Dover Children's Home Papers, 1893-1990

Collection number: MC 153
Size: 17 boxes (5.33 cu.ft.)

About Dover Children's Home

In March 1892 thirteen members of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union concerned for the welfare of Dover’s neglected, abused, and unwanted children collectively pledged to be responsible for the rent and other expenses of a home for needy children. They rented half of a duplex on Atkinson Street and accepted 13 children for admission. One year later (May 10, 1893) the Dover Children’s Home (DCH) was incorporated. Thirty-three members of the Dover Children’s Home Society signed the Articles of Incorporation and thereby made it their object “to provide for the reception, care and education of destitute children.” (Act of Incorporation and By-Laws, 1893) The Home, which had grown to 28 children, moved to a larger house at 11 Spring Street in 1894. Then in 1897 the DCH Society decided to purchase land and build a new house at 207 Locust Street. On October 9, 1897, the Society laid the cornerstone of the building. It was completed and furnished in 1898, and 38 children moved in. A generous bequest in 1916 added land to the original DCH property. Additions to the Home in the early 1920s and in 1962 greatly increased its size, and several renovations have helped maintain the facility

Over the years the Dover Children’s Home has reflected many of the changes in the character and condition of Dover’s (and New Hampshire’s) society and culture. Organized to ease the plight of children and families who suffered due to the recessions of the 1890s, the Home has continued to serve the needs of under-privileged children “without regard to creed or nationality” (Report of the DCH, 1923) for more than 100 years. During the depression of the 1920s more than 60 children resided in the Home. In 1939 the state of New Hampshire requested that the Home limit its number of children to 50. This number was subsequently cut to 45 after World War II. Staff problems and other difficulties eventually caused the Home to cut its number of children to about a dozen in 1952. Today the Home provides residential, case management, and therapeutic services for teenagers, and acts as an intermediate group home for abused and neglected youth.

About the Dover Children's Home Papers

The Dover Children’s Home collection contains business, financial, and personnel records, correspondence, registers and files pertaining to the admission of children, communication logs, weekly reports, overnight charts that record the day-to-day activities and behavior of the children, photographs, and a scrapbook that documents benefactor Edward Warren Rollins and the DCH children’s summers at Parker Mountain Camp in Strafford, NH from 1927-1932

Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection has restrictions: For materials in the collection that are less than one hundred years old, written permission must be obtained from the Dover Children’s Home’s executive officer or administrator. Contact Renee Touhey-Childress, Executive Director at (603) 742-4298 x12 or via e-mail: rtouhey@doverchildrenshome.org

Copyright Notice

Contents of this collection are governed by U.S. copyright law. For questions about publication or reproduction rights, contact Special Collections staff

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], [Folder number], [Box number], Dover Children's Home Papers, 1893-1990, MC 153, Milne Special Collections and Archives, University of New Hampshire Library, Durham, NH, USA

Acquisitions Information

Donated: Dover Children's Home, Dec. 1995 (Accession number: 96.002)

Separated Material

Some original material has been removed due to mold damage and replaced with photocopied surrogates

Collection Contents

Series 1: Office Files, 1909-1987

Box 1
Box 1, Folder 1		Board members, meeting attendance, 1909-1951
Box 1, Folder 2		Board of Managers, meeting minutes, 1951-1972
Box 1, Folder 3		Board of Managers, meeting minutes, 1972-1981
Box 1, Folder 4		Board of Managers, miscellaneous materials, 1945-1987
Box 1, Folder 5		By-laws and constitution, 1893-1951
Box 1, Folder 6		Correspondence: Association of Child Caring Institutions, 1938-1946
Box 1, Folder 7		Correspondence: Child Welfare Advisory Committee, 1944-1946
Box 1, Folder 8		Correspondence: Conference on Social Welfare, 1944-1946
Box 1, Folder 9		Correspondence: General/administrative, 1934-1960
Box 1, Folder 10		Correspondence: Job applicants, 1942-1948
Box 1, Folder 11		Correspondence: Purchase orders, miscellaneous materials, 1944-1960
Box 2
Box 2, Folder 1		Financial: Accounts, Coffin and Burr investment house, 1955-57
Box 2, Folder 2		Financial: Accounts, Strafford National Bank, 1955-1986
Box 2, Folder 3		Financial: Annual reports, 1932-1946
Box 2, Folder 4		Financial: Balance sheets aned income statement, April 1953-May 1956
Box 2, Folder 5		Financial: Balance sheets and income statement, June 1956-June 1959
Box 2, Folder 6		Financial: Balance sheets and income statement, Oct. 1960-March 1964
Box 2, Folder 7		Financial: Balance sheets and income statement, Dec. 1964-April 1968
Box 2, Folder 8		Financial: Quarterly Federal tax return, 1954-1959
Box 2, Folder 9		Financial: Treasurer’s reports, 1985-1986
Box 2, Folder 10		Gifts and contributions: Correspondence, 1952-1987
Box 2, Folder 11		Gifts and contributions: Book of names and donations, 1921-1981
Box 2, Folder 12		Gifts and contributions: Rockingham Park Foundation, 1954-1960
Box 2, Folder 13		Historical materials about the DCH, 1898-1990
Box 2, Folder 14		Insurance, 1955-1959
Box 2, Folder 15		Legal documents, 1954
Box 2, Folder 16		Logbook, hours of part-time staff, 1983-1984
Box 2, Folder 17		Manual of policies, reports, job descriptions, board members and budget, 1985-1987
Box 2, Folder 18		Monthly reports (medical, census, financial), 1986-87
Box 2, Folder 19		Parker Mountain Camp, Strafford, NH, 1927-1929
Box 2, Folder 20		“Program Policy Book (A Guide for Staff to Program),” 1983
Box 2, Folder 21		Publications, miscellaneous, 1925-1982
Box 3
Box 3, Folder 1		Record of travel/mileage, 1973-1978
Box 3, Folder 2		Record of travel/mileage, 1973-1979
Box 3, Folder 3		Staff meeting minutes and memos, 1986-1987

Series 2: Records of Children Admitted, 1892-1944

Box 4
Box 4, Folder 1		List of children taken in, 1892-1915
Box 4, Folder 2		List of children’s names and histories, 1893-1917
Box 4, Folder 3		List of children taken in, 1907-1941
Box 4, Folder 4		List of children taken in, 1930-1944

Series 3: Communications Logs, Overnight Charts, Weekly Reports, and Sign-Out Sheets, 1917-1956

Folders 2-66 contain admittance information and letters from a variety of referring organizations and individuals regarding individual children resident at the home.

Box 5
Box 5, Folder 1		Medical calls, 1917-1949 June 1, 1924-Feb. 25, 1950. Staff members list, 1917-1949
Box 5, Folder 2		Abbott Family (1), undated
Box 5, Folder 3		Adams, Harold and Sheldon, (9) 1935-1937
Box 5, Folder 4		Aspinall, Yvonne (2), 1944
Box 5, Folder 5		Bickford, Dwight (7), 1945-1946
Box 5, Folder 6		Bickford, Lawrence (2), 1935
Box 5, Folder 7		Blaisdell (1), 1924
Box 5, Folder 8		Brown, Lucinda (9), 1924
Box 5, Folder 9		Brown, William (1), 1935
Box 5, Folder 10		Burns family (12), 1944-1946
Box 5, Folder 11		Call, Albert (3), 1944-1946
Box 5, Folder 12		Chapin, Frances (8), 1937
Box 5, Folder 13		Clark, Ella Fay (1), 1936
Box 5, Folder 14		Colby, Electa (3), 1945-1946
Box 5, Folder 15		Cole, Kenneth and William (10), 1944-1947
Box 5, Folder 16		Constantopoulos, Dona (2), 1947
Box 5, Folder 17		Danforth, Ernest, Helen and John (2), 1934
Box 5, Folder 18		DeGreenia, Patricia and Nancy (16), 1944-1945
Box 5, Folder 19		Evans, Frances (2), 1933
Box 5, Folder 20		Flint family (1), 1931?
Box 5, Folder 21		Fuller, Ralph (14), 1944-1947
Box 5, Folder 22		Gardner, Thelma (1), 1935
Box 5, Folder 23		Gelinas family (5), 1944-1949
Box 5, Folder 24		Gero, Allen and Donna, (2), 1957
Box 5, Folder 25		Gustafson family (2), 1944
Box 5, Folder 26		Hadley, Ellis William (1), undated
Box 5, Folder 27		Hall, Dale (1), 1960
Box 5, Folder 28		Hayes, William (6), 1945-1947
Box 5, Folder 29		Horne, Forrest and Ralph (4), 1933
Box 5, Folder 30		Howard, Russell (1), 1957
Box 5, Folder 31		Jacobs, Doris (1), 1931
Box 5, Folder 32		Jelley family (4), 1944-1946
Box 5, Folder 33		Lambert, Irene, Doyle and Gloria (9), 1923-1935
Box 5, Folder 34		Lanouette, Alice and Lorraine (1), 1944
Box 5, Folder 35		Leavitt, Richard, (17), 1944-1947
Box 5, Folder 36		Libbey family (5), 1945-1946
Box 5, Folder 37		Mason, Charlie and Harry (2), 1949
Box 5, Folder 38		Moody, Henry (4), 1944
Box 5, Folder 39		Moore, Reginald (1), undated
Box 5, Folder 40		Moulton, Harold (2), 1934
Box 5, Folder 41		Mussey, Herbert (4), 1949-1950
Box 5, Folder 42		O’Connor, James (4), 1944
Box 5, Folder 43		Palm, Pearl (1), undated
Box 5, Folder 44		Philbrick, Doris and Margaret (1), 1946
Box 5, Folder 45		Pollard, Winnifred (2), 1935
Box 5, Folder 46		Pratt [Maxfield], Mildred (1), 1917
Box 5, Folder 47		Pratt, Thelma (2), 1938
Box 5, Folder 48		Randall, Eunice (5), 1945
Box 5, Folder 49		Rogers, William Albert (1), 1922
Box 5, Folder 50		Rollins, Alvin (1), 1956
Box 5, Folder 51		Shontell, Nellie (1), undated
Box 5, Folder 52		Shupe, Grace (2), 1935
Box 5, Folder 53		Smith, Robert (1), 1945
Box 5, Folder 54		Stuart, John (1), 1944
Box 5, Folder 55		Tattersall, Ivan (2), 1944
Box 5, Folder 56		Temples, Pvt. Carl (1), 1925
Box 5, Folder 57		Thompson, Evelyn Lona (1), undated
Box 5, Folder 58		Towers, Charles (1), 1956
Box 5, Folder 59		Vince family (1), 1924
Box 5, Folder 60		Wallingford, Susie (1), 1924
Box 5, Folder 61		Welch, Norman and Ronald (2), 1949
Box 5, Folder 62		Whynott, Phyllis (1), 1949
Box 5, Folder 63		Willey family (3), 1924
Box 5, Folder 64		Windle, June, (3) 1944
Box 5, Folder 65		York, Bertha and Herbert (1), 1923
Box 5, Folder 66		Unidentified children (6), 1924-1956

Series 4: Communicaton Logs, Overnight Charts, Weekly Reports and Sign-Out Sheets, 1987-1990

Box 6
Box 6, Folder 1		Communication Log, Jan. 1987
Box 6, Folder 2		Communication Log, Feb. 1987
Box 6, Folder 3		Communication Log, March 1987
Box 6, Folder 4		Communication Log, April 1987
Box 6, Folder 5		Communication Log, May 1987
Box 7
Box 7, Folder 1		Communication Log, June 1987
Box 7, Folder 2		Communication Log, July 1987
Box 7, Folder 3		Communication Log, Dec. 1987
Box 7, Folder 4		Communication Log, Jan. 1988
Box 7, Folder 5		Communication Log, Feb. 1988
Box 8
Box 8, Folder 1		Communication Log, March 1988
Box 8, Folder 2		Communication Log, April 1988
Box 8, Folder 3		Communication Log, May 1988
Box 8, Folder 4		Communication Log, June 1988
Box 8, Folder 5		Communication Log, July 1988
Box 8, Folder 6		Communication Log, August 1988
Box 9
Box 9, Folder 1		Communication Log, Sept. 1988
Box 9, Folder 2		Communication Log, Oct. 1988
Box 9, Folder 3		Communication Log, Nov. 1988
Box 9, Folder 4		Overnight Charts,Nov. 1988
Box 9, Folder 5		Communication Log, Dec. 1988
Box 9, Folder 6		Overnight Charts, Dec. 1988
Box 10
Box 10, Folder 1		Overnight Charts, Jan. 1989
Box 10, Folder 2		Charts, Jan. 1989
Box 10, Folder 3		Communication Log, Feb. 1989
Box 10, Folder 4		Overnight Charts, Feb. 1989
Box 10, Folder 5		Charts, Feb. 1989
Box 10, Folder 6		Overnight Charts, March 1989
Box 10, Folder 7		Charts, March 1989
Box 10, Folder 8		Charts, April 1989
Box 10, Folder 9		Communication Log, May 1989
Box 10, Folder 10		Charts, May 1989
Box 10, Folder 11		Communication Log, June 1989
Box 10, Folder 12		Overnight Charts, June 1989
Box 10, Folder 13		Charts, June 1989
Box 11
Box 11, Folder 1		Communication Log, July 1989
Box 11, Folder 2		Overnight Charts,July 1989
Box 11, Folder 3		Charts, July 1989
Box 11, Folder 4		Weekly Reports, July 1989
Box 11, Folder 5		Sign-Out Sheets, July 1989
Box 11, Folder 6		Communication Logs, Aug. 1989
Box 11, Folder 7		Charts, Aug. 1989
Box 11, Folder 8		Sign-Out Sheets, Aug. 1989
Box 11, Folder 9		Weekly Reports, Aug. 1989
Box 12
Box 12, Folder 1		Communication Log, Sept. 1989
Box 12, Folder 2		Charts, Sept. 1989
Box 12, Folder 3		Weekly Reports, Sept. 1989
Box 12, Folder 4		Communication Log, Oct. 1989
Box 12, Folder 5		Overnight Charts, Oct. 1989
Box 13
Box 13, Folder 1		Charts, Oct. 1989
Box 13, Folder 2		Weekly Reports, Oct. 1989
Box 13, Folder 3		Communication Log, Nov. 1989
Box 13, Folder 4		Overnight Charts, Nov. 1989
Box 13, Folder 5		Charts, Nov. 1989
Box 13, Folder 6		Weekly Reports, Nov. 1989
Box 13, Folder 7		Communication Log, Dec. 1989
Box 14
Box 14, Folder 1		Overnight Charts, Dec. 1989
Box 14, Folder 2		Charts, Dec. 1989
Box 14, Folder 3		Weekly Reports, Dec. 1989-Jan. 1990
Box 14, Folder 4		Communication Log, Jan. 1990
Box 14, Folder 5		Communication Log, Feb. 1990
Box 15
Box 15, Folder 1		Communication Log, March 1990
Box 15, Folder 2		Communication Log, April 1990
Box 15, Folder 3		Weekly Reports, Feb.-April 1990.

Series 5: Photographs and Scrapbooks, 1928-2000

Box 16
Box 16, Folder 1		Dover Children’s Home (4 images), Dec. 15, 1928
Box 16, Folder 2		Children at DCH (3 images), 1929.
Box 16, Folder 3		Children at Parker Mountain Camp (6 images), 1928-1929.
Box 16, Folder 4		Children’s photos, mostly unidentified (9 images), 1930s-1940s
Box 16, Folder 5		Unidentified party/event (6 images), ca. 1990
Box 16, Folder 6		Unidentified baby yawning, ca. 1920?
Box 16, Folder 7		Postcard, “Children’s Home, Dover, NH,” June 26, 1912
Box 16, Folder 8		Postcard, “Children’s Home, Dover, NH,” undated
Box 16, Folder 9		Postcard, “Children’s Home, Dover, NH,” undated
Box 16, Folder 10		Photos and interview tapes, Flora and Nancy Hall, 2000
Box 17
Box 17, Folder 1		2 Scrapbooks