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President Roosevelt forwards Secretary of War Taft a letter from Bishop Earl Cranston, which itself encloses a letter from Benjamin S. Haywood. Haywood is the Superintendent of Methodist missions in Puerto Rico, and he asks Cranston if abandoned military buildings could be used for orphanages. Roosevelt endorses Haywood’s idea to Taft.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-12-16
Following their meeting at the Outlook office, Reverend Berkemeier invites Theodore Roosevelt to attend and speak at the “Harvest Home” celebration held by the Wartburg Orphans’ Farm School in Mount Vernon, New York. Berkemeier informs Roosevelt the orphanage is a German Lutheran institution, “American in its spirit”, and the celebration, previously attended and enjoyed by Governor Charles Evans Hughes, will be attended by many German Lutherans
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-09-22
Theodore Roosevelt informs James H. Gordon that, although he would like to speak at the dedication services of the Brooklyn Howard Colored Orphan Asylum, he is unable to attend. Roosevelt appreciates the mission of Gordon’s school, and he believes in the importance of industrial education, particularly for people of color.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-09-29
President Roosevelt agrees to John B. Tivnan’s request to provide a “big stick” as a prize for a fundraiser for the City Orphan Asylum of Salem, Massachusetts. Roosevelt has entrusted the big stick to Representative Augustus Peabody Gardner of Massachusetts.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1909-03-01
William Loeb tells Alexander Britton that Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt has requested him to attach a donation of ten dollars as a Thanksgiving gift for the Washington Hospital for Foundlings.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-11
President Roosevelt is dissatisfied with the condition of things in Alaska, as set out by Lieutenant George Thornton Emmons’s recent report. He asks Secretary of the Interior Hitchcock to work to increase the funds appropriated for the operation of schools and orphanages by lobbying in the committee dealing with the sundry civil bill. Because Congress gave Hitchcock, as Secretary of the Interior, the duty to provide services for the Native Americans in Alaska, Roosevelt believes “Congress should now have officially placed before them, as strongly as we know how to place it, the fact that we expect them to give you provision to enable you to make good for these poor people.”
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-04-23
Since returning home, Jean G. McCracken, assistant probation officer for the Los Angeles County Juvenile Court, has frequently thought about C. Wilfred Bourne and the Golden Gate Orphanage. While McCracken typically opposes orphanages and institutions, he approves of the work Bourne does and of the environment he has created for the orphaned children.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1911-03-09
S. J. Overton has sent Theodore Roosevelt a manuscript of an article series that he would like Roosevelt to get published. Overton dreams of establishing a home for orphan boys and believes the article will help him do so.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1910-01-10
California Governor Gillett acknowledges the importance of child welfare and proposes placing dependent children in schools where they can receive education and training to President Roosevelt. Gillett also informs Roosevelt that the California State Legislature’s anti-Japanese bills limiting land ownership and promoting school segregation have died for now. Due to the magnitude of the “Japanese question,” Gillett hopes that the federal government will lead in the best interests of the U.S.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1909-02-17
Ezra William Decoto, Probation Officer of Alameda County, was instructed to investigate conditions at the Golden Gate Orphanage and Industrial Farm run by Wilfred C. Bourne and his wife, Alice A. Bourne. This report includes testimonials from the State Board of Examiners, the Farmers and Mechanics Bank, and the Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce, all of whom think the management and conditions at the orphanage are positive and benefit the children living there.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1906-12
Eugene A. Philbin, an attorney in New York, thanks President Roosevelt for his indirect involvement in a difficult situation involving the New York Foundling Asylum. The sisters of the asylum for the first time sent children to be placed with families in Arizona, where they were taken by a mob. William Loeb referred Philbin to the office of Acting Attorney General Henry Martyn Hoyt, who was able to resolve the situation by involving local authorities. Philbin also briefly mentions matters regarding religious leadership in the Congo and the Philippines.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1904-10-21
Frederick J. Kinley, who has worked as a dentist for the Golden Gate Orphanage, praises the overall quality of the orphanage. He praises C. Wilfred Bourne and his wife, Alice, for the way that they run the orphanage.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-11-23
California state senator Walter Fitch Price suggests that it would be good for the “charitably inclined” to make donations to lift the debts of the Golden Gate Orphanage and Industrial Farm.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-10-23
Christopher G. Ruess, Chief Probation Officer of the County of Alameda, California, praises the work of C. Wilfred Bourne and Alice A. Bourne at the Golden Gate Orphanage. Ruess was pleasantly surprised by the good discipline and naturalness of life at the orphanage, and says that he is in the habit of recommending to the court that orphans get sent there when religion and temperament do not prevent it, and has not regretted this yet. He wishes that wealthy people knew of the good work the Bournes have been doing there.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1908-06-30
A female figure with a shield labeled “Tolerance” and a sword labeled “Knowledge” uses a cord labeled “Equality” to hold back a large snake labeled “Freedom Worship Bill” that has ensnared a young child wearing a hat labeled “S of Refuge.” “Randalls Island” House of Refuge is in the background.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1885-02-11
At center, Grover Cleveland holds an infant labeled “Civil Service Reform.” They are surrounded by a bunch of angry old men as orphans labeled “Hube Thompson, Eddie Hedden, Davy Hill, Hugh, Joe Blackburn, Charlie Dana, Eustis, Johnnie McLean, Pulitzer, A.P. Gorman, [and] Johnnie K,” and one as an old woman labeled “Hendricks.” On the left is the “Republican Home – No Civil Service Infants Wanted Here” and on the right is the “Democratic Home Restored in 1884.” Caption: Father Cleveland adopts the abandoned infant of the Republican Home, to the great disgust of the Jeffersonian household.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
1885-10-21
Upon receiving President Roosevelt’s $25.00 check for afflicted orphans, the Pastor of Grace Reformed Church asks permission to forward it to the orphanage, so that the orphans will know that the Chief Executive is thinking of them.
Library of Congress Manuscript Division
1903-12-08