Academics

The School of Household Economics included courses offered with the opening of Simmons Female College in 1902. The School of Household Economics provided courses in all subjects that were of advantage to a woman who had charge of an institution, a social settlement, or a private home. The School also contained classes for students who wished to prepare for teaching the household arts or for nursing. In 1904, two programs were offered in preparation for the training schools for nurses which had been established by the hospitals. In 1934, the School of Household Economics became the School for Home Economics. Under its new title, the School of Home Economics offered courses designed for women to teach, to administer an institution or a household, to undertake such forms of social service as work in clinics with children, to lecture or to write on subjects related to home economics, or to study special problems in the field of home economics.

Although not the first academic institution to create such a program--Columbia University established a nursing course in their Teacher’s College as early as 1899--Simmons Female College was one of the first academic institutions in the United States to offer such a program. Between 1905 and 1918, the School of General Science continued to have registrants for this single term course from both the original participating hospitals and Deaconess Hospital. The Department of Public Health Nursing was established in 1918, cooperatively administered by Simmons Female College and the Boston Instructive District Nursing Association (IDNA), who had already collaborated to make a special course for public health nurses in the Simmons School of Social Work. The one term course offered by the School of Science for hospital nurses was absorbed into the new department with a new five year program offered with Massachusetts General Hospital. The five year program consisted of two years of prevocational training at the College, two years of practical training at the Hospital, and one year of specialized training. A wide variety of programs were offered over the next fifteen years, including a single year course in industrial nursing for college graduates offered in conjunction with Harvard Medical School from 1920 until 1922. The School of Public Health Nursing reorganized in 1933, becoming the School of Nursing. In July 1934, Helen Wood, formerly Special Instructor in Nursing Education, was appointed Professor of Nursing and Director of the School, a position she held until her retirement in 1946. The new School prepared students not only for public health service, but also for careers in nursing administration and education.

In a further expansion of course offerings, Simmons Female College joined with the Women’s Educational and Industrial Union to offer Lucinda Prince’s program for preparing teachers of salesmanship. This program became the School of Salesmanship in 1915, changing its name to the School of Education for Store Service in 1918. Later, the School of Education for Store Service became the Prince School of Retailing, and became part of the School of Business Administration as the Prince School Program in Retailing in 1962.

Established in October 1904 in collaboration with Harvard University, the Boston School for Social Workers was intended to “give opportunities to men and women to study social problems by practical methods, particularly to give those who would become officers of institutions or would prepare themselves for services as volunteers in this field of work.” The administrative board comprised of Dr. Henry Lefavour, Dr. Charles Eliot, the presidents of Simmons College and Harvard University, respectively, as well as Dr. Jeffrey R. Brackett, Frances R. Morse, Joseph Lee, Robert A. Woods, Thomas F. Fitzpatrick, Dr. Charles P. Putnam, and Annette Rogers. The School of Social Work was originally housed at 9 Hamilton Place. Dr. Brackett and Zilpha Drew Smith taught the first cohort of twenty-five students, where they placed a strong emphasis on paraprofessional experience in conjunction with academic courses. Students were given field placement assignments consisting of approximately ten to fourteen hours per week. In 1907, Eva Whiting White, who later served as director of the School of Social Work, received the first S.B. degree conferred by the School. The School changed residences in 1912, moving to 18 Somerset Street. The same year, the School received a substantial increase in its library materials, including many of the books and charity collections now housed in the University Archives. It was also in 1912 that the School instituted a second year advanced course. In 1916, Harvard withdrew from the School of social work to concentrate on Harvard’s Department of Social Ethics. Zilpha Drew Smith retired in 1918, and Dr. Brackett left the School in 1920. Eva Whiting White assumed directorship of the School of Social Work in 1922. In 1945, the School moved to 51 Commonwealth Avenue. Its fiftieth anniversary was celebrated in 1954, and its 100th anniversary was celebrated in 2004.

This photoset includes both students and faculty using equipment in the science laboratories on campus.