Papers of Maida Herman Solomon, 1901-1988

This collection consists of personal and professional records and is divided into the following four series:

Series I, Personal and early career (#1-62), contains clippings and tributes, photographs, personal correspondence with family, school, and college friends, 1901-1961, and course notes from Smith College and Portia Law School. The articles and reports of her early career include a report on the "boy problem" for Civic Service House, 1914-1917, and scattered papers from her work with neuro-syphilitic patients at Boston Psychopathic Hospital.

Series II, Professional associations (#63-305), consists of materials relating to Solomon's affiliations with social work organizations at the state and national level. The records of the American Association of Hospital Social Workers, the American Association of Social Workers, and other social work organizations document Solomon's efforts in the 1920s and 1930s to establish national standards for social work.

Records of the American Association of Psychiatric Social Work (American Association of Psychiatric Social Workers) include correspondence and questionnaires distributed by the Sub-Committee on Education to schools of social work throughout the country in an effort to develop national standards for curricula and field work in psychiatric social work. The records of a joint APA-American Association of Psychiatric Social Workers committee document an improved understanding between the American Psychiatric Association and the American Association of Psychiatric Social Workers, while those of a joint American Red Cross-American Association of Psychiatric Social Workers committee record the response of the profession to the wartime need for more psychiatric social workers. Materials of the Temporary Inter-Association Council describe the merger of many professional social work associations into the unified National Association of Social Workers.

Records of the Massachusetts Society for Social Health (formerly Massachusetts Society for Social Hygiene) relate to its efforts to prevent venereal disease and promote sex education, and those of the Massachusetts Association for Mental Health, to organize volunteer assistance in mental health clinics and hospitals. There are reports and minutes for Hecht House, a settlement house for Jewish girls, and its successor, the Hecht House-Young Men's Hebrew Association, scattered records of the Greater Boston Community Fund, minutes of a study group on children's health held under the auspices of the Council of Jewish Women, notes and correspondence of the Beth Israel Hospital Social Service Committee, speeches and other material from the Union Park Forum, a Jewish speakers' bureau, and lists of meetings of the Monday Lunch Group. The series is arranged alphabetically by name of organization or agency.

Series III, Research and consulting (#306-391, 400-412), includes the records of Solomon's post-retirement volunteer projects: clinical studies of the Metropolitan State Hospital's project for the treatment and rehabilitation of chronic schizophrenics; a research study of Rutland Corner House clients co-directed by Solomon; a study of volunteers employed by Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) in various Boston mental health institutions; David Kantor's study of the use of college students as volunteers in mental institutions; and reports on Well-Met Project, Inc., a half-way house sponsored by Harvard's Phillips Brooks House. Folders #400-412 were added to the collection in September 2009 and placed intellectually within the inventory, however residing physically at the end of the collection.

Series IV, General correspondence (#392-399), includes correspondence relating to Simmons College School of Social Work and to professional associations; letters are arranged chronologically.

#400-412 were added later to the collection, from a subsequent accession and placed intellectually within the inventory, however reside physically at the end of the collection.