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Ann Upton, Quaker Bibliographer & Special Collections Librarian (HC)

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Biographical Dictionaries
Quaker Biographical Sources

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Biographical Resources for Identifying Quakers

There are many resources for finding information about people's lives -- biographical dictionaries and encyclopedias, journal articles, chapters of books, and entire books. The sources listed below either cover Quakers exclusively or include a number of Quakers prominent in a particular field.

Broad Coverage:

Biography and genealogy master index

Provides citations to reference sources and important retrospective works that cover individuals both living and deceased from every field of activity and from all areas of the world.

Biography resource center

Provides access to biographical sources on over 325,000 people from throughout history, around the world, and across all disciplines and subject areas. Includes full-text articles from hundreds of periodicals.

The New York times obituaries index, 1858-1968.

Publisher: New York : New York times, 1970.

The New York times obituaries index, 1969-1978.

Publisher: New York, New York times, 1980.

Biographical Dictionaries:

American reformers, 1815-1860

Author: Walters, Ronald G.

Publisher: New York : Hill and Wang, 1978.

American reformers, 1870-1920

Publisher: Lanham, Md. : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, c2006.

Brief but incisive biographical sketches of principal American reformers from the 17th century to modern times. Index by category such as Abolition and Ecology.

American social leaders

Author: McGuire, William, 1917- Wheeler, Leslie, 1945-

Publisher: Santa Barbara, Calif. : ABC-CLIO, 1993.

Contains 350 profiles of American men and women who have been leaders of social and intellectual movements in the U.S. since colonial times.

Biographical dictionary of British radicals in the seventeenth century

Publisher: Brighton, Sussex : Harvester Press, 1982-1984.

Includes articles on numerous Quakers identified in the name index.

A Biographical dictionary of English women writers, 1580-1720

Publisher: Boston, Mass. : G.K. Hall, c1990.

More than a third of the writers included in this dictionary are Quakers.

Biographical dictionary of modern peace leaders

Publisher: Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, 1985.

Includes deceased individuals active after 1800 who significantly contributed to the creation of alternatives to war, violence and power politics as ways of dealing with international conflict. Also includes a selective chronology of the peace movement and index.

Dictionary of American religious biography

Author: Bowden, Henry Warner.

Publisher: Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, c1993.

Features sketches of ten Quakers, including Elias Hicks and John Woolman, as well as less known figures such as Jemima Wilkinson. See the Quaker listings on page 646

Dictionary of scientific biography.

Publisher: New York, Scribner.

Includes indexes by subject, and by personal and place names, as well as useful appendices.

The dictionary of seventeenth-century British philosophers

Publisher: Bristol, England ; Thoemmes, 2000.

Also includes biographical, bibliographical and critical information on theologians, scientists, mathematicians and poets.

Lawmaking and legislators in Pennsylvania

Publisher: Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press, c1991-

Includes indexes by subject and by personal and place names, as well as useful appendices.

Notable American women

"For each subject, Notable American Women offers a substantial interpretive biographical essay by a distinguished authority that integrates the woman's personal life with her professional achievements set in the context of larger historical developments."--Publisher's website.

Quaker Biographical Sources:

American Friend Obituary Index

See this online index for obituaries of Friends who were members of the Five Years Meeting – mostly Gurneyites. Also a good resource for those involved in Quaker missionary work in the Caribbean, Latin America and Africa.

Annual monitor ... index.

Publisher: London : E. Hicks, jun., 1894.

Obituaries of Members of the Society of Friends in Great Britain and Ireland 1813 - 1892.

Biographical catalog of the matriculates of Haverford college

Author: Haverford College. Alumni Association. Haverford College. Alumni Association

Publisher: Philadelphia, 1922.

Brief biographical entries for men who matriculated from 1833-1922.

A biographical dictionary of Irish Quakers

Author: Harrison, Richard S.

Publisher: Dublin, Ireland ; Four Courts Press, c1997.

The information provided in these biographical pieces is a mixture of family history, information on commercial life and anecdotal material giving a sense of each personality involved. In addition to the expected entries for different Bewleys, Pims, Jacobs, Newsoms, and Richardsons etc., there are many other names listed not now remembered as Quakers. There are Quakers included from all four provinces and most major towns and cities as well as Quakers who emigrated to North America. This book provides an important new research tool.

Entries are a mixture of family history, commerical life, and anecdotal material and include Quakers who passed through Ireland as well as those who lived their whole lives there. Date coverage is 1655-1990. Place, name and subject index increases usefulness.

A biographical index of Quakers in Australia before 1862

Author: Oats, Marjorie. Oats, William Nicolle, 1912-

Publisher: Hobart, Tasmania : [s.n.], 1992.

Covers early yearls of settlement by Quaker immigrants up to 1861.

The diary of Elizabeth Drinker

Author: Drinker, Elizabeth Sandwith, 1734-1807. Crane, Elaine Forman.

Publisher: Boston : Northeastern University Press, c1991.

Elizabeth Sandwith Drinker (1734-1807) was an affluent Quaker Philadelphian who faithfully noted in her diary the daily details of her life over 49 years. This remarkable diary, accurately transcribed and capably annotated, is an unparalleled source for the study of 18th-century American life. Drinker reported and commented on the events of the American Revolution, the activities of the Society of Friends, the growth of Philadelphia, illnesses and their treatments, household chores, the weather, and crime. Above all, as editor Crane notes in her fine introduction, the diary brims with the history of "how people lived and what they did--as it appeared to a contemporary woman." These volumes are a treasure to be mined by all those interested in the history of women, the family, medicine, and 18th-century society. - David B. Mattern, Univ. of Virginia, Charlottesville.

Vol. 3 has an extensive biographical index identifying people in 18th century Quaker Philadelphia.

Encyclopedia of American Quaker genealogy

Author: Hinshaw, William Wade, 1867-1947. Marshall, Thomas Worth, 1872-1952.

Publisher: Ann Arbor, Mich. : Edwards Bros. ; 1936-

Indexes vital statistics from earliest American Quaker meetings in North Carrolina, Philadelphia, New York City and Long Island, Ohio, Virginia and Indiana.

Dictionary of Australian Quaker biography

Author: Australia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Australia. Oats, Marjorie. 1912-

Publisher: Hobart, Tasmania : [Australia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Australia], 1989-

Biographical sketches in outline of approximately 20,000 European, English, and American Friends from the seventeenth century to the 1980s.

The Dictionary of Quaker biography.

Publisher: Haverford, Pa. : Haverford College, Magill Library, Special Collections,

Historical dictionary of the Friends (Quakers)

Publisher: Lanham, Md. : Scarecrow Press, 2003.

Excellent and current.

Members of the prison society: biographical vignettes, 1776-1830,

Author: Jonitis, Peter P.

Publisher: [Haverford, Pa.] , 1982.

Many of the managers were Quakers.

Living in the light

Publisher: Kennett Square, Pa. (Box 728, Kennett Square 19348) : Friends General Conference and Quaker Publications, c1984-

Living in the light

Publisher: Kennett Square, Pa. (Box 728, Kennett Square 19348) : Friends General Conference and Quaker Publications, c1985.

Brief biographies of 40 20th-century Quakers who were pioneers in various social movements in the US and in the wider world. Indexed by subjects and authors in Tripod.

Pamphlet Collection

A collection of 15,000 pamphlets and ephemera by author, issuing body, or subject including printed material such as newsletters, reports, and booklets on all aspects of Quaker interests. Available by keyword search on Tripod.
Note: PG 5 – Society of Friends – Obituaries
PG 6 – Biographical Files

Quaker necrology index.

Publisher: Haverford, Pa. : Haverford College, Magill Library, Special Collections.

Alphabetical index by surname to death notices in eight American Quaker periodicals.

The Quakers

Author: Barbour, Hugh. Frost, J. William

Publisher: New York : Greenwood Press, 1988.

See "Part Two: A Biographical Dictionary of Former Quaker Leaders in America."

Quaker Reference Index

Selective index to historical and biographical articles in several periodicals, books and manuscripts. Card catalog adjacent to department entrance.