Founding Scholars Advisory Committee These distinguished scholars worked with John E. Hansan to shape the original Social Welfare History Project that launched in 2010. Their expertise as researchers and educators helped create the conceptual framework for the site, along with the scholarly articles they contributed. Allida Black, Ph.D., is a Distinguished Visiting Scholar at…
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Burns, Eveline
As a staff member of the Presidential Committee on Economic Security in 1934, she helped formulate the specifics of the Social Security Act as it was eventually passed by Congress. She was later director of research for the Committee on Long-Range Work and Relief Policies of the National Resources Planning Board. The committee’s report published in 1942, shaped the public assistance and work programs as they developed throughout the 1940’s. Through her teaching at Columbia of comparative social security systems, she helped educate a generation of scholars in the United States who carried on important research in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Among the honors received by Dr. Burns, was a Florina Lasker Social Work Award in 1964 contributions “as an outstanding authority on social security systems throughout the world.”
Continue Reading »Brace, Charles Loring
Charles Loring Brace (June 19, 1826 – August 11, 1890): Congregational Minister, Child Welfare Advocate, Founder of the New York Children’s Aid Society and Organizer of the Orphan’s Train Introduction Charles Loring Brace was born into a well-connected New England family. At the time of his birth, his father, John Brace, was principal of…
Continue Reading »Boyd, Neva Leona
Neva Leona Boyd (1876-1963) – Social Group Worker, Professor of Sociology and Proponent of the Modern Play Movement Introduction: Neva Leona Boyd was born in Sanborn, Iowa on February 25, 1876 and she moved to Chicago after high school. Boyd enrolled in the Chicago Kindergarten Institute and then taught kindergarten in Buffalo, New York, before…
Continue Reading »Bethune, Mary McLeod
An educator, organizer, and policy advocate, Bethune became one of the leading civil rights activists of her era. She led a group of African American women to vote after the 1920 ratification of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution (giving women the right to vote).
Continue Reading »Ball, Robert M.
Robert M. Ball: Social Security Pioneer A Personal Remembrance by Larry DeWitt Editor’s Note: Larry DeWitt is the public historian at the U.S. Social Security Administration. He is the co-editor of Social Security: A Documentary History (Washington, D.C., Congressional Quarterly Press, 2008). Late in the night of January 29, 2008 Robert M. Ball, a leading figure…
Continue Reading »Anderson, Mary
Mary Anderson (1872-1964): Advocate for Working Women, Labor Organizer and First Director of the Women’s Bureau in the U.S. Department of Labor.
Continue Reading »Anderson, Joseph P.
Joseph P. Anderson (1910-1979) – Settlement Worker, Administrator and First Executive Director of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Due to his extraordinary vision and distinguished leadership, Joseph Anderson’s pioneering work achieved lasting results. The formation of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) and the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) are,…
Continue Reading »Social Welfare Developments, 1901-1950
Editor’s Note: All items are in chronological order in the year under which they are listed. 1902 The first State workmen’s compensation law is enacted in Maryland; it was declared unconstitutional in 1904. Homer Folks, founder and head of the New York State Charities Aid Association publishes Care of Destitute, Neglected and Delinquent Children. Conversion…
Continue Reading »Lange, Dorothea
Dorothea Lange was one of the leading documentary photographers of the Depression and arguably the most influential. Some of her pictures were reproduced so repeatedly and widely that they became commonly understood symbols of the human suffering caused by the economic disaster. At the same time her work functioned to create popular support for New Deal programs.
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