Welcome
The Social Welfare History Archives collects, preserves, and makes available for use the archives of voluntary-sector social service and social reform organizations and the personal papers of individual leaders in the field. These materials serve as sources for original research on the history of social service and social reform, focused on, but not limited to, late nineteenth and twentieth century America. Among the range of social services and concerns represented in the archives are social casework and related counseling services, community organization, recreation, settlement houses, child welfare, aging, race relations, community planning, services to migrants and immigrants, public health and volunteerism. The archives also houses an extensive collection of published materials in the welfare field, including books, periodicals, pamphlets, reports, and newsletters.
More information about us.
News
SWHA collections now available Thursday evenings
The Andersen Library reading room, Room 215, is now open until 8:00 p.m on Thursdays, effective Fall semester 2007. Social Welfare History Archives researchers planning to take advantage of the extended hours are strongly encouraged to make advance arrangements by phone, e-mail, or previous visit to insure that desired materials are available to them. SWHA staff will normally be available until at least 5:30, but ability to provide reference consultation and retrieval may be limited after that time.
Search Online finding aids
A new Search Online Finding Aids web page provides the capability to search across the finding aids of all University of Minnesota Libraries Archives and Special Collections units. Searches can be focused exclusively on Social Welfare History Archives or can include other archives units as well. Please understand that search results are limited to collections whose finding aids have been mounted online. Please consult the Search Tips and the Finding Aids FAQ tabs on the search page for additional information.
Recent Publications Based on SWHA Research
Ann Fessler, The Girls Who Went Away: The Hidden History of Women Who Surrendered Children for Adoption in the Decades Before Roe v. Wade (Penguin Press, 2006) (more)
The Social Welfare History Archives is located in 320 Elmer L. Andersen Library on the West Bank Campus of the University of Minnesota. The University campus is approximately one mile from downtown Minneapolis and eight miles from the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
Hours : 8:30 - 4:30, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. 8:30 - 8:00, Thursday. Appointments recommended.
Phone: 612-624-6394
» Link to detailed visiting information
» Link to contact information
The University of Minnesota will award three or four Clarke Chambers Travel Fellowships to support travel to do research in the Social Welfare History Archives or the Kautz Family YMCA Archives.
Application deadline was April 15, 2008.
More information about the scholarship.