The Shrigley family papers are divided into four series: Correspondence and Documents; Diaries, School Books, and Scrapbooks; Photographs and Watercolor Illustration; and Realia. The collection spans 1761 to 1955, with the bulk of the materials covering the lives of James Shrigley and James Burley Shrigley.
The Correspondence and Documents series is divided into two sub-series: Family correspondence and documents, and financial records.
The Shrigley family correspondence and documents subseries contains letters from George S. White, Margaret Shrigley, and James B. Shrigley. James B. Shrigley and Ella G. Oler's marriage certificate and license are present. The items in this subseries were found in a portable writing desk, described below. The Financial records subseries is comprised of receipts and warrant deeds for Corlienus DeHart. DeHart's connection with the Shrigley family has not been determined. Two family account books date from 1764 to 1787 and 1803 to 1811.
The Diaries, School Books, and Scrapbooks series contains seven bound volumes. Three journals by James Burley Shrigley date from 1859-1864, while he was a teenager in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The third volume contains several watercolor illustrations, including one of a US steamer Monitor-inspired hat. The collection includes two scrapbooks compiled by James B. Shrigley and Arthur Shrigley. James's scrapbook contains a biography of his father Reverend James Shrigley and several signed letters and clipped autographs of prominent public individuals, such as P. T. Barnum and Daniel Webster. Arthur's scrapbook contains holiday-themed newspaper clippings.
The Photographs series contains images of multiple members of the Shrigley family and scenes of Frankford, Pennsylvania. Among the photographs are cabinet cards of Reverend James Shrigley and Mary Shrigley, and stereograph cards of Frankford, Pennsylvania, in 1875. The series includes ten photographs that were removed from their frames; three of the frames (original to the photographs) were retained and are filed in the Realia series.
The Realia series contains a portable writing desk, a leather pouch, and three frames. The items in the family correspondence and documents series above were found within the portable writing desk. The owner of the desk has not been determined. The three frames were original to three photographs described in the photographs series.
James Shrigley was born on April 5, 1813, in Delph, Yorkshire, England. His family immigrated to Putney, Vermont, in 1821. Although the Shrigleys joined the Methodist Church, the denomination's beliefs on salvation concerned young James. When a Universalist minister arrived in Putney, James begged his mother to accompany him to the sermon. Shrigley apprenticed as a cabinetmaker, but left his trade to join the Universalist ministry. Following his 1835 ordination in North Granby, Connecticut, Reverend James Shrigley served churches in New Hampshire, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. In 1842, he married Mary Elizabeth Myers in Baltimore, Maryland. The couple had four sons, one of whom died at a young age.
In 1858, the Shrigley family moved to Richmond, Virginia, where James preached for the abolition of slavery and the preservation of the Union. When the Virginia legislature voted to secede from the Union in 1861, Shrigley promptly moved his family to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Shrigley served as Chaplain at the Fort McClellan Army Hospital in Philadelphia from May 1863-1865. Following the war, Shrigley worked as a supply pastor in the Philadelphia area, held offices with the Pennsylvania Universalist Convention, and served as the Librarian of the Pennsylvania Historical Society. Rev. James Shrigley died on July 24, 1905, and his wife Mary died later that year.
Two of James Shrigley's sons are represented in the papers. John M. Shrigley was born in August 1844, in Baltimore, Maryland. John worked as a priest for a free school and as an educator in Pennsylvania. James Burley Shrigley was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on September 1, 1846, and died in Philadelphia on June 29, 1914. Papers of John M. Shrigley's son, Arthur Shrigley, and grand-daughter, Margaret Shrigley, are also present in the collection. Materials pertaining to the following members of Margaret Shrigley's maternal line are also present: Rebecca White Shrigley, George Foster White, Barclay White, and Joseph Rhoads.
