Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy. Records

Historical Note

The Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy was established in 1908. It began as the Institute of Social Science and Arts, organized in 1903 by Graham Taylor. Taylor was a Professor of Sociology at the Chicago Theological Seminary, a social gospel minister, and founder of the settlement house Chicago Commons. The Institute was heavily influenced by the ideals of the settlement movement. Started by Victorian social reformers in London, settlement houses were both residences for social workers and centers for food, shelter, and education in poor neighbourhoods. Sophonisba Breckinridge, Grace and Edith Abbott, and Julia Lathrop, all of whom would later contribute to the School of Civics and Philanthropy and its successor institution, had lived and worked at Chicago's Hull House settlement.

In 1906, gifts from Victor Lawson and the Russell Sage Foundation allowed the Institute to operate independently as the Chicago Institute of Social Science. Two years later it was incorporated as the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy. Faculty and students at the school addressed issues such as juvenile delinquency, truancy, vocational training, and housing. Early faculty included Breckinridge, Edith Abbott, Charles R. Henderson, Ernst Freund, and George Herbert Mead. The School moved to the former home of Charles R. Crane in 1916, where it continued its programs under the patronage of Crane, Julius Rosenwald, Anita McCormack Blaine, and L. Ryerson, and Victor Lawson. In 1920 the School officially merged with the University of Chicago's Philanthropic Division to become the School of Social Service Administration (SSA). Administrative restructuring did not alter the institution's mission, and SSA's commitment to social science research and practical training was shaped by the continued presence of faculty such as Breckinridge and Abbott.