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© 2006 University of Chicago Library
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When quoting material from this collection, the preferred citation is: National Conferences of Social Work. Records, [Box #, Folder #], Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library
The National Conference of Social Work was founded in 1879 as the Conference of Charities. In 1884 it became the National Conference of Charities and Corrections (NCCC) In his influential 1915 address (known as the Flexner Report), Abraham Flexner declared that social work had not yet qualified as a profession, particularly because it still lacked a written body of knowledge, educational institutions, practice skills, and its own unique technology. Though controversial, this report stimulated the development of social work as a profession and lead in part to the renaming of the NCCC in 1917 as the National Conference of Social Work. From 1910-1921, Jane Addams and Mary Richmond held trade leadership positions in the NCCC and the NCSW. The organization again altered its title in 1957 when it became the National Conference on Social Welfare.
Another influential and famous president of the National Conference of Social Work was Grace Abbott.
This is a collection of typed, bound carbon copies of 142 papers read at the National Conferences of Social Work in the years 1929-1932. The manuscripts represent material not published in the Proceedings of the National Conference of Social Work. They are arranged in boxes by year and then alphabetically by author. Other copies of these papers were deposited at the Russell Sage Foundation Library, New York; the University of California Library, Berkeley, and the Conference office in Columbus, Ohio.