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Magdalen Society of Philadelphia records
The Magdalen Society of Philadelphia was a private charitable organization founded in 1800 by a group of Philadelphia men under the presidency of Bishop William White of the Protestant Episcopal Church and continuously governed by men until 1916. Its original purpose was to rescue women "falle...
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| Collection: | Magdalen Society of Philadelphia Records |
| Collection Number: | 2016 |
| Format: | Manuscript |
| Language: | English |
| Subjects and Genres: | |
| Online Access: | Link to finding aid |
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| Physical Description: |
3.8 Linear feet 9 boxes, 31 volumes, 1 flat file |
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| Summary: |
The Magdalen Society of Philadelphia was a private charitable organization founded in 1800 by a group of Philadelphia men under the presidency of Bishop William White of the Protestant Episcopal Church and continuously governed by men until 1916. Its original purpose was to rescue women "fallen from a condition of innocence and virtue," but in 1849, the Managers, at the urging of George Williams, began to consider ways to expand the role of the Society to include educating the girls and women for jobs. Not until after the passage of the Pennsylvania Child Labor Law, 1916, was the society able to redirect its energies: it sold the Magdalen Home, its asylum, elected women to its Board, and appointed a woman director. The following year it embarked upon a program of visiting working children to urge them to return to school. In 1918 it changed its name to the White-Williams Foundation for Girls and, two years later, to the White-Williams Foundation.
The bulk of the records are for the society's asylum, purchased in 1807. They contain: minutes of the board of managers, 1800-1916; minutes of the annual meetings of the society, 1837-1916, including accounts of work done and letters from former Magdalens; minutes of the weekly visiting committee, 1878-1912, including personal information on the inmates and conditions at the home; matron's diaries of daily events at the home, 1829-1834, 1878-1917; ledger, 1832-1878; account books, 1871-1921; register of admissions and discharges, 1836-1917, including personal data and some follow-up reports concerning the women after their departure.
Some published annual reports are bound in with managers' minutes, 1885-1916; the majority are available in the Historical Society's Library.
This collection was digitized for In Her Own Right, a collaborative digital project of the Philadelphia Area Consortium of Special Collections Libraries (PACSCL). Digital access to the collection is available through this link: (https://omeka.hsp.org/s/digitalcollections/2016. |