Henry Chapman Mercer
His Passionate Anti-War Protests during World War One:

1918: U. S. Government poster:
Join the Army
or a big, black guy will steal your wife.
But Henry Mercer didn’t have a wife.
He fought the pro-war hysteria.

  …the attitude, not of a few but practically all of our newspapers, not only now but from the first, has been so invariably, so grossly, so childishly unfair and unneutral, so false, so slanderous, so mean, so cowardly in its one sided presentation of news that the mere fact alone regardless of any one’s view of it constitutes one of the most remarkable phenomena of the war.
…this intolerant, unmerciful newspaper animus has never halted nor looked for light, has never been rebuked but has developed unchecked, in its own way, until now it rages in a sinister propaganda that threatens to stifle discussion and push the county into war.
…this diabolical thing threatens the very foundations of our democracy.
Very respectfully yours. H. C. Mercer.

 Henry Mercer’s War and Peace tiles
In his studio’s Bible in Tile fireplace:

 Henry Mercer’s War and Peace tiles
In his museum’s Bible in Tile fireplace:

To the Members of the Bucks County Historical Society,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
There are some of our members, myself among the number, who though ready to meet the demands which the Government may make upon them in the present war yet for conscientious reasons do not wish at this moment to display our flag upon their houses.
Some of our members are also members of the Society of Friends [Quakers], which for more than a hundred years has been opposed to war. They would probably take the same ground.
…I hope that you will not now vote out the views of private individuals whether members of your body or not.
Henry C. Mercer / June 30, 1917

 Henry Mercer explained why he resigned as president of his museum.
Because his museum’s trustees voted to fly an American flag.
Mercer wanted the flag to represent peace, not war.

 Resignation
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I regret very much that your action in voting to display a flag on our museum compels me to feel that I am not sufficiently in sympathy with a majority of this society to continue to hold my offices of president and curator.
Therefore I offer you my resignation of these positions with the explanation that my regular contributions in money toward the maintenance of the new museum and the salaries of the assistant curator and janitor will be continued to you through one of the trust companies.
…we have not yet been commanded except by politicians and newspapers to violate our consciences in the matter, nor to glory in that which we cannot believe in by displaying flags. Any one is permitted but no one compelled to display flags on motor cars or houses.

In 1918 Henry Mercer received this letter, above, from the National War Savings Committee stating that the U. S. government expected him to purchase war savings certificates.
A few years later, in 1923, Mercer added his handwritten notes to the letter’s margins. He wrote:
Interesting Document as showing the government’s methods of raising money for the war in 1918.
TERRORISM
If the Mob had not been howling at the time - If the minority had not been everywhere silenced and terrorized. If private property or persons had been safe or could have been protected by law. If this house or the museum of the Bucks Co. Historical Society had not been threatened by the mob, then this Banker who takes full advantage of his opportunity, could have been told to go to the Devil. H. C. M. 1923

 1918: Henry Mercer felt pressured into purchasing war stamps
Despite his resistance to the war:

 Above: Although Henry Mercer despised the war in Europe he complied with the U. S. government’s request for war funding. Mercer sent a check for $834.00 to purchase war saving stamps, as he described in the letter above.

  Above: In 1916 Henry Mercer installed his Bible-story tiles in the chancel of St. James. Episcopal Church, Lancaster. During this same time he was attending St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in his hometown, Doylestown.
But the following year, 1917, Mercer left the Episcopal Church because he disagreed with the church’s policy on flying American flags. He believed churches should not display nationalist flags. The flag had become a call to arms and to warfare. Mercer called for peace, not for war.

  Henry Mercer was among the first historians to research and write about Pennsylvania German folk culture. His ancestry was English and Scottish, not Germanic. But he had much respect for his Pennsylvania Dutch neighbors.
In 1914 he published a seminal study of Pennsylvania German stoves, The Bible in Iron. World War One began that same year. Mercer declared his hope for peace on a front page of the book. There he featured The Hope for Peace stove plate. That historic stove plate illustrates the Bible verse about turning swords into plows:
And they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks and Nation shall not lift up a sword against Nation, neither shall they learn war any more. Isaiah 2:4

 Henry Mercer based his War and Peace tiles on a Pennsylvania stove plate.
His “friends of peace”: German Mennonites, Schwenkfelders, and Amish:

1917: Henry Mercer’s tile panel: Turn swords into plows.
At Lancaster Theological Seminary:

  The war was raging in Europe when Henry Mercer installed his tile fireplaces at Lancaster Theological Seminary, in 1917. He included his Hope for Peace tile panel in the refectory’s Bible fireplace, as shown above. In the fireplace’s center position he prominently featured his primary Peace panel that shows Peace-Church men shaking hands.
The fireplace is Henry Mercer’s protest for peace during World War One.

 Henry Mercer financially supported war-time relief agencies:
The Red Cross, Quaker services, & veteran assistance:

  Above: Henry Mercer backed up his anti-war protests by contributing to war-time relief agencies that provided humanitarian aid. In 1918 he gave financial assistance to the Doylestown branch of the American Red Cross.

 1921: Henry Mercer assisted Quakers
To Feed Malnourished Children in European War Zones:

  In addition to supporting the American Red Cross, Henry Mercer also donated $1,000 to the American Friends Service Committee. The Friends [Quakers] helped provide food to malnourished children in Europe.
As the letter describes, after the war tens of thousands of children in Austria and Germany were suffering from stunted growth, tuberculosis, and rickets. In Austria, 50,000 children under the age of six received food assistance from this Friends Committee.

 He also continued financially supporting Episcopalians,
Even though he left his Episcopal Church because of his anti-war beliefs.

Above: In 1920 Henry Mercer donated to the Trinity Memorial Episcopal Church in Ambler, PA. Three years earlier he had left the Episcopal church in his hometown, Doylestown, because of his anti-war beliefs. But he continued his financial support for that denomination.

 1929: Henry Mercer donated a Bible in Tile installation
To Salem Reformed [UCC] Church in Doylestown
Including a definitive display of his War and Peace tiles:

Henry Mercer was 73 years old when he created this Bible in Tile installation for his neighbors at Salem Reformed Church. Despite being ill and infirm with age he personally designed this project and supervised its installation.
Mercer donated these tiles to the congregation. Here, in Mercer’s final War and Peace tiles, his plain-dressed advocates for peace closely resemble Mercer’s Quaker friends and his Mennonite neighbors. Their black hats and plain coats clearly help define their Peace-Church identity. Henry Mercer stood arm-in-arm with these ceramic anti-war protestors for peace. Henry Mercer also included his “Peace” tile panel that depicts a blacksmith transforming swords into plows.
Henry Mercer passed away the next year, in 1930. Today his grave adjoins the graves of his parents in the cemetery of the Doylestown Presbyterian Church.

 “Life of the People” Henry Mercer’s 1908 quote
at the entrance to his Mercer Museum:

  Above: It is the life of the people that is sought to be expressed; the building of a commonwealth…by the individual work of thousands of hands, rather than by wars and legislatures. Henry Mercer, 1908
Henry Mercer’s legacy is his declaration of the people. He declared that it was the everyday people who built America, not the power brokers. He filled his museum and his home with his neighbors’ working-class objects and artifacts. Mercer was convinced that the most important American history is the history of the people, rather than the history of the “wars and legislature.”

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