%eadnotat; ]> 5256elya Finding aid for Elizabeth Biddle Yarnall Refugee Papers, 1938-1945 Finding Aid Prepared by FHL staff Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College. 2007 Text converted and initial EAD tagging provided by FHL Staff, 2007 ENG Finding aid for Elizabeth Biddle Yarnall Refugee Papers, 1938-1945 FHL staff Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College. 2007 Descriptive Summary Elizabeth Biddle Yarnall Refugee Papers 1938-1945 RG5/256 Elizabeth Biddle Yarnall, 1897-1975 1 box ; .5 linear feet Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College.

Swarthmore, Pennsylvania 19081-1399 U.S.A.

For current information on the location of materials, please consult the Library's online catalog. Elizabeth Biddle Yarnall and her husband, D. Robert Yarnall, were Quakers, active in the American Friends Service Committee relief efforts. They worked with the Quaker center in Vienna, Austria, during the summer of 1938 to help in the emigration of German and Austrian Jews. The collection contains correspondence concerning their work with refugees and letters from refugees asking for assistance, especially the musician and composers Karl Weigl and his wife, Vally, who emigrated in October 1938. Also several essays by Elizabeth Yarnall on her Vienna experience and letters from Dorothy Canfield Fisher in her efforts to create an American children's relief organization for German children. The material conveys the difficulties in Jewish emigration in the years just preceding the Second World War.

Repository:

Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College

500 College Avenue, Swarthmore, PA 19081-1399

Phone: (610) 328-8496 FAX: (610) 690-5728

BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL NOTE

Elizabeth Biddle Yarnall (1897-1975) was a graduate of Westtown School and Bryn Mawr College and taught at the Oakwood School. In 1923 she married fellow Quaker, David Robert Yarnall, the son of Edward Smedley and Sidney Garrett Yarnall. and they had three children, D. Robert, Jr., James, and Nancy. D. Robert Yarnall (1878-1967) was a mechanical engineer and member of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission. He served the Society of Friends in many capacities, including Clerk of Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (Orthodox), Chairman of the Board of Pendle Hill, and Chairman of the American Friends Service Committee Child Relief Mission to Germany after WWI and Refugee Committee before WWII. In the years preceding WWII, he sought to convince the German government to modify its stance against minorities and to expedite the emigration of Jews from Germany and Austria. He, along with George Walton and Rufus Jones, represented the AFSC in a meeting with the Gestapo in Berlin in December 1938 to discuss Quaker relief work.

Elizabeth Yarnall was a founding member of Chestnut Hill Meeting and a member of the AFSC Mission Committee which was active in feeding starving children in Germany after World War I. During the summer of 1938, she accompanied her husband to work at Friends Center in Vienna, Austria, aiding German and Austrian refugees.

SCOPE AND CONTENT OF THE RECORDS

The collection contains materials concerning the Yarnalls' work with German and Austrian refugees after the March 1938 Anschluss. Primarily correspondence, it includes letters concerning refugee projects and letters from refugees asking for help, especially the musician Karl Weigl and his wife, Vally, who emigrated in October 1938. There are some family letters from Elizabeth Yarnall sent from Europe in the summer of 1938 and letters from Dorothy Canfield Fisher in her effort to create an American children's relief organization for German children. Also several essays by Elizabeth Yarnall on her Vienna experience and notes for a talk. The material conveys the difficulties involved in Jewish emigration in the years just preceding the war.

Organized into two series:

Organization: Correspondence Miscellaneous ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION Accession information

Donor: Antje Mattheus and David Kairys

Date: 2004

Accession number: 2004-015

Access

Collection is open for research.

Use Restrictions

Copyright has not been assigned to Friends Historical Library. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in to the Director. Permission for publication is given on behalf Friends Historical Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by reader.

Preferred Citation

[Indicate the cited item or series here], Elizabeth Biddle Yarnall Refugee Papers, RG5/256, Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College

RG4/066 Pendle Hill Papers for correspondence from D. Robert Yarnall as Chairman of the Board of Pendle Hill

Karl Weigl Papers, MSS 73, in the Irving S. Gilmore Music Library of Yale University.

Processing information

The papers were received unsorted.

SELECTED SEARCH TERMS DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE RECORDS

This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Friends Historical Library (TRIPOD). Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings:

Yarnall, Elizabeth Biddle, 1897-1975 Yarnall, D. Robert (David Robert), 1878-1967 Weigl, Karl, 1881-1949 Weigl, Vally Fisher, Dorothy Canfield, 1879-1958 Quakers -- Austria -- 1938-1945 Society of Friends -- Austria Austria -- World War, 1939-1945 American Friends Service Committee -- Refugee Committee -- 1938-1945 World War, 1939-1945 -- Civilian relief International Relief -- Societies, etc. Society of Friends -- War relief and reconstruction Reconstruction (1914-1939) -- Societies, etc. Church work with refugees -- Society of Friends Refugee children Refugees -- Austria Refugees -- United States Refugees, Jewish -- 1938-1945 Weigl, Karl, 1881-1949 Weigl, Vally Fisher, Dorothy Canfield, 1879-1958 Yarnall, D. Robert (David Robert), 1878-1967 DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE RECORDS

Note to Researchers: To request materials, please note both the location and box numbers shown below:

Series 1 Correspondence Letters from Elizabeth Yarnall to daughter Nancy, from Zurich and Vienna June-August 1938 1 folder 1 Letters from Elizabeth Yarnall to Becky June-July 1938 1 folder 1 From AFSC Center in Vienna August 1938 1 folder 1 Letters from AFSC center is Vienna Sept..1938, 1940 1 folder 1 Carbon copy of letter to Jules Sept. 1938 1 folder 1

Asking him to assume leadership in Vienna center [from the Yarnalls?].

Correspondence from Karl and Vally Weigl 1938-1945 1 folder 1 Correspondence from refugees and others 1938-1941 1 folder 1 Helen Harness Flanders, Springfield, VT, letters to Elizabeth Yarnall 1938 1 folder 1 Hertha Kraus, A.F.S.C. consultant in Philadelphia 1938 1 folder 1

Concerning refugee matters, particularly coordination of committees.

Cornelia Stabler to Elizabeth Yarnall Jan. 1939 1 folder 1

Asking for help in editing mss.

Dorothy Canfield Fisher to Elizabeth Yarnall 1939-1940 1 folder 1

Children's relief for refugee children and related concerns.

Karl and Ilse Ehrenstein correspondence 1939-1940 1 folder 1 Charlotte Edith Taskier 1939 1 folder 1 Letter from WILPF to Elizabeth Yarnall 1940 1 folder 1

Asking her to serve as chair of National Refugee Committee [she declined]

Letter to Edith from Elizabeth Yarnall and miscellaneous family correspondence 1940, n.d. 1 folder 1 Series 2 Miscellaneous Elizabeth Yarnall speeches on refugee issue, related correspondence 1 folder 1 Handwritten mss (for a speech?) on Vienna experience, Elizabeth Yarnall 1 folder 1 Draft of essay on life in Vienna after the March 1938 Anschluss (typed carbon) Dec. 1938 1 folder 1 Draft of essay on life of waiting in Vienna by Elizabeth Yarnall (typed carbon) 1 folder 1 Summer camp in Vermont for children from Germany and Austria, DAR sponsored program, typed carbon describing n.d. 1 folder 1 Minutes, AFSC Refugee Committee, chaired by Robert Yarnall 1939 1 folder 1 Carbon copy of report to Foreign Service Executive Committee, Caroline Norment 1943 1 folder 1 Music programs, flyers, particularly concerning Karl Weigl 1 folder 1 AFSC and Scattergood School brochures on placement of refugees in the U.S. 1 folder 1 Publications from Germany and Austria concerning refugee problem 1938-1939 1 folder 1 Zeitshrift fur Kindershutz (Viennese journal on child welfare) 1928 1 folder 1 Miscellaneous, unidentified photographs 1 folder 1