Collections Overview
The Social Welfare History Archives has acquired over 200 collections of organizational records or personal papers. The collections chronicle the development of a broad range of activities. Included are the classic social services offered to particularly vulnerable classes of persons, e. g., the economically dependent, recent immigrants, migrants and refugees, unwed mothers, abused and abandoned children, the aged, and the developmentally and physically challenged. Beyond these are causes and services aimed at the broader community, many of them not traditionally included in a narrow definition of social welfare: child-rearing advice for parents, recreation programs, community planning, arts programs, preventive health, and family planning. Because of the problem-solving mindset of the service field, the collection as a whole tends to stress times of crises. Coverage is richest in--but not limited to--times of war, depression, or other types of social and economic dislocation.
Types of collections
The archives holds the records of forty national associations, among them the major forums for overall discussion, planning, and coordination of services; the professional social work organizations; and many of the prominent specialized service organizations. These collections provide a unique opportunity to study and understand private sector planning for services and setting standards at the national level as well as the impact of independent sector activities on the formulation and implementation of health and welfare policies in the public sphere. In addition, the personal papers of some sixty individual leaders and practitioners and the records of numerous local agencies offer another valuable perspective, one that provides a more intimate picture of service delivery and conditions of client populations.
Subject areas
Among the subject areas of particular strength is the settlement house movement, the records of which provide an intimate picture of neighborhood conditions, especially in New York City. Other well-documented areas include the social work profession; sexuality-related issues such as birth control, sterilization, illegitimacy, prostitution, and venereal disease; child welfare and family relations; community planning; recreation; and the social aspects of health and health care. There is considerable discussion and analysis of public social policy and much evidence of interaction between private- and public-sector programs, even though the Archives does not seek to collect records of government agencies. Although the collecting scope is not international, there is a significant cluster of U. S.-based international organizations and of national organizations and individuals with strong international ties.
Types of documents
The collections contain a variety of materials including: minutes of board and committee meetings, programs and proceedings of conferences and conventions, annual reports, financial records, correspondence, memoranda, newsletters, research reports, and photographs as well as the amalgamation of pamphlets, brochures, clippings, and tear sheets that often accumulate in reference files. Collectively these documents offer scholars an opportunity to reconstruct and analyze past social welfare activities and conditions in a depth that no other source can provide.
Special print collections
To complement its manuscript holdings, the Social Welfare History Archives has developed two special collections of print materials. The pamphlet collection contains annual reports, newsletters, brochures, circulars, memoranda, standards, and special study reports issued by more than 2,000 national and local voluntary organizations and welfare-related government agencies. The Gender Collection was formed to gather material pertaining to the contemporary feminist movement, and has later expanded to include GLBT publications. It includes more than 250 periodicals ranging from professional journals to newsletters of local collectives. The Archives also maintains a collection of social work-related books and periodicals and a small collection of published social work reference books.