Recent Scholarship in Quaker History

July 2007

 

 

Acres of Quakers : an Architectural & Cultural History of Willistown Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, from First Settlement through 1900. Compiled by John Charles Nagy & Penny Teaf Goulding. Malvern, PA : Willistown Township Historical Commission, 2006.

                An architectural and cultural study of all the buildings identified in Breou's Farm Maps of Chester County, 1883.  The majority of these farms were owned by Quakers.

 

 

Alley, Elizabeth. "Penn's 'Solicitous Thoughts' for Europe." The Journal of the Friends Historical Society 61.1 (2006), 51-53.

 

 

Angell, Stephen W. "E Pluribus Unum? Quaker Approaches to Plurality and Unity in Pennsylvania (1682-1764)."  Quaker Religious Thought, nos. 106/107 (Nov. 2006), p. 55-67.

 

 

Angell, Stephen W.  "Quaker Women in Kenya and Human Rights Issues," p. 111-130 in Freedom's Distant Shores : American Protestants and Post-Colonial Alliances with Africa, edited by R. Drew Smith.  Waco, Tex. : Baylor University Press, 2006

 

 

Bacon, Margaret Hope. But One Race : the Life of Robert Purvis. Albany : State University of New York Press, c2007.

            "Born in South Carolina to a wealthy white father and mixed race mother, Robert Purvis (1810-1898) was one of the nineteenth century's leading black abolitionists and orators. In this first biography of Purvis, Margaret Hope Bacon uses his eloquent and often fierce speeches to provide a glimpse into the life of a passionate and distinguished man, intimately involved with a wide range of major reform movements, including abolition, civil rights, Underground Railroad activism, women's rights, Irish Home Rule, Native American rights, and prison reform. Citing his role in developing the Philadelphia Vigilant Committee, an all black organization that helped escaped slaves secure passage to the North, the New York Times described Purvis at the time of his death as the president of the Underground Railroad. Voicing his opposition to a decision by the state of Pennsylvania to disenfranchise black voters in 1838, Purvis declared "there is but one race, the human race." But One Race is the dramatic story of one of the most important figures of his time."--Book jacket.

 

 

Barnett, Paul W. (Paul Wright). The Quaker Preacher : a Compilation of the Life History and Travel to Africa of the Rev. Paul W. Barnett thru His Letters and Photos. Compiled by Harlan P. Barnett. Olympia, WA : H.P. Barnett, c2006.

 

Benfey, Theodor. "A Young Mendenhall in an Abolitionist Family: Learning Songs from Sojourner Truth and Listening to Frederick Douglass."  The Southern Friend 28.2 (2006), 18-29.

 

Bernet, Claus. "Corder Catchpool (1883-1952): A Life Between England and Germany." The Journal of the Friends Historical Society 61.1 (2006), 58-66.

 

 

Besse, Joseph. Sufferings of Early Quakers. Southern England 1653 to 1690. With new introduction and newly compiled index of people and places by Michael Gandy. York : Sessions Book Trust, c2006.

                "Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire and Isle of Wight, Hertfordshire, Kent, Oxfordshire, Surrey and Sussex."

                Facsimile of part of edition originally published as: A Collection of the Sufferings of the People Called Quakers. London : Luke Hinde, 1753.

 

 

Blackburn, Fred M. The Wetherills : Friends of Mesa Verde. [Durango, Colo.] : Durango Herald Small Press, c2006.

            "Following in the wake of what one noted scientist called "transients who neither revered nor cared for the ruins as symbols of the past," the Wetherill family became the earliest students of Mesa Verde. Their careful excavations and record-keeping helped preserve key information, leading to a deeper understanding of the people who built and occupied the cliff dwellings. As devout Quakers, they felt they were predestined to protect the prehistoric sites from wanton destruction - a role that would not be assumed by the government or other major institutions until years later. Based on decades of meticulous research, author Fred Blackburn sets the record straight on these early protectors of Mesa Verde. Book jacket."--Book jacket.

                Benjamin Kite Wetherill served as Indian agent to the Osage. His sons discovered Mesa Verde.

 

 

Briggs, Benjamin. "Set Thy House in Order: George C. Mendenhall's New Order of Carolina Quakerism." The Southern Friend 28.2 (2006), 30-43.

 

 

Calvert Jane E.. "The Quaker Theory of a Civil Constitution." History of Political Thought 27.4 (2006), pages 586-619.

 

 

Calvert Jane E. "A Virtual Repeal: Political Obligation and Civil Dissent in Quaker Thought," Quaker Religious Thought, nos. 106/107 (Nov. 2006), p. 68-79.

 

 

 

Carroll, Kenneth L. "American Quakerism's 350th Birthday: A Look at its Maryland Birth Pangs." The Journal of the Friends Historical Society 61.1 (2006), 32-44.

Chong, Chi-sok. Ham Sokhon's Pacifism and the Reunification of Korea : a Quaker Theology of Peace. Jiseok Jung. Lewiston : Edwin Mellen Press, c2006.

                Foreword by Ben Pink Dandelion.

                Ham Sokhon (Ham Sŏk-hŏn) is a Quaker.

 

Connerley, Jennifer. Friendly Americans : Representing Quakers in the United States, 1850-1920. 2006.

                Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, representations of Quakers---like the Quaker Oats man---were perennially popular, on oatmeal canisters and throughout popular culture. In this dissertation, I examine popular representations of Quakers---in jokes, popular magazines, novels, images, advertising and other media---from 1850 to 1920. I also consider, where possible, Friends' reactions to these depictions. During this period, popular representations of Friends typically evidence a longing for the devout distinctiveness Friends were imagined to possess---evidenced by their plain dress, plain speech, and well-known restrictions against dishonesty and oath-swearing. The traditional and visible testimonies of Friends were quickly changing during the latter half of the nineteenth century. This evolution seemed to quicken the broader population's desire to retain and refashion a plain-dressed, old-fashioned representative of a national purity, piety, and unity that never existed.  The most striking features of Quakers depicted in nineteenth century literatures and images center around the following categories: plain speech, abolitionism and women's rights, pacifism and war, plain dress (in the form of the Quaker bonnet), and the (in)famous Quaker Oats man.  --From the author's abstract.

                Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2006.

               

 

Connerley, Jennifer L. "Quaker Bonnets and the Erotic Feminine in American Popular Culture." Material Religion 2.2 (July 2006), 174-203.

 

 

Corsellis, John. Slovenia 1945 : Memories of Death and Survival After World War II. John Corsellis and Marcus Ferrar. London ; New York : I.B. Tauris, 2005.

                John Corsellis is a Quaker.

 

 

Crawford, Michael J. "'The Small Black Boy At My Right Hand is Christ': George Walton and Friends' Manumission of Slaves in Revolutionary-Era North Carolina." The Southern Friend 28.2 (2006), 3-17.

 

 

Curtis, Bruce. "Joseph Lancaster in Montreal (bis): Monitorial Schooling and Politics in a Colonial Context." Historical Studies in Education 17.1 (2005), 1-27.

 

 

Dandelion, Pink. An Introduction to Quakerism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007,

            This is the first comprehensive introduction to Quakerism which balances a history of the theology of the Quakers or Friends with an overview of present day practice. It charts the growth of the Quaker movement through the 1650s and 1660s, its different theological emphasis in the eighteenth century, and the schisms of the nineteenth century which resulted in the range of Quaker traditions found around the world today. The book focuses in particular on notions of 'endtime,' 'spiritual intimacy', and what counts as 'the world' as key areas of theological change.

 

 

 

Davis, Mary Jane Schrader.Some Descendants of Jacob Schreter/Schrader, Jacob Gilbert, Thomas Walton, Isaac T. Tyson. Mary Jane Schrader Davis [and] Bill Davis. Baltimore, MD : Gateway Press ; Media, PA (411 N. Middletown Rd., Aspen # 127, Media 19063-4435) : Correspondence and book orders to M. Bradford, c2006.

                Many members of these families were Quakers; there was an association with Chester County, Pennsylvania.  Members of the Schraeder/Gilbert families were connected with the Peirce family; the Peirce arboretum was purchased by Pierre du Pont and become part of what would become Longwood Gardens (p. 119).  Appendix one: "Revolutionary War episode, Benjamin Gilbert (1711-1780) & Elizabeth Walton (1725-1810)" gives a one-page description of their Indian captivity [1780-1782].

 

 

Donawerth, Jane. "Women's Reading Practices in Seventeenth-Century England: Margaret Fell's Women's Speaking Justified." The Sixteenth Century Journal 37.4 (Winter 2006), 985.

 

 

Frederick, Margaretta S. "A Quaker Collects: Joseph Whitwell Pease of Darlington." Journal of the History of Collections 18.1 (2006), 56-69.

 

 

Gwyn, Douglas. The Covenant Crucified : Quakers and the Rise of Capitalism. London : Quaker Books, 2006.

            Originally published: Wallingford, Pa. : Pendle Hill Publications, 1995.

                Reprinted with minor amendments.

                "Reprint of this searching study of changes in early Quakerism that still have repercussions. A call to Quakers today to recover a sense of covenant for the journey ahead" -- Publisher's description.

 

 

Hawkins, John. "George Keith, Enthusiast and Apostate,"  The Friends Quarterly, Vol. 35, no. 6 (April 2007), p. 273-278.

 

 

Hazard, James E. (James Edgerton). Quaker Records : Abington Monthly Meeting. Swarthmore, Pa. : Friends Historical Library, Swarthmore College, 2007.

 

 

Hazard, James E. (James Edgerton). Quaker Records : Chesterfield Monthly Meeting.

Swarthmore, Pa. : Friends Historical Library, Swarthmore College, 2006.

 

 

Healey, Robynne Rogers. From Quaker to Upper Canadian : Faith and Community Among Yonge Street Friends, 1801-1850. Montreal ; Ithaca : McGill-Queen's University Press, c2006.

 

 

Hennessey, Michael. "George Fox, Jesus and the Society of Friends," The Friends Quarterly, Vol. 35, no. 6 (April 2007), p. 278-282.

 

Humphrey, Carol. "Quaker School Girl Samplers From Ackworth," [Great Britain] : Needleprint, 2006.

 

 

Janney, Paulena Stevens. The Civil War Period Journals of Paulena Stevens Janney, 1859-1866, edited and annotated by Christie Hill Russell.

Baltimore, MD : Gateway Press, Inc., 2007.

            Paulena (Stevens) Janney was an eighteen-year-old Quaker bride when she began writing journals spanning the years 1859-1866. She recorded daily life in the rural Ohio community of Martinsville, Clinton County, in the mid-nineteenth century.

 

 

Jordan, Ryan P. Slavery and the Meetinghouse : the Quakers and the Abolitionist Dilemma, 1820-1865. Bloomington : Indiana University Press, c2007.

 

 

Kamil, Neil. "Fragments of Huguenot-Quaker Convergence in New York : Little Histories (Avignon, France, 1601-1602; Flushing, Long Island, 1657-1726)" p. 767-905

 in Fortress of the Soul : Violence, Metaphysics, and Material Life in the Huguenots' New World, 1517-1751.  Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005.

 

 

Lapsansky-Werner, Emma. "Toward Justice: Quaker Influences in American Democracy -- a Response." Quaker Religious Thought, nos. 106/107 (Nov. 2006), p. 80-83.

 

 

Mack, Phillis. "Religion, Feminism and the Problem of Agency : Reflections on Eighteenth-Century Quakerism," p. 434-459 in Women, Gender, and Enlightenment edited by Sarah Knott and Barbara Taylor, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.

 

 

Marietta, Jack D. Troubled Experiment : Crime and Justice in Pennsylvania, 1682-1800.  Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006.

                "Eighteenth-century Pennsylvanians killed and abused each other at a pace that outstripped most of their English and American contemporaries and rivaled some of the worst crime rates in the following 200 years. They victimized their kin and neighbors as well as their enemies and rivals, and the powerful as well as the weak. And yet the land they populated was captioned the "Holy Experiment," renowned as the "best poor man's country on earth," and memorialized as the "Peaceable Kingdom." Troubled Experiment chronicles the extravagant crime in this unlikely place and explains how the disparity between reputation and reality arose."...The authors conclude by depicting Pennsylvania - vaunted as an enlightened, free society - as a community suffering from the problems of crime that plague America today."--From the book jacket. 

 

 

 

Matthews, David. "Quaker Shillings." The Journal of the Friends Historical Society 61.1 (2006), 54-57.

 

 

Memories of 57th Street Meeting on its 75th Anniversary. [Edited by Wil Brant ; introduction by Owen Duncan]. Chicago : Fifty-Seventh Street Meeting of Friends, 2006.

 

 

Milliken, Katherine. Quakers in Nature : the Vaux Family's Photographs of Mountains and Glaciers. 2005.

                This project is an investigation into the Vaux family's landscape images and the cultural and idiosyncratic elements that informed their vision of nature as a sublime wilderness. My study examines the role of the Quaker faith, Purist photography practice, and tourism contexts in shaping their perception and, by extension, photographic depiction of the glaciers and Rocky Mountains. The Vauxes were dedicated to nature, as for over thirty years they made annual summer retreats to the mountain parks. The family pioneered glacier study in Canada, and their photographs chart not only glacier recession but also their enchantment with wilderness. The photographs depict nature as a numinous place, yet as Philadelphians traveling on the Canadian Pacific Railway in the late-19th and early-20th centuries, the Vauxes witnessed the growing presence of tourism in the parks. This thesis explores the ambiguity in the meaning of nature and its relationship to personal and cultural constructs.--Author's abstract.

                Thesis (M. A.)--University of Alberta, 2005.  Degree granted by Department of Art and Design.

                 

 

 

Moore, R. "Late Seventeenth-Century Quakerism and the Miraculous: a New Look at George Fox's 'Book of Miracles.'" Studies in Church History 41 (2005), 335-344.

 

 

Moretta, John. William Penn and the Quaker Legacy. New York : Pearson Longman, c2007.

            "John A. Moretta's biography of William Penn follows the Quaker leader as he carries out his progressive and radical 'holy experiment' in the wilderness of the New World. Pennsylvania became the most commercially successful colonial enterprise in English history. Moreover, Penn transplanted the Quaker values of equality, pacifism, and acceptance of diversity, which eventually came to define the greater American creed." "This book features: the integration of English history with Penn's personal struggles and accomplishments (and shows how specific events affected Penn and the Quakers); thorough coverage of the Quaker faith provides insight into Penn's motivations and actions; chapter-ending summaries provide a synopsis of important events in Penn's life and chart Penn's evolution from peaceful Quaker to profit-making colonizer; and study and discussion questions at the end of the book help students check their reading and comprehension. These questions may also be used to facilitate discussions in the classroom or student study groups."--Book jacket.

 

 

Morrison, Ross I. Quakers : Origins, Families and Beliefs in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Researched and written by Ross I. Morrison, Sr. Morgantown, PA : Masthof Press, c2006.

 

 

Nicholas, Mark A. "A Little School, a Reservation Divided: Quaker Education and Allegany Seneca Leadership in the Early American Republic." American Indian Culture and Research  Journal 30.3 (2006), 1.

 

 

Nieuwerth, Kees and Fritz Renken. "A Plea for Freedom of Religion: William Penn and Friends in Emden." Translated and edited by Marieke Faber Clarke. The Journal of the Friends Historical Society 61.1 (2006), 45-50.

 

 

The Nottingham Lots : a Tercentenary Celebration 2001 [compiled by] East Nottingham Trustees. [United States] : Xlibris, c2006.

 

 

Protestant Nonconformist Texts. Edited by David Bebbington with Kenneth Dix and Alan Ruston. Aldershot, England ; Burlington, VT : Ashgate, c2006-

            A topical presentation of nonconformist writings of nineteenth century Britain.

                Includes many Quaker selections.

 

 

Pruitt, France J. Faith, Courage, and Survival in a Time of Trouble, by France J. Pruitt as told to Judy Priven.

Bethesda, Md.: S2 Press, 2005.

                France Juliard Pruitt is a Quaker.

 

 

Punshon, John. Portrait in Grey : a Short History of the Quakers. London: Quaker Books, 2006, c1984.

            Second edition published September 2006 by Quaker Books.

 

 

Reynolds, Amy. "Through the Eyes of the Abolitionists: Free Association and Anti-Slavery Expression." Communication Law and Policy 11.3 (Summer 2006), 449-476.

 

 

Rubinstein, David. Yorkshire Friends in Historical Perspective: an Introduction. York : Quacks Books, 2005.

 

 

Rycenga, Jennifer. "A Greater Awakening: Women's Intellect as a Factor in Early Abolitionist Movements, 1824-1834." Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 21.2 (2005), 31-59.

 

Sayers, Stephen. "James Nayler: A Pearl of Faith." The Woodbrooke Journal 19 (Autumn 2006), 2-19.

Smolenski, John. "From Men of Property to Just Men: Deference, Masculinity, and the Evolution of Political Discourse in Early America." Early American Studies 3.2 (2005), 253–85.

 

 

Stewart, Althea. "Good Quaker Women, Tearful Sentimental Spectators, Readers, and Auditors." Prose Studies 29.1 (2007), 73-85.

 

 

Tarter, Michele Lise. "'Varied Trials, Dippings, and Strippings' : Quaker Women's Irresistible Call to the Early South," p. 80-93 in Feminist Interventions in Early American Studies, edited by Mary C. Carruth. Tuscaloosa : University of Alabama Press, 2006

 

 

Walsham, Alexandra. Charitable Hatred : Tolerance and Intolerance in England, 1500-1700. Manchester ; New York : Manchester University Press ; New York : Distributed exclusively in the USA by Palgrave, 2006.

            "Charitable Hatred offers a challenging new perspective on religious tolerance and intolerance in early modern England. Setting aside traditional models that chart a linear path from persecution to toleration, it emphasizes instead the complex interplay between these two impulses in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The book examines the intellectual assumptions that underpinned attitudes towards religious minorities and the institutional structures and legal mechanisms by which they were both repressed and accommodated. It also explores the social realities of prejudice and forbearance, hostility and harmony at the level of the neighbourhood and parish."--Book jacket.

 

 

Warren, Elizabeth. Jonathan Wright Plummer : Quaker Philanthropy. Bloomington, IN : AuthorHouse, c2006.

                Jonathan Wright Plummer, an Illinois Quaker businessman and philanthropist, was a founder of the Friends' Union for Philanthropic Labor; its conferences eventually would lead indirectly to become the Friends General Conference.

 

 

Wirth, Thomas. "So Many Things for His Profit and for His Pleasure: British and Colonial Naturalists Respond to an Enlightenment Creed, 1727–1777," Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 131, no. 2 (April 2007),  p. 127-140.

 

 

Wright, Sheila. "Town and Country: Living as a Friend in Urban and Rural Yorkshire 1780-1860." The Journal of the Friends Historical Society 61.1 (2006), 3-29.