Jump to Content

Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Register of the Sweet (Pearl Shaffer) Collection, 1874-1989
Mss252  
View entire collection guide What's This?
Search this collection
Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Descriptive Summary
  • Administrative Information
  • Access Points
  • Biography
  • Scope and Content

  • Descriptive Summary

    Title: Sweet (Pearl Shaffer) Collection,
    Date (inclusive): 1874-1989
    Collection number: Mss252
    Creator: Pearl Shaffer Sweet
    Extent: 5 linear ft.
    Repository: University of the Pacific. Library. Holt-Atherton Department of Special Collections
    Stockton, CA 95211
    Shelf location: For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the library's online catalog.
    Language: English.

    Administrative Information

    Access

    Collection is open for research.

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of item], Sweet (Pearl Shaffer) Collection, Mss252, Holt-Atherton Department of Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library

    Access Points

    personal name

    Sweet, Pearl Shaffer (b. 1905)
    Sweet, Evander M.

    corporate name

    Methodist Episcopal Church
    Methodist Episcopal Church, South
    Pacific Methodist College (Santa Rosa, Calif.)
    Fry (J.A.B.) Library (Stockton, Calif.)
    African Methodist Episcopal Church

    subject

    Afro-Americans -California
    Afro-Americans -California -Stockton
    Cambodian Americans -California
    Chinese Americans -California -San Joaquin County
    Filipino Americans -California -San Joaquin County
    Indians of North America -Charities
    Japanese Americans -California -San Joaquin County
    Korean Americans -California
    Mexican Americans -California -San Joaquin County
    Vietnamese Americans -California
    Colleges and universities -California -Santa Rosa
    Libraries -California -Stockton

    Biography

    Pearl Shaffer Sweet (1905-) attended the College of the Pacific, commencing with the first four year Stockton class (1924). While still a junior she married E.M. Sweet, whose family were active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South (1927). From the mid-1930s--before the Southern Methodists fused with the Methodist Episcopal Church--Pearl Sweet collected papers and books relevant to the activities of both churches. These included materials pertaining to Methodist missionary work among Chinese, Japanese, Filipinos and other non-white minorities in Stockton. Later she arranged for her collection to become the property of the Northern California-Nevada Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, naming the collection the "J.A.B. Fry Library" after a former missionary and Bishop of the Conference (1948). At the same time Mrs. Sweet arranged for the Fry Library to be housed at the College of the Pacific. Pearl Shaffer Sweet was then a member of the executive committee of the Historical Society of the Northern California-Nevada Conference and Archivist of the J.A.B. Fry Library (1949-1963). From 1959, she was also a consulting and contributing editor for the Encyclopedia of World Methodism.

    Scope and Content

    The Pearl Shaffer Sweet Collection contains correspondence, notes and papers describing the formation of the J.A.B. Fry Library. These materials also document Mrs. Sweet's research activities as Archivist of that Library. Before and after her retirement, Mrs. Sweet maintained scrapbooks on various ethnic minorities and on the history of the Methodist Church. These, too, form a valuable part of the Pearl Shaffer Sweet Collection.