Smith, Zilpha Drew (1851–1926)

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Smith, Zilpha Drew (1851–1926)

American social worker. Born on January 25, 1851 (Smith gave her birth date as 1852, but town records cite 1851), in Pembroke, Massachusetts; died on October 12, 1926, in Boston, Massachusetts; daughter of Silvanus Smith (a carpenter) and Judith Winsor (McLauthlin) Smith; graduated from the Girls' High and Normal School in Boston, 1868.

Became registrar of Associated Charities of Boston (1879) and served as general secretary (1886–1903); served as associate director, Boston School for Social Workers (1904–18).

Social worker Zilpha Drew Smith did much to professionalize charity work at the end of the 19th century. Born in Pembroke, Massachusetts, in 1851, she grew up in East Boston. Her parents Silvanus and Judith McLauthlin Smith were descendants of Mayflower pilgrims, and they endowed their six children with a strong commitment to social causes such as abolition, temperance, education, women's suffrage and religious tolerance. The Smith ideal also emphasized the importance of hard work and wholesome family relationships, values that Zilpha went on to promote in her social-work career.

After graduating from the Girls' High and Normal School in Boston in 1868, Smith worked briefly as a telegrapher before accepting a job revising the Suffolk County probate court index. In 1879, she became registrar of the Associated Charities of Boston, a newly established organization that consolidated the city's various social-welfare groups. In this position, Smith managed the confidential investigation of all charity cases among the groups, and emphasized "friendly visiting" to promote more personal relationships between charity workers and their recipients. Under Smith's leadership, the Associated Charities became one of the country's most successful organizations of its kind. The association used both paid and volunteer agents and allotted responsibility by district. In addition, training classes were set up for district administrators as well as for what were increasingly being called case workers. Smith also established discussion groups for workers through which they could learn from each other and boost morale. Social work professionals from other regions, among them Mary E. Richmond of Baltimore, who became a close friend, often visited Boston to observe Smith's innovations. Smith was also active in the National Conference of Charities and Correction, and lectured at the New York School of Philanthropy. One of her lectures was used as the basis of Richmond's 1917 textbook Social Diagnosis.

In 1903, Smith resigned her position as general secretary of Associated Charities, which she had held since 1886. Thereafter, she devoted her attention to the training of social-work professionals. She became associate director of the new Boston School for Social Workers, which set a milestone in the development of the social-work field by requiring a full year's academic training. At the Boston School, Smith developed special problem classes that used case records to illustrate professional techniques. Smith retired in 1918, and became a member of the Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants in 1924. She died in Boston in 1926.