Collection Outline & Series Description Series I: The Precursor contains documentation of the Female Reading Society, the prototype for the Gloucester Female Charitable Association.

Series II: Organizational Records consists of the original Constitution and by-laws as well as the incorporating document of 1872; various legal documents, agreements, and legacies as well as the minutes of February, 1954; and several histories of the organization.

Series III: Histories includes the history by Betty Curtis, one of the original employees and two newspaper articles.

Series IV: Minutes and Annual Reports consists of six books of chronologically arranged minutes and annual reports as well as a file of original reports on individual papers. Twelve files of minutes, financial reports, correspondence, newspaper clippings, and reports from the Children’s Friend and Family Service organization of Salem compiled by various presidents and secretaries.

Series V: Disbursements consists of one book recording disbursements made in the years 1887- 1896 and a small collection of chits from 1889 and 1890.

Series VI: The Children’s Family and Friend Society of the North Shore contains reports from that organization to the Female Charitable Association about their activities and the number of people they served. Essentially, how the contribution from the FCA was being spent.

Series VII: Treasurer’s Reports consists of eight books of financial data and disbursements. The bank started issuing reports in 1933 and that practice continues. In addition, there is a small file of bank statements for the 1960s and another of miscellaneous bills. There is a file on legacies, and some letters relative to contributions and endowment. There is a file on three fundraisers: the Tea Party of 1876, an 1883 Financial Appeal and the 1886 Kettle Drum. A separate file has data relative to the 1879 Disaster Relief appeal. There is a file of trustee reports from 1930 and 1954 & 1955 and 1962. There is a small collection of data relative to the donation of a bed and furnishings for a room at the Addison Gilbert Hospital.

Series VIII: Miscellaneous Paper This file has a letter from Samuel E. Sawyer dated February 4,1884, praising the efforts of the industrial school and a small brown piece of cardboard from a notebook cover, or end cover, with a list of names and of furniture on it.

Series IX: Appendix

A: Contents of the Safe Deposit Box These items are now redistributed throughout the collection. They were the 1872 Act of Incorporation, the Menu from the 1876 Tea Party at City Hall, the Agreement with the Cape Ann National Bank and the North Shore Children’s Friend Society, and the histories of the organization.

B. Letter from Jane Tucker of Wiscasset Female Charitable Society including a genealogy of a Hues-Babson family and history of the Society.