The Independence Hall Exhibit of the Friends' Historical Association

THE INDEPENDENCE HALL EXHIBIT9 The Association, according to its accustomed agreement with the weather man for its annual spring pilgrimage, was favored with delightful sunlight and warmth. ?G?? PRESENT issue of the Bulletin contains several·*¦ articles on the history of Quaker settlements in other parts of the world. It thus carries on the plan begun in the preceding issue, which contained accounts of Quakerism in Germany and Russia. The series will be continued in the next issue. One of the purposes of the series was to utilize the interest centering in the World Conference of Friends, to be held at Swarthmore and Haverford in September of this year, in order to point out in detail, and record in the printed word, the extent to which Quakerism is becoming a world movement. The map which is shown facing page 12 gives visual evidence of Quakerism 's front. The Editor wishes herewith to thank contributors from many parts of the world for sending their local records. THE INDEPENDENCE HALL EXHIBIT OF THE FRIENDS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION ON THURSDAY, June 3, the long-cherished wishes of the Friends' Historical Association to have the means of displaying part of their relics and treasures were in a measure realized. President W. W. Comfort and ex-President Charles F. Jenkins interviewed Mayor S. Davis Wilson, of Philadelphia , during the past winter, and secured his interest in the plan of such a display under the care of the City; and on the above date the loan exhibition was presented by Charles Francis Jenkins, and accepted by Mayor Wilson, with appropriate addresses . It seems long overdue that, in the principal seat of Quakerism in eastern America, there should be some exhibit which Philadelphians and visitors can turn to as a reminder of the founding fathers. The Curator, Lydia Flagg Gummere, has worked assiduously and with telling effect in arranging the exhibition , and deserves the cordial thanks of the Association and of the public. Amelia Mott Gummere, Vice President of the Association, has contributed the following account of the exhibition : 10 BULLETIN OF FRIENDS' HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION FOR MANY years the Friends' Historical Association has pursued a modest but important career of usefulness among Philadelphia citizens and others interested in the Quaker contribution to the early history of Pennsylvania. It has in the interval since its organization, in which the late President Isaac Sharpless, of Haverford College, was very active, collected a valuable series of documentary and social possessions, which for all these years have been carefully guarded under lock and key, but few of them have ever seen the light. The present general interest in social history makes it seem appropriate to place some of these treasures on public display. The Mayor of Philadelphia, the Honorable S. Davis Wilson, has quite cordially agreed with this opinion of the officers of the Friends' Historical Association, and has placed at their disposal a room for exhibition purposes in Independence Hall. The room is in the east building which was once the City Hall, at the southwest corner of Fifth and Chestnut Streets. It may be reached by entering the main door on Chestnut Street, and taking the grand staircase on the right. The exhibition room is at the head of the stair, on the right. Among the treasures shown are a deed drawn by William Penn, dated 1703, and a portion of a beam from the house of his daughter, Letitia; German currency used as a medium of exchange for the child-feeding in 1918-19 by the Quakers and stamped with their name; a sundial and compass, ingeniously combined, dated about 1790; a portrait of Cornplanter, Chief of the Seneca Indians, and a letter from him to the Philadelphia Quakers in 1791, asking them to educate two Seneca boys (reproduced in the Bulletin, vol. 25, No. 2) ; a passport of Richard Jordan of New Jersey, for a religious visit on the continent of Europe, issued at Amsterdam, 1801 ; an early Quaker marriage certificate; and an original petition of Philadelphia Friends to the United States Senate, requesting an amicable termination of the war with Mexico. There are also articles of dress from the seventeenth century to the present, including Quaker hats and...