Lawrence Public Library

White Fund records, Lawrence, Mass., 1848-2014

The material described in this catalog record is located in the collections of the Lawrence Public Library, Lawrence, MassThe records of the White Fund for the last several decades were stored in filing cabinets in the Lawrence Public Library Trustee Room. In 2018, the archivist was asked to organize and process this material. The records were removed from the filing cabinets and boxed. The material in box one came directly from the present day (2018) trustees. Half of the material is to be a different collection concerning a longstanding controversy concerning the disposition of the White Fund paintings

Judge Daniel Appleton White owned a large tract of land in the town of Methuen that would become Lawrence. When the land was sold in 1852 the proceeds were targeted for educational purposes including an annual series of six lectures for the industrial classes. The income from this bequest would become known as the White Fund in Judge White's honor. Three trustees were appointed to oversee the gift starting with Henry K. Oliver, Nathaniel G. White, and Charles S. Storrow. The Judge suggested that a lot of land be set aside for a public library and in later years this would happen. The White Fund lectures commenced in 1864 and have continued to the present time. Many speakers have been invited to speak including Ralph Waldo Emerson and Oliver Wendell Holmes. The public library was established in 1872 and the fund has proceeded to supply an annual appropriation to buy books. In 1892 the first original building for the public library was built on some of the White land at the corner of Haverhill and Hampshire Streets. The cost of the building was given by Mrs. Nathaniel G. White and her daughter. Mrs. White was the wife of one of the first three trustees, Nathaniel White. The Nathaniel Whites were no relation to the Daniel Whites. The fund earned more monies than were needed for the lecture series. Consequently the trustees were able to use the proceeds to aid the moral and intellectual uplift of the city. The fund paid for the Lawrence Survey of 1911 in which the housing and sanitary conditions of the city were surveyed in the hope of civic improvement. William E. Wolcott, minister of the Lawrence Street Congregational Church, bequeathed seventeen paintings to the White Fund in his will. He died May 12, 1911. The fund was incorporated July 12, 1982.

Collection is open for research with restrictions: this collection is available to the public with the permission of the White Fund trustees

2019555337

Finding aid in the repository.

10 linear ft. (15 boxes).

(OCoLC)1122862502