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Volume 32, No. 2 Autumn Number, 1943 Bulletin of Friends Historical Association SPRING MEETING FRIENDS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION THE SPRING MEETING of Friends Historical Association was held in the Treasure Room of the Library of Haverford College, on the afternoon of May 15, 1943, at 4 p.m. The meeting of the preceding year had been held in the Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College, affording members of the Association and their friends an opportunity to become acquainted with the great collection of Quakeriana housed there; and the meeting of 1943 afforded a similar opportunity to see the new Treasure Room at Haverford, recently completed, and dedicated on May 4, 1942, at which another great collection of Quakeriana is preserved.1 The Treasure Room itself is the building which was formerly used as the stack room of the College Library. The interior has been completely redesigned and rebuilt, through the generosity of Morris E. Leeds, and now contains a large, well-lighted central space, with shelves in alcoves around the walls, a balcony, and offices in one end, one of which is presided over by the Secretary of this Association. Various interesting and valuable 1 There is a brief account of the dedication ceremonies, and some indication of the size and scope of the collections now assembled at Haverford, in Quakeriana Notes No. 13, June 1942, p. 1 ff. We quote a part of this notice which, though written of the Haverford collection, is equally applicable to other collections, and of interest to historicallyminded Friends. After speaking of the completion of the Treasure Room, the account continues : So the work is done, and so, likewise, it has just begun. The new task of helping the Quaker Collection to achieve its purpose devolves upon the friends of the College, upon the College itself, and upon the Library. Some Friends will now feel that their family papers of historical value can be safely deposited at Haverford. Others will want to add their Quaker books to the Collection where they are needed. Many will also want to share in helping the College provide an adequate endowment and income for this unique divisiVol . 32, Autumn 1943 52 BULLETIN OF FRIENDS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION documents are advantageously displayed in show cases. The sight of these documents served to remind Friends, as frequently before at the meetings of the Association, that privately held letters, deeds, manuscripts, and the like, may easily become invested with a certain public interest as the years pass. The meeting was opened by President William W. Comfort, and welcomed to Haverford and the Treasure Room by President Felix Morley of Haverford College. Thomas E. Drake, Curator of the Treasure Room, then spoke on "The Quaker Collection in its New Setting." Hertha Kraus then spoke on "Research in the Service Committee 's Files at Haverford—A Contribution from the Past to the Future." The files of the American Friends Service Committee , now housed at Haverford, would constitute a terrifying bulk of material to the layman—and indeed to the trained historian too, unless they were properly ordered and indexed. The process of making them available for practical consultation is in progress; and Hertha Kraus has been one of the workers among them. She spoke especially of the implications of the second part of her title—the lessons to be learned from the experiences of twenty-five years ago in relief and reconstruction in war-torn Europe, and drew parallels with the present. At the conclusion of the meeting there was the usual social opportunity, which was continued as the members and their friends settled down to a box supper in the Smith Memorial Garden adjoining the Library. sion of the Library, so that the increased demands on the staff for reference and research help can be met, and in order that we may take advantage of the sale offers and auction opportunities which are always arising. Four items of extreme rarity—Penn, Keith, Lay and Clarkson—were recently offered for sale by a Philadelphia dealer, for instance, for a total of $1815. A London dealer offered some three or four thousand run-of-the-mine Quaker tracts from the Library of Joseph Smith, the famous...

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