Briefer Notices

Briefer Notices Prepared by Barbara L. Curtis Crosslands 188 Kennett Square, PA 19348 The annual meeting and dinner of the Friends Historical Association was held on Monday, November 9, 1987, at the Arch Street Friends Meeting House in Philadelphia. At the business meeting, presided over by Barbara L. Curtis, president, the treasurer's report indicated an excess of expenditures over income for the fiscal year 1986, which was covered by drawing on the reserve fund. A special committee of the Board of Directors of the association has been directed to examine the financial needs of the association for the immediate future and consider appropriate uses of the reserve fund. The report of the auditors, Daniel Frysinger and Oliver Rodgers, was submitted and approved. The editor of Quaker History reported on the recent change in publisher from the Mennonite Press at North Newton, Kansas, to the Friends Journal in Philadelphia. The speaker of the evening, Professor J. William Frost, Director of the Friends Historical Library at Swarthmore College, addressed the subject of "Pennsylvania Traditions of Religious Liberty." The seventh biennial conference of Quaker Historians and Archivists will take place June 24-26 at Pickering College, Newmarket, Ontario, Canada. Thomas D. Hamm of Earlham College, Richmond, IN 47374, is in charge of the program. It is expected that some consideration will be given to the history of the Society of Friends in Canada. Persons desiring to attend should write to Elisabeth P. Brown, Quaker Collection, Haverford College, Haverford, PA 19041, for further information and registration materials. The Committee on Records of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting has completed the first year of work on a guide to the manuscript materials of the monthly, quarterly and yearly meeting records. Jack Eckert, an experienced archivist, is in charge of the undertaking. Funds are being solicited to publish the results of the survey and there is also a continuing effort to secure the deposit in the appropriate archives of minutes which are at present unfilmed and still in the possession of local meetings. A committee of the Friends Association for Higher Education is forming a network of persons interested in studies on movements for human betterment , especially those in which Quakers have been or are taking part. The project is intended to stimulate evaluative historical studies, to make such efforts more effective, and to foster exchange and interaction. Correspondence should be directed to the secretary, Paul Barton Kriese, 417 Kinsey St., Richmond IN 47374. The American Friends Service Committee has recently published Two Koreas — One History which is of considerable contemporary interest. Douglas Steere, emeritus professor of philosophy at Haverford College, states: "This searching book describes with much insight and power the critical location that the two Koreas now occupy and discusses the necessity for the two Koreas to find their own way to a lasting relationship." An important step toward the continued preservation of the records of Friends in New York was taken at a session of Representative Meeting of New York Yearly Meeting held in Plainfield, NJ, in December 1986. The meeting establish65 66Quaker History ed the John Cox, Jr. Memorial Fund which will receive gifts and bequests from persons or foundations interested in the care and use of Friends records in the Haviland Records Room at 15 Rutherford Place, New York City, NY 10003. John Cox, Jr. was the first keeper of the records of the two New York Yearly Meetings. Cooperation in caring for the records of their shared history helped pave the way for the two branches to reunite. Reports have been received of an important exhibit about Friends on Long Island, N.Y., which has been mounted at the Sands Point Preserve of the Nassau County Museum at Port Washington, Long Island. The exhibit opened in the spring of 1987, and after a very successful season closed for the winter, expecting to reopen in the Spring of 1988. The materials include artifacts such as samplers, costumes and wearing apparel of Friends through several generations , as well as letters, documents, photographs and portraits of Friends. Much of this material is on loan from private persons who have generously agreed to leave them on exhibit for another year in the Sands Point building...