Almshouse records

Volumes 1 and 2 (1767-1768) contain listings of money and material aid given to the poor, including cash, clothing, legal aid, supplies, and burial and travel expenses. There are also records of people being paid for services, including being a wet nurse, grave digging, midwifery, and helping women...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Almshouse and House of Employment (Philadelphia, Pa.) (Creator)
Collection:Almshouse Records
Collection Number:Am.3225
Format: Manuscript
Language:English
Subjects and Genres:
Online Access:Link to finding aid
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Physical Description: 0.16 Linear feet ; 3 volumes
Access: None. The collection is open for research.
Summary: Volumes 1 and 2 (1767-1768) contain listings of money and material aid given to the poor, including cash, clothing, legal aid, supplies, and burial and travel expenses. There are also records of people being paid for services, including being a wet nurse, grave digging, midwifery, and helping women with their children to other parts of the country. There are several entries helping women whom the Mayor ordered to other regions in Pennsylvania or other states. Volume 2 is the daybook to Volume 1’s journal. The former was the immediate log for these records, and the information was neatly organized and copied into the journal. Volume 3 (1837) contains a detailed listing of the female patrons of the various sectors of the Almshouse, and a statistics summary comparing the male and female patients and residents. Sectors include the lunatic asylum and the surgical and syphilitic ward. Information on the female patrons include name, age, temperance habits, occupation, health, and probable cause of poverty, including “vicious,” “insanity,” and “increase of family.” Additional remarks on select individuals include “indolent and stupid,” “from prison,” and “melancholy.” Since being born into freedom or slavery is a descriptive category for both male and female patrons, this is likely an account of just the Black patrons of the Almshouse.
The City Almshouse and infirmary, established in Philadelphia in 1732, provided "shelter, support, and employment for the poor and indigent, a hospital for the sick, and an asylum for the idiotic, the insane, and the orphan." Successor institutions that have carried on its services have been Blockley Almshouse, Philadelphia General Hospital, Philadelphia Hospital for Mental Diseases (Byberry), Home for Indigent (Holmesburg). The record books are: journal, 1767-1768; daybook, 1767-1768; and statistics, 1837. Statistics covers the women's part of the Almshouse, listing name, age, birthplace, slave or free, marital status, probable cause of poverty, temperance habits, and employment, with comparative summaries for men and women.