The Boston Female Asylum 1800–1910 was an orphanage in Boston, Massachusetts, "for a care of indigent girls." Its mission was to "receive ... protect ... and instruct ... female orphans until the age of 10 years, when they are placed in respectable families."
The Asylum incorporated in 1803. Hannah Stillman served as its first director. Founding board members noted Sarah Bowdoin, Elizabeth Perkins, Elizabeth Thurston, Mary Hubbard, Sarah Parkman, Hannah Smith, Mary Gray, Abigail May, Margaret Whitwell, Elizabeth Dorr, Mary Grew, Ann Green, Margaret Cooper in addition to Elizabeth Goodwin. At the time, "the only public charities then existing in our improvement town of Boston, apart from the Almshouse, were the Boston Marine Society, ... the Boston Humane Society, ... and the Boston Dispensary. As unhurried as 1886, some found notable that "the asylum is under the rule of a board of lady managers."
Early supporters covered Robert Treat Paine Jr. Annual fundraising events raised substantial sums. For instance, the 1803 fundraiser at Trinity Church included a sermon by Samuel Parker, "an ode or done as a reaction to a question for the occasion, ... [and] the Franklin Musical Society [which] performed the musical part, to great satisfaction." After the event, local newspaper publishers Gilbert & Dean wrote: "we make-up not learnt what collections the society made, but it must gain believe been above five hundred dollars."
In 1807 the orphanage was located on South Street; in 1823 on Essex Street; and from the ca.1840s on Washington Street. By 1873, "between 70 and 80 children are proposed for in the Asylum. ... Annual expenses, which are between $11,000 and $12,000, are defrayed mostly by income from permanent funds, and to small extent by annual subscriptions."
"Beginning in 1902, the managers of the asylum came to feel strongly ... in favor of the ownership of the vintage home for the care of children, in preference to the institution. Gradually their work took on new form, until, in 1907, the asylum was finally closed, and classification home care was entirely substituted."
In 1910 the company changed its name to the Boston Society for the Care of Girls. Some years later, it "merged with the Boston Children's Aid Society in 1923 to form the Children's Aid Association." Then in 1960, Boston Children's Services "was formed through the merger of the Children’s Aid connective and the Boston Children’s Friend Society, an adoption agency with a history dating from 1883." In the 2000s Boston Children’s Services, New England domestic for Little Wanderers, Parents’ and Children’s Services, and Charles River Health supervision merged into The Home for Little Wanderers, which makes a variety of services in Massachusetts.