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Access Conditions
Written permission from the Benevolent Society must be obtained: permission is granted for use for 10 years only. Contact the Benevolent Society or the State Library of New South Wales for assistance in applying for access to the collection.
Records
The Benevolent Society of New South Wales Collection, 1813-1996 is an aggregated collection made from 4 smaller collections. These collections are:
- Benevolent Society of New South Wales - Records, 1813-1995
- Benevolent Society of New South Wales records, 1813-1955
- Benevolent Society of New South Wales records, 1852-1913
- Benevolent Society of New South Wales, further records, 1847-1996
The large collection includes the surviving records of:
- Benevolent Asylum
- the Society's Thomas Street Asylum
- Renwick Hospital for Infants, Summer Hill
- Renwick Hospital for Infants, Thomas Street
- Liverpool Asylum
- Scarba Welfare House for Children
- Scarba Welfare House for Women and Children
- Scarba House for Children
- The Royal Hospital for Women
Many of the early records of Scarba House for Children and Renwick Hospital for Infants were destroyed or lost as a result of a flood in the Society's records storage area. No records of these institutions remain outside the State Library of New South Wales collection except for patients' medical records for the Royal Hospital for Women which currently reside with the hospital in Paddington, New South Wales.
Information about series that were included in the publication Connecting Kin (1998) is available on the Find & Connect website.
Finding Aid
The records are described in the publication 'Guide to the Records of the Benevolent Society of New South Wales, 1813-1995, in the Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW'. The guide (140 pages) may be consulted in the Mitchell Library Reading Room.
