Oral Histories are recorded interviews, often with change-makers, to document world and personal events and how the interviewee experienced them.
Vida Simenas Grayson started the Social Work Archive Oral History Project by interviewing Bertha Capen Reynolds in the 1970s. Her final interview was with Dorcas Bowles in 2007. Kelly Anderson continued her work in the 2010s. In addition to these longer interviews, the Smith College Archives hosted several storytelling workshops. We feature excerpts from all of these kinds of oral histories on this page.
All of the complete oral histories excerpted here, as well as many more, are available in the Smith College Special Collections. Please contact us to view them specialcollections@smith.edu
Bertha Capen Reynolds was a pioneer educator and practitioner in the field of social work and an innovative writer on broader social subjects. An extended oral history interview follows a brief biography of her.
Dr. Dorcas Davis Bowles, SSW ’60, has had a distinguished career as an educational administrator, clinical teacher and author on ethnic identity. In this excerpt from her complete oral history, she remembers how she became interested in social work and her experiences as a student in the Smith College School for Social Work in the 1960s.
In this video, two alumnae share a delightful story of Florence Day’s treatment of them while they were students.
In this video, Maria Braveheart Jordan, Ph.D. 1995, shares a story about when she almost got arrested while teaching.
In this excerpt from her complete oral history, Monica McGoldrick recounts why she chose Smith School for Social Work, her experience at the school, and the importance of friends who understood her research passions and who kept her accountable to stand up for the oppressed.
In this video, three alumnae share funny and poignant stories of Esther Clemence.
In this video, Juanita Dalton Robinson, M.S.S. 1951, Betty Brumbaugh, M.S.S. 1939, and Barbara Beller, M.S.S. 1952 remember when graduations were restricted or non-existent, as well as one harrowing accident just after the ceremony.
In this video, alumnae remember the complicated learning relationships they had with SSW faculty, including being challenged and inspired. The diverse years the alumnae graduated in also shows changes in the way faculty and students related to each other.
In this video, an unnamed alumna shares what it was like to be at SSW the summer of 1939 when Nazi Germany invaded Poland. Visiting Professor and influential anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski, who was of Polish descent, shared his insights with his students.
In this video, Lillian Syndar, M.S.S. speaks about how she came to SSW, and how she afforded it, during the Great Depression. Zora Lucick Jackson, M.S.W. 1963, describes the welcome she received when she arrived from a small town in Saskatchewan, Canada. Finally, Edith Carlon Atkin, M.S.S. 1930, and Esther Levin, M.S.W. 1967 offer two very different reasons for why they chose Our Smith SSW.
When Everett Kimball and Bertha Kapen Reynolds were looking for a new Associate Director in 1934, they asked Florence Hollis, M.S.S. 1931, before they asked Annette Garret. Hollis was an influential social work researcher and developed the profession in important ways. She taught at the SSW in the 1950s. In this post, two alumnae share funny stories about Hollis as a speaker and as a mentor. In addition, there is a transcript of Louise Bandler’s memories of Hollis from the 70th Anniversary, Hollis’s own memories of being at SSW, and a description of Hollis and Rosemary Reynolds’s papers in the Sophia Smith Collection.