QUITE POSSIBLY THE EARLIEST EXAMPLE OF AMERICAN WOMEN ORGANIZING, PHILADELPHIA, 1715.


Autograph Manuscript in an unknown hand, "From our yearly Meeting of Women Friends ... to the Quarterly & Monthly meetings at Pennsilvania, East & West Jersey...," 2 pp recto and verso, folio (300 x 190 mm), Philadelphia, 1715, leaf creased and toned, separation at folds.TIME'S UP: PIONEER AMERICAN WOMEN ORGANIZE. A group of Quaker women in Philadelphia, listed as Jean Brientnell, Hannah Carpenter, Hannah Hill, Elizabeth Griffeth, Grace Lloyd and Phebe Blunstone, write to their Quaker Sisters in the region, giving direction not only in how to behave, but how and when to meet and share information. In particular, the letter warns against women going about with "Unseemly bare necks" and "Indecent head dresses," while advising how to bring up children to obey their parents and any reasonable commands, and to "suppress Pride in your children in its first appearance even in their Infancy."