Briefer Notices

Briefer Notices prepared by Barbara L. Curtis Crosslands #188 Kennett Square, PA 19348 The eighth biennial Conference of Quaker Historians and Archivists was held at Pickering College, Newmarket, Ontario, Canada, from June 24th to 26th, 1988. A committee, convened by Thomas D. Hamm of Earlham College, had arranged an outstanding program of papers on a variety of topics. The host institution, Pickering College, a boys secondary school with Quaker roots, took excellent care of the needs of the more than 50 registrants at the gathering held in the assembly hall of the college under the direction of Sheldon Clark, Jr., headmaster and Jane Zavitz, librarian. Papers were presented on Quaker historiography, Friends and the peace movement in Canada, English Quakers and relief activities in South Africa during the Boer War, John Woolman's views on the Cross, and a number of other subjects. Also of interest were consideration of the development and maintenance of Friends' archives in the United States, Canada and Britain. Plans were broached for the next meeting of the Conference in 1990 at George Fox College in Newberg, Oregon, possibly in association with other conferring bodies such as Friends Association for Higher Education and Quaker Theological Discussion Group. Details and a call for proposals for submission of papers to be given will appear in later issues of Quaker History. The annual spring meeting of the Friends Historical Association was held on Sunday, May 8, 1988. As has been the custom, the gathering was jointly sponsored by the Friends Social Union, a local organization of Philadelphia area Friends. The group joined the members of Exeter Meeting for worship at 10:30. Following picnic lunch on the grounds, the meeting was called to order by Barbara L. Curtis, president of Friends Historical Association. Kenneth L. Cook, clerk of Exeter Meeting, gave an introductory talk on the history of Friends in the area illustrated by maps of the locations of meetings and the advance of Quakerism in the region in the 18th and 19th centuries. The principal address was made by Dr. Carol E. Hoffecker, Richards professor of history at the University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware. She presented an account of the lives and activities of the members of the Ferris family of Wilmington in both their religious and secular aspects, illustrating her discussion with slides. After the close of the meeting many Friends visited a nearby mill and residence with Quaker associations that is currently being restored. The Friends Historical Association announces a forthcoming change in the editorship of Quaker History. After several years of service, beginning in the late seventies, the current editor, Arthur J. Mekeel, will turn over the editorship to Lyman Riley, who will assume the duties during the course of 1989. Lyman Riley recently retired as head of the Special Collections Department in the Van Pelt Library of the University of Pennsylvania. He is well acquainted with Quaker History, having served as editor for several years prior to 1974 when John M. Moore assumed the editorship. All correspondence and possible materials for publication should continue to be sent as before to the offices of Friends Historial Association at the Quaker Collection, Haverford College, Haverford, PA 19041. 134 Briefer Notices135 The Records Committee of New York Yearly Meeting has had the map of New York Yearly Meeting made by Shadrach Ricketson in 1821 restored and conserved by the Northeast Documents Conservation Center. This map, which shows all the meetings of the yearly meeting at that time, includes a notation of distances between them in the period just before separation. The map has been photographed and copies are to be sold for the benefit of the John Cox, Jr. Memorial Endowment Fund of New York Yearly Meeting. Please write to Elizabeth H. Moger, Keeper of the Records, New York Yearly Meeting, 15 Rutherford Place, New York 10003, for further information. Loren V. Fay, of Albany, N.Y., has been working on a census of the membership of New York Yearly Meeting at the time of the separation in 1828. He has compiled a list of nearly 18,000 names and 133 local meetings that were functioning in New York, Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Ontario and Quebec. Inquiries about...