Endowments; Single women--Services for; Travelers' aid societies; United States; National Travelers Aid Society; Travelers Aid Society of New York
Format
correspondence
Genre
Business correspondence
Date
[between 1886 and 1919?]
Physical Description
microfilm, 16 mm, b&w
Note (Reel no.)
Reel 81
Note
PDF may contain multiple grant documents.
1917 - U.S. enters WWI. TAS annual report indicates that 30,422 persons were assisted 'notwithstanding the great decrease in steamer travel;' also reports 'increased work for colored people' due to 'labor conditions caused by the withdrawal of many me n for the army' and 'the shortage of food on the Islands [which] have caused a large migration to and through New York.' National Travelers Aid Society is formed to coordinate efforts of the various local Travelers Aid organizations, with headquarters in New York City." [SOURCE: Kriete, Susan. Guide to the Records of the Travelers Aid Society of New York, 1917-1979, MS 635. New York Historical Society, 3 Jul 2018, http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/nyhs/travelersaid/bioghist.html. Accessed 24 Oct. 2018.] "The Travelers Aid Society of New York (TAS-NY) was founded by Grace Hoadley Dodge in New York City in 1907. Thirteen other prominent Christian and Jewish women, including the social worker Belle Moskowitz, made up the Society's first Board of Directors. The Travelers Aid Society's purpose was to provide social work to women traveling alone in order to protect them from moral danger. The TAS-NY believed that the greatest threat to female travelers in the early twentieth century was white slave trafficking, defined as the coercion of 'white' women into prostitution and their subsequent sale to procurers or male clients. Agents of the Travelers Aid Society patrolled Grand Central Terminal and Pennsylvania Station, as well as the city's piers where transatlantic ocean liners docked, looking for women who they identified as vulnerable. Services usually entailed safely escorting women, immigrant and native-born alike, to city addresses, other transportation lines, or to a temporary lodging home, such as the YWCA. The TAS-NY's first headquarters was a four-story row house located a short walk from Grand Central Terminal at 238 East 48th St in the Turtle Bay neighborhood. When Grace Dodge died in 1914, General Secretary Orin Clarkson Baker became the driving force behind the Travelers Aid Society. Baker oversaw the expansion of its work in the city. By 1917, the TAS-NY had agents on duty at all the major rail terminals in New York and New Jersey and met all of the incoming transatlantic ocean liners, as well as some domestic ships. Baker abruptly resigned from the TAS-NY in 1919." [SOURCE: "Travelers Aid Society of New York." Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travelers_Aid_Society_of_New_York. Accessed 24 Oct. 2018.]