Jim Smart has a charming reminisce of a fading Philadelphia Quaker tradition:
I don’t remember what the Motto calendars cost when I first began buying them, probably in the ’60s. It was a pleasant December chore to stop in at the little old Quaker meeting house on 12th Street near Market that had survived when the PSFS building began scraping the sky next door.
I’d buy the new calendar from Mrs. Elizabeth Lewis at the front desk, who would greet me, “How is thee today?” and prove that I was still in the Quaker City.
— More
I must admit I haven’t thought of the Motto Calendar in years but they certainly have been their own quiet remnant of a Philadelphia Quaker world that’s largely disappeared. I remember selling them myself in the late 1990s from the QuakerBooks shop on the 1200 block of Arch (though I didn’t address any customer as “thee,” alas).
Here is Augusta Scattergood’s blog post announcing the end. She also wrote a little bit of family history about it in 2010.
Update: Friends Journal has written a more thoroughly sourced article on this. And apparently there is a movement to continue the calendars. Contact scattergoodmotto@gmail.com for information
Recent Comments on Quaker Ranter Daily