The records of the New England Hospital contain manuscripts, photographs, annual reports, minutes, a scrapbook, printed material, legal and financial records, correspondence and memorabilia. They are divided into two parts. The first (SERIES I-V) is a group of miscellaneous papers dealing with the early history of the hospital. It includes material related to fund drives and anniversary celebrations (1896-1962); manuscript and published Annual Reports, 1863-1955; correspondence (1847-1922); business and financial papers (1859-1920); circulars and rules ; memoranda and minutes of physicians' meetings (1876-1917) (including one bound volume of minutes); photographs, a scrapbook; and miscellaneous subjects including a controversy over abortion (1915), the use of chloroform as an anesthetic (1888), and African-American women interns. There is also application material from women medical students seeking internships, including letters, forms, recommendations, and transcripts (1891-1926). The second part (SERIES VI) contains several hundred letters collected for their autograph value for sale at nineteenth century fund-raising fairs. These letters are largely from the correspondence of Ednah Dow Cheney and Eva Channing. While they do not relate in content to the Hospital, they are authored by major literary, political, and religious figures of the latter half of the nineteenth century. They form a valuable collection of source material in the social and intellectual history of the period. Topics include woman suffrage, social services, abolition, freedmen's education, literature, and Civil War relief. The correspondents cover a wide range of notables, including: Louisa May Alcott (1882-88), Alice Stone Blackwell (1886-1903); Elizabeth Blackwell (1848-87); George Washington Cable (1877-1904), Lydia Maria Child (1860-69), Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1857-1902); Julia Ward Howe (1862-1900); Henry Wadsworth Longfelllow (1864-78), Elizabeth Palmer Peabody (1881-87), Lucy Stone (1879-93), Harriet Beecher Stowe (1860-70), and John Greenleaf Whittier (1862-90). For additional noted correspondents see Search Terms.

These records provide a unique insight into medical education and health care for women in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the sometimes difficult and contentious internal challenges within the Hospital, and its struggle to maintain its independence in a rapidly changing social and cultural environment.

The bulk of the hospital records are dated between 1862 and 1956. They are divided into six series: I. History, II. Personal, III. Financial, IV. Correspondence, V. Subjects, VI. Autograph Collection

This collection is organized into six series:

• I. History
• II. Personal
• III. Financial
• IV. Correspondence
• V. Subjects
• VI. Autograph Collection