Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no access restrictions

Preferred Citation

Minutes of the Virginia Board of Public Welfare, 1908-1948. State government records collection, The Library of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia.

Acquisition Information

Accession 26055 was transferred by the Virginia Dept. of Corrections, June 30, 1964.

Historical Information

The Board of Charities and Corrections was created by an act passed by the General Assembly on March 13, 1908, in order to visit, inspect and examine charitable, correctional and reformatory institutions at the the state, county, and municipal level, as well as those privately operated. The board acted in an advisory role only. Board members were to visit institutions once or twice per year and report on the condition, care and administration of each site. The board visited mental hospitals, the penitentiary, prison farms, reformatories, almshouses, jails, and chartered institutions and associations for the care of those homeless, mentally ill, orphaned, delinquent or incarcerated.

The name of the board was changed to the Board of Public Welfare by the General Assembly on February 27, 1922. This act also authorized the creation the Children's Bureau to safeguard the welfare of mentally ill, dependent, delinquent and neglected children in the state, and the establishment of receiving homes to accept children committed by the courts. Each county and city was also required to appoint a local board of public welfare to visit and inspect all charitable and penal institutions in their locality.

The state government reorganization act of April 18, 1927, created the Department of Public Welfare. The General Assembly, on March 30, 1948, approved a reorganization of the state government that merged the Department of Public Welfare with the Department of Corrections to form the Department of Welfare and Institutions. This merger proved administratively unsatisfactory, so following several years of study, the General Assembly passed an act on March 9, 1974, separating the agencies to form the Department of Corrections and the Department of Welfare. On February 20, 1981, the General Assembly changed the name of the Department of Welfare to the Department of Social Services, effective July 1, 1982.

Scope and Content

Minutes of the Board of Public Welfare, 1908-1948, document the meetings, activities, discussions, policy decisions, and recommendations of the Virginia Board of Public Welfare (previously Virginia Board of Charities and Corrections). Includes discussions and inspection information for almshouses, children's homes, convict labor camps, industrial schools, jails, juvenile protective associations, mental hosptials, orphanges, reformatories, sanatoriums, schools for the deaf and blind, state farms, state prisons, and workhouses. Other topics include, but are not limited to adoption, appeals, Children's Bureau, foster homes, legislation, licensing, local boards of public welfare, probation, protective officers, and public assistance. Minutes may also include by-laws, committee reports, correspondence, financial statements, regulations, reports and resolutions.

Earlier minutes may include committee visitation reports for the following institutions: Blue Ridge Sanatorium, Catawba Sanatorium, Central State Hospital, Eastern State Hopital, Industrial School for Wayward Colored Girls, Ivakota Farm, Laurel Industrial School, Negro Reformatory, Piedmont Sanatorium, Southwestern State Hospital, State Farm, Virginia Epileptic Colonly, Virginia Home and Industrial School for Girls, Virginia Industrial School for Boys, Virginia Manual School for Colored Boys, Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind, Western State Hospital. Later minutes are increasingly administrative in nature and contain less information about individual institutions.