Brace, Charles Loring

BRACE, CHARLES LORING: American philanthropist; b. at Litchfield, Conn., June 19, 1826; d. at Campfer in the Engadine, Switzerland, Aug. 11, 1890. He was graduated at Yale 1846; studied at the Yale Divinity School 1847–48 and at Union Theological Seminary, New York, 1848–1849; traveled and studied in Europe for two years; in 1853 he became first secretary and executive agent of the Children's Aid Society of New York, and remained such till his death. He planned and developed the work and supported it in the earlier days with much self-sacrificing labor; industrial and night schools were established, lodging-houses provided for newsboys and for girls, reading-rooms opened, summer charities instituted, and nearly 100,000 boys and girls were assisted to new homes and occupations with healthful and moral surroundings. By thus removing incipient criminals a marked diminution in juvenile crime was shown in the police reports of New York. The history of the work was given by Mr. Brace in his annual reports and in his two books, Short Sermons to Newsboys, with a history of the formation of the Newsboys' Lodging House (New York, 1866); and The Dangerous Classes of New York, and twenty years' work among them (1872; enlarged ed., 1880). He published several works of travel of a popular character such as Home Life in Germany (1853); The New West (1869); and as results of considerable thinking and study, Gesta Christi, a history of humane progress under Christianity (1882; 4th ed., 1884); and The Unknown God, or inspiration among pre-Christian races (1890).

Bibliography: C. L. Brace, His Life, chiefly told in his own Letters, edited by his daughter, Emma Brace, New York, 1894.