction by Henry J. Cadbury, which appears in two issues of Quaker History last year. Copies of this pamphlet may be obtained for $1.25 (postpaid) from the Friends of the Caleb Pusey House, 10 Race Street, Upland, Pa. 19015. Frederick B. Tolles (1915-1975) The Friends Historical Association takes this occasion to pay tribute to Frederick Bames Tolles, a director and former President of the Association and editor of Quaker History, who died on his 60th birthday, April 18, 1975, after a long illness. Frederick Tolles was a New Englander, born and bred, and a Quaker by convincement and conviction. A native of New Hampshire and a Unitarian by inheritance, he attended Harvard College and there became interested in Quakerism under die influence of Henry Cadbury. He received his A.B. in 1936 and his A.M. the following year. His Ph.D. came in 1947 while he was teaching at Swarthmore College and after a long interruption for Civilian Public Service during World War II. Frederick Tolles came to Swarthmore College in 1941 as Director of the Friends Historical Library and a member of the Department of History. For many years he taught courses and seminars in Early American History and in the history of Quakerism. From 1950 to 1954 he was a Fellow and member of the research staff of the Huntington Library, San Marino, California, and during this period he also taught history at the California Institute of Technology. When he returned to Swarthmore in 1954 he was given the Howard M. and Charles F. Jenkins Professorship of Quaker History and Research and resumed his directorship of the Friends Historical Library. He held these posts until his retirement in 1970 when he became Professor and Director emeritus. His occasional leaves of absence were largely devoted to 45 46QUAKER HISTORY research and writing, but he served for short periods as a lecturer at Bryn Mawr and a visiting professor at Harvard. When Frederick Tolles became editor of the Bulletin of the Friends Historical Association in 1949—die name of the journal was changed to Quaker History in 1962—he stated his conviction that Quaker history should be studied and portrayed in the widest social and cultural context and not merely as the chronicles of an interesting small sect. He applied these principles with great skill, not only in his editorship of the Bulletin but in scholarly writing which brought him international recognition. During his most productive years a stream of books and articles seemed to flow from his pen. Meeting House and Counting House: The Quaker Merchants of Colonial Philadelphia appeared in 1948. It was followed by two notable biographies: George Logan of Philadelphia (1953) and James Logan and the Culture of Provincial America (1957). A collection of essays , Quakers and the Atlantic Culture was published in 1960. One of the chapters of this book was delivered as a Presidential Address before the Friends Historical Society in Great Britain in 1952. Frederick Tolles also edited Slavery and the "Woman Question"—Lucretia Mott's Diary 1840, and (with E. Gordon AIderfer) The Witness of William Penn, a judicious selection from Penn's extensive writings, which appeared in 1957. There were also numerous articles, addresses and shorter pieces, only two of which can be...