Miriam Tyler papers

Biography/Profile

Miriam Tyler worked as a caseworker for the Juvenile Protective Association from 1945 to 1955. Tyler worked in one of the poorest sections of Chicago bordered by Division Street on the north and 45th Street on the south. Her case reports document the struggles of the poor, blacks, Latinos, and the mentally ill in 1940s and 1950s Chicago. Miriam Tyler also lived in the Jane Club for eight years. In 1954 she left for the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia where she became the first visiting teacher in the Staunton Public Schools.

Miriam Tyler was a colleague and friend of Jessie Binford. Jessie Binford met Jane Addams when she came to Binford's hometown, Marshalltown, Iowa, to speak about Hull-House and its work. After graduating from Rockford College, Binford volunteered in Marshalltown and spent her summers volunteering at Hull-House in Chicago. Binford moved into Hull-House in 1902 and lived there until 1963.

The Hull-House district branch of the newly founded Juvenile Protective League was organized with Binford as secretary.The Juvenile Protective League was created to identify conditions which put children at risk and to create agencies and institutions which nurtured children. In 1909 the League was reorganized and re-named the Juvenile Protective Association (JPA). From 1911 to 1916 Binford and the JPA worked to establish specialized courts to meet the needs of specific groups of offenders such as the Court of Domestic Relations, Boys' Court, and Morals Court (later the Women's Court). Binford was appointed JPA general superintendent (executive director) in November 1916, a position she held until her retirement in 1952.

During World War I, Binford was drawn into the newly emerging field of social hygiene, dedicated to protecting girls who were vulnerable to prostitution in Chicago. In the 1920s, she organized a series of investigations into vice conditions in Chicago. JPA reports revealed that police and governmental officials were in collusion with brothel owners. As a result of her work, Binford became nationally recognized in the field of Social Hygiene. Child welfare became professionalized during the 1940s, eclipsing the community work approach of Binford and the JPA. After her retirement in 1952, Binford continued to speak publicly on behalf of the JPA, but clashed with the new director's emphasis on professional training and casework.

In 1960, Binford emerged from retirement to join the campaign to preserve the area surrounding Hull-House, which was to be demolished to build the University of Illinois Chicago-Circle. Binford co-chaired the Harrison-Halsted Community group with Florence Scala, a long time neighborhood resident. In spite of their efforts, the Illinois Supreme Court refused to hear their case. Binford, Scala and a few others remained in Hull-House until June 1963. When it became obvious that they had lost their struggle and it was no longer safe to inhabit the buildings, Scala persuaded Binford to leave Hull-House. Binford returned to Marshalltown, Iowa to live and resided at the Tallcorn Motor Hotel. Binford maintained her interest in social concerns with her support of the 1960s struggles for civil rights and opposition to the Vietnam war. Binford died in Marshalltown in 1966 at the age of 90.

Bibliography:

Korr, Wynne Sandra, "Jessie Florence Binford," in Women Building Chicago: 1790-1990, Rima Lunin Schultz and Adele Hast, eds., Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001.