Contents

Descriptive Summary

BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL NOTE

SCOPE AND CONTENT OF THE RECORDS

Arrangement

SELECTED SEARCH TERMS

Ser. 1. Minutes

Ser. 2. Financial Records

Ser. 3. Miscellaneous

An Inventory of the New York Female Association Records, 1798-1988

Finding Aid Prepared by FHL staff

Encoding made possible by a grant by the Gladys Kriebel Delmas Foundation to the Philadelphia Consortium of Special Collections Libraries

2000

BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL NOTE

Established to give relief to sick poor non-Friends, the New York Female Association first provided aid to sufferers of Yellow Fever. In 1800, following a proposal to open free schools for poor children who lacked other means of obtaining an education, the NYFA opened New York's first public school for female students; Theresa Garvan was employed as the teacher. Until 1845, when it turned its school interests entirely over to the Free School Society, established in 1805 by Quaker men, the NYFA worked in conjunction with the FSS, and by 1825, 750 girls were attending several schools and learning reading, writing, arithmetic, and needle-work. Three years later, however, the schools for girls were dropped due to under-enrollment and the students began attending FSS coeducational schools. The same year, the Association opened a new infant school in the basement a Lutheran church, which it ran until 1845. That year, the association turned over its school affairs entirely to the FSS and since has contented itself with small gifts to public and private charities. In 1853, the Government of the City of New York assumed full responsibility for the educational system.

In 1915, the New York Female Association commissioned the Lindley Murray Fund, a charity organization formed to provide aid to black and native Americans, to manage its funds. It continues as of 1988 as a gift- giving committee consisting of six Quaker members. Although the association has never been affiliated strictly with either the Hicksite or Orthodox meetings, in 1828, the committee was primarily if not entirely Orthodox, and by 1901 the organization was composed entirely of Hicksites.

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SCOPE AND CONTENT OF THE RECORDS

This collection consists primarily of minutes and financial records. In its early years, the Committee met often, concerning itself with the affairs of its public schools. Common entries consist of lists of the numbers of attenders at a particular school and a judgement of the teacher. Also included in the collection are annual reports from 1821 and 1824. In 1889, a proposal was approved to limit meetings to once yearly. Most reports from the twentieth century list simply the names of members and their chosen charities. A useful historical synopsis of the association to 1981 is included in the collection.

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SELECTED SEARCH TERMS

This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Friends Historical Library (TRIPOD). Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings:

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Arrangement

The collection is divided into three series:

• Minutes
• Financial records
• Miscellaneous Papers

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DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE RECORDS

Ser. 1. Minutes

Ser. 2. Financial Records

Ser. 3. Miscellaneous