This Institution was founded in 1845, by the distinguished gentleman whose name it bears, as the "Female Department of the New York Prison Association." It is managed by a board of thirty ladies, who are elected annually by the members of the society.

Mr. Hopper belonged to the Society of Friends, was for many years inspector of prisons in Philadelphia, and finally entered into the work of reforming criminals with a love and zeal only less than that of a Howard. He continued the agent of the society up to the period of his death, in 1852, performing an incredible amount of service for the trifling salary of $300 per annum. Known to be in moderate circumstances, the society repeatedly proposed to increase his salary, which he as persistently refused, though his successor's was immediately fixed at $2,500.

His excellent daughter, Mrs. J. S. Gibbons, the corresponding secretary of the society, who partakes so largely of the spirit of her father, is the only surviving member of the original organization.

Mr. Hopper's long familiarity with prison life led to the profound conviction that nothing could be done for the reformation of female convicts without entirely separating them from the opposite sex, and placing them under the exclusive control of suitable persons of their own sex. Hence the organization of "The Women's Prison Association."

The work undertaken by this society is the most difficult in the world, requiring a mingled wisdom and tenderness, connected with a moral heroism found nowhere but in cultivated and sanctified woman. The objects of the society are, "the improvement of the condition of prisoners, whether detained on trial or finally convicted, and the support and encouragement of reformed convicts after their discharge, by affording them opportunity of obtaining an honest livelihood and sustaining them in their efforts to reform." It is a death grapple with sin in its strongest dominion—the heart of a disgraced and ruined woman. The sympathy the society received from the public, during the earlier years of its history, was not flattering.