In support of the First Day School renovations, Anne Cleary and Beth Parker Miller have created a 2018 wall calendar that features selected historic images of Friends meetinghouses taken by Charles S. Philips in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

COST: $20 (plus shipping)

CONTACT: Anne Cleary, clearyak@verizon.net

The Friends meetinghouses illustrated in this calendar are all located in Chester County, Pennsylvania, except for Hockessin Friends Meetinghouse, which is located in northern New Castle County, Delaware, just across the Pennsylvania state line. The images were taken by Charles S. Philips, an avid photographer who worked as a draftsman with the Pusey & Jones Company in Wilmington, Delaware, during the 1890s. Philips captured views of mills, covered bridges, churches, Friends meetinghouses, and the landscape in northern New Castle County, Delaware, and southern Chester and Delaware Counties in Pennsylvania. The photographs (except for the image of Hockessin Meetinghouse) were made from a selection of original glass plate negatives donated to Hockessin Friends Meeting in 2016. The image of Hockessin Meetinghouse comes from the Charles S. Philips Collection at the Chester County Historical Society, West Chester, Pennsylvania. The CCHS Charles S. Philips Collection includes 461 views made by Philips between 1895 and 1912.

Hockessin Friends Meeting gratefully acknowledges John Hileman and Marie Radebaugh (Philips descendant) for the gift of the original glass-plate negatives and Patricia S. Howard for scanning the negatives. The Meeting also thanks the Chester County Historical Society, West Chester, Pennsylvania, for permission to use the image of Hockessin Meetinghouse on the cover. Proceeds from the sale of this calendar benefit the renovation of Hockessin Friends Meeting’s First Day School classrooms.

© 2017 Hockessin Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, Hockessin, Delaware.