Category: Quaker History
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What Makes the Cut?
One of the reasons that I decided to write a biography of Murray Shipley was because of the breadth of his life experiences. When you think about Levi Coffin, you associate him primarily with abolition—his work in the Underground Railroad and Western Freedmen’s Aid Society. Murray, on the other hand, took part in almost every…
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Blind Men and Journalists
There is a parable about a group of blind men encountering an elephant for the first time. Each is asked to describe the animal. One man feels the elephant’s trunk and says, “An elephant is like a snake.” Another feels the elephant’s leg and says, “An elephant is like a tree.” Another feels the elephant’s…
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A Quaker by Any Other Name
Many genealogists are thrilled when they discover that they have a Quaker ancestor–not because that confers any particular honor by association, but because Friends are such meticulous record keepers. Quaker meetings keep track of when a person was born to members of that meeting, along with the names of their parents; when and to whom…
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A Tale of Two Bibliographies
Unlike Harry Burns in When Harry Met Sally, when I pick up a new book, I do not read the last page first so that I’ll know how the story ends in case I die before I can finish reading it. For non-fiction, however, I do sometimes start by taking a peek at the bibliography.…
Sabrina Darnowsky 