| Creator | Boston Society for the Care of Girls |
| Title | Boston Society for the Care of Girls records |
| Dates | 1801-1921 |
| Identification | CC 17 |
| Quantity | 0.5 linear feet (1 manuscript box) |
| Collection Abstract | The Boston Society for the Care of Girls records are arranged chronologically, and include annual reports, publications, sermons and a discourse. Annual reports provide an account of the year's activities, as well as information on officers, subscribers and the group's structural organization. Publications cover topics related to the history and activity of the organization. Sermons were those given at annual meetings, and include speakers Joseph Eckley, J.S.J. Gardiner, F.W.P. Greenwood. |
| Historical Abstract | The Boston Society for the Care of Girls, established by Hannah Stillman in 1800, was originally called the Boston Female Asylum, before changing its name in 1910. As the first public charity established by women in Boston, the Society worked to raise funds for and provide homes to female orphans. Run by a Board of Managers, the Society operated several homes and boarded older girls out to live with families. In 1922, the Society joined with the Boston Children's Aid Society to form the Children's Aid Association, although it retained its separate corporate identity until 1947. |
| Language | Material in English. |
| Location | Collection may be stored offsite. Please contact Archives staff for more information. |
Collection is open.
Copyright for materials resides with the creators of the items in question, unless otherwise designated.
Please contact the College Archivist with requests to publish any material from the collection.
[Identification of item: description and date], Boston Society for the Care of Girls records, CC 17, Simmons College Archives, Boston, MA, USA.
Transferred from the Simmons College School of Social Work Library, 1991
Accession number: 1997.139
Processed by Amy Lux, October 1997
Supervised by Joan Gearin
This collection guide was encoded as part of the LEADS project by Meghann Wollitz, October 2012
The Boston Female Asylum (BFA) was established in 1800, incorporated in 1803, and changed its name in 1910 to The Boston Society for the Care of Girls. The Boston Female Asylum, organized by Mrs. Hannah Stillman, was the "first public charity projected and established by women in the town of Boston."(1)
The BFA was run by a Board of Managers, consisting of fourteen members. Elected from among the board members was a First Director, a Second Director, a Secretary and a Treasurer. The Society also had subscribers who would pay $3 per year or $50 for a lifetime membership. The Board Members and Subscribers would come together at the annual meetings to vote on issues at hand. Gentlemen could not become members of the Society, but were allowed to make monetary donations.(2)
The objective of the Society was to "raise funds for the benefit of female orphan children from three to ten years of age."(3) During the Society's first two years, the girls were boarded out to good homes for $1.50 per week. But in 1803 the Managers purchased the first of a succession of houses, having deemed it necessary to accommodate the girls under one roof. At the age of twelve, a girl was then placed in a home under indenture. She would stay with that family until the age of eighteen, when at that time, the family would pay her $50. Often the girls married right away, so they were provided for before they reached the age of nineteen. Others were provided for by adoption. No child was placed outside the Asylum before the age of twelve unless she was adopted by a good family.(4)
In 1906, the Society began to place all the girls with private families. The families would be paid $3 per week until the child was adopted, returned to her family or old enough to be on her own.(5) In 1910 the Society sold their final home and bought a building, 184 Boylston Street, to serve as office space. It was also in 1910 that the name changed, from Boston Female Asylum to The Boston Society for the Care of Girls, and the Society changed the scope of its objective. It began working with older girls "to aim at prevention rather than cure."(6) The help that the Society now gave out ranged from placing an orphan in a good home, to helping a runaway get situated in Boston, to a friendly chat.
In 1922, the Board of Managers and the Directors from the Boston Children's Aid Society voted to form a federation, known as the Children's Aid Association. From 1922 until 1947 the "two organizations retained their corporate identities although functioning as one child placing agency. Then in 1947 [the two organizations] were legally merged under the name of Children's Aid Association, Inc."(7)
The records of the Boston Society for the Care of Girls, known as the Boston Female Asylum until 1910, includes annual reports, publications, and sermons which demonstrate the organizational and institutional history of the Society.
These and related materials may be found under the following headings in online catalogs.
Collection is arranged into three series:
Part of the School of Social Work Library Charities Collection.
The annual reports for 1841-1842 contain an account of the year's progress and activities. The 1850 report contains an account of the year's progress and activities, a list of officers and subscribers and the annual meeting sermon by Rev. F.D. Huntington. The annual reports for 1909-1921 list the Board of Managers, committees (and their members), office staff, society history, organizational chart, Board of Managers Report, General Secretary Report, donor list, Department of yearly progress and Treasurer's Report.
Box 1
This series contains nine publications which record the legal and social history of the society. The publications are arranged alphabetically by title. Includes five issues of the An Account of the Boston Female Asylum with the Acts of Incorporation, By-laws, Rules and Regulations (1810, 1867, 1874, 1889, 1898). These publications contain an historical account of the Society, locations of past and current locations, and changes that have taken place within the organization. They also contain parent surrender and indenture forms, Acts of Incorporation, By-laws and Regulations, Rules and Regulations for the government of the children, current year officers and managers, annual subscribers and life members. The 1810 Account gives a more detailed account of the Society, including the past and present names of Board Members, Teachers and governesses, the present state of funds (expenses and salaries), and donations (names, years and amounts). There is a later publication of the Acts of Incorporation (1910); a publication celebrating the first anniversary of the Boston Female Asylum; a booklet focusing on women's social work in Boston; and a historical account of the asylum published in 1844.
Box 1
Contains three sermons and a discourse which were delivered at the annual meeting of the Boston Female Asylum for the coinciding year. A sermon delivered in 1850 by F.D. Huntington was printed with the 1850 annual report and is located in box 1, folder 2. The sermon speakers include Joseph Eckley, J.S.J. Gardiner, F.W.P. Greenwood, and Jonathan M. Wainright. For a complete list of the speakers at the anniversary celebrations from 1801 to 1835 see page 35 of Reminiscences of the Boston Female Asylum, box 1, folder 13.
Box 1
