Category Archives: Projects

Restore and renew: the Library refurbishment project

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 … Continue reading

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A 17th century Recording Clerk’s library: Richard Richardson’s books

As part of the ongoing work to improve access to the Library’s printed books and pamphlets we have now added the Richardson Collection to our online catalogue. Unlike the other early books catalogued as part of the project, these books … Continue reading

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War and social order

Reimagining a True Social Order is a new AHRC funded website exploring the historic background and contemporary significance of the Eight Foundations of a True Social Order, first agreed by London Yearly Meeting in 1918. Inspired by the richness of … Continue reading

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Celebrating more collections information online

Every archive is faced with the problem of growing backlogs of material waiting to be added to their online catalogues and made accessible for users. It is a skilled and time consuming task to update old catalogue entries in paper format to digital … Continue reading

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Opening up the manuscript collections: an update on our online cataloguing project

What do silhouettes, the  South Sea journals of Daniel Wheeler, press-cuttings on the General Strike, and a 100 year-old phial of anti-tetanus serum have in common? They’re all to be found in the Library’s main manuscript series, which currently comprises over … Continue reading

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The French Revolution: Quakers and cockades

When our project cataloguer came across a cockade (a type of ribbon rosette for wearing on a hat or pinned to a garment) from 1792 revolutionary France among the A. Ruth Fry papers (TEMP MSS 373), belonging to John Hodgkin … Continue reading

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Sole survivor? A Dutch broadside by an early 18th century woman Friend

A few weeks ago we were enthralled to discover that the Library holds what is possibly the sole surviving copy of an early 18th century broadside by a little known woman Friend, Margaret Langdale (1684?-1742). It’s an undated exhortation in … Continue reading

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The Hawkins Collection: an early Quaker library, its provenance and some puzzles

We’ve recently finished cataloguing the contents of the Hawkins Collection – a remarkable private library bequeathed by Richard Hawkins (1649?-1735) to Westminster Monthly Meeting. The collection consists of 86 bound volumes containing over 1,200 individual publications – books, pamphlets and … Continue reading

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Friends Emergency and War Victims Relief Committee cataloguing project: relief and reconstruction during World War I and beyond

A 15 month project to catalogue the archives of the Friends Emergency and War Victims Relief Committee (FEWVRC) has now been completed, making accessible the records of an unprecedented Quaker relief effort during and after World War I. The project, … Continue reading

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Horses – bits and bots: the writings of Bracy Clark, F.L.S.

It’s the Chinese Year of the Horse – not much Quaker material there you might well think. If you were researching horses and equine veterinary practice, our Library would hardly be your first port of call. You might – perhaps … Continue reading

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