{"id":392,"date":"2022-08-11T19:27:24","date_gmt":"2022-08-11T19:27:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wbbm.digitalprojects.brynmawr.edu\/dev\/?page_id=392"},"modified":"2022-09-10T19:08:25","modified_gmt":"2022-09-10T23:08:25","slug":"committing","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wbbm.digitalprojects.brynmawr.edu\/why-build\/exhibit\/founding\/phases\/committing\/","title":{"rendered":"1872-1879: Committing to the Idea"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Joseph Wright Taylor (1810-1880)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Founder<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

New Jersey Quaker<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Joseph W Taylor (1810-1880) was inspired to found a college for Quaker women after attending an 1872 lecture on higher education at Haverford. He envisioned a school that would instill the Christian morals and refinement necessary to train exemplary mothers and teachers who could influence society through the dissemination of Quaker values. He made official his intention to found such a school five years later, at the first Quaker Educational Conference. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201c…care should be taken to educate Young Women to fit them to become Teachers of a high order, and thus to extend the good influence of this Institution far and wide through them.\u201d<\/p>

Will of Joseph W. Taylor, 1877. Haverford College Quaker and Special Collections, Taylor Family Papers, MC.962.\u200b<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Brendan Uhle, Portrait of Joseph Taylor<\/em>, 1886. Oil on canvas. Bryn Mawr College Special Collections, X.30.\u202f \u200b<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Taylor was trained as a medical doctor, but he made his wealth in his brother’s <\/span>tanning <\/strong><\/a>business. He never married and left most of his estate to the College, but <\/span>worried  the endowment was insufficient. He lived to see built the foundations <\/span>laid for only two buildings. Following his death, the execution of his will was left <\/span>up to his eleven hand-picked Trustees, who augmented Taylor\u2019s legacy with their <\/span>own visions and ambitions.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Francis Thompson King (1819-1891)<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

First President of the Board of Trustees<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Baltimore Quaker<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Francis T. King (1819-1891) was a member of the first class at Haverford College (graduated 1835). He was a successful businessman and a prominent Quaker philanthropist, who served on the original board of Johns Hopkins University (founded 1876). Through his work with Taylor on Haverford\u2019s Board of Managers, King became a close friend and advisor in the early planning of Bryn Mawr. With Taylor, he toured women\u2019s colleges in the United States, finding particular inspiration for campus organization and design at Smith. After Taylor\u2019s death, King was elected President of the Board of Trustees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A devout Quaker, King justified his wealth through his charity, recounting that his earliest earnings were used to buy and free an enslaved young man he had known in childhood, who wrote to King for help. He understood his wealth as divinely granted to enable philanthropic dispersal, although his writings reveal a paternalistic attitude toward women and non-white people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

King was a cousin of James Carey Thomas, M. Carey Thomas\u2019 father. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Unknown photographer, Frances T. King<\/em>, mid-19th century. Image courtesy of Quaker Archives, Guilford College, Greensboro, NC.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cI consider that money has been God\u2019s special gift to me, and my stewardship in it has given me constant pleasure and satisfaction.\u201d<\/p>

-Francis T. King reminiscences, after 1843, Special Collections, Johns Hopkins University, MS-0322\u200b<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Return to: Three Phases, Many Visions<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Continue to: 1877-1879: Preliminary Plans <\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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