Montana Children's Center records
Scope and Contents
Records include financial records (1894-1973) including cash books, journals, ledgers, trial balances, voucher registers, etc.; board of trustees minutes (1893-1955); copies of minutes of the State Board of Education (1944-1962) and the State Board of Institutions (1965-1974); annual reports (1910-1951) and other reports; subject files; and children's records (1894-1975)
Dates
- Creation: 1894-1984
Language of Materials
English
Conditions Governing Access
Administrative records are open for research. RESTRICTION: Access to children's records limited to individual or closest living relative. Access to adoption records allowed only with a court order from a Montana District Court. Contact State Archivist for details of access.
Conditions Governing Use
The Montana Historical Society is the owner of the materials in the Research Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. Written permission must be obtained from the Research Library before any reproduction use. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all of the materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from the copyright owners.
Biographical / Historical
The Montana State Orphan's Asylum was established by the 1893 legislature for the "care and education of orphans, foundlings, and destitute children". The Asylum was governed by a board of five trustees, who were empowered to select a suitable site at Twin Bridges, to adopt rules for the governance of the home, and to hire a superintendent and a matron. The superintendent would, in turn, hire nurses, attendants, and others. The trustees were also authorized to establish schools and vocational training shops.
Any child under the age of 12 was eligible for admission, and children 12 and over if it was deemed advisable by the Board. When the Board determined it was suitable, children could be placed in private homes. Over the years, a large percentage of children at the home were not orphans, but were children who for a variety of reasons could not be cared for by their parents.
In 1959 the home was renamed the Montana Children's Center. The Center closed in 1979.
Extent
13.5 linear feet
Abstract
These records (1894-1975) of the Montana Children's Center in Twin Bridges, and of its predecessor the State Orphans' Home, consist of executive board minutes, indexed records of children received at the center, financial records, blueprints, and miscellany.
Arrangement
The collection is arranged by series.
Physical Location
20:2-2
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Acquisition information is available upon request
- Title
- Guide to the Montana Children's Center records ,1894-1984
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Finding aid prepared by Ellie Arguimbau, 1982
- Date
- 2006
- Description rules
- Finding Aid Based On Dacs ( Describing Archives: A Content Standard, 2nd Edition)
- Language of description
- Undetermined
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English.
- Sponsor
- Funding for encoding this finding aid was provided through a grant awarded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Repository Details
Part of the Montana Historical Society, Research Center Archives Repository
225 North Roberts
PO Box 201201
Helena MT 59620-1201 United States
406-444-2681
406-444-2696 (Fax)
mhslibrary@mt.gov