This collection includes administrative papers, clippings, and correspondence between Wetmore and other community members, such as Jane Parsons Swan, president of the Women's Aid Association for Newport Hospital. It is not an exhaustive view of all the hospital donors' activities. Other hospital activities are not represented in this collection.
All researchers seeking to publish materials from the collections of the PSNC Archives and Special Collections are requested to contact the archivist, prior to reproducing, quoting, or otherwise publishing any portion or extract from this collection. Although the Preservation Society has physical ownership of the collection and the materials contained therein, it does not claim copyright ownership. It is up to the researcher to determine the owners of the copyright and to obtain any necessary permission from them.
The collection is open to the public, and there are no restrictions on access. However, the collection can only be seen by scheduled appointment.
George Peabody Wetmore papers on Newport Hospital, Box 1, Folder #, Preservation Society of Newport County, Newport, RI.
The collection is arranged in much the same groupings in which it was found. It is described as a single series and inventoried at the folder level.
Former Rhode Island governor and senator George Peabody Wetmore served as a trustee for the Newport Hospital from at least 1909 to 1920. This series of papers includes correspondence with donors, community members, and newspapers; lists of subscribers (donors); and notes and administrative documents related to fundraising for the hospital.
During the summer of 1917, Newport Hospital faced a financial deficit for the fiscal year ending June 30. Plans for construction of new children’s and maternity wards halted in June due to increased costs of materials and labor due to World War I, to be paid for by subscription funds raised the previous summer collected by Dr. Charles Easton. At the same time, the hospital expanded its administrative building. Major funds raised for the hospital in the summer of 1917 included a bequest from writer Eliza Woolsey Howland (a sister-in-law of architect Richard Morris Hunt) and a Children’s Fair.
The hospital’s leaders encouraged local pastors to appeal for donations during church services, and the local newspaper agreed to publish the names of new subscribers. In a letter to the editor of the Newport Mercury and Weekly News, Wetmore explained the hospital’s costs, exacerbated by an outbreak of diphtheria, and described the support it received from other groups like the Women’s Aid Association of the Newport Hospital. Wetmore corresponded with Jane Parsons Swan (Mrs. James Andrews Swan), the Women’s Aid Association President, during this time. By September, the deficit had been reduced from over $17,000 to around $3,000.
Several folders in the collection relate to fundraising efforts for the Nurses’ Home and the operation of the hospital’s heating plant, dated earlier than the major fundraising campaign of 1917.
Papers were found in Chateau-sur-Mer in 2022. The Preservation Society of Newport County acquired the house in 1969.
Papers were arranged in a blank book, with sections of empty pages dividing materials. No pages in the bound volume bore any writing. The folders represent these groupings within the original book. Archivist Genna Duplisea removed the papers from the blank book and rehoused them, alphabetizing by subject and performing minimal reprocessing.
Additional accruals are not expected.
The following newspaper sources are listed chronologically to facilitate following the progress of the hospital fundraising efforts.