Burgess, Ernest Watson. Papers

Series I contains Burgess' correspondence and papers associated with professional organizations, and various reports and memoranda from organizations in which Burgess was active. It also contains the correspondence from the major research projects that are contained in Series III, Research Studies and Projects, with the exception of mass-mailing form letters that are included with the research items.

The listing is strictly alphabetical for the names of persons, organizations, and institutions. It is important to note that the listing of the General Files is not exhaustive. Basically, the first and last names in a Folder are listed, with other selected names of potential interest. No assumption should be made about the presence of an item from its absence in the list.

There are two biographical essays here filed under the name of the subject, one on Robert Park and the other on F. W. Blackmar. There is a bibliography until 1952, a list of course offerings by Burgess through 1952, and a professional biography from about 1950 all filed under Burgess.

There are a number of small collections of correspondence, reports, and memoranda from organizations. Perhaps one of the more interesting of these is from the Local Community Research Committee which contains items dating from 1925 and the beginning period of that Committee. It should also be noted that this body of material represents an exception to the placement of materials related to University of Chicago professional matters in Series II, Academic Materials. The reports contained under this listing include research proposals and progress reports from a number of early studies including the History of Chicago, Effects of Depression, and the Marriage studies.

Another exception from the Academic grouping is the presence of six folders of recommendations written for students and colleagues, and listed under "Recommendations" in the General Files.

Among the organizations in which Burgess was active there is extensive correspondence from the American Sociological Society, Chicago Census (which includes items from the various research projects as well as the Chicago Census Advisory Committee), Chicago Area Project, Chicago Crime Commission, Chicago Relief Administration, Committee of Fifteen, Illinois Association for Criminal Justice, Social Science Research Council, Society for Social Research, and the White House Conference on Child Health and Protection. All the material for each of these organizations has been organized chronologically. In most cases the majority of papers are reports, official notices about meetings, and minutes of meetings. Folders with large numbers of letters are labeled correspondence.

Series II contains those items most directly related to Burgess' academic and administrative roles at the University. These consist mainly of two types of items: Notes and manuscripts related to his course and research work; and, reports and correspondence related to administrative matters in the University principally of the Sociology Department and Social Sciences Division. The items in this series are for the most part arranged by course topics for the first group, and by academic area, either department or division, for the second group.

Some material contained under course topic listings in this series may be related to Burgess' personal research work in that area. Therefore, it is suggested that the Academic section course topics be consulted as a supplementary source of information for the research projects.

The research projects of Ernest Burgess documented in this series fall into three categories. First those concerned with certain types of behavior of individuals, or small groups of individuals. This includes mainly the Parole and Marriage research, in which attempts were made to develop fashion prediction instruments.

Secondly, are those studies primarily concerned with gathering data on social situations or socialization of individuals. This includes a number of the Child in the Family studies, the Delinquency studies, and the Adjustment in Old Age research.

Finally, there are those studies concerned with the change and development of widespread social institutions. These range from the urban research involving the census and the local community areas to the Protestant church research.

Burgess' research spans topics from the individual to the whole society, from statistical predictors and factor analysis to intensive use of case studies and personal documents. Each of these modes represents simultaneously pursued paths. However, one can date the beginning of each of the major projects, and they have therefore been listed in a roughly chronological order. Before the listing of each subseries in the Research series, a brief introduction describes the nature of Burgess' interest in that area and the organization of the items in that subseries. A functional arrangement has been followed so that items playing the same role in a research project are clustered together, e.g., questionnaires, calculations, charts and graphs, forms, maps and notes.

When notes or other documentation explained accompanying data, or served as reference data themselves, they were kept with the research materials and listed in the subseries. The Miscellaneous subseries contains numerous items on the administration and interpretation of the various questionnaires and scales developed by others but employed by Burgess, e.g., the Humm-Wadsworth Temperament Scales and the Thurstone Neurotic Inventories.

Subseries 1, Parole Research

A strong interest in prisons and parole at the University of Chicago can be traced to the original sociology faculty, and more specifically to Charles Henderson's involvement in prison reform. Burgess' interest in the parole system and probation of prisoners centered mainly on predicting the probability of success of parolees. To this end Burgess employed a statistical analysis of the prisoners' backgrounds, attitudes, psychological makeup, and records. The data was gathered from prison records and interviews. Correlations were developed between certain clusters of factors, which were then related to the known success or failure of the parolees previously paroled. Burgess established a basis for rating factors as positive or negative, and for assigning numerical values. Although his main research efforts were to develop an "objective" statistical instrument, Burgess' social-psychological approach to the collected data that resulted in an emphasis on the supplementary use of case studies for criteria in parole decisions.

Burgess' involvement in this area dated from 1927, when he was appointed to the Committee on the Study of Working of the Intermediate Sentence Law and of Parole in the State of Illinois, and when sponsorship of his research was underwritten by the Illinois Association for Criminal Justice. The Committee was appointed by the governor to study the situation as it existed in 1927 and make recommendations. John Landesco and Clark Tibbits were active as research assistants for this work. Burgess' first study of parole concluded with the publication of the Committee's report in 1928.

Burgess continued to have an interest in the problem of parole prediction. By 1933 Illinois had introduced systematic techniques for parole prediction using Burgess' findings. During the thirties, and especially after 1936, several of Burgess' colleagues and students made follow-up studies of the success of these techniques and the Illinois system. Sam Daykin, who was appointed to the newly created post of state Sociologist-Actuary after Laune's resignation, carried out such a study for the prison at Menard.

New studies continued to be proposed by state agencies or colleagues, either as follow-ups like that conducted during the 1930s, or as attempts to refine techniques by searching for further inter-correlations between factors that Burgess had previously found to be significant.

The surviving material from Burgess' parole research is incomplete. The data and calculations for the 1928 report are scant. Planning notes, work schedules, and proposals are present only as random sheets or notes. Furthermore, where the data are more abundant, as for the research conducted in the 1930s, Burgess' labels do not clearly indicate when the data were collected (as distinguished from the period to which they pertain), nor whether they are derived from studies conducted by Burgess himself or by his colleagues.

The parole research materials have been organized into three subseries: the 1928 materials, and items which are apparently related materials from the follow-up studies of the 1930s; and post-1940 materials consisting mainly of miscellaneous items. Within each group the papers are usually organized as follows: notes and manuscripts; reference data relevant to the study; data gathered from the research effort itself; and forms used, summaries, and general reference material.

Two subseries are exceptions to this organization. The first, on juvenile delinquency, dates mainly from the 1930s and was intimately related to Burgess' parole research. The second small subseries consists of two folders of material that contain reports, notes, and data specifically about the issue of prediction itself. Both of these subseries follow the 1928 material.

Additional material on delinquency can be found in the research collection entitled White House Conference, which developed a schedule titled "Things I Like To Do," that was applied to delinquency studies in the mid- and late 1930s.

Subseries 2, Crime in Chicago

The core material in this subseries consists of a study on the relationship between recreation programs and delinquency in Chicago, with special emphasis on the South Side. This study appears to have begun as early as 1934 and continued as late as 1940. A concise statement of the project by Raymond Nelson can be found in Box 37, Folder 7. Drawing on census statistics and studies conducted in cooperation with Chicago parks and school recreation areas, the project analyzed frequency and extent of attendance at these facilities by delinquents and non-delinquents, and the relation between such attendance and the distribution of delinquency. This study originated from Burgess' general interest in the problem of urban crime. Thus it can be considered related to the parole and delinquency material, and the studies of organized crime by John Landesco. More specifically, it was intended to establish a basis upon which the role of organized recreation in decreasing delinquency could be evaluated. This was a practical issue of some importance, since the view that organized recreation was a preventive of delinquency had become the basis of many social work programs. The recreation map materials in the Chicago Census and Community Data series are also relevant to this project.

This subseries begins with a group of manuscripts and proposals on the study of crime in Chicago. Several of these are related to research conducted in cooperation with the Illinois Association for Criminal Justice in the late 1920s. Next are arranged recreation and delinquency project manuscripts and reports. Tables and lists are followed by sets of statistics, records on attendance, and boys court cases. The series ends with a box of data cards used in the study.

Subseries 3, Chicago Census and Community Data

This subseries pertains mainly to statistical information on Chicago from the Chicago Census and several other studies utilizing census and community data. Included is material on ward redistricting, land distribution values, recreation maps, as well as the mortality and health statistics.

Burgess was noted, especially in the early twenties, for sending his students out to gather all sorts of data on the nature of the city and its people. Most of this material can be found under Urban or Social Pathology in Series IV, Work of Students and Collaborators, Class Papers. In the present subseries are placed the notes, drafts, covering letters, charts, and tables containing statistical information.

Burgess was involved in an ongoing relationship with the U.S. Census Bureau as a member of the Chicago Census Advisory Committee. His concern was with the utilization of the data accumulated by the Census Bureau for sociological purposes. His early recommendations that the city be divided up into 75 local communities, rather than 600 tracts upon which the U. S. Census previously had been based, were implemented for the 1920, 1930, and 1940 Census. From such data a number of maps for various characteristics of the population in these areas were developed, e.g., forms of delinquency, mental diseases, and crimes. In 1934, the University of Chicago in cooperation with the City of Chicago administered a local census of the city under Burgess' supervision.

The material in this subseries consists of statistical sheets, forms, and maps. Some material is identified as part of specific research projects, e.g., "Family Composition Study," "Hyde Park Study," "Ward Redistricting Plans."

The time period of the materials ranges from the early 1920s until 1945. Other related materials include a small collection of population pyramids prepared by students in his courses in the 1920s and 1930s, maps produced by students or printed by the Chicago newspapers, and "Vital Statistics" booklets and other data published by the Census Bureau.

Material appears in the following order: census statistics and tables; maps; miscellaneous drafts; information for other projects such as the street address coding guide; Family Composition Study; Hyde Park materials; oversize materials; and miscellaneous maps and student population pyramids.

For correspondence and general literature related to census projects see General Files under Chicago Census.

Subseries 4, Marriage

Burgess' primary research interest in marriage was the development of an effective instrument for the prediction of marital success or failure. Unlike his earlier work on the prediction of parole success, the marriage research required that the sociologist analyze and weigh the basic conditions involved in a special type of relationship. This task was viewed by Burgess as a more sophisticated challenge to the methods of sociological analysis than his parole work.

In 1926 Burgess published an article entitled "The Family as a Unit of Interacting Personalities." This article reveals an awareness of the basic features of marriage and their relationship to the studies of adolescence undertaken for the White House Conference on Child Health and Protection (see Series III, Subseries 5, Research: Child and Family).

In 1927 E. Mowrer's study Family Disorganization was published, the first work from "the Chicago school" on the subject. Throughout, one can see the influence of Mowrer's advisors, especially Burgess, who appears to have been the reader for the dissertation. The published text includes a brief introduction by Burgess with suggestions about the relationships between hypotheses in the text and the possibility of developing a marriage prediction study.

Burgess' first marriage study was begun in collaboration with Leonard Cottrell about 1931, shortly after the parole study. The project ran from 1931 until 1939, when Predicting Success or Failure in Marriage was published. (For a convenient, brief summary of the Burgess-Cottrell study, see E. W. Burgess and Paul Wallin, Engagement and Marriage, chapter two [New York, 1953] pp. 36-40.) Cottrell's dissertation, entitled "The Reliability and Validity of a Marriage Study Schedule," 1933, was an offshoot of this research.

The Burgess-Cottrell study collected data through a distribution of 7,000 "schedules." Of these, 1,300 were returned, from which 550 were selected on the basis of criteria which can be found in the Burgess-Cottrell text. Certain of these were determined to be "inadequate," and the resulting 526 schedules provided the basis of the study. The remainder of the marriage study analyzed several case studies, (fifty are mentioned and five are published in the text), numerically weighing and quantifying results, correlating answers to certain questions with each other, and correlating selected groups with others.

In 1937 Burgess in association with Paul Wallin initiated a second study in response to a "crucial question" raised by the earlier work: "whether the characteristics reported after marriage and found to be associated with the success or failure of married couples are actually predictive or instead only a consequence of this success or failure." The study, hereafter referred to as the Burgess-Wallin study, employed a similar "schedule" approach with 1,000 engaged couples. The intention was to study in this manner the engagement relationship, and then to follow up the initial study approximately three years later with an inquiry into the success or failure of these engagements. In this follow-up, 666 couples were interviewed. The results of these studies were first published in a 1944 paper, and then in a comprehensive volume entitled Engagement and Marriage (1953), both co-authored with Paul Wallin. This text covered all aspects of these two types of relationships, including historical, cultural, and psychological material as well as the results of the prediction studies. Another comprehensive text, by Burgess and Locke, The Family, first appeared in 1945, and was re-issued in new editions in 1960 and 1963.

Several other studies were conducted during this period. One was a study of wives married to service men during the Second World War; another was of student marriages. In the 1960s Peter Pinneo conducted research into the problem of divorce. Materials from each of these three studies occur in this section of the Burgess collection, including Pinneo's project which was conducted after Burgess' retirement. These projects are represented mainly by incomplete sets of schedules or partial summaries. The Burgess papers preserve no materials from studies that Burgess might have pursued through the Community and Family Study Center. The Center was established in the early 1950s, subsequent to most of the research documented in this section of the Burgess Papers.

The material from Burgess' Marriage research is divided according to type rather than chronologically or by topics, with the exception of materials from the studies just mentioned. In general, the materials have been arranged in the following sequence: schedules, calculations and tables, working correspondence, materials from "other studies," case studies and interviews, and notes and manuscripts.

The statistical materials fall into two groups. The first consists of batches of forms used to list data in a format appropriate for calculation. These include the tetrachoric correlation coefficient forms. The second group encompasses the various stages in tabulation from handwritten and ruled calculation sheets to tables of the results of such calculations. In cases where tables and charts of data were found together the relationship has been maintained in the present arrangement of the papers.

Subseries 5, Child and Family

This subseries documents Burgess' research into the nature of the family's role in the development of the child. In 1930 Burgess became a member of the White House Conference on Child Health and Protection, and chairman of the subcommittee on Function of Home Activities in the Education of the Child, of the Committee III A: Family and Parent Education. As chairman of this subcommittee he directed research efforts into the child and family with Ruth Shonle Cavan as his research assistant. This effort resulted in a report prepared by Mrs. Cavan and published in 1934 as The Adolescent in the Family.

In order to study the relationship between family conditions and the development of a well-balanced child, Burgess developed a set of questionnaires. These were elaborated further and published as The Human Relations Scales. His research in this area apparently continued beyond his involvement with the report for the White House Conference. In 1938 he helped form the National Conference on Family Relations, serving as secretary from 1938-1941, editor of its journal Marriage and Family Living, and president in 1942. (See also Series I, General Files, under "White House".)

The set of questionnaires in this subseries is a sample of the 13,000 that were collected by the White House Conference. Included in this section of Burgess' research papers are some materials related to the schedule entitled "Friends and Family" from the Institute for Juvenile Research, which was directed by Burgess' student Clifford Shaw. (See also Series I, General and Series IV, Work, for Shaw, C.) This subseries is arranged as follows: schedules; manuscripts of tables and short reports; manuscripts of tables and charts for data correlations, summaries, and working notes; and material from other sources, e.g. The Institute for Juvenile Research.

Subseries 6, The Protestant Church in the Apartment House Area

The study documented in this subseries was undertaken by Elmer Sutterlund. Originated as part of a graduate seminar in research, it evolved into a dissertation research project funded by the Local Community Research Committee in 1926. The study focused on the areas of Uptown Chicago and Madison Park, although material was collected from a number of other neighborhoods. The primary purpose was to study the Protestant churches in these areas in order to trace their development and transformation from their original character in pre-automobile rural America.

The materials are mainly interviews with clergy and church members, pamphlets, programs, etc., issued by the churches. One box contains reports and notes for study, including some background material from another study. The remaining boxes contain interviews and literature.

It should be noted that another church study was conducted by Miss Marion Kells. Kell's material can be found in Series IV in this collection, which also contains additional Setterlund material. See also Series I, General Files for Setterlund. As can be seen in the correspondence beginning this section, Setterlund's work began in 1926, but continued until 1939-1940 when he was in Nebraska revising his book and still receiving new material from Burgess. Since the interviews are dated as late as 1940, it is possible that there is material here from another study.

Subseries 7, Radio Study

The bulk of this subseries consists of sets of questionnaires submitted to children from elementary grades through high school. There are several different formats, but the general purpose was to determine the effects of the radio upon daily life and development of children. Some questionnaires inquire only as to radio programs listened to each day, frequency, and popularity. Others inquire into family background, times spent with the radio, etc. The majority of the research (if not all) was jointly sponsored by the Illinois Congress of Parents and Teachers and the Institute for Juvenile Research in 1933. The work of a Dr. C. W. Darrow of the "B.R.F." is mentioned in the proposals; besides Darrow and Burgess several others including H. McKay helped plan the study. There is only one Folder of general notes. The remainder of the Folder contain questionnaires with tabulations, parent reports, and responses.

Subseries 8, Miscellaneous

The units in this subseries range from parts of small studies on a variety of topics to an assortment of reference materials. The latter have been included here because either they are a heterogeneous assortment of notes and "researched" data, or they are relevant to the general methods of the other studies, e.g., the material on the various types of schedules that were employed in a number of the studies.

Many of these items were labeled "Pathology" by Burgess. This was more or less an umbrella term for any subject which represented social disorganization. The more obvious examples are mental disease, homosexuality, abortion, prostitution, criminal rehabilitation. Since the core notion of pathology is social disorganization, it would be possible for an individual who is not himself personally "pathological" to indulge in behavior which from the social point of view is disruptive of a social organization and its accepted modes of behavior. This approach was the basis upon which Burgess' students studied organized crime, an example in which the "pathological" behavior from the general society's point of view had developed its own social organization. The latter material can be found in the Recreation and Delinquency section.

There is no special organization to the order of the materials in this section. The first item, entitled Mass Observation, was a widespread opinion-gathering effort in Great Britain during World War II. The C.C.C. study focused on the Civilian Conservation Corps program for setting up work camps. The study was begun in the fall of 1936 by the American Youth Commission. It appears that a gathering of case studies and their analysis was begun in 1937 and continued through 1940. Kenneth Holland was director of the study, and Ruth S. Cavan prepared the materials and conducted a primary analysis of the cases. It is not clear whether Burgess participated in this study. There is also a set of assorted tests from a U.N.E.S.C.O. study of English adolescents and interpretation of the Humm-Wadsworth temperament scales.

Subseries 9, Old Age

The material in this subseries originates from Burgess' participation on the Social Science Research Council's Subcommittee on Social Adjustment in Later Maturity. This committee was established in 1944 and initiated a study of later maturity. Members were Burgess, R. J. Havighurst and C. Tibbits. Ruth S. Cavan was research associate. Although these names appear on the official letterheads, several other members of the research effort pursued by the subcommittee are listed in the text, Personal Adjustment in Old Age (1949), a general study of the subject published as a result of the subcommittee's work. In addition to these scholars, Professor Herbert Goldhammer is listed as a co-author.

The original Later Maturity study involved 3,000 participants. Of these, 1,000 were followed up with a schedule developed in this study, entitled "Your Activities and Attitudes." In 1947 and 1948 funding was received from the Carnegie Corporation for studies of older people in a typical midwestern community and a longitudinal study of the process of aging in terms of occupational and economic groups. This latter grant led to the study of photo-engravers, Methodist ministers, retired Y.M.C.A. secretaries, and teachers. Studies were pursued in other cities, including Akron, Kansas City, and Morris. All of these are present in the following section.

The Rockefeller Foundation funded a program for Preventive Mental Hygiene which ultimately led in 1951 to the creation of a course entitled "Making the Most of Maturity." The directors of the course intended to follow the participants in a continuing follow-up study. Material from this course and correspondence related to it can be found in the last two boxes of this subseries. The observer's reports and minutes of the meetings of the two groups, the Temple and Church groups, may be related to what was termed the "mental hygiene" work of the course.

The material in the present section is arranged as follows: schedules organized by groups studied, and related interview matter; cards and slips with names; and notes, manuscripts, and correspondence related to both the course and the research studies.