Historical News

Historical News THE SPRING MEETING of Friends Historical Association was held in Abington Meetinghouse, Jenkintown, Pennsylvania , on Seventh-day, Fifth Mondi 19, 1951. A large group had assembled in the meetinghouse when President William Wistar Comfort opened die meeting at 3 P. M. After a few introductory remarks by the President an account of "Little Abington" Meeting was given by H. Justice Williams, and a paper on "Old Abington" Meeting was read by Horace Madier Lippincott. (A condensed version of diis paper is printed in diis issue of the Bulletin) . After die reading of the papers, the members of the Association and dieir guests were entertained at tea by Abington Friends and a pleasant social hour ensued. The meeting was thoroughly enjoyed by diose who attended and die members of Friends Historical Association expressed their gratitude to Abington Friends for their gracious hospitality. * * * Readers of the Bulletin may look forward to the appearance within the next year of two items of Quakeriana, in the publication of which the Association will have had a hand. The English firm of Longmans, Green and Company, whose list in recent years has included a number of excellent Quaker historical books, will bring out an edition of William Penn's "Irish Journal." The editor, Isabel Grubb, an Honorary Member of the Association, has identified many individuals to whom Penn referred simply by initials. The next Supplement to the Journal of the Friends' Historical Society will be a joint publication by the Friends' Historical Society and Friends Historical Association. Appropriately , die contents of this internationally-sponsored publication will be die diary kept by Lucretia Mott on her visit to England in 1840 to attend die World's Anti-Slavery Convention . The significance of this diary, apart from its revelation of the diarist's personality, lies in the fact diat the exclusion of Lucretia Mott and other American women delegates led directly to the start of the women's rights movement. The diary 108 Historical News109 has never before been published in full. The editor is Frederick B. Tolles, and publication is being made possible in large part by a generous grant from Philadelphia (Race Street) Mondily Meeting, to which James and Lucretia Mott belonged. The Editor would like to draw the attention of potential contributors to die note on die inside front cover of diis number, stating that the MLA Style Sheet has been adopted as a standard for the Bulletin in matters of documentation, spelling, and odier details of usage. This style sheet, prepared under die auspices of die Modern Language Association of America, with die cooperation of die editors of seventy-eight journals and diirty-three university presses, has been adopted as official by die majority of the learned journals in the United States. Copies of diis admirable style sheet may be obtained for ten cents from die Treasurer of die Modern Language Association, 100 Washington Square East, New York 3, N. Y. From Quaker Libraries In addition to die holograph MS of George Fox described elsewhere in diis issue, die Quaker Collection of the Haverford College Library has recently acquired six letters of Elizabeth Fry, written between 1825 and 1832 to Robert and Sarah Benson on personal and family matters. Elizabedi B. Jones and Mary Hoxie Jones have presented to die Collection two letters of John Greenleaf Whittier to Rufus M. Jones, dated 1885 and 1888. In one of the letters the poet declines an invitation to write an article for die college magazine, The Haverfordian, of which Rufus Jones was editor. Eleanor W. Taber presented to Haverford's Quaker Collection a handsome scrapbook compiled by her great-aunt, Elizabeth U. Willis (1780-1869). This book is a veritable treasure trove of Quaker manuscripts, portraits, pictures of meetinghouses, and even samplers. There are several lines in die handwriting of George Fox, and letters of John Bright, Elizabedi Fry, John Greenleaf Whittier, and odiers. 110Bulletin of Friends Historical Association Through die courtesy of die Joint Committee on Records of die two New York Yearly Meetings, 162 reels of microfilmed meeting records, duplicating those at the Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College (mentioned in the Spring Number) have been added to die Quaker Collection. * * * Recent...