Collected pamphlets of Harriett M. Bartlett

Harriett M. Bartlett (1897-1987), undergraduate degree, 1918, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York; M.A. in sociology, 1927, University of Chicago, Illinois, was a social worker from Lowell, Massachusetts, known for developing the field of medical social work.

Bartlett was born in Lowell, and she was identified as a White American in the 1910 U.S. Census. After graduating from Vassar, Bartlett trained in social work in Cambridge, Massachusetts and then earned a Social Science Certificate at the London School of Economics, England, in 1920. Through a personal connection with the Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts physician Richard C. Cabot (1868-1939), who brought medical social work to the Massachusetts General Hospital, Bartlett was introduced to Ida Cannon (1877-1960), who was well-connected in the social work field. Bartlett worked in the Massachusetts General Hospital's Social Service Department from 1921 to 1942. Her scholarly research promoted the professionalization of the social work field. Her monograph, The Common Base of Social Work Practice (1970) was influential in defining social work. In 1947, Bartlett moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts and became Associate Professor and later Director of Medical Social Work at Simmons College School of Social Work (now the Simmons University School of Social Work), Boston (1947-1957). She was also active in professional social work organizations and participated in several U.S. Children’s Bureau committees. Bartlett founded the Harriett M. Bartlett Practice Effectiveness Project of the National Association of Social Workers and, upon her death, her will established the Harriett M. Bartlett Fund in The New York Community Trust.