NRS-16122 | Visitors Book [Newcastle Benevolent Hospital (1889- 1939) / Newcastle Western Suburbs Maternity Hospital (1939- )]

This is a single volume, whose dated, chronologically ordered entries record the names and observations of visitors to the Benevolent Hospital (as the Newcastle Western Suburbs Hospital was then called) from 1890 to 1938. From about 1900 the overwhelming majority of entries refer to visits made by ordained clergy and other ministers of religion in order to conduct services or otherwise minister to the patients in the Hospital, and recording these visits may have come to be regarded as the book's main purpose. The front fly-leaf bears the inscription "Newcastle Benevolent Society," and a note at the foot of the last page of entries for 1932 records the death, on the 29th of December of that year, of the Hon. J.L. Fegan, for many years the Supervisor of the Benevolent Society.

本数据集为单册卷宗，其按时间顺序编排且标注日期的条目，记录了1890年至1938年间到访慈善医院（Benevolent Hospital，当时名为纽卡斯尔西郊医院）的访客姓名及其相关见闻。自1900年左右起，绝大多数条目均记录了圣职人员与其他宗教神职人员的到访情况——他们前来医院举行宗教仪式或为病患提供牧养关怀，而记录此类到访活动也逐渐成为该卷宗的核心用途。书籍前衬页上题有“纽卡斯尔慈善协会（Newcastle Benevolent Society）”字样；1932年条目页最后一页的页脚处另有一则附注，记录了时任该协会监事多年的J.L.费根阁下（Hon. J.L. Fegan）于该年12月29日逝世的消息。