Reports of visits to institutions

Chronological by date of visit or report.

Reports by Board members provide information on conditions in institutions and on institutionalized paupers and those receiving state aid.

Members of the Board of Charities made inspection visits to poorhouses, orphanages, and insane asylums. The visits were scheduled in advance, and were occasionally at the invitation of institution officials. Three kinds of reports resulting from those visits are bound together in this volume: 1. reports on individual institution inspections; 2. reports on paupers receiving state aid; and 3. reports on alien paupers. Each is a narrative, generally written by Board secretary Charles S. Hoyt, who conducted or was present at most of the visits. Reports on individual institution inspections contain information about some or all of the following: institution name; names of institution's officers; inmate types (e.g. poor, insane); quality of inmate health; facility conditions and maintenance; facility repairs and construction underway or needed (sometimes including building diagrams); type of work, if any, done by inmates; and quality of record keeping. Reports on paupers receiving state aid summarize information compiled during several Board visits. Information contained in the reports may include: names of institutions visited and by whom; number of paupers admitted with state funding; number of paupers discharged or died who received state funding; number remaining on state funding; prospects for additional discharges; and financial savings due to discharges.

Reports on alien paupers provide the following information for each individual: pauper's name; age; length of time in U.S.; marital status; residence of any relatives; physical and mental condition; and prospects for self-sufficiency.

Microfilm is available at the New York State Archives through interlibrary loan.

There are no restrictions regarding access to or use of the material.