Research

Scope and Content Note

The series provides a breakdown on the sources of the institution's assets and liabilities from October 1877 through September 1880. Legislation creating the institution (Laws of 1865, Chapter 587) required that such records be kept of all business and daily transactions. The series is found on pages 52-165 of an unlabeled volume which also contains stock and inventory lists for the school.

Entries for debits and credits are in adjacent columns. They are totaled at the bottom of each page and balances are carried forward. Grand totals appear for each month. "Page" or "Folio" numbers (often in red) may refer to corresponding journal or ledger entries in volumes which might no longer be extant.

Entries typically appear for the following categories: inventory; general furniture; school room furniture; music; miscellaneous library; embossed library, maps, etc.; farm (stock, carriages, utensils); merchandise; provisions; broom shop; broom machinery shop; bead and work room; fuel and lights; officers and teacher payroll; domestic payroll; and laborer's pay.

Entries also appear by name of individual vendors and by county (listed alphabetically). Chapter 587 of the Laws of 1865 provided that each county would be entitled to admission of its "blind population in indigent circumstances" in the proportion by which its whole blind population related to the whole blind population of the state. Each county paid on annual sum toward the support of such indigents.