Sheltering Arms Children's Service and Related Agencies Records

Dates

1823-1966

Extent

150 Cubic Feet (142 boxes and 21 volumes)

Physical Location

Bulk restricted. Persons seeking access to the records of the Sheltering Arms Children's Service and/or its predecessor agencies need to submit an "Application to Use Restricted Materials" form for approval in advance of their research. Stored offsite: Advance notice required to consult these records.

Language of Materials

English

Access

Additional Description

Biographical / Historical

A Brief Chronology of the Sheltering Arms and Related Agencies

1823
: New York Asylum For Lying-In Women was founded" to provide a decent birth place for infants of poor women ... and to reduce the hazards of childbirth."
1854
: Nursery and Child's Hospital was founded for "the maintenance and care of children of wet nurses and the daily charge of infants whose parents labor from home.
1864
: The Sheltering Arms was established "to furnish a home for various classes of children who could not be admitted to any existing institution." Its founder was the Reverend Thomas McClure Peters.
1864
: Howard Mission and Home for Little Wanderers was "incorporated as a charitable institution for children from poor and destitute families." It closed in 1943 and its assets were transferred to the New York Child's Foster Home Service.
1865
: New York Infant Asylum was formed "to receive and take care of foundlings and other infant children ... and to prevent maternal abandonment of homeless infants."
1866
: The Children's Fold was organized "to keep, support and educate dependent children aged I to 12 years." This organization and the Shepherd's Fold, founded in 1876, were absorbed by the Sheltering Arms in 1902.
1899
: New York Asylum for Lying-In Women and New York Infant Asylum consolidated, retaining the name of the latter.
1910
: New York Nursery and Child's hospital was formed by the consolidation of the New York Infant Asylum and Nursery and Child's Hospital.
1934
: With the closing, of the New York Nursery and Hospital, its Foster Home Department became a separate agency: The New York Child's Foster Home Service, chartered "to provide foster home care for dependent and neglected white and Negro babies."
1944
: Sheltering Arms Children's Service was formed by the merger of the New York Child's Foster Home Service and the Sheltering Arms. Its object is to provide foster home care for dependent and neglected white and Negro children from birth through the age of 1

Finding Aid & Administrative Information

Title: Inventory to the Sheltering Arms Children's Service and Related Agencies Records MC 1385
Status: Edited Full Draft
Author: Special Collections and University Archives
Date: May 2009
Language of description note: Finding aid is written in English.
Sponsor: Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University received an operating support grant from the New Jersey Historical Commission, a division of the Department of State.