Rolfe and Rumford Home Records, 1773-1859

Title:

Rolfe and Rumford Home Records, 1773-1859

Creator:

Rolfe and Rumford Home

Accession / Call Number:

2014.050

Object ID:

2009.078

Date:

1773-1859

Physical Description:

17 boxes; 2 oversize documents

Scope and Content:

The Rolfe and Rumford Home Records contain business and institutional records of the Home (originally called the Rolfe and Rumford Asylum). The records are richest for the years 1880 to 1935. The collection arrived in two accessions. Accession 2009.078 is larger and more inclusive and contains bills, receipts, and a run of annual reports and minutes complete until 1951. Accession 2014.050 consists primarily of financial records, legal documents, and legal correspondence. It also includes notes taken by a nursing student between 1891 and 1893. The 2009 accession contains financial records, bills, and receipts. There are treasurer's reports within the annual reports. These are amplified by lists of securities with their returns that are a part of the 2014 accession. Between 1880 and the late 1920s, there are receipts and bills for many expenses: clothing for the girls, groceries, schoolroom supplies, repairs and building maintenance, salaries for staff, etc. These are almost always itemized, so it is possible to construct a detailed picture of the material life of the home, even to items such as what books were purchased for the girls at Christmas. The 2014 accession includes legal documents and correspondence (boxes 17 and 18), which include a few legal opinions about issues concerning guardianship of the girls; there is also materials related to income-generating property owned by the Home. The trustees' minutes and annual reports are complete to 1951 and are primarily in account book form, with expenditure summaries and income entries. If there is a narrative, it concerns matters such as the purchase or sale of land, major repairs or alterations to the structure, etc. There are no trustee records after 1951. The minutes and annual reports of the Lady Visitors are complete and detailed until 1935. There are no Lady Visitors records between 1935 and 1970. The records from 1970 to 1989 are closed until 2040. The Lady Visitors were initially the wives of the trustees but were later women active in social welfare in the Concord community. The Lady Visitors concerned themselves with the management of the Home and the care of the children. Their records contain monthly and yearly narratives about each girl by name. These include reasons for being placed in the Home, progress, and reason for and destination upon discharge. Through these records, it is possible to follow any individual through her time at the Home during these years. The Lady Visitors were also responsible for relationships with (and hence oversight of) the Matron (later called the Director), so these reports also contain information about the hiring, firing, and other working issues. A recurring theme in the Lady Visitors records is the (always polite) conflict between the Lady Visitors and the Matron, who clearly sometimes resented the control that the Lady Visitors had over the daily operations at the Home. The collection also contains thirty-seven formal academic papers summarizing lectures given by local physicians to nursing students. They were made by Agnes Marie Levinsohn between 1891 and 1893 as part of the 2014 accession (Box 17). The only outside evaluation of the Rolfe and Rumford Home in the record collection is a 1941 evaluation completed by the New Hampshire Conference of Social Welfare and the Child Welfare League (Box 14, Folder 17). There are also two oversize documents in the collection. One is a 1773 plan of the Rolfe Homestead (the first location of the Rolfe and Rumford Home) made by Benjamin Thompson and Miel Chandler. There are also some blueprints of the Rolfe and Rumford Home. The collection contains no photographs except for a photograph of the building that house the original Rolfe and Rumford Asylum. The published volume, "History of the Rolfe and Rumford Asylum" is illustrated with a few early photographs. Lastly, the voices of the girls themselves are rarely heard in the materials found in the collection. A notable exception is a folder of reports, each written by one of the residents to the Lady Visitors in 1911 about an expedition to the beach for all residents.

Subjects:

Charities , Asylums , Orphanages , Institutional care , Housemothers , Nurses , Women in charitable work , Charities--Accounting

Locations:

Concord, NH

People:

Dupree, Emma , Levinsohn, Agnes , Robinson, Eliza , Parmenter, Laura , Dupree, Emma , Levinsohn, Agnes , Robinson, Eliza , Parmenter, Laura

Organizations:

Rolfe and Rumford Asylum

Credit Line:

Gift of the Board of Trustees of the Rolfe and Rumford Home in 2009 and 2014.

Restrictions:

Available for research.

Level Description:

Collection

Finding Aid Link:

RS24890_Rolfe_Rumford_Home_Records_2009.078.pdf