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

Why don't you put this boy to work in the factory... [editorial cartoon by Boardman Robinson]

VCU_Cartoons Mag_NC 1300_C37 v3 n2 Feb 1913 p103 Giving Him a Chance rsz.jpg

Editorial cartoon by Boardman Robinson. Originally published in the New York Tribune. Republished here in Cartoons Magazine vol. 3, no. 2 (February…

The Case Against the Red Light

M 9 Box 54 Case Against the Red Light cover crop rsz .jpg

Venereal disease bulletin, no. 54. Public health pamphlet arguing that prostitution spreads venereal disease and cannot be "segregated, licensed, and…

Wages of Saleswomen: What the United States Government Says and What the Consumers' League Knows

M 86 Box 1 Wages of Saleswomen p1 rsz.jpg

This pamphlet by the Consumers' League is an analysis of the 1907-1910 Bureau of Labor report on the condition of woman and child wage earners in the…