Letter books - Home for Incurables (GRS/17708)

This series contains letter book from the Home for Incurables from 1879 to 1913 (with gaps).

Most of the letters were written by the Secretary and cover a range of general administrative matters, including organising events (including inviting guests), ordering supplies, placing advertisements in newspapers, replying to requests for information, and correspondence around admissions to the Home.

The first letter book was used by the Secretary from November 1879 to June 1880 and was then used by the Treasurer from August 1887 to April 1895. The letters from the Treasurer largely relate to receipts or requests for payments.

The other letter books were only used by the Secretary, with a few ad hoc letters from the Matron in the last book.

Two of the letter books also include letters relating to the Orphan Home from 1889 - 1895. The Orphan Home was a private orphanage for girls then located in Carrington Street. James H. Cunningham was Honorary Secretary and Treasurer of the Orphan Home, as well as Secretary of the Home for Incurables. He used the same books for both organisations and appears to have written most of his letters, regardless of which institution he was writing for or about, from the Home for Incurables' administrative office at 48 Flinders Street, Adelaide.

It is often unclear which organisation Cunningham was writing for, especially as both were referred to as 'the Home'. Some of the letters have been annotated 'O', but this does not appear to mean 'Orphan Home' because some of the letters more likely relate to the Home for Incurables (admissions of married women or adults to 'the Home', acknowledging donations specifically to the Home for Incurables. As he was Honorary Secretary and Treasurer of the Orphan Home, letters signed with this job title are most likely relating to the Orphan Home, whereas his Home for Incurables' letters are signed 'Secretary' (or abbreviation).

The letter books in this series are press copies and are generally difficult to read with smudged text or fragile pages.

There are gaps in Secretary's correspondence from July 1880 - September 1889, October 1895 - February 1898, November 1901 - May 1905 and November 1908 - May 1910. Treasurer's correspondence is only included from August 1887 to April 1895 and only a few letters from the Matron from 1913 are included. The whereabouts of other records is unknown as at June 2021.

Most volumes are self-indexed, alphabetically by addressee.

Arranged chronologically.