Ida Maud Cannon (1877-1960), pioneer in the hospital social service movement, was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the daughter of Sarah Wilma Denio and Colbert Hanchett Cannon. She grew up in Wisconsin with a brother and two sisters: Walter, Bernice, and Jane. After graduating from the St. Paul (Minnesota) City and County Hospital Training School for Nursing (1898), Ida worked for the State School for the Feeble-minded for two years before going on to study sociology and psychology at the University of Minnesota. After working as a visiting nurse for the next few years, she moved to Boston in 1906, enrolling at the Boston School for Social Workers (at that time a joint program with Harvard College and Simmons College). While still a student, Ida met Dr. Richard Cabot, who established the first hospital social service department in the United States at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), and in 1907 she accepted a position from Cabot as one of the department's four social workers. A year later, Ida was promoted to head social worker and in 1914 became Chief of Social Service at MGH, holding that position for almost four decades. At Simmons College, she developed the first medical social work curriculum to be offered by a school of social work in the United States, and served there as Director of the Hospital Social Service Program from 1912 to 1925, and as an instructor until 1945. While working and after her retirement, Ida traveled extensively, lecturing on medical social service. She resided in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with her brother Walter and his family for twenty-seven years and, along with her sister Bernice, assisting in the raising of her nephew and four nieces.
Cornelia (James) Cannon (1876-1969), daughter of Frances Haynes James and Henry C. James, was born in St. Paul, Minnesota. She attended her last few years of high school in the Boston area while living with relatives, and after financial issues caused some delays, she began her studies at Radcliffe College in 1895, graduating in 1899. Cornelia taught school for a short time in Minnesota before marrying Dr. Walter B. Cannon (1871-1945) in 1901. They settled in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and had five children: Bradford (b. 1907), Wilma (b. 1909), Linda (b. 1911), Marian (b. 1912), and Helen (b. 1915). An author and civic leader, Cornelia published frequently in Atlantic Monthly, Harper's, and North American Review, writing articles and essays on social and economic issues. Cornelia also wrote best-selling novels, children's books, and a variety of unpublished stories and essays. An early activist in the birth control movement, she was one of the founders of the Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts, in which she remained active for many years. Cornelia was also a member of the League of Women Voters, the Cambridge Civic Association, and president of the Public School Association in Cambridge. She had a passion for travel, accompanying her husband on many of his speaking engagements throughout the world, and traveling with her children, well into her eighties. On these trips, she showed an interest in birth control practices of other countries, writing about her observations in magazines and newspapers upon her return. She stayed active with Radcliffe College after graduating by hosting teas and lunches for students. In 1958, her twenty grandchildren contributed money to have a room named after her in the Radcliffe College Graduate Refectory, and in 1965, Cornelia received one of Radcliffe's first Founders Awards, in recognition of her service to family and community, through her writing and her work in the local birth control movement, and the Cambridge Museum for Children. Cornelia's husband Walter was a well-respected doctor and professor, graduating from and eventually teaching at Harvard Medical School. He eventually became the George Higginson Professor of Physiology and chair of the department. An innovator in both research and medical education, in 1900 he adapted the case method for teaching medicine. Walter experimented with the digestive system, and made pioneering contributions to the knowledge of the emergency functions of the sympathetic nervous system and the theory of homeostasis.
From the guide to the Papers, (inclusive), (bulk), 1887-1980, 1917-1945, (Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute)
