The Quakers, also known as the Religious Society of Friends or simply Friends, are a religious group that emphasizes individual relationships with God, abolitionism, pacifism, international volunteer work, and other socially progressive causes. On April 4, 1887, a group of Friends in Pasadena and Los Angeles established a new city in the Puente Hills/Los Nietos Valley that they called Whittier. The Quaker Collection is an extensive grouping of personal papers, novels, non-fiction books, periodicals, and artifacts of daily life developed by Whittier College for purposes of understanding this Quaker heritage.

The Quakers, also known as the Religious Society of Friends or simply Friends, are a religious group founded by George Fox in 1650 that is based in Protestant Christianity. Quaker beliefs emphasize the direct and personal relationship that each individual person can have with God through Jesus Christ, and the therefore inherent spiritual potential that every person represents. On the basis of these beliefs, Friends generally practice abolitionism, pacifism, international volunteer work, and other socially progressive causes. Each community of Friends, organized into regional Yearly Meeting groups, establishes its own Book of Discipline, which seeks to reflect what that community feels God wants for them and guide its members towards a life that meets those desires. As such, each geographical group of Quakers may have a slightly different interpretation of what it means to successfully live a Quaker life, even if they belong to the same sub-denomination of the Religious Society. In the 1600s, Friends sought religious freedom by participating in the English settlement of New England, and contributed to the founding of several cities and, later, states. In the 1800s, Quakers began to move into the western parts of North America, founding towns, cities, and schools along the way. In 1887, Aquilla H. Pickering and Hannah Pickering came to Los Angeles from the Midwest. On April 4, 1887, they, along with a group of Friends who already resided in Pasadena and Los Angeles, established a city in the Puente Hills/Los Nietos Valley and named it Whittier. Some of the founding members of this new city include John Painter, T. Elwood Newlin, Jonathan Bailey, Fordyce Grinnell, Hervey and Milton Lindley, Eleazer Andrews, and Washington Hadley. The Quaker Collection contains six sub-series: the Sarah Coffin Collection, the Pillsbury Papers, the Mendenhall Papers, the Bailey Family Genealogy Papers, the Johnson Family Papers, and the Dombeck Papers; Each sub-series has its own, more detailed container list. This finding aid was developed by Paige Harris in 2023, in collaboration with others.

68 boxes (757 linear feet)

Parts of this collection were donated by Sarah and W.V. Coffin (in 1937), Lena Mendenhall, and others.

The collection is open for research use