About the Triptych Collections
Triptych, a digital initiative of the Bryn Mawr, Haverford, and Swarthmore College Libraries, builds on the cooperative model set by TRIPOD, the online catalog that merges the collections of three colleges founded on the Quaker traditions of social conscience and thoughtful citizenship. Originating with a generous grant from the SNAVE Foundation, the collections continue to grow, with new items added on a regular basis. Triptych draws from four repositories — Bryn Mawr College Library Special Collections; the Swarthmore College Peace Collection, which focuses on social reform and issues of peace; and the Haverford College Library Special Collections, which shares with the Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College the stewardship of the records of the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Society of Friends. The four have joined in this project with materials that illustrate not only a tiny window into the richness and eclecticism of their collections, but also demonstrate, in various ways, how the textual and graphic images of the past help shape the ideas and ideals of coming generations.
Photographs, documents, and letters detail the Sproul Observatory Eclipse Expedition to Yerbanis, Mexico, to record the solar eclipse on September 10, 1923. Astronomers from Swarthmore College, the University of Kansas, Marshall College, and Allegheny Observatory collaborated on the project.
A companion to the online student newspaper, The Bi-College News Photograph Collection contains images captured by Haverford and Bryn Mawr student journalists since 2005.
The button, pin and ribbon collection contains over 1,400 items, dating from the late nineteenth century to the present, documenting movements for peace and social justice around the world.
The collection consists of representative images from more than 150 botanical and ornithological books, printed between 1499 and 1920, and including many of the landmark works in each field. The books are from the Ethelinda Schaefer Castle Collection. (Illustration of Aethopyga flavostriata (Sunbird), from
Monograph of the Cinnyridae, by George Ernest Shelley, London, 1876-1880.)
Carrie Lane Chapman Catt (1859-1947) was an internationally recognized suffragist, feminist and political activist. The Catt photograph collection consists of over 800 photographs of suffrage leaders and events, dating primarily from the last years of the nineteenth century through the first two decades of the twentieth century.
One of the many large collections of family, personal, and institutional papers housed in Haverford College Library's Special Collections Department, the Cope-Evans collection contains correspondence of several prominent Philadelphia Quaker families, including Cope, Evans, Hartshorne, Haines, Drinker, Rhoads, and Biddle.
The Early Advertising Collection contains European and American printed advertisements dating from 1790 to 1910. The majority of the collection are trade cards of the late nineteenth century.
The Katrina Thomas Ethnic Wedding Photograph Collection consists of over 800 photographs by freelance
photographer Katrina Thomas, who from 1965-2001 documented the ways in which immigrant groups maintain and adapt
wedding practices in the United States. The database is searchable by ethnic group, location, year, and subject
categories, as well as various phases of wedding ceremonies and preparations.
The Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College is devoted to the history of the Society of Friends (Quakers) and its concerns. The Library includes printed
works dating from the mid-seventeenth century to the present, as well as archives, manuscripts and other materials. This digital database is a small sample of its
approximately 60,000 visual resources holdings.
The lantern
slides in this collection were gathered by E. Raymond Wilson while he was
in Japan from Sept. 1926 to Sept. 1927, having been awarded the Japanese
Brotherhood Scholarship for study and the building of friendships.
Wilson's fascination with the people and places of Japan led to detailed
letters home to America, in which he included observations about his
trips around the country and to Formosa. The 257 lantern slides that he
brought back with him reflect his interests, having to do with beautiful
sites and scenery, daily life, agricultural practices, schools and
universities, and the tribes of Formosa. Most of the slides were created
by professional photographers (including T. Takagi and Futaba) and were
hand-tinted by artists; a few of the slides were made from photographs
taken by Wilson himself.
Samuel C. Palmer, Swarthmore College Botany professor from 1909 to 1942, documented the flora of Delaware County in Pennsylvania.
This diary is a remarkable document of a 1926 trip to China, Japan, India and other parts of East Asia, taken at the invitation of the YMCA Foreign Committee.
This collection contains over one hundred rare propaganda posters from the first decades of the Soviet Union (1920s-1930s) covering health, women, alcoholism, collectivization, and industrialization.
There are more than eight hundred stamps, seals, stickers, and imprinted envelopes in this collection. The majority of these contain images and/or messages that propagate peace and social justice. A smaller portion promote war or recommend neutrality during times of war. Of particular note are rare nineteenth century anti-slavery stickers and the dozens of stamps created from peace posters drawn or painted by high school students, 1939–1940.
The Theresa Helburn Collection includes photographs, playscripts
and theatrical ephemera donated to Bryn Mawr College by alumna
and Broadway producer Theresa Helburn (B.A. 1908). This image
database contains records of over 1100 photographs related
to Helburn's work on behalf of the Theatre Guild. Due to copyright
restrictions, some images are only available to local users.
Thomas P. Cope was a successful Philadelphia merchant and Quaker who involved himself in a wide range of civic projects during the first half of the nineteenth century. He kept a regular diary between 1800 and 1851, with a gap between 1820 and 1843. In his diary, Cope records his own numerous activities, events taking place in Philadelphia and the wider world, and reflections on Quakerism, business, and many other topics.
