The University of Massachusetts Amherst
Robert S. Cox Special Collections & University Archives Research Center
CredoResearch digital collections in Credo

Collecting area: Quakers

Jones, Rufus

Rufus Jones: A Luminous Life Collection

2000-2002
2 boxes 1.75 linear feet
Call no.: MS 1181
Rufus Jones: A Luminous Life documentary cover image, with portrait of Jones
Rufus Jones: A Luminous Life documentary

The 2001 documentary Rufus Jones: A Luminous Life was produced by members of Wellesley Friends Meeting in Massachusetts. Documentary film maker Sharon Mullally recorded interviews with people who knew Jones as a colleague, teacher, or mentor, and with Quaker scholars about placing Jones’s life and legacy into context. Mullally and Barbara Attie served as Producers and Directors, and Frederic G. Corneel served as Executive Producer of the 40-minute documentary. A 28-minute broadcast version aired on PBS in 2002.

Rufus Matthew Jones (1863-1948) was a Quaker leader, mystic, philosopher, and activist, born in Maine. One of the most influential Quakers of the 20th century, Jones was widely published; helped found the American Friends Service Committee; was a world traveler, lecturer, and learner; helped instigate the Quäkerspeisung feeding program after World War I; and worked to heal the divide between two branches of American Quakerism that split in the mid-19th century. Jones attended the Providence Friends School in Rhode Island and Haverford College in Pennsylvania, and having obtained an MA from Harvard, returned to Haverford as a professor of Psychology and Philosophy.

The Rufus Jones: A Luminous Life Collection consists of the raw, edited, and final versions of the materials used to create the documentary, Rufus Jones: A Luminous Life. It contains videotaped interviews with people who knew Jones as well as Quaker scholars, archival film footage and archival audio of Jones and the places he lived and worked, as well as several copies of the completed documentary. Formats include Betacam SP, DVCAM, and DVD.

Gift of Sharon Mullally, January 2023.

Subjects

American Friends Service CommitteeJones, Rufus M. (Rufus Matthew), 1863-1948QuakersSociety of Friends

Types of material

Betacam-SPVideo recordings (physical artifacts)
Lawrence-Andover Friends Meeting

Lawrence-Andover Friends Meeting Records

1886-1987
21 vols., 2 boxes 3.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 902 L397

The Lawrence Monthly Meeting of Friends evolved from Boston Monthly in the late 1880s and 1890s, achieving status as a monthly meeting in 1899. Although they became inactive in 1985, they were revived in 1994, and joined with a preparative meeting in Andover to form the present Lawrence-Andover Monthly Meeting.

The records of Lawrence-Andover Monthly Meeting include a relatively complete set of minutes, extending back to the earliest days as a preparative meeting to about the time of its becoming inactive in the mid-1980s. The collection also includes minutes and accounts for its Elizabeth Fry Missionary Circle, its Leprosy Mission, Missionary Society, and Sabbath School, along with records of births, deaths, and marriages in the meeting, 1892-1975.

Gift of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, April 2017

Subjects

Lawrence (Mass.)--Religious life and customsMissionaries--MassachusettsQuakers--MassachusettsSociety of Friends--Massachusetts

Contributors

New England Yearly Meeting of Friends

Types of material

Minutes (Administrative records)Vital records (Document genre)
Lewiston Monthly Meeting of Friends

Lewiston Monthly Meeting of Friends Records

1980-1993
1 box 0.25 linear feet
Call no.: MS 902 L495

The Society of Friends has had a long, but discontinuous history in Lewiston, Maine. After periods of activity from 1785-1851 and 1867-1911, Quaker worship in Lewiston was revived in 1972, leading to reinstatement of a monthly meeting in 1980. Oxford Hills Monthly Meeting was set off from Lewiston in 1993.

The records of the Quaker meeting in Lewiston, Maine, cover its third and most recent iteration, including minutes from 1980 to 1993 ad a handful of state of society reports. The collection also include limited documentation of the Oxford Hills Worship Group prior to its setting off as a monthly meeting in 1993.

Gift of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, April 2017

Subjects

Lewiston (Me.)--Religious life and customsQuakers--MaineSociety of Friends--Maine

Contributors

New England Yearly Meeting of Friends

Types of material

Minutes (Administrative records)
Litchfield Hills Monthly Meeting of Friends

Litchfield Hills Monthly Meeting of Friends Records

1979-1991
1 folder 0.1 linear feet
Call no.: MS 902 L583

The Quaker Litchfield Hills Monthly Meeting began as a worship group in Watertown, Conn., that met under the care of Hartford Monthly Meeting from 1969 to 1974. Set off as a monthly meeting in 1975, the name was changed to Litchfield Hills in 1980. The meeting has been part of Connecticut Valley Quarter since its establishment.

The scant documentation of the Litchfield Hills Monthly Meeting consist solely of an incomplete run of meeting minutes from 1979-1984 and a state of the society report from 1980.

Gift of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, April 2017

Subjects

Litchfield (Conn.)--Religious life and customsQuakers--ConnecticutSociety of Friends--Connecticut

Contributors

New England Yearly Meeting of Friends

Types of material

Minutes (Administrative records)
Maple Grove Monthly Meeting of Friends

Maple Grove Monthly Meeting of Friends Records

1890-1955
1 vol. 0.2 linear feet
Call no.: MS 902 M375

After meeting as a worship group for thirty years in Fort Fairfield in the northern reaches of Maine, Maple Grove Monthly Meeting of Friends was set off Unity Monthly Meeting in 1890. It was a part of Vassalboro Quarterly Meeting until it was laid down in 1962 to Vassalboro Monthly.

The single volume of surviving records from Maple Grove contain a nearly complete run of minutes for the duration of the monthly meeting, lacking only the last seven years.

Gift of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, April 2017

Subjects

Fort Fairfield (Me.)--Religious life and customsQuakers--MaineSociety of Friends--Maine

Contributors

New England Yearly Meeting of Friends

Types of material

Minutes (Administrative records)
Marion Monthly Meeting of Friends

Marion Monthly Meeting of Friends Records

1973-1990
1 box 0.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 902 M3756

Quakers have a tangled history in Marion, Mass., a coastal town located on the northwestern edge of Buzzards Bay. As early as 1702, Friends established a preparative meeting in the village of Sippican (currently part of Marion), however this fed particular meetings in the neighboring towns of Rochester or Mattapoisett, rather than Marion itself. An independent worship ground was established in East Marion in 1946, followed in 1970 by a separate independent meeting in Marion under the care of Sandwich Quarter. This latter became the core of Marion Monthly Meeting, which was formally set off in 1973. The meeting was laid down in 1992.

Somewhat intermingled, this collection documents the complete, though comparatively brief history of the Quaker monthly meeting in Marion, Mass. It includes a thorough set of minutes for all but the final two years of the meeting, plus a small quantity of correspondence and financial information.

Gift of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, April 2017

Subjects

Marion (Mass.)--Religious life and customsQuakers--MassachusettsSociety of Friends--Massachusetts

Contributors

New England Yearly Meeting of Friends

Types of material

Minutes (Administrative records)Newsletters
Martha’s Vineyard Friends Meeting

Martha's Vineyard Friends Meeting Records

1984-2007
1 vol., 1 box 0.35 linear feet
Call no.: MS 902 M378

A Quaker worship group was held on Martha’s Vineyard from 1946 to 1953 under the care of Providence Monthly Meeting and was revived as an independent worship group in 1978. The group was accorded status as a monthly meeting under Sandwich Quarter in 1984.

The collection contains a nearly complete set of minutes for the Martha’s Vineyard Friends Meeting from its inception in 1984 to 2007.

Gift of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, April 2017

Subjects

Martha's Vineyard (Mass.)--Religious life and customsQuakers--MassachusettsSociety of Friends--Massachusetts

Contributors

New England Yearly Meeting of Friends

Types of material

Minutes (Administrative records)
Midcoast Friends Meeting

Midcoast Friends Meeting Records

1964-2009
2 boxes 0.75 linear feet
Call no.: MS 902 M533

Founded in coastal Camden, Maine, the Midcoast Friends Meeting began as an independent worship group in 1962 and was set off as Camden Monthly Meeting in 1964. After the meeting moved to Damariscotta, it changed name in 1972 to Midcoast Friends Meeting.

The records of Midcoast Monthly Meeting (formerly Camden Monthly) are comprised of a nearly unbroken run of minutes from 1964 to 2009, lacking only 2002.

Gift of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, April 2017

Subjects

Camden (Me.)--Religious life and customsDamariscotta (Me.)--Religious life and customsQuakers--MaineSociety of Friends--Maine

Contributors

New England Yearly Meeting of Friends

Types of material

Minutes (Administrative records)
Middlebury Friends Meeting

Middlebury Friends Meeting Records

1979-2023
2 boxes 1 linear feet
Call no.: MS 902 M5335

Middlebury, Vermont, was home to a Quaker worship group affiliated with Burlington Monthly Meeting from 1956 to 1962, and again beginning in 1970. This latter group led to formation of a preparative meeting in 1971 and to setting off as a monthly meeting in 1976 under the care of Northwest Quarter. Middlebury Friends Meeting has overseen the preparative meeting in South Starksboro Monthly (1982-1996) and a worship group in Rochester.

The meticulously maintained records of Middlebury Friends Meeting include a comprehensive set of minutes and extensive newsletters for the meeting beginning at the time of its establishment.

Gift of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, April 2017

Subjects

Middlebury (Vt.)--Religious life and customsQuakers--VermontSociety of Friends--Vermont

Contributors

New England Yearly Meeting of Friends

Types of material

Minutes (Administrative records)Newsletters
Middletown Monthly Meeting of Friends

Middletown Monthly Meeting of Friends Records

1983-2023
1 box 0.5 linear feet
Call no.: MS 902 M5337

Friends in Middletown, Connecticut, began holding meetings under the care of Hartford Monthly Meeting by 1943 and were set off as a monthly meeting of their own in 1956. Drawing heavily from the faculty and staff at Wesleyan College, at least in their early years, the meeting is part of Connecticut Valley Quarter.

The records of Middletown Monthly Meeting document more than sixty years of a Quaker meeting in the lower Connecticut Valley beginning in the mid-1950s.

Gift of New England Yearly Meeting of Friends, April 2017

Subjects

Middletown (Conn.)--Religious life and customsQuakers--ConnecticutSociety of Friends--Connecticut

Contributors

New England Yearly Meeting of Friends

Types of material

Minutes (Administrative records)Newsletters