Burt/Bock Family Papers (Mss. Gr. 46)

Historical note

The Burt and Bock families were joined by the marriage of Mrs. Jackson's parents, Henry Burt and Louise Bock in 1901 The bulk of the collection contains the papers and memorabilia of Henry Burt. Burt, a noted social worker and settlement house administrator, was born in Waubansee, Kansas in 1875 and graduated from Washburn College in 1899 and Chicago Theological Seminary in 1903. It was as a student at Chicago Theological Seminary that Burt first became involved in the settlement house movement. In 1900 he joined the staff of Graham Taylor's Chicago Commons Settlement House.

Thus began a lifelong commitment to the poor and less fortunate of the world. Burt remained at the Chicago Commons for seven years and, while there, met and married Louise Bock. He continued his work at settlement houses in Minnesota and at a mission for homeless men in Wisconsin for the first two decades of the twentieth century before moving to Rhode Island in 1922 to accept a position with the Family Welfare Society of Providence. With the exception of a three-year stint in New Orleans as regional administrator of a Federal Emergency Relief Administration and later Works Progress Administration project, Burt spent the remainder of his life in Rhode Island. He served in a number of positions in private social agencies and state government in Rhode Island until his death in 1949.