Lend a Hand Society Records 1843-1982 Guide to the Collection The bulk of the Lend a Hand Society records are stored offsite and must be requested at least one business day in advance. Contact the Library at library@masshist.org or (617) 536-1608 to request materials. Please discuss your request with the reading room staff before requesting cartons by barcode. Certain case material relating directly to charitable activities of the Lend a Hand Society is CLOSED to researchers at this time. This material includes Loyal Helper Scholarship Fund records, Special Grants, Camp Grants, records of the Frances Hathaway Kimball Fund for Tired Mothers, Vacation and Convalescent Care records, and records of Outings that postdate 1920. The use of other material pertaining to requests for aid in 1963-1964 is restricted to photocopies. See the Librarian regarding any questions about the use of these materials.

Table of Contents Collection Summary Historical Sketch Collection Description Related Materials Acquisition Information Restrictions on Access Organization Detailed Description of the Collection Preferred Citation Access Terms Materials Removed

Collection Summary

Historical Sketch

The Lend a Hand Society, a private charity in Boston, grew out of the response to a short story called Ten Times One Is Ten, written in 1870 by Edward Everett Hale (1822-1909). The story tells of ten people who meet at the funeral of a mutual friend named Harry Wadsworth and discover that he had helped each one of them. They resolve to follow the example of their late friend and to help their fellow man. If each person they aided would in turn lend someone else a hand (10 x 1 = 10, 10 x 10 = 100, etc), the spirit of helpfulness could circle the globe.

Hale, born in Boston, became a Unitarian minister following his graduation from Harvard in 1839. His first church was in Worcester, Massachusetts, where his closest friend was Frederic William Greenleaf (1820-1850). It was Greenleaf who inspired the character of "Harry Wadsworth" in Ten Times One Is Ten. Edward Everett Hale became the minister of the South Congregational Church in Boston in 1856, a position he held until the end of his life.

Believing that his calling as a minister compelled him to work outside the church as well as in the pulpit, Hale became involved in the social issues of the day. Active in the movement to bring Kansas into the Union as a free state, one of his first published books was Kanzas and Nebraska (1854) [sic]. He was also active in charitable and reform efforts closer to home, including the temperance movement, the Industrial Aid Society and the formation of the Associated Charities. His best known work as an author, The Man Without A Country, appeared in The Atlantic Monthly in December 1863.

Hale did not intend to start a movement when he wrote Ten Times One Is Ten. He simply needed a story to put in Old and New, the magazine he edited, and wrote the story of "Harry Wadsworth" that he had been mulling over for years. Following the publication of the story, groups sprang up to follow its example, setting as their ideal (and taking their name from) this verse of Hale's:

Look up and not down
Look forward and not back
Look out and not in
Lend a hand

At first Hale's publishing office served as the Lend a Hand Society headquarters, becoming a clearinghouse for letters from individuals responding to Edward Everett Hale's writings. By 1891 the volume of correspondence and publishing work had grown so large that the Ten Times One Corporation was formed in that year to function as a central headquarters for the individual clubs. The name was changed to the Lend a Hand Society in 1898. Hale became the first president, serving until his death in 1909. Although Hale was a Unitarian minister the Lend a Hand Society was nonsectarian. In addition to "Ten Times One Clubs," other names chosen by clubs included "Harry Wadsworth Clubs," "Look-Up Legions," and "King's Daughters." This last group, formed in New York City in 1886, was more evangelical in nature than the others and did not align itself with the less strictly religious groups that formed the majority of clubs. Hale was very active in promoting and encouraging the establishment of clubs.

As described by the Rev. Christopher Eliot, Hale's successor as the president of Lend a Hand, "The purpose was to hold the clubs together, at the same time leaving them absolutely independent, and to encourage the formation of new clubs: also to undertake such Lend a Hand work as might be possible from a central office by cooperation..."

The work undertaken by Lend a Hand varied in scope from operating the Noon-Day Rest, a lunchroom for working women that existed in Boston from 1893-1899, to what later became the most sizeable segment of the Lend a Hand Society's work, sending books to schools and libraries in the rural South. A few aspects of the Lend a Hand Society's work are described below.

Sarah Brigham founded the Book Mission in 1890 and it shortly thereafter became allied with the Lend a Hand Society. After Miss Brigham's death in 1911 her niece, Anna E. Wood, took over the work. From its founding until 1914 the Book Mission was closely connected with the Lend a Hand Society but was not administered through the central office. After that date it was a fully integrated department of the Lend a Hand Society, and rapidly became the largest single part of the Lend a Hand Society's work.

Both Miss Brigham and Miss Wood traveled South to learn firsthand about the communities that requested aid. Their IRS successors continued this practice, including Annie F. Brown who made the trip in 1915, 1917, 1921, 1924 and 1928. Mary Coburn traveled to the South in 1935 and 1941, and Helen Merritt in 1951.

New and used books were sent to schools (usually small and rural), libraries, YMCA's, prisons, and to an occasional individual. Both black and white institutions were aided and books were occasionally sent outside the South. Later on in the Book Mission's existence, money to purchase books was sent, rather than the books themselves. Institutions were often helped on a continuing basis.

The Boston Floating Hospital was founded by the Rev. Rufus Tobey in 1894 to relieve the suffering of sick children in the hot city by providing them with fresh sea air and to treat the summer diseases of children. Tobey was aided in this work by Edward Everett Hale, and the Floating Hospital was a department of the Lend a Hand Society from 1896-1901. After that time it became a separate entity.

Beginning at the turn of the century and continuing for many years, the Lend a Hand Society contributed to the medical missionary work of Dr. Wilfred Grenfell and the Grenfell Association in Labrador and Newfoundland.

Most of the work done by the Lend a Hand Society was on a much smaller scale, though. The Lend a Hand Society worked predominately through other relief agencies, providing aid to meet a need that might otherwise be unmet. Wheelchairs and hospital equipment were loaned to those in need, layettes were given (through the local clubs as well as Boston City Hospital, among other agencies) to new mothers, and "gentlewomen" were enabled to earn some money by sewing garments to be distributed primarily by hospitals and the Red Cross. Vacations and convalescent care were provided for men, women and children who needed to get away from their daily cares. In the 1970s and early 1980s this goal continued to be met by sending children to summer camp. Beginning in the 1930s and continuing into the 1970s, small loans were made to college and graduate students to assist them in completing their education.

Publications associated with Hale or the Lend a Hand Society were Old And New (1870-1875), Ten Times One Is Ten Circulars (1882-1875), Lend a Hand A Record Of Progress (1886-1897), The Look-Out (1888-1891), The Ten Times One Record (1893-1898), Lend a Hand Record (begun 1898), and Lend a Hand Leaflet (begun 1910). Note that some Lend a Hand publications in fact pre-date the official date of incorporation.

The Lend a Hand Society is still in existence today.

Collection Description

The records of the Lend a Hand Society are made up of 12 cartons and two oversize cartons stored offsite.

Included in the collection are materials that predate the establishment of the Lend a Hand Society, specifically correspondence between Edward Everett Hale and Frederic William Greenleaf, covering the years 1847-1850. In their letters, written when Frederick William Greenleaf lived in Georgia, Hale and Greenleaf comment on the issues of the day, such as slavery, as well as on personal matters.

The Edward Everett Hale correspondence on non-Lend a Hand Society topics reflects the charitable and reform efforts taking place in Boston in the second half of the nineteenth century. Among the correspondents are Amos A. Lawrence, on the need to differentiate between the deserving and the undeserving poor, Edward Everett Hale's uncle Edward Everett, writing about Irish emigration, Samuel Gridley Howe, about a farm for orphans in Hartford, Conn., and 14 letters to Edward Everett Hale from Annie Adams Fields, one concerning the Industrial Aid Society and the rest about Associated Charities. Organizations represented include the American Social Science Association, the Society for the Prevention of Pauperism, and Hale House. Also included here is Edward Everett Hale correspondence with his publishers, cutslip autographs of Edward Everett Hale and Sarah Orne Jewett, an undated Christmas card signed by Paderewski, and an 1869 letter by Charles Sumner. "The Welcome & Correspondence Club," a group of young people of the South Congregational Church begun by Hale in 1875, is also represented here by correspondence, minutes, and "general orders."

The papers directly related to the Lend a Hand Society also contain correspondence of Edward Everett Hale. His letterbooks include not only Lend a Hand Society-related letters written by him but also letters written to him by people who were inspired by Ten Times One Is Ten to start clubs.

Lend a Hand Society records include correspondence and other material related to many different aspects of its work, some ongoing, some only lasting a short time. Among the latter are the Farmers Fruit Offering, 1896; the care of Boer prisoners of war in Bermuda, 1901-1902; and a house in Cambridge for the use of Cuban teachers studying at Harvard in the summer of 1900. One of the longer-lasting Lend a Hand Society activities documented in the collection are the loans of wheelchairs and other medical equipment to individuals in need. Records of such loans begin in 1943 and continue through the early 1960's. Records of the Book Mission range from 1912-1976, but the bulk of the material covers the years 1925-1955.

Administrative records include correspondence with individual clubs, minutes of annual meetings and monthly board of directors meetings, and typescript drafts of annual reports.

Financial records include fundraising appeals, ledgers, journals, cash books and records of office expenses.

The largest fundraising effort by the Lend a Hand Society was the Hale Endowment Fund. Begun in 1897 in honor of Edward Everett Hale's 75th birthday, a second fundraising drive was begun ten years later with the goal of raising $50,000. Records of the Fund include correspondence from those solicited to lend their names to the effort as well as lists and receipts of those who contributed. Notable correspondents include Henry Cabot Lodge, Grover Cleveland, Oliver Wendell Holmes, William Lawrence, Helen Keller, Julia Ward Howe and Curtis Guild, Jr. There is some correspondence with the office of Andrew Carnegie, but not with Carnegie himself, about the industrialist's contributions to the Fund.

Related Materials

The Massachusetts Historical Society (MHS) holds the following collections related to the Lend a Hand Society records:

Lend a Hand Society photographs, ca. 1860-1968. Photo. Coll. 223.

Additional material relating to Lend a Hand, particularly correspondence between Edward Everett Hale and Minnie (Mrs. Bernard) Whitman, the first superintendent of the Society, as well as some records of the 1897 Hale Endowment Fund drive, can be found in the Eliot Family Papers at the Massachusetts Historical Society.

Acquisition Information

The Lend a Hand Society records were given to the MHS by the Society in 1990.

Restrictions on Access

The bulk of the Lend a Hand Society records are stored offsite and must be requested at least one business day in advance. Contact the Library at library@masshist.org or (617) 536-1608 to request materials. Please discuss your request with the reading room staff before requesting cartons by barcode.

Certain case material relating directly to charitable activities of the Lend a Hand Society is CLOSED to researchers at this time. This material includes Loyal Helper Scholarship Fund records, Special Grants, Camp Grants, records of the Frances Hathaway Kimball Fund for Tired Mothers, Vacation and Convalescent Care records, and records of Outings that postdate 1920. The use of other material pertaining to requests for aid in 1963-1964 is restricted to photocopies. See the Librarian regarding any questions about the use of these materials.

Organization of the Collection

The collection is organized into the following series:

Detailed Description of the Collection

Preferred Citation

Lend a Hand Society records, Massachusetts Historical Society.

Access Terms

This collection is indexed under the following headings in ABIGAIL, the online catalog of the Massachusetts Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related persons, organizations, or subjects should search the catalog using these headings.

Materials Removed from the Collection

Printed materials, including books, sermons of Edward Everett Hale, Lend a Hand Society serials, and other serials, 1870-1988, have been removed from the collection and are cataloged in the MHS card catalog.

Photographs from this collection have been removed to the Lend a Hand Society photographs (Photo. Coll. 223). See separate descriptions of daguerreotypes (Photos. 1.385-386), which are stored in the MHS Photo Archives by format.

Museum objects have been removed from this collection.