Explore the history of American social reform and social services 

The Social Welfare History Image Portal brings together photographs, pamphlets, artifacts and documents chronicling the history of the nation's response to human need. This history includes the work of volunteer organizations, reform movements, social workers, and government legislation and systems.

Featured Items

July First. "Oh, where's the beer of yester year?" [editorial cartoon by J. F. Bronstrup]

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Editorial cartoon by J. F. Bronstrup shows a saloon owner smoking a cigar outside his recently converted bar. The establishment window now advertises…

Student Reading Campus Newspaper

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Liz Vantrease, Class of 1970, reads a copy of the student newspaper, The Bullet, next to a cut out of a Vietnam War soldier who wears a peace sign and…

Young boy, Seventeenth Street Mission, Richmond, VA

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Photograph of young African American boy in winter coat and cap standing outside the Seventeenth Street Mission in Richmond, VA. What appears to be…