"Isaac Penington: Forefather of American Democracy." Contemporary Review, vol. 213, 210-12, 1968 October

The Mary Whitcomb Hess (MWH) papers span from 1924 to 1975 and document MWH's life as a writer and philosopher of religion and poetry.

Box 1 contains offprints of her textual publications from 1926 to 1976. These essays and commentaries on philosophical, literary, and religious topics were published primarily in Catholic periodicals as well as some philosophical journals. These are arranged alphabetically by title. The checklist noted below includes a four-page subject index (p. 31-34); a copy of this index is appended to the inventory.

The second, smaller box contains a loose leaf binder of Hess's collected poems (also arranged alphabetically by title). Also in the box are two pamphlets related to Penington or Quakerism. In addition, a Fall 1930 catalog of "Quaker and Other Books" from the Friends Bookstore. Two of Mrs. Hess's poems were set to music by composer Earl E. Kelly. The original score for a song "White Wings Flying," published as a poem in 1953, and a photocopied score for "River Asleep," from a poem published in 1959, are housed with the collection. Lastly, there are 2 copies of the annotated bibliography, "M. Whitcomb Hess, A Bibliographical Checklist of Fifty Years: 1924-1974," written by her daughter, Sister Mary Carolina Hess S.N.D., upon which this inventory is largely based.