Professional papers, mainly 1932 to 1989, of Elizabeth Wickenden, a social welfare and Social Security policy consultant, analyst, and writer, and professor of public policy and urban studies. Documented are her positions in the Transient Bureau of the Works Progress Administration, Federal Security Agency, and Federal Emergency Relief Administration from 1933 to 1941; her membership on the Kennedy Task Force on Health and Social Security Legislation (1960-1961) and the Advisory Council on Public Welfare (1964-1967); her work for the American Public Welfare Association in 1941; her activities as a consultant to national social welfare organizations such as the National Social Welfare Assembly, YWCA, National Urban League, Child Welfare League of America, Children's Defense Fund, and Project on Social Welfare Law, and her leading role in the Study Group on Social Security and the Save Our Security Coalition. Also reflected are her activities as Professor of Urban Studies at the City University of New York (1966-1974) and at Fordham University (1979-1983). The issues she was concerned with include transiency, poverty, welfare reform, welfare rights, welfare law, child protection and child welfare, Social Security and Medicare legislation, national health insurance, and unemployment compensation. Materials include bulletins, clippings, correspondence, course materials, diaries, memoranda, notes, photographs, reports, speeches and writings. Prominent correspondents include Arthur Altmeyer, Robert Ball, Winifred Bell, Wilbur Cohen, Nelson Cruikshank, Norman Dorsen, Loula Dunn, Sidney Hollander, Marian Wright Edelman, Justine Wise Polier, Charles Reich, and Ellen Winston.
The papers document Wickenden's professional activities from 1934 to 1989 and consist of the following series: BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIAL, CORRESPONDENCE, DIARIES, NEW DEAL AGENCIES, SUBJECT FILES, TEACHING FILES, and WRITINGS AND SPEECHES. With the exception of some scattered correspondence and some biographical material, there is very little personal information in the collection.
BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS consist of résumés, autobiographical articles, newspaper clippings, and transcripts of three oral history interviews. The first set of interviews, conducted by Jean Bandler in 1986 and 1987 is perhaps the single richest source of information about Wickenden's early life and professional career in the collection. Wickenden describes childhood and other influences on her choice of career, the nature of her work for the federal government during the New Deal, and her role in the American Public Welfare Association during the 1940s, and most of her subsequent activities. The second interview, conducted in 1976 by the Bancroft Library, was part of the Helen Gahagan Douglas Oral History Project. It discusses Wickenden's and Douglas's friendship and professional relationship during Douglas's years in Congress, 1944 to 1950. The third interview was conducted by Peter A. Corning of Columbia University in 1966, and discusses Wickenden's involvement in Social Security, with an emphasis on the history of Medicare. The newspaper clippings included in the BIOGRAPHICAL MATERIALS concern Wickenden's professional activities through the late 1970s, her husband Arthur E. Goldschmidt, their children, and other family members. The earliest item is a 1923 clipping about a prize-winning play written by Wickenden at age fourteen. The bulk of the articles date from the 1960s. Five photographs include a portrait circa 1960 of Wickenden, photographs of her daughters at their weddings, and Arthur Goldschmidt attending a UN function in 1970.
CORRESPONDENCE from 1951 to 1991 consists of both incoming and copies of outgoing letters and is arranged chronologically. These files are important in documenting Wickenden's professional activities but are not always complete: additional correspondence related to a particular issue, subject, or organization can often be found in the SUBJECT FILES.
Chronologically-arranged DIARIES consist of detailed daily or weekly typescript accounts of Wickenden's professional activities from 1963 to 1984. Included are summaries of phone calls, meetings and conversations, notes on trips, and events. This is a unique and especially rich source of information which she frequently copied and distributed to colleagues as a way of keeping them informed of her activities and of policy developments. These were alternately entitled “Wicky's Diary,” “Notes on Recent Activities,” or “Summary of Recent Activities.”
Memoranda, speeches, and reports documenting Wickenden's activities and responsibilities as a federal employee from 1934 to 1941 are found in the series NEW DEAL AGENCIES. Files are arranged alphabetically by agency and thereunder by subject or material type. The files appear incomplete, and very little correspondence is included. However, they do reflect her duties as a speech writer for high-level administrators of the Federal Security Agency and WPA, and the focus of her responsibilities on transient relief. Additional details about her activities are available in the transcribed oral interviews conducted by Jean Bandler.
SUBJECT FILES document Wickenden's work for specific organizations and on particular policy issues, legislation, and legal cases as a freelance consultant. Subjects are further grouped into the following three categories: Foreign consulting and travel; Legal files; and Social welfare policy, reflecting the main thrusts of her consulting activities.
Foreign files consist mainly of notes and reports on social welfare conditions in other countries. In Puerto Rico and Iran she acted as a consultant to those governments. A few years later she travelled to Southeast Asia as a consultant on social policy and development for the Welfare Administration of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. The files also reflect her work on a United Nations' survey of world health and social welfare conditions.
Wickenden's Legal files contain correspondence, memoranda, notes, reports, press releases, and drafts of articles on welfare-related legal cases. Reflected here is her interest in and promotion of judicial means to reform the welfare system. Of particular note are files on Dublino vs. New York State, for which Wickenden wrote an amicus curiae brief; and the Project on Social Welfare Law, to which she was a consultant.
Social welfare policy files document Wickenden's consulting activities on such issues as Social Security, welfare reform, public assistance programs (usually referred to as public welfare or AFDC, Aid to Families with Dependent Children), child welfare, and unemployment compensation from 1940 to 1987. These files variously contain correspondence, memoranda, notes, reports, drafts, statements, press releases and small amounts of printed material. Correspondence and memoranda filed here may duplicate what is found in the CORRESPONDENCE series. There is also some overlap in terms of subject matter, between what is included here and the Legal files described above. The tape listed with the 1966 files is a recording of the Michael Schwerner Memorial Fund's award ceremony honoring Elizabeth Wickenden for her contributions to civil rights and social work. Speakers include Bayard Rustin, Norman Dorsen, Barbara Cross, Mitchell Ginsberg, and Rita McGuire.
The Social Welfare Policy files are further divided into two groups. The first half are arranged chronologically by year and thereunder by subject. These usually pertain to consulting positions of relatively short duration. The specific issues and organizations listed here also tend to vary a great deal from year to year. There are no chronological files for 1975, and after that year the files are fewer and fewer in number. The second half of the Social Welfare Policy files, representing organizations to which Wickenden made more sustained commitments over time, are arranged alphabetically by organizational name and thereunder by subject. Included in this category are files pertaining to the American Public Welfare Association, Child Welfare League, Children's Defense Fund, National Assembly of Social Workers, Save Our Security, and the Study Group on Social Security. Material documenting Wickenden's work as the Washington representative of the American Public Welfare Association from 1941 to 1950 is largely missing, however.
TEACHING FILES reflect Wickenden's professorships at the City University of New York from 1966 to 1973 and Fordham University from 1979 to 1983. Materials found here include course notes and outlines, reading lists, student assignments and grades, and correspondence and memoranda regarding assignments, departmental affairs, and contemporary social welfare policy issues.
WRITINGS AND SPEECHES consists of chronologically-arranged drafts, notes, outlines, and final copies of articles, papers, reviews, conference presentations, policy statements, briefs, and speeches and related correspondence. The files are arranged chronologically. Wickenden's more significant presentations and publications are documented more thoroughly in the SUBJECT FILES series, where they are listed alphabetically by title.
