Friends Historical Collection
Collection Development Statement
The Friends Historical Collection of Guilford College is the repository for the records of most Friends meetings in the state of North Carolina and some in adjacent states. Around this core of unique records dating from 1680 is assembled a collection of books, periodicals, archives of Quaker organizations, private manuscripts, and artifacts related to Quaker families and Quaker history worldwide, with special emphasis on the American Southeast.
Principal sponsorship of the collection is by Guilford College, which provides its facility and most of its staff cost and owns most of its materials. North Carolina Yearly Meeting of Friends and its constituent meeting provide part of the salary of one staff member and own most of the Quaker records on deposit. Other organizations, including North Carolina Yearly Meeting (Conservative), provide further support, as does endowment income.
Selection of materials including acceptance of gifts for the collection rests with the librarian. The minutes and records of Friends meetings are accepted as a matter of course, subject to restrictions agreed upon by depositing bodies and the collection. The collection encourages Quaker organizations to deposit their records also. It is expected however that they will assume a substantial portion of the financial cost associated with the listing, indexing, preservation, storage, and retrieval of these materials.
Artifacts will be accepted subject to the following criteria: (1) association with a prominent Friend, particularly in the Southeast, (2) manufacture by a Friend, (3) state of preservation, (4) degree of rarity, (5) representativeness of Quaker culture, (6) aesthetic merit, (7) associations with Guilford College (New Garden Boarding School), (8) representativeness of the outstanding activeness of prominent Friends, and (9) ability of the staff and collection adequately to preserve and/or restore, care for, and exhibit materials. No promise in regard to exhibiting artifacts will be made.
Manuscripts and other personal papers associated with Friends (particularly in the Southeast), with Guilford Collegians (or their predecessors at New Garden Boarding School), and with others who have been close to Friends are particularly sought. In addition the collection seeks papers relating to social reform movements in which Friends have played an active role. Examples include the minutes of the nineteenth-century North Carolina Manumission Society, and the papers of Sam and Miriam Levering relating to the twentieth-century Ocean Education Project. Such collections have an appeal beyond the Quaker community and enhance the college's reputation among scholars.
The collection has long been a center for genealogical research because of its extensive early Quaker records. The bequest of the papers of William Perry Johnson, leading North Carolina genealogist, is expected to increase the collection's appeal in this area. While the study of Quaker family history is a potentially valuable area of research, it does it does not pertain directly to either the college's, the scholar's, or the student's needs. Therefore additional major collections of genealogical research papers are not being sought. Acceptance of such materials would be contingent upon their relevance to the rest of the collection, the amount of space they occupy, the state of their organization, their usefulness to scholarly researchers, and the availability of financial resources for processing, storing, and preserving them.
The college, as an academic institution is dedicated to the promotion of scholarship, and as a Quaker institution dedicated to study and transmission of a religious heritage, has an obligation to collect, preserve, and make available primary sources of research, particularly for Quaker history, that would otherwise be lost or inaccessible. The college's financial support for development of the collection therefore is both necessary and appropriate. It is also appropriate that other organizations which deposit their materials in the Friends Historical Collection pay a substantial part of the cost of maintaining them. Acceptance of these and other materials entails a commitment by the college not only to care for them properly but also to make them available for use. The college benefits because its reputation is enhanced when it receives important collections that are used widely by scholars. This reputation results ultimately in additional gifts and deposits. However, the depositing body benefits the most in that its own institutional memory is preserved and made available thereby in ways it could no otherwise afford. Shared cost reflects shared benefit.
The financial resources of Guilford College alone are not sufficient to care for all the collections of materials it would like to accept for its Friends Historical Collection. Collection development depends therefore to some degree on outside contributions. These may come from individuals, foundations, or other sources. The most propitious time for securing these funds is when gifts are made. In many cases the donors may be important sources of information and even of assistance in securing funds. In others the college may know of foundation whose interest lies in the areas of particular gifts. Although no appropriate collection should be declined solely because funds are inadequate, it is important that funds be sought in connection with acceptance of the gift.
