Bookshop Day – Henry Thomas Wake, Quaker bookseller

Posted on 10/10/2025 by Library of the Society of Friends

‘Imagine a second hand bookshop in a Derbyshire garden, and the bookman a fine old Quaker, lovable at sight, interesting withal, and himself the best book in his collection – a living book about books.’ 

For Bookshop Day tomorrow, we thought we’d celebrate an undersung Quaker bookseller, Henry Thomas Wake, whose archives we hold at the Library. The quote above is from a visitor to his Fritchley bookshop in 1912, not long before Wake died. While there, the visitor viewed Wake’s beautifully hand-drawn catalogues and observed ‘You should have been an artist’. At this, Wake replied casually ‘That’s what Ruskin said.’ Wake had known not only the eminent Victorian art critic in his youth, but also Thomas Carlyle, whose bookplate he designed. How had this engineer’s clerk from a modest background ended up mixing in such illustrious circles? 

Wake was born to a Methodist family in Northamptonshire in 1832. A bright boy, he went to grammar school and eventually to London as a teenage clerk in various banking and shipping companies. Due to his low income, university wasn’t available to him, he nonetheless took advantage of the many opportunities for self-education that were springing up in the Victorian city. He was open and curious, attending the London Institution regularly, reaching out to Thomas Carlyle after he had read Sartor Resartus (impressed by the passages on Quaker founder George Fox). He visited one of Carlyle’s welcoming soirées, meeting Carlyle and his wife Jane. They bonded over English civil war memorabilia – Wake was already a budding antiquarian – and Carlyle commissioned a bookplate from Wake.  

His curiosity also took him to his local Friends’ Meeting House – Brook Street in Ratcliff – where he was an attender for two years before he was admitted as a member of the Society of Friends in 1856, at the age of 25. However, even before this, Carlyle felt he was already losing his new friend: ‘There is clearly nothing to be made of that Grampus Wake: the leather jerkin of George Fox has buttoned him up from the sight of Sun and Moon,’ he lamented to John Ruskin who also knew Wake. 

By this time Henry had also met and married a distant cousin, Lydia Carter, and had a growing family. Only a few years later they all left London and moved north, to the cradle of Quakerism – Cumbria – where he became a tutor. He continued his sideline as an antiquarian and bookseller, becoming also a dealer in manuscripts. He began to create exquisitely illustrated catalogues of items for sale, hand-lettered, with many small images of star items. A bound volume of these catalogues is held by the LSF.  

Also at the Library are Wake’s personal diaries and sales ledgers, which were always overlapping records: at first his personal journal recorded sales he made, and later the diaries became sales ledgers, which still included many personal notes, and the same charming illustrations that could be seen in his catalogues.

More mundane things like a pair of new boots might share a page with a recently acquired antiquity. They also contained more poignant personal notes, such as when Wake’s wife Lydia died in 1876, he recorded this in worked-over font, expressing his depth of emotion. 

He was left with three children still under 14, and as was often the case with widowers with young children, was mindful of finding them another carer to share the load of their upbringing.  By this time, he had been living in Cockermouth, Cumbria for more than ten years, but we see from his catalogues that some time in the middle of 1879 (three years after Lydia’s death) he moved to Belper in Derbyshire. A clue to the reason for his move might be found in his marriage in August of that year to Hanna Sadler in nearby Matlock. From Belper he moved the following year to Fritchley. 

Fritchley, a small village in Derbyshire, has an inversely outsize place in British Quaker history. Following liberalisation around dress and language in the mid-nineteenth century there was some reaction amongst more conservative Quakers . This led to some schisms within the faith, more pronounced in the US than in the UK. Fritchley meeting, led by newcomer to  the area John S Sargeant decided to break with London Yearly Meeting (as the national organisation then was), and chose to keep to old-style simple dress, and language. They sent no representatives to LYM and only rejoined the main body of Quakers in 1967.  

Perhaps as one who came to Quakerism rather than being born into the faith – those new to any belief system often being known for their zealousness – Wake found himself drawn to Fritchley. He ended up living at ‘The Chestnuts’ or ‘Chestnut Lodge’, designed by local Quaker architect Edward Watkins. It was a large set of buildings that served as a school with a home attached, which Wake occupied with his wife Hannah. It was from here that he supplied the Library (then at Devonshire House in Bishopsgate) with some key treasures in our collection, including a volume of letters of early friends in the handwriting of early Friend, William Caton, as well as being part of the chain of custodians of a rare copy of De imitatione Christi (The Imitation of Christ) by Thomas à Kempis, published at Milan in 1488. There was clearly more behind the unassuming frontage of a Fritchley bookshop than met the eye. Not only did the abovementioned visitor receive a cup of tea from Hannah Wake, but on expressing an interest in Thomas Carlyle, also received one of his letters to take away along with his haul of books. Hannah had persuaded her husband to part with it by pointing out forthrightly ‘We’ll not live more than twenty years anyway.’   

Sadly she was right at least about her husband. Henry Wake died a year or so later on the eve of WWI, with many of his descendants already emigrated to Canada. However, he is well memorialised at the LSF as we have many of his wonderful catalogues bound on the shelves, along with his journals and illustrated sales ledgers. Some are too fragile to handle, but all are on microfilm and available as PDFs. 

Henry Thomas Wake papers https://quaker.adlibhosting.com/Details/archive/110013775

Carlyle’s bookplate and its designer : with several hitherto unpublished letters and unique Carlyle relics / by Davidson Cook https://quaker.adlibhosting.com/Details/fullCatalogue/64973

Catalogue of books, manuscripts, drawings, coins, autographs, old china, curiosities, &c. on sale at the cash prices affixed by Henry T. Wake https://quaker.adlibhosting.com/Details/fullCatalogue/70269

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Taking stock – the Library of the Society of Friends Special Collections Review

Posted on 12/06/2025 by Library of the Society of Friends

At the Library of the Society of Friends we use the term “special collections” to refer to objects and framed art that are not held within an archive collection. This includes roughly 1,400 items and covers a wide range of material, including a 115 year-old bread roll, artistic representations of Quaker meetings, banners carried at marches and protests, board games, shoes and, of course, a substantial selection of Quaker bonnets. This year, we are conducting a review of this collection. 

LSF MO 406 – a grey silk bonnet presented to the Library in 1975. Believed to have been worn by members of the Radley family.

The Library’s purpose is to collect, preserve and provide access to the story of Quakers in Britain, through records, publications and material culture. What we collect is defined by our collections development policy. We work with limited resources within a finite space and do our best to work simply and sustainably to make the best use of what we have. 

As is the case with most archives, libraries and museums, we have historically accepted items that don’t fit with our collecting goals as well as items that we don’t have the space or resources to care for properly. Our strongrooms are full, and we aren’t able to offer access to objects in the way that we would like. If we will never be able to offer access to something, should we have it? 

“If museums are to be financially and environmentally sustainable, and relevant to the communities we serve in the 21st century, we must take an immediate and proactive approach to collections management and review.” – ‘Off the Shelf: A Toolkit for Ethical Transfer, Reuse and Disposal’ published by the Museums Association 

LSF MO 675 – nearly two metres wide, this banner was designed to be carried on poles threaded through the sides and top.

Collections reviews are a regular part of managing historical collections and have been carried out in institutions across the country. The aim is to understand what we have and why we have it, how our items are currently stored and what condition they are in. We will be assessing each object or group of objects on the following areas:  

  • Condition – Assessing whether objects are in good enough condition for use, whether any urgent conservation work is required and if we can care for them.   
  • Storage – Reviewing whether objects are stored in a way that preserves them for the future, and if we are capable of storing them properly.   
  • Ownership – Ensuring we have the legal and moral right to keep objects. 
  • Engagement potential – Investigating the storytelling and educational potential of an object and whether it is likely to be of interest to our audiences.  
  • Distinctively Quaker – Judging how closely the object fits with our current collection development policy, whether it was used or created by the work of British Quakers or expresses an aspect of British Quaker life, history or culture. 
  • Significance – Investigating the overall cultural value of an object, independent of its Quaker context.  
LSF F031 The First Easter Morn by James Doyle Penrose. Exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1907, and presented to the Library in 1974 by Colchester Meeting.

In November we will be producing a report for the trustees of Quakers in Britain, which will outline our findings so far, suggest what steps might be taken next and how we can best use our resources.

This report will flag up items that either don’t fit within our collection or that we cannot responsibly take care of. These might include objects that have little to no relevance to British Quaker life, history or culture, objects that don’t actually belong to us or objects that need specialist storage that we can’t provide. We will suggest finding more suitable homes for these items, ideally in places that will be able to offer better access and collections care. 

We will also be suggesting ways in which we might offer more access to the objects and paintings that we maintain within our collection, such as open storage (see the new V&A East Storehouse for the ultimate example), long term loans to institutions that display objects and online solutions. 

LSF MO 665 – A Quaker Peace and Service Duster. Some research will be required to uncover when and why this was produced, if you know something about it please get in touch.

We want to take a participatory approach to this work – meaning that we want to hear from British Quakers and other interested communities about what they think should be in the collection. This will be an ongoing process that will continue after the curatorial work that happens this year.  

Part of our report will focus on this, particularly considering the items in our collection that come from missionary work overseas. We will make recommendations about how we can work alongside experts from the relevant cultures to manage these items respectfully, in ways that support the decolonisation of our archive and may form part of reparations work. 

Keep an eye on this blog and our Facebook page to get further updates and see more of the objects and paintings we have in our strongroom and please get in touch with your views and any personal experiences with the items we share.

Further reading: 

Studying the collection – Science Museum Group Blog 

Manchester Art Gallery Collection Review  – Manchester Art Gallery 

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A Flame in the City: The 1821 Gracechurch Street Fire and Its’ Impact on the Quaker Community

Posted on 20/05/2025 by Library of the Society of Friends

Abstract

In September 1821, a catastrophic fire broke out on Gracechurch Street in London, destroying several commercial and residential buildings, including the prominent Quaker meeting house. This article revisits the fire through contemporary reports and explores its lasting effects on the Religious Society of Friends in the City of London and surrounding areas. Examining archival material preserved at Library of the Society of Friends, it highlights the survival of key records, introduces archive conservation techniques, and draws on contemporary events to underline the endurance of Quaker recordkeeping.

Boxed volume of Gracechurch Street Monthly Meeting Minutes (1791-1793) alongside a bookmark depicting Gracechurch Street meeting house produced by the Library of the Society of Friends.

Introduction

In May 2025, a cataloguing initiative at the Library of the Society of Friends (LSoF) shed new light on material from the Gracechurch Street Quaker Monthly Meeting. This work formed part of a wider ambition to improve access to and understanding of early London Quaker records. The project involves extracting information currently embedded in PDF documents attached to legacy catalogue descriptions and using this data to build a structured and searchable catalogue hierarchy for meeting records. This undertaking not only adheres to archival standards of description but also makes it easier for researchers to trace the administrative and spiritual life of London Quaker meetings across time.

As part of this initiative, the LSoF—where London Quaker meeting records are held on deposit—has begun the task of systematically re-cataloguing the collections, starting at the level of monthly meetings. As such, the Gracechurch Street Monthly Meeting was one of the first selected for this work. The choice was initially practical: the records were accessible and relatively compact, making them a manageable starting point. However, the re-cataloguing process soon uncovered a compelling historical narrative.

Metal chest with the label “Gracechurch Street MM Burnt registers”.

Within the 18th-century minute books and correspondence were a small group of documents showing unmistakable signs of fire damage. These records had been preserved among otherwise routine papers and volumes and had not previously been flagged as exceptional. It is fortunate then, that the project has resurfaced records which bear a physical testament to the fire that destroyed the Gracechurch Street Meeting House in September 1821.

The cataloguing of these records provided a valuable opportunity not only to assess their physical condition and implement appropriate conservation and access measures, but also to revisit the historical circumstances of their creation and near-destruction.

Gracechurch Street Meeting’s Place in Quaker Life

Gracechurch Street Meeting played a central role in the religious and communal life of London Quakers. As one of the most prominent meeting houses in the city, it became a key gathering place for influential members of the Society of Friends. The meeting also hosted the Society’s Reference Library[1] and was the site of significant events, including the being host to the last sermon to be given by George Fox[2]. Its importance is further underscored by the fact that it succeeded the Bull and Mouth meeting, which had been the largest early Quaker meeting in London. This continuity reflected the growth and institutional development of the Quaker movement in the capital. The Gracechurch Street Meeting attracted many well-known and active Friends, serving not only as a spiritual centre but also as a place where Quaker organisation and discipline were strengthened and maintained.

The Fire and Immediate Consequences

The fire was reported in contemporary newspapers, including The Guardian[3], which chronicled the fire’s progression and the attempts to contain it. The blaze began in the early hours at the rear of Mr. Ryan’s cheesemonger’s shop and spread rapidly to adjoining buildings. Despite the prompt action of a watchman, efforts to extinguish the fire were quickly overwhelmed.

While occupants of nearby homes and businesses managed to escape with their lives, attempts to preserve property were less successful. As firemen worked to rescue items from the Quaker meeting house, its front wall collapsed, burying four men. One died at the scene, another succumbed soon after, and a third’s body was not recovered until the following day.

The destruction of the meeting house marked more than the loss of a building; it represented the dislocation of a historic religious community within London. Though the physical structure was lost, the community’s response was swift and grounded in their testimony of resilience and mutual care.

Archival Survival and Conservation

Among the debris, records from the Gracechurch Street Monthly Meeting were recovered. These documents were retained and, in subsequent years, transferred to LSoF with the latest being by gift in 1908. Their survival offers a rare, tangible connection to the fire and to the continuity of Quaker recordkeeping tradition.

Loose leaves of paper pasted with burnt sections of Gracechurch Street burial notebook (1711 – 1733).

There is little historical documentation about the immediate treatment of these fire-damaged records in the 19th century. It is likely that they were simply pasted into volumes in order to keep their original order intact and stored with minimal further intervention. Their condition today, though bearing visible scars, shows that they were highly valued and preserved with enough care to avoid total deterioration.

In the present day, these materials would be maintained according to current best practices in archival conservation. Techniques used to stabilize fire-damaged documents include low-humidity drying and soot removal through micro-vacuuming. Today, we typically expect that fire-damaged materials will also be water-damaged due to sprinkler systems or firefighting efforts. Very wet documents should not be separated immediately and instead should be interleaved every 2 cm with absorbent materials like paper towelling, blotting paper, or photocopy paper. As these become saturated, they must be replaced to reduce moisture buildup, whilst airflow from fans or open windows can assist with drying.

Volume pasted with burnt pages from Gracechurch Street Monthly Meeting Minutes (1791-1793).

Once the paper begins to dry and regain strength, individual pages can be separated using a blunt knife, starting from the least burnt edge. Freed pages should be laid flat on absorbent paper and turned regularly until completely dry.

After wet materials are under control, soot can be removed from dry pages using a soft brush and a vacuum nozzle covered with gauze, or with a kneadable eraser for more stubborn residue, although charred areas should be avoided due to their fragility.

If drying cannot be done immediately, documents can be frozen in small bundles wrapped in greaseproof paper for later recovery[4].

At LSoF, these records have been catalogued taking into account any need to limit physical handling. Importantly, the damage they sustained has not been obscured; instead, the burn marks and smoke staining serve as physical testimony to the historical event they endured.

The conservation status of these records reflects both their practical function as sources for historical research and their symbolic value as material witnesses to the fire – a vivid reminder of the fragility of knowledge and memory as well as the enduring efforts to preserve it.

Legacy and Relocation

The 1821 fire did not just destroy buildings; it catalysed a wider shift within the Quaker community. For decades, Gracechurch Street had been a centre of Quaker worship and social life. However, even before the fire, demographic and cultural changes were prompting many Friends to relocate from the bustling commercial heart of the city to more suburban environments. The fire accelerated this movement, particularly toward Stoke Newington, which by the mid-19th century had become a thriving Quaker enclave.

Volume with hand-written label “Partially burnt note book etc -  saved from the fire Gracechurch St dated 1711-1733”.

Though the Gracechurch Street Meeting was eventually rebuilt, its role within the broader London Meeting network evolved. The fire thus served as both a rupture and a turning point in the spatial and institutional development of Quakerism in the capital.

Conclusion

The 1822 fire at Gracechurch Street is emblematic of both the hazards of urban life in Georgian London and the fortitude of the Quaker community. These records offer more than administrative data; they are artifacts of disaster, resilience, and remembrance. Their rediscovery as part of the cataloguing project has not only increased their accessibility but reintroduced a powerful story of faith and survival into the historical record.

This incident also resonates with present-day events. In April 2025, Westminster Meeting House, another central London Quaker site, was subject to a police raid despite the building being widely recognised as a space of peace, nonviolence, and sanctuary[5]. While the physical damage was minimal, the intrusion provoked national discussion about the protection of sacred and community spaces. For many Quakers, it echoed the long history of state pressure that Meetings and the premises that house them have endured.

Together these episodes, separated by just shy of 200 years, demonstrate that meeting houses are not merely architectural heritage sites but living testimonies to Quaker witness. They have served as spaces for worship, refuge, dissent, and healing. Whether threatened by fire or state incursion, their endurance and the records they create continue to embody the values of integrity, peace, and community. Preserving their stories is thus essential not just for historical memory, but for the ongoing life of the Quaker tradition in an often-turbulent world.

The catalogue of the collection can be viewed here: https://quaker.adlibhosting.com/Details/archive/110001799

[1] Littleboy, Anna L. The Journal of the Friends Historical Society, Vol. 18 No. 3-4 (1921) Devonshire House Reference Library.  https://journals.sas.ac.uk/fhs/article/view/3725/3676

[2] Inward Light. The Death & Burial of George Fox .https://inwardlight.org/transformation/change/the-death-burial-of-george-fox/

[3] The Guardian. From the Archive: Fire on Gracechurch Street. September 15, 1821.https://www.theguardian.com/news/1822/sep/15/mainsection.fromthearchive

[4] National Archives of Australia. Recovering fire-damaged records.https://www.naa.gov.au/information-management/storing-and-preserving-information/preserving-information/recovering-fire-damaged-records

[5] Townsend, Mark. Police Raid on Westminster Quakers During Protest Sparks Outrage. The Guardian, 21 April 2024. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/apr/21/police-raid-on-westminster-quakers-during-protest-sparks-outrage

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Exploring the Committee Cupboards at the Library of the Society of Friends

Posted on 17/04/2025 by Library of the Society of Friends

“Discernment and decision-making are crucial aspects of our life as a Quaker community, not least in relation to the work carried out centrally by Britain Yearly Meeting through its committees and staff. All our committees act as gathered meetings for worship, a discipline which continues throughout the governance and management of the work.” 

“Oversight of the centrally managed work of Britain Yearly Meeting is in large part entrusted to committees”. Quaker Faith and Practice, chapter 8.01, 8.02

The archives held at the Library of the Society of Friends reflect the important role of committees in both Quaker history and the ongoing work of Quakers. In our strong rooms we have twenty-four large cupboards containing Quaker committee minutes between the 1660s and 2022. The cupboards contain minutes relating to Quaker committees still meeting and those which have been laid down. Committees with minutes in the archive include Yearly Meeting, Friends Emergency and War Victims Relief, Friends Foreign Mission Association, Quaker Life, Quaker Peace and Social Witness and the Library Committee (just to name a few)!

The minutes of Quaker committees have been arranged physically in the archive to sit within one alphabetical sequence. The related committee papers largely sit elsewhere in the archive. On our online catalogue these committee records sit under a Yearly Meeting Committees and Departments Fonds. This encompasses committees appointed by both Yearly Meeting and Meeting for Sufferings. Committee records are routinely accessed by both external researchers and internal staff.

Between October 2024 and March 2025 an inventory of paper committee minutes and related papers took place in the archive of the Library of the Society of Friends. The inventory was completed to support the work to audit Britain Yearly Meeting’s digital committee minutes as we move towards using Office 365. The inventory also aimed to confirm the locations of all committee minutes and identify uncatalogued minutes.

The scope of the project included delving into all 24 committee cupboards in our strong rooms along with an extra five bays of committee boxes. A rough extent of the records inventoried is 120 boxes, 1500 volumes and 500 folders/other units of extent. 

The inventory process sought to capture the location, name, description, covering dates and extent of all committee minutes and related papers contained in both volumes and boxes in our strong rooms. This information will be cross referenced with digital minutes to identify gaps in committee record keeping across Britain Yearly Meeting.

To celebrate the end of this inventory, we wanted to share some highlights from our journey through the committee cupboards…  

Industrial Crisis Committee, Coalfields Distress Committee, Allotments Committee

While most of the records listed in the inventory were volumes of minutes, there were instances where additional record types feature alongside volumes of committee minutes in the cupboards. One example of this was the Industrial Crisis Committee, Coalfields Distress Committee and Allotments Committee papers.

These successive committees were first appointed in 1926 when General Strikes were called by the Trade Union Congress in response to the poor working conditions and lessening of pay for working (largely in coal mining communities). Quakers set up the Industrial Crisis Committee to provide relief to these committees (largely in South Wales). The Committee received gifts of money and clothing for distribution and local quaker meetings undertook the collections of clothing and money to help the situation. Receipts for these gifts of money feature in the committee minutes sequence.

By 1928, the Coalfields Distress Committee was set up to increase public interest in the case to raise funds for relief. The leaflets created and distributed by the committee to help their appeal feature alongside the minutes of the coalfields distress committee in our archive.  By 1930 the Allotments Central Committee (also known as Allotment Gardens for the Unemployed Central Committee) was set up as a scheme to help those unemployed grow their own food. The committee was laid down in 1951 whereby some of the remaining funds were transferred to the National Allotments and Gardens Society.

These receipts, leaflets, and other committee records can provide additional context to the structured records of minutes, which bring the work of this committee to life. We will endeavour to repackage these records appropriately as well as enhance the catalogue descriptions for the above committees in due course.

Industrial Crisis Distress Fund receipts, Coalfields Distress Committee leaflets and minutes, YM/MfS/ALL

Special Premises Committee

Another committee where the volumes of minutes also include additional records types is the Special Premises Committee. The Committee was set up in 1911 to consider the management of Devonshire House, the potential to rebuild on the Devonshire House site, the sale of Devonshire house and the acquisition of the site on Endsleigh Gardens, Euston Road to build Friends House (which was purchased for £45,000)!

One of the most interesting records attached in the volumes of minutes is a record created by the appeal committee which lists the Friends who contributed funds to the Friends House building project. The record also describes the new premises and updates Friends on the building works. An article states “a word as to the appearance of the building. The general effect is a massive but not clumsy front of a pinkish purple brick with dressed stone facings, cornice and columns.”

As we come up to the centenary of the building of Friends House, I am sure we will look back at the minutes and papers of the special premises committee as well as the Premises Committee to reflect on the history of Friends House.  

“West India Property” Committee

In the last stages of the committee inventory, we came across a folder containing deeds, letters and minutes relating to the “West India Property” Committee, 1774-1800. The committee was appointed by Meeting for Sufferings to record the property owned by the Society of Friends in Barbados, Antigua, Jamacia, Tortola and other Caribbean countries.

A large quantity of the papers relates to property in Barbados and the signing over of land and property from Thomas Gibson to Trustees in Barbados, England and Philadelphia including John Luke, Rowland Gibson, David Barclay, John Townsend, 1785.

Whilst the committee records feature on our online catalogue, the context of these records has been brought into perspective by the current work of the Britain Yearly Meeting Reparations Working Group and the Quaker commitment in making practical reparations for the transatlantic slave trade, colonialism and economic exploitation. To support any future research, we have repackaged the records, and we have enhanced the catalogue description, subject terms and location to more accurately describe the contents and signpost the records. It would be beneficial to create a more detailed catalogue description in the future.

To access the committee records mentioned in the above blog, search the catalogue, make an enquiry or make a research appointment via our bookings page. Please note not all central organisation committees are catalogued and open for research.

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Uncovering the Past: Four London Quakers and their ties to slavery

Posted on 10/01/2025 by Library of the Society of Friends
Lucy presenting her research in the library at the London Quakers reparations event

Quakers in Britain have committed to making practical reparations for the transatlantic slave trade. In November, as part of an event organised by London Quakers to explore what reparations might look like, the Library welcomed Friends into the reading room to learn about four London Quakers who were involved with, or profited from, the enslavement of Black Africans. These are their stories. 

John Rous (c.1630-1695) 

John was born in the parish of St Philip, Barbados in the 1630s, the son of a sugar planter Thomas Rous. He joined his father and brother in the sugar business, the three of them jointly owned a large plantation and by 1680 were enslaving 310 people. 

He became a Quaker in the mid 1650s after encountering missionaries Ann Austin and Mary Fisher. After corresponding with early Quaker leader Margaret Fell some time, he sailed to England in 1659 where he met and married Margaret’s eldest daughter, Margaret Junior, at Swarthmoor Hall.  

John and Margaret Junior settled in London, going on to build a large house in Kingston. John remained involved in the business of his plantation, setting himself up as a West India merchant at the Bear and Fountain, Lothbury. He acted as an agent for his father and brother and frequently travelled back to Barbados.  

John was an important part of the Fell family, and a weighty Friend. There are letters in the Swarthmore Documents describing his sending sugar and Barbados oranges up to Swarthmoor Hall. He travelled with George Fox to Barbados in 1671, and they stayed on his plantation. He also contributed significantly to his local meeting, donating £30 towards the building of the meeting house (the equivalent of a year’s wages for a skilled tradesman).  

John was known to advocate for kind treatment of enslaved people, but he doesn’t appear to have made any moves to free those on his plantation. He died on a voyage home from Barbados in 1695. 

LSF MS Vol 364/27 – A letter from Sarah Meade to her mother Margaret Fell, explaining that John Rous has sent a box of “Barbados China oranges” to her and the others at Swarthmoor Hall 

 James Claypool (1634-1687) 

James was the fifth son of a wealthy family from Northamptonshire. His older brother John was married to Oliver Cromwell’s favourite daughter Elizabeth. He made his money as a factor, or agent, for overseas producers. One of his key business partners was another of his brothers, Edward. Edward Claypool owned a 325 acre sugar plantation in Barbados. According to the 1680 census, there were 86 enslaved people and 12 indentured servants on his plantation.  

James appears to have become a Quaker by convincement in 1660 and he and his family attended several meetings, including Bull and Mouth and Devonshire House. He became very influential, serving on Meeting for Sufferings, Six Weeks Meeting (now known as London Quaker Property Trust) and Morning Meeting, the committee who decided which Friends got their works published. He also made various donations to meetings, including 10 shillings towards the building of Cobham meeting house and £2 towards the general accounts of Six Weeks Meeting. 

It is alleged that James was miraculously healed by George Fox. The pair were visiting Guilielma Penn when James became ill with kidney stones. George laid hands on him and his kidney stone “came from him like dirt”. 

In 1682, James decided to emigrate to Pennsylvania. He wrote to his brother Edward asking him to provide “2 good stout Negro men, such as are like to be pliable and good natured” and “a boy and girl to serve in my house”. He continued to do business at home via his former apprentice Edward Haistwell (c.1658-1709), who is perhaps better known as one of George Fox’s secretaries and travelling companions. 

The Pennsylvania Land Company 

The Pennsylvania Land Company was a colonial joint-stock company based in London and primarily operated and funded by Quakers. The treasurer was Thomas Story (1662-1742) and investors included David Barclay (1682-1769) and recording clerk Benjamin Bealing (d. 1739). Its business was buying land in Pennsylvania to grow flax, which was then used to supply the British Navy.  

A scandal occurred in 1720, when James Hoskins, a Quaker and investor in the company, took the company’s capital and invested it in the South Sea Company. The South Sea Company was another joint-stock company. Part of their business was supplying enslaved Africans to South America. Although this was not considered a financial success, investment in the company allowed it to transport just over 34,000 enslaved people across the Atlantic, with a mortality rate of 11%. Other Quakers who are known to have invested in the South Sea company include John Freame (founder of Barclay’s Bank and listed as a proprietor of the Pennsylvania Land Company) and Theodore Eccleston (a weighty London Friend). 

Unfortunately for James Hoskins, he invested all the Pennsylvania Land Company’s money at the height of the South Sea Bubble. The South Sea Company’s share prices were overly inflated, leading to a financial crash in August of that year. James Hoskins and Thomas Story argued over whose fault this had been, resulting in James disownment from the Society of Friends. The South Sea Company’s slave-trading was not an issue, but James was considered to have acted dishonestly and greedily. 

LSF Temp MSS 970 /8/1 – Detail from “a list of those who have paid 5 Guineas per share into the Pensilvania Land Company in London”. The surviving records of the Pennsylvania Land company are part of the Thomas Story papers here in the Library. 

Thomas Corbyn (1711-1791) 

Thomas was born into a Quaker family in Worcestershire. He moved to London to apprentice as an apothecary, later taking on his mentor’s business. His company primarily manufactured pharmaceuticals wholesale, becoming known for quality. He utilised the Quaker’s reputation for honesty to enhance his business dealings and was very successful. 

Thomas was known for being a severely plain Friend, receiving the nickname “Pope Corbyn”. He attended Peel Meeting in Clerkenwell, to which he made donations of around £10 a year, and served on Meeting for Sufferings and Six Weeks Meeting. 

Corbyn & Co. did significant trade with the British colonies in the Caribbean and North America, supplying plantations with medicines and in turn purchasing their sugar, cotton and medicinal plants. Due to lack of local supply, extensive imports of medicine were essential to keeping the plantations going.  

A study by Carolyn Elizabeth Roberts found that Corbyn also produced medicines for at least three major slave trade suppliers. Harrowingly she argues that at least some of these medicines were used to subdue enslaved people aboard the ships. 

“If one were to peer more closely at the specific drugs and their quantities, the researcher might ask why there were as many as 3,840 doses of pure opium on a ship carrying 225 people, for a voyage that lasted a total of seven months… Like the rigging that was erected to prevent captives from jumping overboard and the large crews that merchants hired to maintain surveillance, forced drug consumption was considered necessary to preserve the health and lives of captive Africans.”  

“Pharmaceutical Captivity, Epistemological Rupture, and the Business Archive of the British Slave Trade” by Carolyn Roberts    

These four stories are a brief glimpse into how London Quakers, like many others of their time, profited from colonialism and enslavement.  In the 18th and 19th centuries London was the biggest port in the world and until 1730 it was Britain’s largest slave port, with around 50 slave ships setting out per year. The merchants of the city made a thriving trade in products such as sugar, tobacco and cotton. In addition to this, London is Britain’s financial centre, and it was here that Barclay’s bank, for many years a Quaker institution, was founded. There is lots of work to be done if we are to have a true understanding of the creation of our inequitable world and take reparative action. 

If you would like to find out more about Quaker work around reparations visit the reparations resource page here: https://www.quaker.org.uk/resources/reparations  

Additional Reading 

Balderston, Marion (Ed.) (1967) James Claypoole’s Letter Book: London and Philadelphia 1681-1684. San Marino: The Huntingdon Library.  

Beales, Kristen and Consenstein, Eden (2021) “Time Incorporated and the Pennsylvania Land Company” in The Immanent Frame. Access online here:  https://tif.ssrc.org/2021/05/14/time-incorporated-and-the-pennsylvania-land-company/  

Dunn, Richard (1972) Sugar and Slaves: the rise of the planter class in the English West Indies, 1624-1713.  

Hotten, John Camden (1874) The original lists of person of quality…[contains a partial transcript of the 1680 Barbados census]. London: John Camden Hotten. Access online here: https://archive.org/details/originallistsofp00hottuoft/page/n5/mode/2up  

Roberts, Carolyn Elizabeth (2017) To Heal and to Harm: Medicine, Knowledge, and Power in the Atlantic Slave Trade. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. Access online here: https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/42061516  

You can find additional sources of information on this topic on our digital resources page here: https://raindrop.io/Library_of_the_Society_of_Friends/slavery-and-abolition-21701511  

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The Swarthmore Documents: letters from the beginning of Quakerism

Posted on 22/04/2024 by Library of the Society of Friends

The Swarthmore Manuscripts, our famous collection of early Quaker letters, have been described as the “jewel in the crown” of the Library’s collection.  But did you know they are only one part of a larger collection known as the Swarthmore Documents? 

The Swarthmore Documents are a 17th century collection of well over a thousand manuscript papers that belonged to the early Quaker leader Margaret Fell. The collection, with letters describing the legal struggles, personal lives and theological wranglings of early Friends, is now in multiple parts, most of which are held in the Library of the Society of Friends.

The history of how these documents came to the Library is complex. This is reflected in their current order which can be difficult to navigate. To date there is no single complete listing of the collection. However, we have recently produced a guide, which sets out what Margaret’s collection looks like now, how the different parts came to the Library and the best way to start using them for your research. This guide is available here: https://www.quaker.org.uk/documents/research-guide-swarthmore-documents-2024

The Swarthmore Documents are one of the most important sources for studying the beginning of the Quaker movement, but readers of the letters should understand that the core of the collection was curated by Margaret and her second husband George Fox, one of the founding figures of Quakerism. The history that the letters relay was shaped by them. 

LSF MS Vol 352/202 – A letter from Thomas Holme to Margaret Fell, 1655. Like many other letters in the collection the blank spaces on this letter have been used for handwriting practice by Sarah Fell, one of Margaret’s daughters.

In 1652 George Fox visited Swarthmoor Hall, the home of Margaret and her husband, Judge Thomas Fell. He spoke at their parish church and made numerous converts to the fledgling Quaker movement, including Margaret herself.  However, at this point she was the mother of 7 children, 3 of whom were under the age of 10, and her youngest daughter Rachel was born the following year. Thomas Fell was an assize judge who was frequently away from home travelling on his circuit. It was harder for Margaret to leave home and travel around preaching as others in the movement were doing. Instead, for most of the 1650s, she remained at Swarthmoor and became the hub of a Quaker information network that stretched across the world.  

Friends would write to her, letting her know the latest news or sending copies of epistles. Where necessary she would have the letters copied and sent on. Margaret wrote many letters herself, offering advice and support to Friends or speaking to those in power. She kept the letters that she was sent, as well as copies of some that she wrote, collecting them together in an archive. Margaret’s role as proto-archivist also involved other Friends sending her their correspondence to be kept or discarded as she saw fit. 

“Fox realised what most people who write their memoirs know: that they can determine what others know of the past by controlling the evidence that gives future generations knowledge of it… no details, no history, my details, my history” – H. Larry Ingle, 1993

George Fox was very aware of the importance of public perception. When the Society of Friends began in the 1650s they were a transgressive religious movement, despised by the established church and looked at with suspicion by those in power. After the return of King Charles II in 1660 this only got worse. George encouraged Friends to create records of their experiences, to define what Quakerism was as they saw it, to avoid being defined for posterity by those who were persecuting them. 

He also exerted control over the material Quakers published. Letters from within the Swarthmore Documents show that he expected to have copy approval over Quaker publications from 1653, a responsibility that was later delegated to Morning Meeting.

LSF MS Vol 354/39 – Excerpt from a letter written to George Fox by Thomas Aldam in 1653. He supports the idea of books being sent to George for review before going to the printers.

Margaret and George had formed an extremely strong partnership in the years following their first meeting and they were married in 1669. They worked together with other Friends to create an identity for Quakerism that would enable them to survive their initial struggles. This meant distancing themselves from extreme acts such as James Naylor’s “blasphemous” recreation of Christ’s entry into Jerusalem and adopting the peace testimony as a defining characteristic. 

After his imprisonment at Worcester in the 1670s, George began to think seriously about his legacy. He came to convalesce at Swarthmoor Hall after his release. Whilst there he dictated his autobiography (later published as his Journal), and sorted through Margaret’s collection of letters, ordering some to be copied for a London-based collection, editing some, and presumably destroying others. His endorsement appears on the majority of the surviving letters.

LSF MS Vol 364/10 – Detail from a letter between John Rous and his mother-in-law Margaret Fell. The first endorsement is in the handwriting of George Fox, the second in the handwriting of John Abraham, Margaret’s grandson.
LSF MS Vol 354/7 Detail showing George Fox’s endorsement, with copying instructions, on a letter from Thomas Hart and Robert Clarkson, 1658

Margaret held on to the curated documents, which now included the manuscript of George’s autobiography, and added to it letters she received in her later years. It was passed down her family to her grandson John Abraham. John split up the collection. Most of the surviving parts have found their way here to the Library, but some letters made it into collections in the United States, and others remain in private hands.

As part of the George Fox 400 celebrations we want to make these early Quaker letters more accessible. One way of doing that is producing the guide linked above, This will help a researcher to navigate them, but also provides links to existing transcripts that are easily accessible online. We have also been working with the PRINT project, a collaborative digital humanities project based at the University of Central Florida. This project provides access to 17th and 18th century letters from collections in the US, UK, the Netherlands and Germany. The letters relate to European religious minorities and migration across the Atlantic, and many of those selected are part of the Swarthmore Documents. 

We hope this project will make these letters accessible to a wider audience and encourage our readers to look at the letters and give transcription a try. You can find out more and have a go here: https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/printmigrationnetwork/print  

Selected Further Reading 

Ames, M (2017) Margaret Fell, Letters, and the Making of Quakerism. Oxford: Routledge. 

Larry Ingle, H ( 1993) “George Fox, Historian” Quaker History 82(1) pp.28-35. 

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GF400: Evolution of George Fox’s image

Posted on 29/02/2024 by Library of the Society of Friends

George Fox (1624-1691) was born in Leicestershire and is one of the founding figures of Quakerism.

Our Library & Archive collections hold many portraits of George Fox, most produced throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. None of the portraits can be authenticated as being made during Fox’s life. Most critics do not think he would have the time or patience to have sat for a portrait. Quakers focussed on concrete forms of expression in writing and preaching. They were avid and prolific publishers of Christian doctrine who travelled extensively.

Regardless, portraits of George Fox and other influential Quakers were made after their deaths because there was a demand and they sold well.

One of the first dedicated books critiquing Quaker portraiture is Wilfred Whitten’s Quaker Pictures, first published in 1897. It is a useful book to refer to though many assertions are from a personal perspective and without reference. One of the portraits Whitten refers to is an oddly interesting picture that shows the moment George Fox aged 30 became enlightened. George Fox, Ætat. 30, a stipple engraving by James Holmes based on the painting by Gerard Honthorst, was published in 1799.

(Library reference: LSF Pic Vol II/22) George Fox by James Holmes, after Gerard van Honthorst published 1799

This engraving was published by Quaker bookseller Thomas Clio Rickman (1761–1834), who at the time owned the 1654 oil painting by Honthorst on which the print is based. In 1932, National Portrait Gallery responded to a query from our then Librarian, confirming that Honthorst was only in England in 1628, when George Fox was only four years old. So he could not have painted him from life! The date of 1654 assigned on the print is questionable. The NPG confirmed that the painting was exhibited in the National Portrait Exhibition of 1866.

Paintings by Dutch artist, Egbert van Heemskerck (1634–1704) are known for satirical scenes of everyday people often in caricature poses. One example is, ‘A Quaker Meeting’ which depicts a gesticulating woman preaching in a dark dowdy space with most people looking indifferent or laughing at her. Many prints were made from this painting and sold as anti-Quaker.

(Library reference: LSF F70) The Quakers Meeting by  E. Heemskerck, c.1685
(Library reference: LSF 85_OV_P26 detail from The Quakers Meeting engraved by Bowles after E. Heemskerck, published c.1723

In William Hull’s article, Heemskerck’s Quaker Meeting, he suggests that George Fox and other known Quakers could have been depicted in this painting made circa 1685. Fox did spend several months in the Netherlands as Quakerism was received positively with a Yearly Meeting set up in Amsterdam. The John Bowles published engraving that Hull refers to shows ‘George Fox’ leaning and listening to the woman preaching. There is little evidence to confirm his identity and this print edition Hull refers to was made circa 1723.

For many years, the enigmatic portrait of George Fox attributed to Sir Peter Lely was thought to have been painted in Fox’s lifetime. The painting was bought in 1858 at an antique shop in London by John Wethered, an American congressman. The name Geo Fox written on the back of the canvas was apparently inscribed many years later.

(Library reference: LSF Pic Vol II/1) George Fox artist unknown, early 19thC.

After Wethered’s death, the portrait was donated to Swarthmore College where it currently resides. In a letter dated 1931 written by Alfred M. Brooks, professor of Fine Arts at Swarthmore College, the painting was authenticated as not being the work of Lely. It is another artistic representation of George Fox (allegedly) and in any case not painted in his lifetime.

In 1923, Library acquired an oil painting entitled Geo Fox, first Quaker which is painted in red on the canvas, located bottom right corner. This was not Fox at all, but John West (1690-1776), father of the artist Benjamin West (1738- 1820) who painted it. John West did become a Quaker later in life in 1759. This lovely portrait was painted circa 1765 and shows West’s father in typical 18th century Quaker male clothing. This is another example of how someone inscribed the name of George Fox on the canvas in order to sell it.

(Library reference: LSF F048) John West by Benjamin West, c.1765

I have always liked a little woodcut of George Fox and was sad to find that it was from the 19th century not 17th. In correspondence files from 1994, it was confirmed that the small portrait was printed and donated by Joseph Smith (1819-1896). According to a note in the Library’s MS Portfolio 20, describing its (unknown) origin, this ‘rude woodcut’ is believed to have been printed in ‘some publication’ during Fox’s lifetime. Sadly we do not know the name and date of the publication but nevertheless, this woodcut seems to have been influential in the evolution of Fox’s image, as the note suggests three prints were derived from this “17th century” portrait.

(Library reference: LSF MS Vol 339) Geo. Fox by unknown (woodcut), 19th century

The first of these portraits was published in 1822. The artist is unknown but in relation to the woodcut, has a similar pose though sitter is looking left and the hat is turned up.

The second is a lithograph drawn by William Dance published by Thomas Stackhouse in 1824, with deep set eyes and hat similar to the woodcut.

The third is engraved and published by Samuel Allen after a painting by Samuel Chinn sold by Harvey & Darton, 1838, with a thinner face and stature and, dare I say it, looking rather like the Quaker Oats logo (though their logo wasn’t created until 1877 and borrowed heavily from well-known published engravings of William Penn). This rendition of GF is artistically better executed than the woodcut and some other previous versions.

Searching online, there are many more similar portraits all depicting an older man with shoulder length grey hair wearing a wide brim hat and cravat. Many of these variations of ‘George Fox’ seem to come from a lithograph drawn by Thomas Fairland, published by William Darton & Son circa 1830s. It adds to a long list of portraits in circulation, printed by various publishers, all borrowing heavily from each other on pose, dress and style.

(Library reference: Pic L3_6) GF lithograph by Fairland published by William Darton & Son c.1830

The main publisher for these prints was Quaker William Darton (1755-1819) who began his business in 1787 as a printer, engraver and book publisher in London under W. Darton & Co. then partnership with another Quaker, Joseph Harvey (1764-1841), setting up the firm of Darton & Harvey.

Turning briefly to sculpture, the library has an imposing bronze bust of George Fox by Sir Alfred Turner (1874-1940). Donated to the Library in 1906, Turner based the bust on numerous portraits of GF and the death mask of Oliver Cromwell to create a sense of strength and dignity. The bust was commissioned by the donor and was created in 1901.

(Library reference: LSF RROB1) George Fox by Sir Alfred Turner, 1901

Quaker painter and print maker, Robert Spence (1871-1964), took it upon himself to illustrate George Fox’s Journal. Born in Tynemouth, son of the artist Charles Spence, he studied in Newcastle, at Slade School of Fine Art and in Paris. His father was a great collector of Quaker material and had inherited the Spence Collection of manuscripts, which includes the hand written manuscript of George Fox’s Journal and other works by early Friends. When this manuscript was rebound, the first six pages are dedicated to the various published portraits of George Fox!

Spence’s etchings show scenes described in George Fox’s Journal, and were created over a number of years with the earliest in 1892, the latest in 1954. His portrait of George Fox at Swarthmoor Hall, made in 1950, was used for the front cover of revised edition of The Journal of George Fox by John L. Nickalls, 1997 printing.

(Library reference: LSF SE_1) detail of George Fox at Swarthmoor Hall by Robert Spence, c.1950

The ongoing curiosity of what George Fox looked like continues into the 21st century. On the cover of The Friend (28 April 2023), artificial intelligence tool, Open Art generated a portrait with the prompt ‘George Fox age 28 wearing hat, standing on Pendle Hill in a modern painting’. The result was a composite of all the George Fox’s portraits currently circulating on the Internet. After looking at countless GF’s as a middle aged man, it is fascinating to see an artistic representation of a younger man.

As the centuries pass and artistic styles change, the continuing evolution of George Fox’s portrait will too. There is nothing wrong in an attempt to visualise an influential enigmatic Friend whose charisma and teaching had such a profound effect on the spiritual growth of Quakerism.

Melissa Atkinson, Special Collections Curator

George Fox, AI generated by Open Art, 2023, from The Friend, 28 April 2023.

References:

Nickalls, John, Some Quaker Portraits Certain and Uncertain,
London : Friends Historical Society ; Philadelphia, Pa. : Friends Historical Association, 1958 pages 7-9

Whitten, Wilfred, Quaker Pictures [first series]
London : Headley Brothers, ; 1897, pages 1-7

Punshon, John, Portrait in Grey: a short history of the Quakers
London : Society of Friends. London Yearly Meeting. Quaker Home Service, 1984. page 38

Hull, William ‘Heemskerck’s Quaker Meeting’. In Bulletin of Friends Historical Association Philadelphia, vol. 27 (Spring 1938), pages 17-58

Von Effra, Helmut and Staley, Allen The Paintings of Benjamin West
London: Yale University Press 1986, page 461

The Quaker Meeting by Egbert van Heemskerck on the Royal Collection website, https://www.rct.uk/collection/402980/the-quaker-meeting

The Quaker’s Meeting after Egbert van Heemskerck published by John Bowles, c1723-1768. On the British Museum website: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1871-0211-18

The Friend 28 April 2023, volume 181, no. 17 The Friend Publications Ltd., front cover and page 15

LSF Portfolio 20/145 note from Joseph Smith, transcribed by J. Lewellyn Curtis, circa 1890

LSF MS Box 5_18 letter from Alfred M. Brooks Swarthmore College re: Lely painting, dated November 27, 1931

LSF MS BOX V2_4 letter from Burlington Galleries re: Honthorst painting, dated February 9th, 1914

LSF MS Box 6_17 letter from National Portrait Gallery re: Honthorst painting and print, September 27th 1932

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How a teacup made its way home to tell a story of Quaker activism: working with the Faith Museum

Posted on 09/10/2023 by Library of the Society of Friends

by Melissa Atkinson

For the last few years, I have had the privilege of being involved with a new museum project at Auckland Castle in Bishop Auckland, County Durham. This regeneration project encompassed renovating the castle and its grounds with a new heritage centre, galleries and a museum focusing on the history of faith in Britain.

In August 2014, one of the Project Curators contacted me about the development of the new Faith Museum. It would be the first museum in England to explore a history of faith and belief in the British Isles from prehistory to the present day, using personal histories of faith through rare and compelling objects.

Due to the complexity of organising an exhibition and borrowing material from other institutions, museum exhibition planning and preparation are developed up to ten years in advance. Large-scale projects evolve over time, budgets are cut, pandemics intervene and plans change, so the Faith Museum itself has evolved, producing a gallery layout that is now thematic, rather than based on a chronological approach. The objects have been selected from their own collections, as well as private and public collections such as ours.


Constantine Fine Art transport team in the Library, packing the teacup and saucer for its move up north

The Library’s collections encompass a vast range of material such as letters, diaries and objects from people involved with the beginning of Quakerism. Letters written by Anne Audland (1627-1705), a minister jailed at Auckland for preaching, are one example. Quakerism had a strong following in the North East and at Auckland a building was bought for use as a meeting house in 1686.

Due to space limitation and the need for other stories to be told, a long list of potential objects to loan was eventually narrowed down to an “abolitionist” teacup and saucer with direct links to the North East.

The teacup and saucer were part of larger tea set owned by Quakers Joseph Taylor (1783-1860) and Elizabeth [nee Harris] (1788-1873) and their 12 children, of Middlesbrough. The family boycotted sugar produced on plantations using slave labour. This tea set and others like it helped raised awareness of the issues and promoted the campaign.  

Abolitionist cup and saucer on loan for 3 years to the Faith Museum (LSF 37a & 37b)

The teacup and saucer are made of bone china with a transfer print made circa 1820-30 from Staffordshire potteries. Many Quakers joined the campaign to boycott the products of enslavement, such as dyes, cotton and sugar.

In the 1820 to 1830s many female anti-slavery associations were set up. Female campaigners including Elizabeth Heyrick (1769-1831) helped organised a mass sugar boycott, produced leaflets, raised funds and abstained from slave grown sugar.

We’re delighted that a museum object from our collections, with an interesting story shedding light on Quaker witness, can now be on display so close to where it was owned by a Quaker family. Joining over 250 other objects telling the story of multi-faith Britain, our teacup and saucer with their own unique social history can now be seen by a new audience, in a brand new venue.

The Faith Museum opens October 2023. Details can be found here:

https://aucklandproject.org/venues/faith-museum/

Abolitionist cup and saucer along with other objects in display case at the Faith Museum.
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Creating a world without war: project completed

Posted on 01/11/2022 by Library of the Society of Friends

We are delighted to announce that we have completed the core work of the Wellcome Trust funded project to catalogue and preserve the records of the Friends Ambulance Unit (FAU) and Friends Relief Service (FRS) from World War Two. 

Both collections have been repacked in conservation grade materials, and fully catalogued on our online public access catalogue to make them accessible for research. 

We are very grateful to the Wellcome Trust for funding this work, and their support during the pandemic, and also to our heroic project archivist Jill Geber who managed to maintain a positive attitude throughout, when the pandemic made this project seem at times impossible. 

One of the most important, and satisfying elements of this project was the conservation work. Parts of these collections were completely unfit for use due to their fragility, and most of the collection was in danger of becoming unusable due to the damage being wrought by rusting metal fastenings. Paper was crumbling in some parts, and due to overfilled files and boxes, a lot of the material was under strain.  

Despite the huge setback of not being able to work with the collections for much of 2020, Jill managed to repack the collections, cleaning paper, removing damaging fastenings, transferring into archival quality files, protecting individual documents with melinex sleeves where required, and packing all into acid-free boxes within the project timeframe. One mind-boggling figure which demonstrates the size of the job is the number of brass staples used across the collections: over 9,000! The photos below show the difference which has been made; ensuring these collections suffer no further deterioration.

An example of a file before conservation work. Note dirt at edges of paper, rusting metal fastening causing damage to paper, dirt on file cover making it difficult to handle.
A file after conservation work. The paper has been cleaned with a smoke sponge, delicate pages placed within plastic sleeves, all fastenings removed and papers enclosed in an archive quality folder.

The cataloguing work was the other major task, made no less difficult by the complexity of Quaker organisations; FRS had no less than 12 main committees, some with sub (and sub-sub-) committees, and attached departments for each committee, plus extra departments not governed by committees (phew!). They needed organizational charts to keep track at the time, and Jill created a few herself trying the understand how both organisations functioned. 

One of the attempts at an organisational chart for FAU to help arrange the catalogue series

Both collections are now available on the online catalogues under the below links. Under these top levels records, you will see the hierarchy browser where you can expand to see the whole collections. 

Friends Ambulance Unit World War Two catalogue

Friends Relief Service World War Two catalogue

These collections provide a huge amount for researchers. From detailed insights into day-to-day life in evacuation hostels for children and the elderly in Britain, to high level discussions about how this work influenced development of social services theory for postwar planning; from accounts of incredibly varied medical work in the field in China and North Africa, to eyewitness testimony to the destruction left behind in mainland Europe, and the tangled chaos of the postwar political scene, there is huge scope for new research as well as much for the family historian and those with general interest in humanitarianism and World War Two.

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Restore and renew: the Library refurbishment project

Posted on 04/10/2021 by Library of the Society of Friends
Library moodboard

We took the decision in 2020 to try to use the closure of the Library of the Society of Friends due to the pandemic as a positive opportunity, and use the time to carry out some long overdue refurbishment work on our reading room. While there was some necessary maintenance work such as painting and upgrading window blinds, we also thought about how to futureproof use of the room and expand the potential for holding events, creating an ambitious programme of work. We want to share the story so far.

The last major refurbishment of the Library was in 1993. At that time the room had been subdivided to allow staff working space as well as reader space and the decision was taken to strip this out and return the room to sole use for readers; this was also aimed at returning the room to look more like its original design when Friends House opened in 1926.

We have given similar thought to this major refurbishment, knowing it may be another 20-30 years before another opportunity arises to refurbish and change fixtures and fittings.

Inspired by the fabulous photograph of the Library as it was when Friends House first opened in the 1920s, we decided to lift some carpet tiles and see if the original wooden floor beneath was intact…..it was, albeit with some sections removed for electrical wiring. We took the decision to restore the wooden floor which will be the centerpiece of the refurbishment programme.

Photo of the Library from the 1920s

We considered how the space in the room is being used currently and what improvements might be made, taking into account ideas for outreach, events we have held in the past, and other colleagues in Britain Yearly Meeting who use events spaces. While protecting a research space is paramount for our service, we also want the Library to be a space that works for other stakeholders, including Quakers during Yearly Meeting and on visits to Friends House.

With that in mind we are removing some of the larger fixed pieces of furniture to create a more flexible space for events. We look forward to Quakers and colleagues sharing creative ideas about events and activities the room could be used for.

Continuing the theme of creating a more welcoming space for all, we are replacing the enquiry desk with something less imposing and accessible for all users, and hopefully installing glass paneled doors so people can see what’s on offer from outside the Library.

Achieving this programme of work in a listed building, while at the same time protecting our collections from the inevitable dust, debris and paint, is a huge task, not made any easier by our current reduced access to Friends House and Covid-safe working practices. We have removed many of the more vulnerable and valuable collections from the room for their protection including a nervous day with art handlers removing sculpture from the high alcoves in the room!

Removal of statue from high alcove

As always with building works, unforeseen setbacks have occurred including the need to update wiring in the room, as well as the supply issues which we have all heard about in the news. We are learning a lot about the challenges our Facilities team face in their work, increasing our admiration for their positive, can-do attitude!

We also have a huge game of Tetris to fit collections back into the room and our basement storage with reduced shelf space which will keep us occupied for the next few months.

We are grateful for the patience of our readers during this time, and currently hope to be able to welcome readers back to the new and improved space in early 2022. Keep an eye on the Visit the Library page on our website for further updates closer to the time.

We are now going onsite more frequently and have some access to collections, so invite researchers to get in touch and see what we can do to support their research.

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