The Mary D. Burnham Papers, 1877-1922

Summary

Creator:

Burnham, Mary D.

Abstract:

This collection contains the papers of Mary D. Burnham, who was a Deaconess, Director of the Women’s Auxiliary of the Diocese of Central New York, founder of the Dakota League, and live-in House Mother, Superintendent, and Treasurer of Current Receipts for the House and Hospital of the Good Shepherd in Syracuse. The collection has three series: Printed Materials, Photographs, and Writings.

Extent:

.21 linear feet

Language:

Collection materials are in English .

Preferred citation:

Preferred citation for this material is as follows:

The Mary D. Burnham Papers, Archives and Special Collections in the Health Sciences Library, SUNY Upstate Medical University

Background

Scope and content:

This collection contains the papers of Mary D. Burnham, who was a Deaconess, Director of the Women’s Auxiliary of the Diocese of Central New York, founder of the Dakota League, and live-in House Mother, Superintendent, and Treasurer of Current Receipts for the House and Hospital of the Good Shepherd in Syracuse. There are three series in the collection.

Printed Materials: these documents contain reports, regulations, and newspaper clippings of reports and the children’s column of the House and Hospital of the Good Shepherd from the 1870s to 1920s.

Photographs: these materials include many photographs from the House and Hospital of the Good Shepherd, including nurses, patients, the Central New York Women’s Auxiliary, Mary D. Burnham, and Bishop Frederic Dan Huntington from the 1870s to 1910s.

Writings: this series has an undated manuscript draft of rules for the House of the Good Shepherd.

Biographical / historical:

Mary D. Burnham

Mary Douglass Burnham (1832-1904) was a Deaconess, Director of the Women’s Auxiliary of the Diocese of Central New York, founder of the Dakota League, and live-in House Mother, Superintendent, and Treasurer of Current Receipts for the House and Hospital of the Good Shepherd in Syracuse. She was born in Quincy, Massachusetts on May 13, 1832 and in 1852 married Wesley Burnham, who worked in the sugar cane industry on the Sandwich Islands. She founded and was the president of the Dakota League in 1864, which supported Episcopal mission work among indigenous nations and was the predecessor organization to the Women’s Auxiliary to the Board of Missions that formed in 1871. She established the Women’s Auxiliary of the Diocese of Central New York and became a deaconess in 1876, in addition to becoming the Head of the Diocesan Deaconess Order and Superintendent of the Hospital of the Good Shepherd. After visiting St. Augustine, Florida in 1878, she persuaded Bishop Frederic Dan Huntington to seek the transfer of David Pendleton Oakerhater of the Cheyenne Nation from the prison at Fort Marion to Central New York. He became an ordained deacon in the Episcopal Church and served for 50 years in the ministry in Oklahoma. She then went to Boston and became the superintendent of the Home for Incurables and the president of the Diocesan Woman’s Auxiliary. In 1892, she moved to Yonkers, New York and became the superintendent of St. John’s Hospital. At the end of her life, she was a hostess of a home for visiting missionaries in New York City, where she died on December 26, 1904.

Acquisition information:

Gift of Nellie Burnham, 2007.

Arrangement:

The Mary D. Burnham papers have been arranged into three series.

Related

Related material:

House of the Good Shepherd Collection, SUNY Upstate Archives and Special Collections.

St. Paul’s Episcopal Cathedral in Oklahoma City has correspondence between Deaconess Burnham, David Pendleton Oakerhater, and others from the Indian Assimilation movement, which includes 117 letters and 24 photographs donated by Nellie Burnham in 2004.

Mary D. Burnham Papers Relating to the Dakota League. Yale Collection of Western Americana, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

Indexed terms

Subjects:

Episcopal Church
House of the Good Shepherd
Nursing
Women in medicine

Names:

Burnham, Mary D., 1832-1904

Restrictions:

There are no access restrictions on this material.

Terms of access:

Written permission must be obtained from the Archives and Special Collections of the SUNY Upstate Health Sciences Library and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.

Preferred citation:

Preferred citation for this material is as follows:

The Mary D. Burnham Papers, Archives and Special Collections in the Health Sciences Library, SUNY Upstate Medical University

Location of this collection:

State University of New York, Upstate Medical University

766 Irving Avenue

Syracuse, NY 13210, United States

Link to repository site

Contact:

history@upstate.edu