Mary Cromwell Jarrett Papers, 1900-1966
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Sophia Smith Collection Smith CollegeNorthampton, MA
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Encoded Archival Description (EAD) Version 2002
collection
Mary C. Jarrett Papers
Creation of Mary C. Jarrett Papers
Time of Creation of Mary C. Jarrett Papers
Jarrett, Mary C. (Mary Cromwell)
Biographical History for: Mary C. Jarrett Papers
Biographical Note Mary C. Jarrett, n.d. Mary Cromwell Jarrett was a psychiatric social worker, educator, and the founding director of the Smith College School for Social Work. She was born in Baltimore, Maryland circa 1876, earned an A.B. from Goucher College in 1900, and for the next several years held teaching and tutoring positions at schools in Pennsylvania and Maryland. From 1903 to 1913, Jarrett was employed by the Boston Children's Aid Society, and it was there that she first ventured into the field of social work, specializing in delinquent children and unmarried mothers, as well as serving as a probation officer in Juvenile Court. Jarrett went on to become Chief of Social Service at the Boston Psychopathic Hospital (1913-19), where, in collaboration with Dr. Elmer Ernest Southard, she first defined the relevance of social work to psychiatry. As an outgrowth of this work, she subsequently developed an apprentice course to train social workers in providing aid to shell-shocked soldiers returning from World War I. In 1918 Smith College President William Allan Neilson, seeking a way for the college to contribute to the war effort, invited Jarrett to implement her program there under the auspices of the National Committee for Mental Hygiene. This was the first session of the Smith College Training School of Psychiatric Social Work, which became the Smith College School for Social Work. Its immediate success led the Board of Trustees to make it a permanent program, and in 1919 Stuart Chapin was appointed Director. Jarrett was named Associate Director, and served in that capacity until 1923. While at Smith, Jarrett continued to conduct research and to write, notably The Mental Hygiene of Industry (1920) in which she articulated the relationship of mental health to productivity and the role of the social worker in maintaining the former. She also published The Kingdom of Evils (co-authored with E.E. Southard), a landmark book which helped establish psychiatric social work as a credible and useful adjunct to established medical practice. In 1920, Jarrett organized the Psychiatric Social Workers' Club, which later became the Psychiatric Section of the National Association of Social Workers. From 1923 to 1925 she worked in the division of Field Investigations of Mental Health, United States Public Health Service, where she conducted a comprehensive study of the mental health of immigrants. Jarrett went on to work for the Research Bureau of the Welfare Council of New York City from 1927-43 where she directed two major studies, on health services and chronic illness. She also conducted documentation and a study of two Works Projects Administration projects: the Housekeeping Service and the Homemaker Service for the aged and the chronically ill (1935-40). After leaving the Welfare Council of New York City in 1943 and until her retirement in 1949, Jarrett conducted studies, surveys and consultations at the municipal, state and national level, specializing in old age, chronic illness and the importance of social work in helping communities and individuals to cope with these conditions. She died in New York City on August 4, 1961. Jarrett was known for her role in developing the concept of "psychiatric social work", an outgrowth of the larger mental hygiene movement which swept the nation in the early part of the twentieth century. In Jarrett's words, as psychiatrists learned more about the nature of mental disorders, "the social problem of public mental health...increased from a matter of providing hospitals for the sick to an endeavor to promote mental development and prevent mental disease." Jarrett was initially interested in how the properly trained social worker might facilitate the work of the psychiatrist, first by obtaining a detailed history from the patient's community (as an aid to correct diagnosis) and later by helping to bring about changes in the patient's environment necessary to his or her mental well-being. However, although social workers had long been versed in assisting people with physical, mental and emotional impairments to function on a basic level, Jarrett believed that social work was destined to become "a professional art in its own right, based upon a body of sociological theory" and incorporating basic psychiatric principles. The course of study that Jarrett developed, and implemented at Smith College, therefore was firmly grounded in sociology, psychology and social psychiatry, as well as the traditional subjects of hygiene, occupational therapy, and the writing of records and reports. Jarrett also conceived and implemented the "block plan", a novel approach to curriculum in which students alternated academic course work with internships in the field, a system still in place today at the Smith College School for Social Work. Jarrett was certain that the same principles of psychiatric social work proven effective in treating shell-shocked veterans were also applicable to other kinds of mental distress, and she was influential in the evolution of social work into a respected profession and a viable alternative to hospitalization or institutionalization for the aged, the chronically ill, and the mentally and emotionally disturbed.
Scope and Contents of the Collection The Mary Cromwell Jarrett Papers consist of 2.8 linear feet, dating from 1900-1966. The collection primarily documents Jarrett's professional life after her graduation from Goucher College in 1900. Material from the years 1913-23 relates to the initial formulation of the theory of psychiatric social work and to its general acceptance as a methodology at the first session of the Smith College School for Social Work. Correspondence, photographs, publications and newspaper clippings pertaining to the founding of the School for Social work are also included. The letters of William Allan Neilson and Mary Vida Clark on this subject, located in the Professional Activities series, may be of particular interest. The collection also includes Jarrett's research materials and published works relating to the study of mental hygiene in industry, commissioned by the Engineering Foundation during her tenure as Associate Director of the School for Social Work (1919-23) and conducted in collaboration with Dr. Elmer Ernest Southard. It offers insight into evolving views on the nature of labor/management relations and on the potential effect of mental factors on job performance, turnover and hiring policies in industry. The Correspondence series contains letters from Lillian Moller Gilbreth, who took a keen interest in this research. Also of note is material (located in the Writing series) relating to the resulting book, Kingdom of Evils (1922), the first published work to explore the concept of psychiatric social work. Documents generated during Jarrett's term of employment at the United States Public Health Service (1923-25) both reflect and illustrate contemporary mainstream attitudes towards immigrant populations, in the context of the social work profession. The records of numerous studies that Jarrett conducted while employed by the Welfare Council of New York City (1927-43) contain a comprehensive evaluation of the Works Project Administration's Housekeeping and Homemaker Services (including photographs, manuals and written reports), as well as studies and reports on chronic illness and aging. Manuscript material from 1943-47, when Jarrett was a self-employed consultant, documents her ongoing interest in social work as an alternative to hospitalization or institutionalization for the elderly and for people facing chronic or debilitating illnesses. Also of interest are studies and reports commissioned by numerous municipalities and private organizations as they sought to manage an expanding population that was living longer due to advances in medicine.
Aged--Care--United States--History--20th century--Sources
lcsh
Chronically ill--Care--United States--History--20th century--Sources
Industrial hygiene--United States--History--20th century--Sources
Psychiatric social work--United States--History--Sources
Social case work--United States--History--Sources
Social work education--United States--History--Sources
Social work with immigrants--United States--History--Sources
Gilbreth, Lillian Moller, 1878-1972
lcnaf
Neilson, William Allan, 1869-1946
Clark, Mary Vida
Smith College. School for Social Work--History--Sources
New York (N.Y.)--Social conditions--20th century--Sources
series
SERIES I. BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIAL (1900-66)
Resumes, chronologies, clippings, obituaries, memorials, correspondence, awards, citations, and medical reports.
SERIES II. CORRESPONDENCE (1913-61)
Professional correspondence pertaining to Jarrett's career. General correspondence is filed here, while letters pertaining to Jarrett's writings or to specific professional activities are listed as subgroups within those series.
SERIES III. WRITINGS (1913-45)
Correspondence, excerpts, reviews, and journal articles.
SERIES IV. PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES (1913-61)
Correspondence, photographs, journal articles, newsletters, brochures, clippings, and published writings. Since, prior to his death in 1920, Elmer Ernest Southard collaborated with Jarrett on the mental hygiene of industry research, material pertaining to him is listed as a sub-series of that study.
SERIES V. SUBJECTS (1943-60)
Brochures and newsletters.
SERIES I. BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIAL
Resumes, chronologies, and clippings, 1919-61, n.d.
Obituaries, memorials, and correspondence about Jarrett, 1961, 1964, 1966
Medical reports, by Dr. Edward Hartung, 1951-59
Awards and citations, 1939, 1943, 1948, 1951, 1954
Miscellaneous, n.d.
SERIES II. CORRESPONDENCE
Professional contacts and letters of recommendation, 1900-46, n.d.
Professional criticism from colleagues, 1924, n.d.
Psychiatric social work, 1920, 1937, 1939, 1952, 1960
General correspondence, 1913-61
Gilbreth, Lillian Moller, 1919, 1926, 1950, n.d. (includes pamphlet by LMG: "The Heart of the Home")
Pratt, Dallas, 1950
SERIES III. WRITINGS
Published works
Kingdom of Evils, 1922
Excerpts, reviews, correspondence, and list of interviewees, 1922-32, n.d.
Journal articles, 1913-21
Journal articles, 1925-45
Miscellaneous correspondence with publishers and editors, 1918-45
SERIES IV. PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
Boston Psychopathic Hospital
Correspondence, 1917, n.d.
Photographs, n.d.
Chronology, proposals, and reports, 1913-17, n.d.
Smith College School for Social Work
Correspondence to and from Mary Jarrett
Day, Florence, 1954, 1957
Neilson, William Allan, 1918, 1922, 1943
Parad, Howard, 1957-61
Miscellaneous, 1918-61, n.d.
Correspondence to and from William Allan Neilson and others
Chapin, Stuart, 1918, 1931
Clark, Mary Vida, 1918
Dunton, Edith, 1918-21, n.d.
Newsletters and brochures, 1919-62, n.d.
Clippings, 1960, n.d.
Commencement address by Doris Silbert, 30 Aug 1960
Social case work study
Correspondence, 1917-34
Proposals, 1917-32, n.d.
Mental hygiene in industry study
Plan of study, 1919, n.d.
Interviews, 1919
Reports by Jarrett
"The Psychopathic Employee: A Problem of Industry," 1917
"The Mental Hygiene of Industry," 1920
"The Practical Value of Mental Hygiene in Industry," 1921
"Nervous Women in Industry," 1926
Miscellaneous pamphlets, 1917-61
Elmer Ernest Southard, 1876-1920 (colleague in mental hygiene research)
Lectures, 1919, n.d.
Writings, 1916-20, n.d.
Memorials, 1920
United States Public Health Service
Immigrant study
Correspondence, 1925
"Factors in the Mental Health of Girls of Foreign Parentage," 1924
"Social Case-Work in Relation to the Mental Health of Immigrants," 1925
"Factors in the Mental Health of Boys of Foreign Parentage," 1934
Welfare Council of New York City
Correspondence, 1927-42, n.d.
Reports, bulletins, and newsletters, 1925-43
Chronic illness study
Reports by Jarrett, 1933-37
Committee on Chronic Illness
Correspondence and official documents, 1935-36
Quarterly and annual reports, 1935-42
Study and Report of Housekeeping Service (WPA project)
"Report on the First Year's Work of a WPA Project for a Demonstration and Study of Home Care of Chronic Patients in New York City, October, 1935 to October, 1936, " 1937
"Housekeeping Service for Home Care of Chronic Patients," 31 Dec 1938
"Exploring Some Potential Uses for Housekeeping Services," 1941
Reports by others, 1934-37, n.d.
Publications
Housekeeping Service, Field Supervisor's Guide," 1940
"Housekeeping Aides Workbook," 1941
"Care of the Patient: Simple Methods for Care of the Sick", n.d.
Photographs, 1941
Study and Report of Homemaker Service (WPA project)
Reports and directories, 1939-42
Miscellaneous publications, 1942
Convalescent care proposal: correspondence and draft, 1942-43
Consultations, surveys, and reports by Jarrett
"A Survey of the Care of the Aged of Rochester, NY," 1940
"Care of the Chronically Ill in Cleveland and Cuyahoga County," 1944
"A Brief Review of Counseling and Placement of Practical Nurses in New York State," 1945
"Report on the Care of Chronic Illness for the Metropolitan Health and Hospital Survey," Metropolitan Health and Hospital Survey, Washington, D.C., 1946
"A Method of Determining the Number of Medical Social Workers Needed for Case Work in a General Hospital," 1946
"The Care of Chronic Disease in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County," 1947, 1959-60
"The Cost of Specified X-Ray Examinations," 1947
Poliomyelitis study
Report, 1948 (2 copies)
Forms, n.d.
Proposal, correspondence, "special problems," and publications, 1948, 51, n.d.
Professional associations
Commission on Chronic Illness
Correspondence, 1949, 1956
Publications, bulletins, and reports 1947-50
National Health Assembly, 1948
National Association for Mental Health, 1950-57
American Association of Psychiatric Social Workers, 1951-59
National Association of Social Workers
Social case work study publications, 1957, 1959
Miscellaneous publications, 1952-61, n.d.
SERIES V. SUBJECTS
Aged and aging
Brochures and newsletters, 1943-60, n.d.
Chronic illness
National Health Survey, 1946
Brochures and newsletters, 1944-60