RIAMCO

Rhode Island Archival and Manuscript Collections Online

For Participating Institutions

Burt/Bock Family Papers (Mss. Gr. 46)

University of Rhode Island Library

15 Lippitt Road
Kingston, RI 02881-2011
Tel: 401-874-4632

email: archives@etal.uri.edu

Scope & content

Series two, three, and four document Burt's work, particularly his work in settlement houses. Series one, Bock Family, contains records relating to Louise Bock Burt's family. Louise Bock was descended from a noted Irish patriot, Samuel Neilson (See MSG# 72, Samuel Neilson Collection). Contained in this series are correspondence and diaries of Neilson's descendants in the Bock, Magenes, and MacAdams families. The family connections were established by the marriage of Anne MacAdams to William Breeze Bock. MacAdams and Bock were the grandparents of Louise Bock Burt, wife of Henry F. Burt.

Series two, Henry F. Burt, contains a variety of materials relating to Burt's professional activities in the settlement house movement and, to a lesser extent, in other fields. His work at the Chicago Commons Settlement House and the Pillsbury House in Minneapolis is amply documented in the photo albums which he compiled during his time at the two houses. His work in the New Orleans WPA project is represented in a photo album and narrative description of the project. This series also includes a Burt family genealogy and a biography of Burt done by his daughter, Katherine Burt Jackson.

Series three, Burt Scrapbooks, contains eleven scrapbooks of newspaper articles and memorabilia compiled by Burt. The bulk of the clippings relate to him or his work, although there is a smattering of items of general interest contained in the scrapbooks. They are in rough chronological order and one can gain a sense of the evolution of the social work profession by reading them carefully.

Series four, Settlement House Photographs, is a collection of thirty-five glass plate images of activities at the Chicago Commons and Pillsbury Settlement Houses. The photos were taken by and for Burt between 1900 and 1912 at the two settlement houses and at the two summer camps operated by them. Some of the glass plates are reproduced in photograph albums found in Series two.

Series five, Beecher Bible and Rifle Colony, contains material relating to a group of free-soil antislavery supporters from New Haven, Connecticut who journeyed to the Kansas territory and settled in Waubansee, Kansas. One of the leaders of the colony, Charles B. Lines, was the great-grandfather of Katherine Burt Jackson who donated the Burt/Bock Family Papers. She did a great deal of research on the colony and wrote a brief history of it, a typescript copy of which is included in this series. Also included are other published and typescript articles about the colony, correspondence, and photographs.