The Burt and Bock families were joined by the marriage of Mrs. Jackson's parents, Henry Burt and Louise Bock in 1901 The bulk of the collection contains the papers and memorabilia of Henry Burt. Burt, a noted social worker and settlement house administrator, was born in Waubansee, Kansas in 1875 and graduated from Washburn College in 1899 and Chicago Theological Seminary in 1903. It was as a student at Chicago Theological Seminary that Burt first became involved in the settlement house movement. In 1900 he joined the staff of Graham Taylor's Chicago Commons Settlement House.
Thus began a lifelong commitment to the poor and less fortunate of the world. Burt remained at the Chicago Commons for seven years and, while there, met and married Louise Bock. He continued his work at settlement houses in Minnesota and at a mission for homeless men in Wisconsin for the first two decades of the twentieth century before moving to Rhode island in 1922 to accept a position with the Family Welfare Society of Providence. With the exception of a three-year stint in New Orleans as regional administrator of a Federal Emergency Relief Administration and later Works Progress Administration project, Burt spent the remainder of his life in Rhode Island. He served in a number of positions in private social agencies and state government in Rhode Island until his death in 1949.
Open for research.
Terms governing use and reproduction: Photocopying and scanning of materials is a fee based service available in the repository and is allowed at the discretion of the Archivist when in compliance to the Unit's policy on copyright and publication.
Burt/Bock family papers, Mss. Gr. 46, University of Rhode Island Library.
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.
The collection is arranged in five series as follows:
The Burt/Bock Family Papers were donated to the University of Rhode Island Library by Katherine Burt Jackson, daughter of Henry F. Burt, and transferred to the Special Collections Department in a series of transactions between 1984 and 1998. Although most of the materials were identified in some fashion by the donor, they were in no particular order when received in Special Collections.
The Bock Family Series contains records dating to the early nineteenth century. The Bocks were descended from the eighteenth century Irish patriot, Samuel Neilson, who was imprisoned for six years by the British government for his pro-Irish views (See MSG# 72, The Samuel Neilson Collection).
In this series are correspondence and diaries of Neilson's descendants, the MacAdams, the Magenes and the Bocks. Included is the correspondence of Anne MacAdam Bock, the granddaughter of Neilson and grandmother of Louise Bock Burt, Henry F. Burt's wife. Anne Bock and her husband, William Breeze Bock, were among the earliest settlers of Illinois. Also of interest are the diaries of George MacAdam and Eliza Bock. George MacAdam's diary was compiled between 1846 and 1849 in Ireland and Eliza Bock's during a trip to Europe in 1889 and 1890.
The records in this series are arranged alphabetically by the name of the family member and chronologically within folders.
The Henry F. Burt Series contains records relating to the activities of Henry F. Burt, noted social worker and settlement house administrator. The bulk of the series pertains to Burt's involvement with the settlement house movement.
Burt was an early pioneer in the Chicago settlement houses. A graduate of Washburn College in Topeka, Kansas, and the Chicago Theological Seminary, it was as a student at the Seminary that he first became involved in the settlement house movement. In 1900, Burt joined the staff of Graham Taylor's Chicago Commons Settlement House where he served in a variety of posts. The nature of his work there, and the nature of settlement houses in general, is captured in the folders labeled "Chicago Commons" and in the bound issues of The Commons, the monthly journal published by Chicago Commons. Photo albums depicting activities at the Chicago Commons and its summer camp reveal details of daily life for residents and staff members of the settlement house. It was also at the Chicago Commons that Burt met and married his wife, Louie Bock.
After a brief sojourn as a department manager at Sears Roebuck, Burt returned to the settlement house world in 1907 as resident director of the Pillsbury House in Minneapolis. Again, the flavor of settlement house life can be seen in the photo albums Burt compiled of activities at Pillsbury House and its summer camp.
Perhaps the most interesting material in this series concerns Burt's work with the Commission on Training Camp Activities of the War Department. Upon U.S. entry into World War I in the spring of 1917, the War Department established camps throughout the country to train the influx of new soldiers for military service. Many of these camps were located near large cities and attracted a horde of "camp followers" peddling liquor and sex to the young G.I.s. When this situation began to alarm the powers that be in the War Department, they responded by creating the Commission on Training Camp Activities to study conditions in and around the camps and to make recommendations to the War Department to better enable it to preserve the morals of its soldiers.
Burt was appointed an investigator for the commission because of his experience in social work and was assigned to visit several camps in the Midwest. In his reports on the "moral conditions" surrounding the camps, Burt noted the number of saloons in the area, the number of prostitutes or "street walkers" he observed, the number of bordellos, the number of intoxicated soldiers he saw, and whatever else he considered to be potential evidence of corrupting influences. Burt's reports make interesting reading and the tone of them provides a stark contrast to the "Roaring Twenties" which followed the war.
Other items of interest include a photograph album and narrative description of a Works Progress Administration project in New Orleans which Burt administered between 1934 and 1937, needlework and paper craft project pattern books used in classes in the Chicago Commons, and a 150-page typescript biography of Burt written by his daughter, Katherine Burt Jackson, in 1988.
Also included at the end of the series are diplomas and certificates which Burt received from Washburn College and Chicago Theological Seminary, a testimonial certificate from the Rhode Island Conference of Social Workers, and a diploma awarded to Louise Bock Burt by the Pestalozzi Froebel Kindergarten Training School.
The records in this series are arranged alphabetically by name, subject, title, or type of record and chronologically within folders. There is no folder 37.
This series consists of eleven scrapbooks containing newspaper clippings and memorabilia (invitations, programs, etc) chronicling the life and times of Henry F. Burt. The scrapbooks were apparently compiled by Burt himself as he moved from place to place and job to job. The materials in each scrapbook are in rough chronological order and relate both specifically to Burt himself and generally to the times of which he was a part.
The scrapbooks are arranged chronologically by date.
This series consists of 35 positive glass plate images of activities at the Chicago Commons Settlement House and its summer camp and the Pillsbury Settlement House in Minneapolis and its summer camp. Though undated, the photos were probably taken between 1900 and 1912 by Henry F. Burt, who worked at both settlement houses during that time and who accompanied the residents to their summer camps. Most of the images depict summer camp activities, although a few were taken in and around the settlement houses.
The individual glass plates are identified and, for ease of access, have been assigned an arbitrary number from I to 35 and an arbitrary title based on the activity depicted. Photo albums depicting similar activities are housed in Series II in folders labeled "Chicago Commons: Photo Albums" and "Pillsbury House: Photo Albums."
This series consists of printed and typescript histories of the "Beecher Bible and Rifle Colony," correspondence about the colony, and photographs of the church built by the members of the colony.
The Beecher Bible and Rifle Colony consisted of a group of Connecticut citizens who gathered together to emigrate to the Kansas Territory to support the free soil/anti-slavery movement there. Officially known as the Connecticut Kansas Colony, it became popularly known as the Beecher Bible and Rifle Colony after Rev. Henry Ward Beecher raised money to purchase 25 rifles for the colony members and one of his parishioners donated 25 Bibles. The leader of the Beecher Colony was Charles B. Lines, great-grandfather of Katherine Burt Jackson who donated the Burt/Bock Family Papers.
This series includes typescript histories of the colony by Henry Burt, Katherine Burt Jackson, and Elsie Burt Grim. Also included are photographs and reprints of articles, and copies of journals containing articles relating to the Beecher Bible and Rifle Colony.
The records in this series are arranged alphabetically by name, article title, or subject and chronologically within folders.