American Female Guardian Society

File:American Female Guardian Society and Home for the Friendless, New York City, Valentine's Manual (cropped).jpg

File:438 AMERICAN FEMALE GUARDIAN SOCIETY AND HOME FOR THE FRIENDLESS, HOME CHAPEL, 29 EAST 29TH STREET AND 82 EAST 30TH STREET.jpg

File:American Female Guardian Society circa 1910.jpg]]

The American Female Guardian Society (full name, American Female Guardian Society and Home for the Friendless) was an American prototype civic improvement association and a pioneer child-saving institution.{{cite book |last1=Paine |first1=Lyman May |title=My Ancestors: A Memorial of John Paine and Mary Ann May of East Woodstock, Conn |date=1914 |publisher=private circulation |page=101 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G1VmAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA101 |access-date=11 April 2024 |language=en}} {{Source-attribution}} Incorporated in 1849, and based in New York City, it was an outgrowth of the New York Female Moral Reform Society.{{cite book |author1=American Female Guardian Society |title=Our Golden Jubilee: A Retrospect of the American Female Guardian Society and Home for the Friendless from 1834 to 1884 |date=1884 |publisher=American Female Guardian Society |pages= |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=asi_vst42g0C |access-date=11 April 2024 |language=en}} {{Source-attribution}}{{cite book |last1=Hale |first1=Edward Everett |title=Lend a Hand |date=1887 |publisher=J.S. Smith |page=47 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s3MXAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA47 |access-date=12 April 2024 |language=en}} {{Source-attribution}} The Society existed until at least 1941 when its official organ, Advocate and Family Guardian ceased operation.{{cite book |title=American Journalism |date=1999 |publisher=The Association |page=50 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NeFAAQAAIAAJ&q=%22Advocate+and+family+guardian%22 |access-date=11 April 2024 |language=en}}

The aims of the Society were to rescue homeless children, and to secure for them permanent country homes in Christian families. Many thousands of homeless children were thus been provided for.{{cite book |title=Classified and Descriptive Directory to the Charitable and Beneficient Societies and Institutions of the City of New York |date=1888 |publisher=Community Council of Greater New York |page=485 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oN65AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA485 |access-date=12 April 2024 |language=en}} {{Source-attribution}} It provided shelter for indigent women and served as an employment agency on their behalf. It provided education to women and children living in slums.{{cite book |last1=Scott |first1=Anne Firor |title=Natural Allies: Women's Associations in American History |date=1992 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=978-0-252-06320-6 |pages=41–42 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0ALrHHbsoHcC&pg=PA41 |access-date=12 April 2024 |language=en}}

The Society had no endowment, but was mainly sustained by charitable contributions, and donations of clothing and provisions. Its work was limited only by the amount of donations received. It sustained twelve Industrial Schools, in destitute sections of the city, in which between 5,000 and 6,000 children of the poorest class were gathered. Besides the primary branches of an English education, the girls were taught sewing, cooking, housekeeping, and the boys carpentry. The Society had an Employment Aid Department, where work was provided for many aged women, who were otherwise kindly cared for.

File:Wright Memorial, Summer Home (Our Golden Jubilee, 1884).png

The children's summer home at Oceanport, New Jersey known as John D. Wright Memorial Home,{{cite news |title=Wright Home To Open Tomorrow. 200 Children Will Spend Summer At Oceanport Institution. |url=https://theguardian.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-record/138305269/?locale=en-US |access-date=12 April 2024 |work=The Daily Record |via=Newspapers.com |date=26 June 1924 |page=14 |language=en}} {{Source-attribution}} was the summer retreat of the juvenile inmates of the Home. The Advocate and Family Guardian, the official organ of the Society, was a semi-monthly journal, published by the executive committee, at 29 East 29th Street.