Social Welfare History Project Recollections Page 4

Madison House: Tops In Every Respect

This Is a Retrospective View About the Origins and History of a Settlement House on the Lower East Side of New York City written by Jeanne Talpers, Daughter of Philip Schiff, a Social Work Pioneer, Who Attended Madison House as a Youngster and Grew Up to Become the Headworker in 1934.

George Bush and the Americans with Disabilities Act

Not historians but rather partisan politicians in the middle of contested campaign, Harkin and Hoyer perhaps did not understand that the ADA was indeed an exception. The acceptance of the ADA by President George Bush and his administration was far from grudging.

March on Washington, DC: My Omen For The Success Of The March

In August 1963, I was a member of the Cincinnati Committee for the Washington March, serving in my role as Chairman of the Ohio Valley Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers. Our committee recruited a contingent of 500 supporters from the Cincinnati, OH area who paid their own fares for a two-night roundtrip train ride to Washington, D.C.

Triangle Waist Company Fire (Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire)

The fire at the Triangle Waist Company in New York City, which claimed the lives of 146 young immigrant workers, is one of the worst disasters since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. This incident has had great significance to this day because it highlights the inhumane working conditions to which industrial workers can be subjected. To many, its horrors epitomize the extremes of industrialism. The tragedy still dwells in the collective memory of the nation and of the international labor movement. The victims of the tragedy are still celebrated as martyrs at the hands of industrial greed.

Cohen, Wilbur J.: Correspondence

…I have not answered your telegram of July 31 because I have very uncertain as to the general direction our work will take and the staff we will need. The time element is so short that we can not engage in any extensive research work…

American Social Policy in the 1960’s and 1970’s

As the decade of the 1960s began, the United States had the “highest mass standard of living” in world history.1 The strong American postwar economy of the late 1940s and 1950s continued into the 1960s.

The Longest Day

A chill returned as the sun disappeared behind the ruins of the World Trade Center. Renee Fleming, accompanied by the orchestra of St. Luke’s, sang God Bless America. I waved to a police officer wearing a light blue windbreaker. The words NYPD COMMUNITY AFFAIRS were printed in white block letters on the back of her jacket.

Social Work and Aftercare of the Mentally Ill in Maryland

“The question of affording proper care for patients discharged from hospitals for the insane is by no means a new one. The best and most satisfactory method of administering this aid has not yet been entirely decided…” (Arthur P. Herring, Secretary of the Maryland Lunacy Commission, September 14, 1910).

Defining Community

Until the Civil War to be oriented to the community as a social reference was in conflict with Individualism which was the dominant American philosophy. The way these ideas played against each other illuminates an important part of the American experience, one that continues to be active today.