
In the Collection: The Quaker City
First issued issued in serial installments in 1844-45, then published in book form, The Quaker City; Or, the Monks of Monk Hall is part of Lutnick Library’s Quaker fiction collection, which was begun in the 1960s with a donation of 250 books. Now grown to almost 2,000 volumes, the collection includes fiction books that have Quaker characters and/or are written by Quaker authors, and continues to grow as new books appear.
"In the Collection" highlights some of the rare and marvelous items that are part of Lutnick Library's Quaker & Special Collections.
According to Emma J. Lapsansky-Werner, professor emeritus of history and former curator of the Quaker Collection, "the novel helped to solidify notions of urban life and capitalism as cauldrons of sin, greed, and debauchery, and to promote upstanding Quakers as the antithesis of urban low-life." Photo: Patrick Montero.