Fiftieth Anniversary of Friends' Historical Association: Account of Commemorative Meeting held 12 mo. 4, 1923, at Friends' Meeting House, 15th and Race Streets, Philadelphia

FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ASSOCIATION.? FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF FRIENDS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. Account of Commemorative Meeting held 12 mo. 4, 1923, at Friends' Meeting House, 15th and Race Streets, Philadelphia. By Lucy B. Roberts, President of the Association. Believing that in union there is strength, a combination has been effected by two organizations, making an epochal event in historical activity. Fifty years ago a Friends' Historical Association was started by a number of Friends whom it is a pleasure to honor. They did active work until gradually they dwindled to only four in all. In the meantime, in 1904, the Friends' Historical Society of Philadelphia was formed, with Isaac Sharpless, then President of Haverford College, at its head. The membership of this Society gradually increased to over four hundred. On 12 mo. 1, 1923, by mutual consent and with much goodwill, the latter Society was merged with the former, taking its name and Charter. Each gave something to the combination. One gave the Charter and an honored name, the other gave an active membership, with an able publication, The Bulletin, besides numerous active committees . Among the latter is the George Fox Committee, now preparing for the publication of the Short Journal and Itinerary Journals of George Fox. This publication is in the hands of the Cambridge University Press, and is under the editorial supervision of Norman Penney. The evening commemorating the founding of Friends' Historical Association was delightful. After the reading of the minutes of the last meeting, Professor Rayner W. Kelsey, of Haverford College, read the Charter of the Association, which was followed by an interesting account of that organization by Albert Cook Myers. One of the possessions of the old Association, the marriage 2 BULLETIN OF FRIENDS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. certificate of John Archdale's daughter, was exhibited by Dr. Thomas Lynch Montgomery, Librarian of the Pennsylvania Historical Society. Mrs. Nathaniel E. Janney read and presented to the Association a letter written to it by John G. Whittier, he being at that time an honorary member. When the Association ceased having regular meetings several years ago it had a fund of $339-57 which it decided to divide equally between Swarthmore and Haverford Colleges. This winter when those colleges heard of the proposed commemorative meeting they both offered to return this money to the Association . This was most happily done by President Aydelotte, of Swarthmore College, and by George Vaux, Jr., ably representing Haverford College in place of President W. W. Comfort who was obliged to be elsewhere. The return of these two sums, $169.79 from one college and 169.78 from the other, made a very entertaining and encouraging item of the program. The meeting was highly favored by the attendance of James H. Atkinson, Howard B. French, and Marcellus Balderston, three of the four surviving members who joined the Association at or near its founding. James H. Atkinson read the minutes of the first meeting of the Association, held i2mo. 4, 1873. Howard B. French stated that Nathaniel E. Janney was the prime mover in the founding of the Association, and for many years its active supporter. Amelia M. Gummere told of the plan for publishing the Short Journal and Itinerary Journals of George Fox, in commemoration of the tercentenary anniversary of his birth. Following an appropriate poem by J. Russell Hayes, the culminating event of the evening was a talk by Charles F. Jenkins, recently President of the Friends' Historical Society, of England. He showed lantern slides from pictures taken by him on the Island of Tórtola, which had never before been exhibited. The talk was an inspiration, showing as it did so vividly the self-sacrificing labors of Friends on that island. This address made it seem abundantly worth while to preserve with enthusiasm the records of that past for the inspiration of the future. ...