The Quaker Collection at George Fox College

NOTES & DOCUMENTS THE QUAKER COLLECTION AT GEORGE FOX COLLEGE By Arthur O. Roberts* The Quaker collection at George Fox College Library represents seventy-five years' accumulation of books and other documents of interest to Friends, including quite a fair selection of seventeenthcentury writings. A number of these first editions are on display along with miscellaneous rare books of ancient vintage. As our name and heritage would suggest, we have sought to stress books relating to George Fox. In addition to Fox's own writings, including Xeroxed copies of several unprinted sermons and other manuscripts, the library possesses his journal in French (a gift from the Society of Friends in Paris), and German and Spanish copies. The Quaker collection is small compared to the holdings at Haverford, Swarthmore, and Earlham. And it is somewhat spotty and unequal in distribution. Nevertheless the library serves the needs of the undergraduate students, faculty researchers, seminarians in the Portland area, and those scholars in the northwest who in greater and greater numbers are drawn to our Quaker sources. The library has a nearly complete file of major Friends periodicals. The Quaker poets are represented quite well, although the offerings are not collected separately. Included are the poems of contemporaries , E. Merrill Root and Levi T. Pennington, former president of Geoge Fox College. The poems of Levi Pennington are also available on tape, thus recording his magnificent voice as well as the profundity of his thoughts. Certain special holdings merit consideration first. For example, we have Xeroxed the Hanson family papers, providing documentation for the life of John Frederick Hanson. These have been made available to the library through the generosity of a daughter, Florence Hanson, now living at Friendsview Manor. We hope to be able to contact other Friends in the manor to provide additional family records of significance to the Society of Friends. The E. H. Woodward scrapbooks are in the George Fox College * Arthur 0. Roberts is Professor of Religion and Philosophy at George Fox College, Newberg, Oregon. Ill 112Quaker History Library. These have proved useful in research on the history of the Pacific Northwest on a number of occasions and provided background studies for feature writers at the time of the passing of former President Herbert Hoover. In addition, we have on file early photographs relating to regional history and the Society of Friends role in the development of the Pacific Northwest. We have a copy of that interesting little book The Foot Travels of Abel Bond, the quaint itinerant evangelist, and the account of Judge Hallowell, a companion of Robert E. Lee, whose journal has been of considerable interest to students of the Civil War period. We are attempting to complete the file of Yearly Meeting minutes and documents. We have a microfilm reader and a number of dissertations and other documents available to us in that form. It is possible we should expand the microfilming service to include wider documentation of yearly meeting minutes and activities. The Oregon Yearly Meeting archives are housed separately, in the office buildings across town. We should mention that the college owns one of the William Penn tablecloths depicting his famous treaty with the Indians at Shackamaxon . This cloth hangs in the administration building, Woodmar Hall. An eye-catcher for visitors and new students, it is subsequently ignored in the press of campus business. It needs a new settingsuch as in a new fine arts building. Several faculty studies are available, including the dissertation on "George Fox's Concept of the Church" by Roberts, Goldsmith's thesis on William Hobson and his times, and the oft-reprinted booklet by Professor Mills, "The Bible and War." We have on records or tape a number of documents. These include records by the Visionaires (or as they were better known, the Four Flats) quartet, which is probably the most famous vocal group among Quakers. We also have the radio scripts of the Quaker Hour broadcasts in 21 volumes representing the years 1953 through 1961. Milo Ross, now president of George Fox College, was the radio voice for the Quaker Hour during those years. The Barclay Press is located in Newberg. Many of the pamphlets, booklets, and study guides...