Category: Primary Source Packets

Introduction

This primary source packet contains photographs from the United States colonial administration of the Philippines. These materials can support classes and research on topics including colonialism, race and photography, racism, visual anthropology, visual studies, history of the Philippines, and the United States and colonialism. Pedagogical goals from using these materials might include analysis of visual sources, comparing the way the photographs act on their own versus in the articles in which they were published, and the role of images in ideas about race and colonialism. 

These photographs were taken by Dean C. Worcester and featured in National Geographic articles. Worcester was a professor of zoology at the University of Michigan and a member of the United States colonial administration in the Philippines. Worcester’s photographs focus on rural areas of the Philippines, and showcase his support for colonialism and the U.S. project in the Philippines. The materials included in this collection were likely collected by Alvin Cox, an official in the Department of Agriculture who traveled to the Philippines in 1917. 

Packet contents:

• List of primary sources
• Guiding questions for engaging with the primary sources
• Articles which provide background on this topic
  • Salvador-Amores, Analyn. “Afterlives of Dean C. Worcester’s Colonial Photographs: Visualizing Igorot Material Culture, from Archives to Anthropological Fieldwork in Northern Luzon.” Visual Anthropology 29, no. 1 (2016): 54–80.
  • Kramer, Paul A. “Dual Mandates: Collaboration and the Racial State” in The Blood of Government: Race, Empire, the United States, and the Philippines. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006. 
  • Rice, Mark. “Dean Worcester, National Geographic Magazine, and the Imagined Philippines” in Dean Worcester’s Fantasy Islands: Photography, Film, and the Colonial Philippines. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2014. P. 80-117. 

Primary Sources

All photographs taken by Dean C. Worcester or his assistant Charles Martin. Titles/descriptions are from the back of the photographs.  

Materials from HC-MC 1189, Howard Haines Brinton and Anna Shipley Cox Brinton papers.

An Igorot family of the better class. From Lepanto

A typical Bontoc Igorat couple

A party of Mangyans at Bulalacao – Mindoro

A Bontoc Igorot. Peddler of Tapuy

A Bogobo Woman (Mindanao)

A Dance at Magoc in the Ifuago country                 

An Iwahig colonist, carrying his farm produce to market

Bontoc Igorot. Gongs with human jaw bones as handles

Prisoners in Bilibid making hemp rope

A Moro datu with his wife and retinue

Dean C. Worcester. “Head Hunters of the Northern Luzon.” National Geographic 23 no. 9 (September 1912).

Dean C. Worcester. “Field Sports Among the Wild Men of Northern Luzon.” National Geographic 22 no. 3 (March 1911). 

The list above is a sample of about 80 photographs in the collection. The full set of digitized materials is available in our digital repository.

Guiding Questions

• What is the purpose of these photographs? What work are they doing?
• How do these photographs fit into narratives about race and colonialism?
• How do the titles and descriptions function in relation to the photographs? How might the photographs be read differently in their physical format, when the text is on the back, where the viewer cannot see text and image at the same time? 
• Are there differences in the way the photos ask to be read on their own, versus in the issues of National Geographic? 

Introduction

This primary source packet contains resources related to Americans doing relief work in Europe during and after World War I (approximately 1917-1922). These materials can support classes and research interested in US involvement in international issues, peace and conflict studies, the emergence of non-governmental organizations, humanitarianism, relief work, and mission work.  Potential pedagogical goals from using these materials might include understanding the ways in which Americans undertaking this work talk about it and the world they are experiencing, examining whose voices are represented and whose are not, comparing accounts of similar time periods from different places and by different authors, and exploring, analyzing, and putting in conversation primary sources. 

The materials in this packet document men and women, mostly with Quaker backgrounds, working in France, Germany, Poland, and Russia from 1917 to 1922. They worked through or with the YMCA/YWCA and the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). There are numerous other related resources housed in Quaker & Special Collections; a longer list can be found at our subject guide on relief work materials in the collections. 

Packet contents:

• List of primary sources
• Guiding questions for engaging with the primary sources
• Articles which provide background on this topic
  • Bruno Cabanes. “The hungry and the sick: Herbert Hoover, the Russian famine, and the professionalization of humanitarian aid” in The Great War and the Origins of Humanitarianism, 1918–1924. Cambridge University Press, 2014. 189-247. 
  • Julia F. Irwin. “The disaster of war: American understandings of catastrophe, conflict and relief” First World War Studies 5 no. 1 (2014), 17-28.

Primary Sources

Beulah Waring. Correspondence. 1919-1922. HC-MC-1225.
[Digitized materials]

Joseph Haines. Correspondence. 1917-1918. HC-MC-950-095.
[Digitized materials]

Francis R. Bacon. Correspondence. 1920-1922. HC-MC-1226.
[Digitized materials]

Katharine and Howard Elkinton. Correspondence. 1917-1922. HC-MC-1239.
[Digitized materials]

Guiding Questions

• Who created the document(s)?  For what purpose?
• Describe the implied audience for these materials. What informs your opinion?
• How do these documents inform your thinking about international relief work?
• Do these documents provide support for ideas you have been discussing? If so, how? If not, why might that be the case?
• What additional (contextual) information would you need to know to fully understand your document(s)?  Where might you find some of this information, and why might you choose a particular source over another?  

Introduction

This primary source packet contains resources related to service and missionary work undertaken by Americans in 20th century Japan and China. These materials can support classes and research interested in US relations with China and Japan, mission work, education, non-governmental organizations, humanitarianism, and international medical work. Potential pedagogical goals from using these materials might include understanding the ways in which Americans working in Asia talk about their experiences and the people they work with, thinking about US-Japan and US-China relationships in the years around World War II, examining whose voices are represented and whose are not, and exploring, analyzing, and putting in conversation primary sources. 

The materials in this packet document several women teaching at Friends School, Tokyo, a woman working with relief organizations in post-World War II Japan, and a medical missionary and educator in China. This is only a small amount of the materials on these topics available in Quaker & Special Collections. More information on further materials can be found in our subject guide on materials related to Asia in the collections. 

Packet contents:

• List of primary sources
• Guiding questions for engaging with the primary sources
• Articles which provide background on this topic
  • Mayo, Marlene J. “A friend in need: Esther B. Rhoads, quakers, and humanitarian relief in allied occupied Japan, 1946-52.” U.S.-Japan Women’s Journal, no. 50, 2016. 
  • Restaino, Gary M. “Quaker in Canton: Dr. William Warder Cadbury’s Mission, 1909-1949.” Quaker History 83, no. 1 (1994): 1-17. www.jstor.org/stable/41947256.
  • Abel, Jessamyn R. “Ethics and Internationalism in Japanese Education, 1933-45.” Modern Asian Studies 52, no. 2 (03, 2018): 532-575. https://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.haverford.edu/docview/2033329756?accountid=11321 

Primary Sources

Alice Lewis Pearson. Correspondence. 1905-1923. HC-MC-1010.
[Digitized materials]

Esther Balderson. Correspondence. 1914-1915. HC-MC-1185.
[Digitized materials]

Sara Greene Smith. Letters from students and friends in Japan. Mostly 1940s and 1950s. HC-MC-955.
[Digitized materials]  

Esther Rhoads. Materials related to post-World War II AFSC and LARA relief work. 1940s and 1950s. HC-MC-1153.
[Digitized materials]

William Warder and Catherine Cadbury. Letters and Photographs. 1920s. HC-MC-1192.
[Digitized materials]

Guiding Questions

• Who created the document(s)?  For what purpose?
• Describe the implied audience for these materials. What informs your opinion?
• How do these documents inform our thinking about international mission work?
• Do these documents provide support for ideas you have been discussing? If so, how? If not, why might that be the case?
• What additional (contextual) information would you need to know to fully understand your document(s)?  Where might you find some of this information, and why might you choose a particular source over another?  

Introduction

This primary source packet contains Japanese tourist photography from the late 19th and early 20th century. Materials can support classes and research interested in Japanese culture, the development of photography, Japanese interactions with Western countries, and Japanese art. Pedagogical goals from using these materials might include analysis of visual materials, examining issues of “modernization” in Meiji Japan, and exploring the ways in which photographs attempt to shape the thoughts and opinions of their viewers. 

Packet contents: 

• List of primary sources
• Guiding questions for engaging with the primary sources
• Articles which provide background on this topic
  • Hockley, Allen. “”Expectation and Authenticity in Meiji Tourist Photography.” In Challenging Past and Present: The Metamorphosis of Nineteenth-Century Japanese Art, ed. Ellen P. Conant. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2006. 114-32. (https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvvmzdn.11 )
  • Wakita, Mio. “Between Commercialism and Ideology.” In Staging desires : Japanese femininity in Kusakabe Kimbei’s nineteenth-century souvenir photography. Berlin: Reimer, 2013. 93-131. 
  • Fraser, Karen M. “Introduction.” In Photography and Japan. London: Reaktion Books, 2011.

Primary Sources

All the photographs listed here are albumen prints; color was applied by hand. The photographs are not attributed to any of the photographers or photography studios operating at the time. 

Wysteria Vine, HC2019-0047 

Untitled (Japanese Shade Painters), HC08-0033 

Huge Fish Pennants, HC12-5520

Maiko, Gion Street, Kyoto, HC12-5534

Temple of Yokohama, HC12-5540 

Daibutsu at Kamakura, HC12-5564 

Club Hotel, Yokohama, HC12-5565 

Planting Ricefield, HC12-5580 

Fuji from Otometoge, HC12-5595 

Grinding Unhulled Rice, HC12-5619 

Girls Looking at Flowers, HC12-5541

Man Pulling Cart, HC12-5548 

Fujiyama from Hakone, HC12-5602 

Quaker & Special Collections holds over 100 examples of Japanese tourist photography. Digitized versions of all these materials can be found via triarte.brynmawr.edu. 

Guiding Questions

Some helpful questions for discussion when viewing each item in this packet include:

• Who is the intended audience for this image? How does that influence your reading?
• How would you describe the subject of this image? What parts of the image are emphasized?
• How does the use of color influence your reading of the photograph? Why might some parts of the photograph be colored? Why do you think the photographer made these choices?
• How does this image explore or show the tensions between an idealized view of Japan and a portrayal of Japan as a “modern” nation? 
• What do you find particularly interesting or surprising about these photographs?

Introduction

This packet contains materials related to Native American and colonial settler interactions in the period of the Early United States Republic (1780s-1810s). Specifically, materials document interactions between the Seneca and Oneida in Western New York State and Pennsylvania Quakers. These materials may be of interest to those studying Indigenous history, early US history, and borderlands. Pedagogical possibilities include the exploration of what voices are present or missing in documents, analyzing a “private” document, and exploration of the ways in which religion and politics shape the everyday experiences depicted in the documents. 

Packet contents:

• List of primary sources
• Guiding questions for students using these manuscripts
• Articles for background and context
  • Daggar, Lori J. “The Mission Complex: Economic Development, “Civilization,” and Empire in the Early Republic.” Journal of the Early Republic 36, no. 3 (2016): 467-491. doi:10.1353/jer.2016.0044.
  • Dennis, Matthew. “Friendly Mission: The Holy Conversation of Quakers and Senecas.” In Seneca Possessed: Indians, Witchcraft, and Power in the Early American Republic, 117-47. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010. Accessed June 12, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt3fhbp7.7.
  • Krischer, Elana. “Expansion in the East: Seneca Sovereignty, Quaker Missionaries, and the Great Survey, 1797–1801.” In Inventing Destiny: Cultural Explorations of US Expansion, edited by Bryan Jimmy L., 74-88. University Press of Kansas, 2019. Accessed June 12, 2020. www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvqsf3n3.8.

Primary Sources

Henry Simmons. Journal. Vol. 2. 1799.MC 975-01-072 v. 2
[Digitized version]

David Bacon. Some account of our journey to Cannandaigue [sic].  1794. MC 975-01-003
[Digitized version]

William Allinson. Journal: Visit to Indians in New York State. Vol. 2. 1809. MC 968
[Digitized version]

Isaac Coates, Joshua Sharpless, and John Pierce. Account of I. Coates, J. Sharpless, & J. Pierce, visits to Indian Reservation, NY. 1789-1799. MC 975-07-130
[Digitized version]

The above are only a sample of similar materials available in Quaker & Special Collections. Contact staff for information about other materials. 

Guiding Questions

Some helpful questions for discussions when viewing these materials include:

• Who created the document(s)? For what purpose?
• Describe the implied audience for these materials. What informs your opinion?
• What arguments are these documents making?
• Whose voices are heard within the documents? Whose are not?
• How does the document(s) add to your understanding of early American history? Does it give you a new perspective or point of view? Does it seem to fit with other readings and discussions?

Introduction

This primary source packet features Chinese propaganda posters from the 1920s and 1930s. It is designed to be used by students who read Chinese and those who do not; the included guiding questions provide avenues for analysis even for those unfamiliar with the language. Potential pedagogical goals could include visual analysis, exploring the intersections of politics and art, and examining unfamiliar objects. Materials may be of interest to those working in visual studies, East Asian languages and cultures,  and art. 

Packet contents: 

• List of primary sources
• Guiding questions for engaging with these posters, even if you don’t reach Chinese
• Articles which provide background on this topic
  • Jenny Yung (BMC ‘20), analysis of qian nian de ‘wu sa’!”
  • Landsberger, Stefan. Chinese Propaganda Posters : from Revolution to Modernization. Armonk, N.Y: M.E. Sharpe, 1995.

List of Primary Sources

qian nian de “wu sa”! 前年的‘五卅’！, HC2016-574, 1927

Shanghai gong hui zu zhi tong yi wei yuan hui tu hua te kan, di si qi 上海工會組織統一委員會圖畫特刊, 第四期, HC2016-598, Ca. 1927

Shanghai gong hui zu zhi tong yi wei yuan hui tu hua te kan 上海工會組織統一委員會圖畫特刊, HC2016-575, Ca. 1927

da dao xin di guo zhu yi zou gou Gongchandang 打倒新帝國主義走狗共產黨, HC2016-573, Ca. 1930

da dao ya po zhen zheng nong gong de Gongchandang! 打倒壓迫真正農工的共產黨!, HC2016-599, Ca. 1927

Gongchandang shi xin di guo zhu yi de zou gou! 共產黨是新帝國主義的走狗！, HC2016-590, Ca. 1930

These posters and others (24 total) are from the posters of the William Warder Cadbury collection. The full William Warder Cadbury collection, which includes these posters and Cadbury’s papers, are held in Haverford Quaker & Special Collections.

Questions to Consider

The following material can help frame a meaningful discussion for students examining these items

Even without the ability to read Chinese, there is a great deal of information that we can infer from the imagery on this poster. Consider the following as you look at each poster:

Figures (people) in the poster:

• How many figures are visible? 
• What position are the figures in? Is this significant? How and why?
• What size are each of the figures in relation to each other? Is this significant? How and why? 
• What are the figures wearing? Describe their clothing (shoes as well) and what this indicates about each figure? 
• What are the figures holding in their hands? What does this tell you about the activities of each of these figures? 

Setting of the poster:

• What do you notice about the setting of the poster? Can you tell where this takes place? 
• What “props” are used and for what purpose? 

Words:

• Even if you cannot read Chinese, what do you notice about the words in this poster? What does this indicate to you in terms of meaning? Think about:
  • Location of words
  • Size of words
  • Color of words

Color and medium:

• What colors are employed in this poster and for what purpose? Think about: 
  • Blood
  • Flags
• Can you tell what medium this poster is on? (hint: look at the item record) What about the quality of the image–with a larger format digital image to examine, what might you be able to notice about the work of art? [example: poster means what, exactly?]

Other:

• Where might a poster like this be found?
• Who is the intended audience of such a poster?
• What do you think is the message of this poster? 

Introduction

These primary sources offer a visual history of Philadelphia from the arrival of William Penn to the present. Including photographs, prints, and maps, these sources could be used by those interested in visual culture, urban studies, and Philadelphia history. Pedagogical goals could include the analysis of visual sources, discussing the representation of Philadelphia over time, and revealing the changing face of Philadelphia. 

Packet contents:

• List of primary sources
• Guiding questions
• Articles for background 
  • Miller, Fredric M., Morris J. Vogel, and Allen F. Davis. “Introduction.” In Still Philadelphia, Xiii-1. Temple University Press, 1983. www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1bw1jpb.5 
  • Mirzoeff, Nicholas. “World Cities, City Worlds.” In How to See the World : an Introduction to Images, from Self-Portraits to Selfies, Maps to Movies, and More . New York: Basic Books, a member of the Perseus Books Group, 2016. 159-208. 
  • Branch, Jordan. “New World Mapping and Colonial Reflection.” In The Cartographic State : Maps, Territory, and the Origins of Sovereignty, Cambridge University Press, 2013. 

Primary Sources

Thomas Holme. A portraiture of the city of Philadelphia in the province of Pennsylvania in America. London: Sold by Andrew Sowle in Shoreditch, London, 1683. Map [Digitized version]

George Heap and Nicholas Scull. An East Prospect of the City of Philadelphia. 1768. Engraving, HC12-5052 [Digitized version (slightly different from Haverford’s)]

William Birch. Penn’s Tree, with the City and Port of Philadelphia. 1828. Engraving, HC2017-0245 

A.J. Johnson. Philadelphia. New York: A.J. Johnson, ca. 1872. Map [Digitized version]

Stephen Perloff. Welcoming Freedom, Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, Pa. 1988. Gelatin silver print, HC09-4995

Harvey Finkle. Urban Playground, Philadelphia, 1995. 1995. Gelatin silver print, HC09-4950

Peter Sekear. Philadelphia, Morris Ave. Ca. 1938-1938. Gelatin silver print, HC12-6492 

18th & Cumberland Sts., Philadelphia, Pa. Ca. 1915. Gelatin silver print, HC08-0339 

William Earle Williams. Untitled. 1981. Gelatin silver print, HC12-6672 

William Earle Williams, Untitled. 1980. Gelatin silver print, HC12-6661 

There are many more related images and maps of Philadelphia available in Quaker & Special Collections. Please get in touch if you are looking for further resources!

Guiding Questions

Some helpful questions for discussion when viewing each item in this packet include:

• What is the purpose of this image?
• What do these images tell you about the city of Philadelphia? What about them says (or does not say) “Philadelphia” to you?
• What arguments are the images making? How can you tell?
• How does the medium (photo, print, map) influence your reading of the image? How is that reading different in a digital environment?

Introduction

This primary source packet provides resources related to the 1793 yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia. These materials can support classes and research interested in epidemics, diseases, race, urbanization, and Philadelphia history, or some combination thereof. Potential pedagogical goals from using these materials might include understanding the historical racialized impact of diseases, comparing personal/manuscript accounts of events and published accounts of those same events, and exploring, analyzing, and putting in conversation primary sources. 

In the summer and fall of 1793, yellow fever spread throughout the United States capital. Many who could fled the city, special fever hospitals were created, and over 5,000 people died. Black Americans took on much of the care of the sick and dying, as it was wrongly believed that they were less susceptible to the disease. When publisher Matthew Carey accused these workers of taking advantage of the sick, Richard Allen and Absalom Jones wrote a defence of their conduct during the epidemic. There were numerous publications about this outbreak, and it features prominently in a number of manuscript sources. 

Packet contents: 

• List of primary sources
• Guiding questions for engaging with the primary sources
• Articles which provide background on this topic
  • Rana Asali Hogarth. “The Myth of Innate Racial Differences Between White and Black People’s Bodies: Lessons From the 1793 Yellow Fever Epidemic in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.” American Journal of Public Health 109 no. 10 (2019): 1339-1341. 
  • Jacquelyn C. Miller. “The Wages of Blackness: African American Workers and the Meanings of Race during Philadelphia’s 1793 Yellow Fever Epidemic.” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 129, no. 2 (2005): 163-94. 
  • Lakshmi Krishnan, S. Michelle Ogunwole, and Lisa A. Cooper. “Historical Insights on Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), the 1918 Influenza Pandemic, and Racial Disparities: Illuminating a Path Forward.” Annals of Internal Medicine 5 June 2020.

List of Materials

Carey, Matthew. A short account of the malignant fever: lately prevalent in Philadelphia; with a statement of the proceedings that took place on the subject, in different parts of the United States. To which are added, Accounts of the plague in London and Marseilles, and a list of the dead, from August 1, to the middle of December, 1793. Philadelphia: Printed by the author, 1794. 4th edition. 

This link also includes links to a digitized version. 

Jones, Absalom and Richard Allen. A narrative of the proceedings of the black people: during the late awful calamity in Philadelphia, in the year 1793: and a refutation of some censures, thrown upon them in some late publications. Philadelphia: Printed for the authors, by William W. Woodward, at Franklin’s head, no. 41, Chesnut-street, 1794. 

This link also includes links to a digitized version. 

Smith, Benjamin. Letterbook. 1793. HC-MC-975-02-036 [Digital version]

Cresson, Joshua. Diary. 1793. HC-MC-975-01-098 [Digital version: coming soon!]

Questions to Consider

• Who created the document(s)?  For what purpose?
• Describe the implied audience for these materials. What informs your opinion?
• What additional (contextual) information would you need to know to fully understand your document(s)?  Where might you find some of this information, and why might you choose a particular source over another?  
• How does the document(s) add to your understanding of epidemics, race, and medicine? How does it related to other questions and issues you have been studying?
• What do you find surprising or interesting about the documents?