Berkshire Industrial Farm records

Collection — Multiple Containers

Identifier: 6523

Scope and content

Records of the Berkshire (formerly Burnham) Industrial Farm including the Berkshire Industrial Farm Record 1893-1904, 1924, a newsletter produced by the farm administration documenting the activities of the Farm and its residents, a memorial pamphlet to Frederick Gordon Burnham, one of the founders of the Farm, Berkshire Industrial Farm Annual Reports 1886-1912, many transcripts of a history of the Farm by Burnham Carter and transcripts of Mrs. Burnham's history of the Farm illustrated with photomechanical reproductions. A set of lantern slides, many of which are hand colored, used for presentations to document the Farm residents engaged in their educational and work environments.

Dates

1886-1926.

Creator

Berkshire Industrial Farm Corporation (Organization)

Biographical / Historical

In 1885, Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Gordon Burnham of Morristown, N.J. bought 580 acres of land at Canaan, N.Y. which they subsequently increased through additional purchases. Soon after their purchase, they decided that the site would be most useful as a home and school for impoverished or homeless boys. Thus the Burnham Industrial Farm was incorporated by the State of New York in May 1886, though it subsequently became known as the Berkshire Industrial Farm. Based on European educational models in Germany, Holland, France and Great Britain, the school was conceived as a residential institution designed to assist indigent male youth between the ages of seven and sixteen through courses of Christian industrial and vocational training.