Quaker Roots Walking Tour

Arboretum Tour Website

I am the curator of the Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College, which we call FHL. I am a librarian by profession and my job is to develop FHL research collections, manage FHL archivists, and make sure that we continue keeping a centuries-long tradition of collecting the records of Friends and their meetings.

As for FHL, our mission ‘is to collect, preserve, and promote the use of materials that document the history of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), its members and attenders, and its principles and connections.’ While we collect broadly, we prioritize materials on Mid-Atlantic Quakers, Hicksite and Wilburite (Conservative) Quakers, Progressive Quakers, and papers that support research into global Quaker history. The collections contain rich documentation of Quaker social history, women’s studies, Indigenous history, the anti-slavery movement, social service, environmental and the peace movements, but also, and most relevant to today’s conversation, natural science.

From the foundations of the Society of Friends in the seventeenth century, many Friends have looked to nature and the natural sciences to better understand their faith and spirituality. As a result of these explorations, there have been a number of well-known Quaker botanists, naturalists and other scientists. Pink Dandelion wrote that ‘later Quakers came to look for God within creation or justify scientific enquiry for its own sake’.

Quakers are known for being anti-slavery, though it was only between 1765 and 1790 that Friends were called on to manumit any person they enslaved, upon punishment of disownment by their meeting. Nonetheless, even those Friends who were against enslavement benefitted from the connections and wealth of Quaker participation in the Atlantic world. And ultimately Quakers in Pennsylvania and other colonies were colonizers, displacing Indigenous people. I mention this now because it does come up a couple of times during our walk, but also so that we recognize the complex history of Quakers, including those focused on nature.

What are the connections between FHL and the Scott Arboretum? The quick answer is that both FHL and the Scott Arboretum are collections here at Swarthmore College. Another connection is our shared Friend Samuel C. Palmer, a Professor of Botany from 1909 to 1942 and lifelong member of the Society of Friends.

Palmer graduated from Swarthmore College in 1895 and taught at the Swarthmore Preparatory School for 12 years. He received a Master’s and Ph.D. from Harvard, and in 1909 he joined the faculty of Swarthmore College. In the early 1920s, he and Arthur Hoyt Scott, a fraternity brother also in the Class of 1895 and an avid gardener, as well as others, started to consider the development of the Crum Valley as a public garden. In 1925, Palmer submitted a plan to the Board of Managers for the creation of an arboretum on campus. The following year, he took a sabbatical from his teaching to visit and survey gardens and arboretums of Europe and gather plant samples. In 1929, the arboretum became a reality with an endowment created as a memorial to Arthur Hoyt Scott. Palmer served on the Executive Committee to develop the Scott Arboretum.

A lifelong sketcher, Palmer began exhibiting his plant drawings in the 1930s. In retirement, he devoted himself to recording all the plants of Delaware County. When he finished working on plants, he moved on to butterflies, moths, and mushrooms.