Solomon, Maida H. (Maida Herman), 1891-1988

Maida Herman Solomon, pioneer psychiatric social worker and professor of psychiatric social work at Simmons College School of Social Work, was born in Boston, March 9, 1891, the daughter of Joseph Michael and Hennie (Adler) Herman. She was educated at public schools: the Prince School and the Boston Grils' Latin School, and then earned an A.B. from Smith College (1912) and an S.B. from Simmons College (1914.) She took one course at Portia School of Law in 1914. In 1916 she married Harry Caesar Solomon, a psychiatrist who was later Medical Director of the Boston Psychopathic Hospital and in the 1960s commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health.

Solomon began her career as research assistant at Civic Service House, a Boston settlement house, in 1914. She then joined the Boston Psychopathic Hospital (later Massachusetts Mental Health Center), where she worked as a fieldworker with families of neuro-syphilitic patients, 1916-1919, under Mary Jarrett, head social worker at BPH. From 1919 to 1934 while raising four children, she continued to work part-time as a consultant for the Boston Psychopathic Hospital and Massachusetts Psychiatric Institute. In 1934 Solomon joined the Simmons College School of Social Work as instructor, later professor, and was head of the Department of Psychiatric Social Work, 1942-1957. At Simmons she developed a graduate program integrating academic study with fieldwork practice.

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