Truman-Underhill Photograph Collection
Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College

The Trumans and Underhills were prominent Philadelphia-area Quaker families. They had close ties to Swarthmore College and were active in a variety of social concerns. George Truman (1798-1877) was a merchant and doctor as well as a minister in the Society of Friends who visited indigenous people in the American West and former Quaker settlements in the West Indies. His grandson, Benjamin Mott Underhill (1863-1930), was a Swarthmore graduate active in Delaware County Institute of Science and in Providence Friends Meeting.

The picture albums in the Truman-Underhill collection feature a rich variety of media, including hollow-cut silhouettes, ambrotypes, and one of the first daguerreotypes taken in Baltimore (1840). Of special interest are rare photographs of Jane C. Hunt, a principle organizer of the first Women's Rights Convention of Seneca Falls who was related to the Trumans by marriage. Other images include noted photographer Fredrick Gutekunst, pictured with his camera, and Swarthmore College under construction.

For more on this collection, visit: the Truman-Underhill Albums.

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