Public relief was initially provided through town-, county-, and, increasingly in the second half of the nineteenth century, state-administered programs, which developed as the need for assistance grew more acute. Private charities, both secular and religious, also offered an important and extensive supply of relief. While their sources of funding differed, public and private philanthropic agencies supported similar institutions such as hospitals, almshouses, and orphanages that provided custodial or rehabilitative care. For Francis Greenwood Peabody, the purpose of charity was to aid in social progress by developing social reliance through the provision of temporary housing for the homeless, medical care for the aged and infirm, classes in industrial trades and domestic science, and other related services. He felt that charitable institutions should offer evidence of the power and importance of idealism and should focus on character building, as a way of instilling in aid recipients the initiative required for self-help. A series of display boards highlighting the work of the National Plant, Fruit and Flower Guild, which provided window boxes to tenement families and beautified abandoned yards, serves as proof of this intention.