A Century Recalled. Essays in Honor of Bryn Mawr College, and: Bryn Mawr College (review)

Book Reviews53 qualified—one of the editors of this series would be best—will undertake a new biography. In the meantime those who created, supported, and worked on the five volumes of Papers of William Penn can take satisfaction in a project exemplifying the highest standards of scholarship. Swarthmore CollegeJ. William Frost Educationfor Manhood: The Education ofBlacks in Virginia During the Civil War. By Samuel L. Horst. Lanham, N.Y., and London: University Press of America, 1987. viii, 293 pp. $14.75 paper, $23.25 hardback. Far too little has been written about the role of Quakers in education in the southern part of the United States before, during, and after the Civil War. It is an impressive story, with scores of Friends (many of them young people) spending time and energy organizing and teaching in schools for Black children and adults—an early Quaker form of the modern Peace Corps. Although this volume chronicles a much wider range of educational activities than those of Quakers, it adds a great deal to our knowledge of the part played by Friends in that pivotal part of the U.S.A. in the transition of Blacks from slavery to freedom. In a summary of the contribution of Quakers, Horst asserts that "One outstanding group that showed a more consistent concern for Black education were the Quakers." He points out, moreover, that Friends were interested in alleviating poverty as well as eradicating illiteracy, stating that "The Quakers saw more clearly than most that the Black needed an economic base." Most of the references to the work of Friends relate to the activités of Quakers from the Philadelphia area, representing both the Hicksite and Orthodox branches . But Horst refers to the efforts of Friends from New England, Indiana, and even London Yearly Meeting. The author is clear, however, in pointing out that all Friends were not in agreement with the efforts to assist Blacks. For example he states that "even most of the scattered Quakers in Virginia succumbed to the white intolerance of Black education, though some of them kept pressing the issue consistently.'' This is a carefully crafted piece of research with scores of footnotes at the end of each chapter and a lengthy bibliography at the end of the text, reflecting an enormous amount of research by the author, probably over a period of many years. A lengthy index also adds to the usefulness of this volume. This is a book which will not appeal to the general reader, but it will be most useful to professors of history and to research scholars. Leonard S. Kenworthy A Century Recalled. Essays in Honor ofBryn Mawr College. Edited by Patricia Hochschild Labalme. Bryn Mawr, Pa.: Bryn Mawr Library, 1987. $18.75. Bryn Mawr College. Selection and Text by Caroline S. Rittenhouse and Leo M. Colenski. Bryn Mawr, Pa.: Bryn Mawr Library, 1985. $4.95. The thoughtfully chosen essays, poems, and epigrams gathered in the first work under review honor Bryn Mawr's first hundred years. The photos and comment in the second work do so also. While the photos are more likely to 54Quaker History be of interest to Bryn Mawr graduates, the Bryn Mawr communtiy contains so many illustrious persons who contributed their thoughts on Bryn Mawr's anniversary, that the first work has relevance for a wider reading public. For that reason I shall devote this review to the first volume. A Century Recalled reviews the history of the college and the early dicisions that prepared the path to the present. We learn that students successfully sued for the right of self-government years before the faculty gained the same prerogative (p. 95). M. Carey Thomas's hand appears to have been at work here as in so many of the other choices that shaped the college. What an extraordinary scholar and academic administrator she proved to be. We must thank Patricia Labalme with her candor and historical perspective for the balanced view she gives us of Thomas in her introduction. As an opinionated and accomplished academic politician Thomas herself would have enjoyed the straightforward airing of some of her controversial stands. She appears courageous in her feminism and in her...