The Survey Journal

THE SURVEY, a leading journal of the social work profession and social reform.

The Survey was published in different forms from 1897 to 1952. It was edited by Paul Kellogg from 1912 to 1952; his brother Arthur Kellogg served as managing editor until his death in 1934. Between 1922 and 1932 two issues a month were published: the Graphic Number and the Midmonthly Number; from 1933 to 1948 they were published as two separate periodicals, Survey Graphic and Survey Midmonthly.

Background: The Survey Graphic statement of purpose in 1937 described the journal this way:

“We chronicle developments . . . pool experiment and experience . . . afford a forum for free discussion . . . carry forward swift first hand investigations with a procedure comparable to that of scientific research . . . interpret the findings of others . . . employ photographs, maps, charts, the arts in gaining a hearing from two to twenty times that of formal books and reports.”

During the heyday of the charity organization societies, a small cadre of journals and periodicals emerged to help charity organization workers with advice and information. The New York Charity Organization Society (COS) founded the journal Charities Review in 1891. It offered advice and analyses of issues faced by charity organizations throughout the country. The journal was highly specialized and not widely known outside of welfare circles. In 1897 Edward T. Devine, the most prominent American writer on welfare issues, launched another publication for the New York COS called Charities, a monthly and then later a weekly “review of local and general philanthropy.” Charities absorbed Charities Review in 1901.

In 1902 two brothers from Michigan, Paul and Arthur Kellogg, joined the staff of Charities just as the focus of the journal was beginning to shift with the times. The Kellogg brothers would within a few years become editor and business manager of the journal.