School of Social Work Records, 1898-circa 2000s, bulk circa 1930s-1980s

Summary Information

Abstract

Records of one of the oldest schools of social work in the United States, founded in 1898 as the New York School of Philanthropy and affiliated with the Charity Organization Society of New York City. The school merged with Columbia University in 1959, becoming the Columbia University School of Social Work. This collection includes the records of the office of the Dean, Development and Alumni Relations, and the Social Work Library, the bulk of which date from the 1930s through the 1980s.

At a Glance

Arrangement

Arrangement

This collection is arranged in 4 series. Series I has nine subseries, Series II has four, and Series III has three. All components are arranged in chronological order, except for Subseries II.3: Portrait Files and Subseries II.4: Index card files, which are arranged in alphabetical order.

• Series I: Office of the Dean, 1918-2001
• Subseries I.1: Advisory Council, 1918-2001
• Subseries I.2: School Council, 1929-1982
• Subseries I.3: Faculty, 1898-1984
• Subseries I.4: Academics, 1905-1984
• Subseries I.5: Student and Alumni affairs, 1926-1984
• Subseries I.6: Conferences and events, 1903-1999
• Subseries I.7: Grants, scholarships, and finances, 1924-1985
• Subseries I.8: Community partnerships and external organizations, 1918-1984
• Subseries I.9: Deans' correspondence and university administration, 1910-1983
• Series II: Office of Development and Alumni Relations, 1898-2012
• Subseries II.1: Events, 1898-circa 2010s
• Subseries II.2: Meetings, 1947-2001
• Subseries II.3: Portrait files, circa 1900-2000s
• Subseries II.4: Index card files, 1924-2000
• Series III: Social Work Library, 1898-1982
• Subseries III.1: Reference materials, 1921-1980
• Subseries III.2: School historical files, 1898-1982
• Subseries III.3: Library records, 1910-1979
• Series IV: Publications, 1904-2006

Description

Scope and Contents

The Columbia University School of Social Work Records document the administrative, educational, and commemorative activities of one of the oldest schools of social work in the United States. They are composed of the records of three entities of the School of Social Work: the Office of the Dean, the Office of Development and Alumni Relations, and the Social Work Library. While a small amount of material from the 1890s through 1920s and 1990s through 2010s is present, the bulk of the records dates from the 1930s through the 1980s.

• Series I: Office of the Dean, 1918-2001

  Series I: Office of the Dean includes the surviving records of the Directors of the New York School of Social Work (1919-1963) and the Deans of the Columbia University School of Social Work (1963-present). Minutes of the New York School of Social Work's Board of Trustees and the Columbia University School of Social Work's Advisory Council are present in this series, as are the minutes of the body known as the Faculty Council (1931-1938), School Council (1938-1963), Faculty and Staff Council (1963-1968), and School Council again (1968-1982).

  In addition to administrative records, the series includes records of faculty committees, curriculum development and teaching, academic affiliation and accreditation, special events, school financial support and administration, and partnerships with community and government organizations. Grouped among the materials related to school events are a few folders of general historical materials gathered in preparation for celebrating the school's various anniversaries. Finally, Series I includes correspondence files belonging to the school's deans, which date from the 1960s through the 1980s. Series I is the largest series in the collection.

• Series II: Office of Development and Alumni Relations, 1898-2012

  Series II: Office of Development and Alumni Relations contains records primarily related to the alumni association's annual activities and fundraising work on behalf of the School of Social Work. The bulk of the collection's photographs are located in this series. Series II includes portrait files for school faculty, administrators, and Alumni Association leadership, as well as extensive photographic documentation of Association events circa 1970s-2000s. Earlier photographs, primarily portraits of faculty and administrators, appear to have been gathered for the School of Social Work's 1998 Centennial celebration.

  Series II also includes some minutes of the School of Social Work Advisory Council dating from the 1980s and 1990s. Earlier Advisory Council minutes were found among the records kept by the Office of the Dean and retained in Series I. The reason for the division in custody is unclear.

• Series III: Social Work Library, 1898-1982

  Records in Series III: Social Work Library are a mixture of printed ephemera kept by librarians as reference materials for students; administrative records of the Social Work Library, dating from circa 1970s-1990s; and librarians' various attempts to gather historical "archives" of the school and library. Some school historical records in this series were gathered by the librarian Celestine Tutt, whose doctoral dissertation concerned the history of the Social Work Library. A small amount of material in the series also documents the Social Work Library's participation in an internship program administered by the Columbia University School of Library Service in the 1970s.

• Series IV: Publications, 1904-2006

  Series IV: Publications includes course bulletins, promotional materials, newsletters, event programs, and other printed material generated by the School of Social Work. Many of these materials were retained and used by various entities within the school. For example, both the Office of the Dean and the Office of Development and Alumni Relations kept reference collections of course bulletins and annual reports. For ease of access, those publications were placed in Series IV, unless they were heavily annotated or otherwise more informative in their original context.

Using the Collection

Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Restrictions on Access

This collection is located off-site. You will need to request this material at least three business days in advance to use the collection in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room.

All administrative records of the University are restricted for 25 years from their dates of creation. Student and employee records are restricted for 75 years from their dates of creation.

There is no Box 29 in the collection.

Conditions Governing Use

Gloves must be worn while handling photographic prints and negatives in the collection. All audiovisual materials must be digitized before use.

Related Materials

Community Service Society Records: The New York School of Philanthropy was founded by and affiliated with the Charity Organization Society of New York in 1898. The Charity Organization Society's records are included in the Community Service Society Records, as the latter formed in the 1939 merger of the COS with the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor.

Mitchell Ginsberg Papers: Professional papers of Mitchell Ginsberg, Columbia University School of Social Work professor and Dean of the school from 1971 to 1986.

Marion E. Kenworthy Papers: Papers of Marion Kenworthy, professor of Psychiatry at the New York School of Social Work from 1921 to 1956, and namesake of the School's endowed Professorial Chair of Psychiatry.

Social Agency Collection: A collection of social work agencies' professional publications, gathered and organized by the staff of the Social Work Library, circa 1934-1980. At Lehman Library, Columbia University.

Custodial History

While the New York School of Philanthropy was founded in 1898, the bulk of its surviving records date from the 1930s onward. The disposition of the school's earlier records is unknown, though their absence was noted by 1998 at the latest, as the school prepared to celebrate its centennial.

The custodial history of the materials taken from the Columbiana Subject Files prior to their arrival in Columbiana is also unknown.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

1996.001, 1997.003, 2017.2018.M067.

Materials in boxes 1-7 were taken from Columbiana Subject Files, including one old subject box from Low N. Gallery. Eight boxes of records from the Social Work Library were transferred to the University Archives in summer 2019 after being discovered in a closet in the Lehman Social Sciences Library.

Folders 59-62 in Box 41 were donated in September 2021 by Naomi Pines Gitterman.

About the Finding Aid / Processing Information

Columbia University Libraries, Rare Book and Manuscript Library

Processing Information

Collection-level record describing unprocessed material made public in summer 2018 as part of the Hidden Collections initiative.

This collection was processed by Hong Deng Gao and Celeste Brewer. Finding aid written by Celeste Brewer in January 2020.

The bulk of the collection was placed in new, acid-free folders. Folders in good condition were retained. Oversized materials were separated and housed in appropriately-sized boxes. Deteriorating report covers and other temporary bindings, primarily used for storing meeting minutes, were discarded when they were clearly damaging their contents. The contents of Box 69 and Box 83 were found to be mold contaminated and were cleaned in 2021.

Early in processing, materials in Boxes 8 through 45 were physically organized according to a preliminary arrangement scheme that was not ultimately imposed on the collection. Their original order was not documented, nor is it known whether the order in which they arrived at the University Archives was their original order. The physical arrangement of Boxes 46-79 appears to be mostly arbitrary. In both cases, after the preliminary arrangement scheme was decided against, no attempt was made to systematically alter the materials' physical arrangement. Materials are instead arranged intellectually.

Four folders of early Field Work related material were donated by Naomi Gitterman in September 2021 and were added to Box 41 of the collection in September 2021 by Jocelyn Wilk. It was determined that the material was similar enough in nature to the contents of Series I.3 that it was added,intellectually, to that part of the container list.

Separated Materials

Five record cartons' worth of records containing extensive student or employee records, which fall outside of the University Archives' collecting policies, were discarded. These materials include routine lists of students with failing grades, students on academic probation, and writing samples submitted with applications for doctoral study. Resumes and curriculum vitae submitted by prospective faculty and staff members were also discarded. An additional box primarily composed of minutes of the Committee on Advanced Programs, with a few more folders of various Ad Hoc committee minutes, was found to be mold-contaminated. The committee minutes were primarily composed of student records and and other records of low research value. They were discarded.

Two manuscript boxes of material labeled "Ginsberg Papers" were separated from the records of the Office of Development and Alumni Relations and added to the Mitchell Ginsberg Papers.

One manuscript box of Marion Kenworthy's correspondence with the School of Social Work, primarily related to her fundraising activities for the endowed Marion E. Kenworthy Chair in Psychiatry, were separated from the records of the Office of the Dean and added to the Marion E. Kenworthy Papers.

Box 83 contains materials originally located in Box 1, Box 29, Box 43, Box 62, Box 69, and Box 73. These folders were separated from their original locations for mold remediation.

Subject Headings

The subject headings listed below are found in this collection. Links below allow searches at Columbia University through the Archival Collections Portal and through CLIO, the catalog for Columbia University Libraries, as well as ArchiveGRID, a catalog that allows users to search the holdings of multiple research libraries and archives.

All links open new windows.

Genre/Form

Subject

History / Biographical Note

Historical Note

The Columbia University School of Social Work is one of the oldest schools of social work in the United States. The school originated in a summer course developed by the Charity Organization Society of New York City in 1898, in response to a perceived need for training in order to adequately administer social services and distribute charity among the poor. The school became academically affiliated with Columbia University in 1940, and was fully absorbed by the university in 1959.

The Summer School in Philanthropy's course offerings expanded into a full academic year in 1903. Beginning in 1911, the school began to offer a two-year diploma in social work. In 1919, the school's name also changed to the New York School of Social Work.

The school was initially administered by a Director, who reported to the Charity Organization Society's Board of Trustees. As the school's activities and administrative needs expanded, the COS Trustees formed a standing Committee on the School of Social Work. In 1931, the School moved from the COS building at 105 East 22nd Street in Manhattan, into a purpose-built tower of the Russell Sage Foundation building at 122 East 22nd Street.

In 1939, the Charity Organization Society merged with the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor. The combined organizations became the Community Service Society. The next year, 1940, the New York School of Social Work became academically affiliated with Columbia University, and awarded its first Master of Social Work degrees. In 1941, the school's own independent Board of Trustees was created.

Upon the retirement of Director Walter W. Pettit in 1947, Margaret Leal became the school's first Acting Dean. In 1949, Kenneth D. Johnson was appointed Dean, with Leal assuming the role of Associate Dean. That year, the school also moved into the former residence of Andrew Carnegie at 2 East 91st Street. The terms of its lease agreement with the Carnegie Corporation stipulated that the school would not be charged rent.

The New York School of Social Work formally separated from the Community Service Society in 1950. The same year, the school accepted its first doctoral candidates in Social Work; the first Doctor of Social Work degrees were awarded in 1952. The 1950s ended with the school's full integration into Columbia University in 1959.

The school changed its name for the last time, to Columbia University School of Social Work, in 1963. In 1969, the school moved from the Carnegie Mansion to Columbia University's McVickar Hall. It remained in that location until a new building at 1255 Amsterdam Avenue was completed in 2004.

The School of Social Work played a significant role in advancing the profession of social work and raising public consciousness of social services, both in the United States and beyond. Representatives from the school participated in foundational events in the history of American social work, including the 1909 White House Conference on the Care of Dependent Children, the Milford Conference, and the development of the Social Security Act. The Columbia University School of Social Work celebrated its centennial in 1998.

Names of the School: New York School of Philanthropy, 1898-1919; New York School of Social Work, 1919-1963; Columbia University School of Social Work: 1963-present.

Directors of the School: Philip W. Ayres, 1898-1904; Edward T. Devine, 1904-1907, 1912-1917; Samuel McCune Lindsay, 1907-1912; Porter R. Lee, 1917-1939; Walter Pettit, 1939-1947 (Dean Emeritus, 1951-);

Deans of the School: Margaret Leal, Acting Dean, 1947-1949; Kenneth D. Johnson, 1949-1958; Clara Kaiser, Acting Dean, 1958-1960; Fred DelliQuadri, 1960-1967; Sidney Berengarten, Acting Dean, 1967-1971; Mitchell Ginsberg, 1971-1980; George A. Brager, 1980-1986; Ronald Feldman, Dean 1986-2001; Edward J. Mullen, Acting Dean, 1991-1992