Finding Aids: Checklist prepared by Eve Wider May
1997
Historical Introduction
Edward Wyatt Evans (1882-1976) was born January 31, 1882 in
Germantown, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Germantown Friends
School in 1898. Evans received an A.B. from Haverford College in
1902, an A.B. from Harvard University in 1903, and an LL.B. from
the University of Pennsylvania in 1907. He married Jacqueline
Pascal Morris September 15, 1911. Evans served as a member of the
board of managers of Haverford College from 1912 to 1965 and was
secretary of the board from 1925 to 1943. He was a lifelong member
of the Germantown Monthly Meeting and was active in the Friends
Peace Committee of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, serving as
co-chairman from 1937 to 1939. Evans was secretary of the Yearly
Meeting (Arch Street) from 1938 to 1946. He served on the board of
directors of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC),
Committee of Pendle Hill, and of the White Williams Foundation.
Evans was instrumental in thefounding of the Fellowship of
Reconciliation (FOR), and was the executive secretary from
1916-1919. During the 1920s, he was associated with the University
of Pennsylvania, teaching and writing on international law. For
more than sixty years. Evans was active in educational and peace
programs of the Society of Friends. He died on May 26, 1976 at
Foulkeways, Gwynedd, PA.
Scope and Content
The Papers of Edward Evans consist of correspondence,
administrative files, minutes of meetings, financial statements,
flyers, leaflets, and miscellaneous documents from the years
1916-1922. The papers largely reflect his involvement in FOR and
Philadelphia Yearly Meetings Peace Committee. Much of the
correspondence was penned by Evans and includes information on the
FOR members of the American Friends Reconstruction Unit
(1917-1918), the Conference of Christian Pacifists (1917-1918),
work on the committee which made arrangements for the American
Delegation to the London Conference of All Friends held in London
(1920), and the publication The World Tomorrow.
Correspondents include: Roger N. Baldwin, Gilbert A. Beaver,
William C. Biddle, Henry J. Cadbury, Noble S. Elderkin, Walter G.
Fuller, Floyd Hardin, Henry T. Hodgkin, Paul Jones, Rufus M.
Jones, Mary Kelsey, Scott Nearing, Vincent D. Nicholson, Norman
Thomas, Wibur K. Thomas, Anne Garrett Walton, Robert Whitaker, L.
Hollingsworth Wood, and Walter C. Woodward.
Additional information on Edward Evans may be found within the
Peace Collection in the Fellowship of Reconciliation, USA
collection (DG 13) Series A, Box 1 which contains correspondence.
Additionally, this Evans collection contains information from a
few years of his life and addresses only a few aspects of his
life. Some additional information on his life is available in the
Haverford College Quaker Collection.
Arrangement
When the material arrived at the Peace Collection, a
preliminary checklist was prepared. In June 1993 the collection
was put into acid free folders and paper clips were removed. When
the preliminary checklist was prepared it was acknowledged that
the "order of the folders needs work" but nothing was done at that
point to better organize the material. This collection arrived
with a numbering system that grouped material together, the
numbers did not appear to be sequential, and there appeared to be
large gaps between these numbers. Additionally, the material
grouped together while generally related was not all together and
various material from other sections belonged with like material.
An attempt was made to keep the material as close to its original
order as possible but, to make the material more accessible, it
was necessary to reorganize the collection in date-order divided
by organization or specific purpose. This collection contained
minutes of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and their Friends Peace
Committee meetings; copies of these minutes were kept in the Evans
collection only if they mentioned Evans' name. Minutes of the
Philadelphia Yearly Meeting and their Friends Peace Committee are
available in the Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore
College.