Series X - Convalescent Facilities and Medical Programs, 1885-1965, inclusive

The materials in this series are arranged in 2 subseries:

X.1 The Sick Children's Mission/Medical Bureau/Medical Department - Chronological

X.2 Convalescent Facilities -Alphabetical.

Both subseries include volumes interfiled with boxes. The boxed materials in both subseries include correspondence, reports, referral cards, and pamphlets. Two folders have been separated to an oversized (OS) box, noted in the container list.

History of CAS Medical Programs

The Children's Aid Society began its Sick Children's Mission in 1873. In this program, CAS physicians, nurses, and "visitors" called on poor, sick children in their tenement homes, dispensed medicine and food, instructed mothers on nutrition and other matters, and referred children to CAS convalescent facilities outside the city. The series includes reports by these visitors, and some referral and physician's recommendation cards. It also includes reports, pamphlets, volumes, and correspondence related to the convalescent facilities of the CAS to which children were referred.

The Summer Home at Bath Beach Long Island was built in 1882, and served sick and disabled ("crippled") children. The Health Home at Coney Island was founded in 1884 and served poor mothers with children under six years old. The Elizabeth Milbank Anderson Home in Chappaqua, NY began operation in 1909 (originally called the Chappaqua Convalescent Home), and enabled the Sick Children's Mission to operate throughout the year, not just as a summer charity. Kinderfold in New Hamburg NY was a small program founded in 1915 for convalescing boys over 12. The Goodhue Home in Staten Island for girls was also used in part as a girls' Kinderfold facility from 1919. The Sick Children's Mission also organized day trips taking children out of the city, such as the Astor Day Excursions funded by Mr. and Mrs. Vincent Astor beginning in 1913 and operating through the 1930s, and the Rockefeller Excursions.

In 1920 the Sick Children's Mission was renamed the Medical Bureau, and then renamed the Medical Department in 1929. Dr. Charles Conklin became Superintendent of the Sick Children's Mission beginning in 1907 and retired as Director of the Medical Department in 1940. Although the leadership remained constant and the convalescent homes and day excursions continued as before, the name change represented a shift toward a more centralized and coordinated healthcare mission extended throughout CAS facilities. In 1924 Conklin instituted a campaign against malnutrition in CAS facilities, the same year that CAS industrial schools were rechristened health schools. The same year, a convalescent home for boys 8-16 was established in Valhalla, NY, soon known as the Milbank and Martha Homes, and the Elizabeth Milbank Anderson Home in Chappaqua was re-purposed for girls and boys under 8. Kinderfold in New Hamburg was renamed Grinnell Home for Convalescent Boys in 1934. Volumes from Kinderfold and Grinnell are both represented in this series, arranged under separate names.

Related Material in Other Series

See also Series III.2(folders 20 and 21) for other reports and pamphlets by Conklin, and Series IV.1.D (Arthur Huck Correspondence) and IV.4.C (mixed correspondence) for correspondence from Conklin, and Series V.2 and V.3 for a memoir by Conklin and an interview of him on the history of CAS medical services.