The Account Books of Elizabeth Willing Powel: Part 3, The Organizations (and So What?)
Among the expense ledgers of Elizabeth Willing Powel are many entries that show her engagement with broader society. In addition to the people and material goods which kept her home running and her social status prominent, Mrs. Powel's donations, investments, and subscriptions tell us much about her life and the world in which she lived. In an earlier post, I wrote about the people who are present in Elizabeth's accounts; I left a few out. Every few pages, there is an entry t
The Account Books of Elizabeth Willing Powel: Part 2, The People
While David Maxey's A Portrait of Elizabeth Powel finds Elizabeth Powel to be largely an enigma, she was of a class where her life was relatively well documented. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania has not one but two collections of Powel Family papers, and Elizabeth is responsible for a healthy fraction of those materials. Yet while her correspondence may provide an insight into her worldview and social connections, these account books (and likely many others stored at H
The Account Books of Elizabeth Willing Powel: Part 1 Introduction and "the stuff"
Mickey Herr introduced the account books of Elizabeth Willing Powel and their remarkable provenance from a false bottom trunk, which you can read here. The goal of my work this past summer was, as Herr wrote, to "construct a fuller view of Elizabeth Willing Powel." How can I do that with these account books? What can a list of expenses tell us about a person's life and work? I think they can tell us a lot. Photo Note: "Madame Powel" showing Elizabeth contemporaneous to the ac
