1887-1889. THE ORPHAN'S FRIEND. Kentucky Mission to Civil War Orphans. Rare.

Formerly property of the "Connie Maxwell Orphanage." One of the oldest orphanages in the South, it began in 1888 with a vision from the Baptist Convention of South Carolina. The Maxwell's, owners of a nearly 500-acre estate in Greenwood, South Carolina, had lost their only child at the age of 7. They were looking for ways to make her brief life meaningful, and read of the plans of the Convention in the Baptist Courier. They donated the land with the provision that it be used for the service of children in need in perpetuity. It's work continues to this day. 

The Orphan's Friend was an high-quality production including original content ranging from global to locally focused. It was distributed within Southern Baptist Circles and helped generate a significant revenue stream for the Louisville Baptist Orphan's Home in Louisville, Kentucky.

The home's began as the Orphan's Aid Society, in the hearts of Rev. George Lorimer and the Walnut Street Baptist Church of Louisville, Kentucky. In 1866, in the aftermath of the Civil War, the region was crawling with children who had lost their fathers and whose mothers were deceased or impoverished and unable to care for their children. Lorimer and the Louisville Baptists soon realized aid was not enough, and the Orphan's Home began in 1869, with its first leader, Miss Mary A. Hollingsworth, who served from 1869-1905 [d.1911]. 

Extensive accounts on individual orphans, etc. 

Hollingsworth, Mary A. [Ed.] The Orphan's Friend. 1887-1889. Louisville, Kentucky. George H. Dietz & Company for the Louisville Baptist Orphan's Home. 

Contents include:

Orphanages, Poverty, and Wealth by J. W. Rust

The Guinea Pig [with charming illustration]

Mr. Spurgeon on Cruelty to Animals

Paul's Idea of Enough

Kites [Illustrated]

The Dying Wife by Mary D. Reynolds

Lessons from Flowers

On the Adoption of Children

The Leath Orphan Asylum

Training Children

Trust and Obey [Frances Ridley Havergal]

Margaret of New Orleans

Woman as Journalists

The Centennial of the Constitution of the United States

China [Illustrated]

White as Snow

The Spurgeons of London [Spurgeon Orphanage]

Bryant's Tender Conscience

Behind the Clouds is the Sun Still Smiling?

Thanksgiving Day. A Proclamation of the President of the United States

The Christmas Star by Maria Upham Drake

News & Notes of Orphan Homes

Teddy's Dream by J. E. D.

The Care of Children in the Louisville Baptist Orphans Home

Babyland, 1888

A Smart Mule by E. F. J.

Mr. Spurgeon in his Grandfather's Garden

Grace Darling

The Children of the Poor

Why Adoniram Judson Became a Missionary

Juvenile Offenders in Germany

Spurgeon's Prohibition

The George Nugent Home for Baptists

Ramabai by Lucy Lacrom [Pandita Ramabai]

Beauties of Frances Ridley Havergal

The Man that Swallowed a Bible

Peace, or the Dying Soldier

Dr. David Livingston [Illustrated]

Christmas at an Orphanage

A Regular Baptist by David Stillwell

A Japanese Convert

Brave Little Marian

Child Labor in Europe.

Israel Putnam and His Plow

The Convict's Remembrance of His Mother

The Crescent Beach Meetings in Connecticut

Institutions for Homeless Children in Cincinnati

Children's Homes and Orphan Asylums in the United States

The Wounded Spirit Healed, etc. 

Scarce. No examples on the market at any price. Good - in near folio, endpapers worn and torn, a few signatures forward in the binding.