No. 10, by J. Walter West. The manuscript collection has steadily increased in size in the past 150 years, and now contains more than 250,000 items. The manuscripts include personal letters, journals or diaries, archives of Quaker institutions, meeting records, deeds account books and other non-printed materials. In addition to the William Penn letters in the Pemberton gift, there are other Penn items, and letters written by George Fox, Margaret Fell, Robert Barclay, Elizabeth Haddon Estaugh, James Logan, Peter Collinson, John and Samuel Fothergill, John Woolman, Anthony Benezet, Rebecca Jones and William Savery in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Some items are copies, but most are originals.
While these are mostly individual items, there are also larger collections of the papers of important men and women who lived in the two centuries since 1870. This page maintained by Diana Franzusoff Peterson . Last updated on August 27, 1998.