Cornell University Library's Social Welfare Digital Collection

This project includes the digitization of manuscripts, early journals, narratives, reports, letters, photographs, prints, paintings, audio and video clips that document the history of social welfare in the United States, emphasizing two foci: the historical development of social welfare services, programs and policies in the state of New York; and in a parallel fashion, the history of social welfare provisions in the form of policies, programs and services by and for African Americans.

The project will include social welfare practices and services among free and enslaved Black people in America until 1869, and it will describe comparable examples of mutual aid in African American communities after 1869. In this part of the project, the themes of education, social settlements, religion, and family/child welfare will be emphasized.