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

They Are Advancing

M 9 Box 101_Child Labor Comm They Are Advancing p1 rsz.jpg

Pamphlet advocating for the Child Labor Amendment, passed in 1924, but never ratified.

Equal Suffrage League of Richmond, Va., February, 1915

M 9 b 242 Equal Suffrage League Febrary 1915 adj rsz.jpg

Equal Suffrage League of Richmond, Va. in front of Washington Monument, Capitol Square, Richmond. The members of the ESL were promoting the suffrage…

Peace [editorial cartoon by Nelson Harding]

VCU_Cartoons Magazine v16 n1 1919 Harding_Peace rsz.jpg

Editorial cartoon by Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Nelson Harding. Peace, shown as an angel with a tiarra, slams her fist on a table, scattering…