- Creator
- Women's Prison Association of New York
- Call number
- MssCol 3378
- Physical description
- 116 linear feet (148 boxes)
- Preferred Citation
- Women's Prison Association of New York records, Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library
- Repository
- Manuscripts and Archives Division
- Access to materials
- Request an in-person research appointment.Restrictions apply
The Women's Prison Association, founded in 1854, promotes improvement in the treatment of women prisoners in New York and offers rehabilitation assistance to ex-offenders. The Association also has proposed various reforms in the criminal justice system for women and has operated the Isaac T. Hopper Home since the mid-19th century, making it the oldest women's "halfway house" in the U.S. Collection consists of correspondence, minutes, reports, legislative bills, project files, client case files, financial records, photographs, and printed matter documenting the activities of the Women's Prison Association (WPA). Within the administrative records there are Executive Committee and Board of Directors minutes, 1888-1979 (with gaps); directors and staff correspondence and reports, 1845-1983 (with gaps); fundraising records, 1933-1973; scattered records of the Treasurer, 1869-1977; and auditors' reports, 1929-1977. Also, administrative files for all the major projects of the 1970s and a fairly complete set of annual reports, 1859-1981. Client case records (comprising about three-quarters of the collection) contain case books, rolls, registration cards, and samples of daily reports on residents of the Hopper Home. Case files for individual clients form the largest element of the client records and contain information about closed cases from the 1920s to the 1970s.
Administrative information
Source of acquisition
Gift, Women's Prison Association, 1985Key terms
Names
- Women's Prison Association of New York
- Atkinson, Miriam
- Clark, Mary V
- Daniel, A.S
- Emerson, Sara M
- Gibbons, Abigail M
- Hunt, E. Mebane
- Powell, Rachel H
- Steinmetz, Margaret B
- Woodbridge, Alice
- Isaac T. Hopper Home
Subjects
- Criminals -- Rehabilitation
- Halfway houses -- New York (State) -- New York
- Reformatories for women -- New York (State)
- Rehabilitation centers
- Social work with criminals
- Women prisoners
Material types
Using the collection
Location
Manuscripts and Archives DivisionStephen A. Schwarzman Building
Fifth Avenue at 42nd Street, New York, NY 10018-2788
Brooke Russell Astor Reading Room, Third Floor, Room 328
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.Access restrictions
Records containing information about WPA clients in which they are personally identified are closed for 70 years.
Administrative records of the WPA which do not contain client data are closed for 15 years.