Portsmouth Grove Hospital Library Association records

The Portsmouth Grove Hospital Library Association was incorporated on September 22, 1862 to serve patients at the Lovell General Hospital (also known as Portsmouth Grove Hospital) in Portsmouth, R.I. Lovell General Hospital was a United States Army hospital from 1862-1865 during the American Civil War. The Library Association was created “for the purpose of promoting the moral and religious improvement of sick and wounded soldiers and seamen” by a group of Rhode Island clergymen representing a variety of Christian denominations. Included were Rev. Dr. Henry Jackson of Central Baptist Church in Newport; Rev. Bishop Thomas M. Clarke, Bishop of the Episcopal Church in Rhode Island; Rev. Lyman Whiting of the High Street Congregational Church in Providence; Rev. Benjamin Francis Hayes, pastor of Free Will Baptist Church in Olneyville and principal of the Lapham Institute in Scituate; , Rev. Dr. Edward Brooks Hall of First Unitarian Church of Providence; Rev. Cyrus H. Fay of the First Universalist Society in Providence; Rev. B.F. Summerbell of the Christian Church, and James Butler of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

In 1884, the R.I. Hospital Library Association gifted its’ remaining funds to the Providence Public Library to assist in the purchase of the C. Fiske Harris Collection on Civil War and Slavery.