Smith, Hilda Worthington

Hilda Worthington "Jane" Smith (1888-1972) was born in New York. She received a bachelor of arts degree from Bryn Mawr College in 1910 and a masters'' degree from the same institution the following year, having studied economics, psychology and philosophy. Later she continued her studies at the New York School of Social Work, earning a diploma in 1915. In 1916 Smith became Director of the Bryn Mawr Community Center and from 1919 to 1922 served as Dean at Bryn Mawr College. In 1921, she became Director of the Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers, a pioneer school in the field of Workers'' education. Her growing interest in this area of education resulted in her appointment as Chairman and Director of the Affiliated Schools for Workers (later the American Labor Education Service), a group of cooperating resident workers'' schools. In 1929, Smith established the Vineyard Shore Workers'' School at her family''s home in West Park, New York. The school closed four years later. In 1939, the Hudson Shore Labor School (formerly the Bryn Mawr Summer School) moved to the Smith property in West Park. No longer affiliated with Bryn Mawr, this school served both men and women from industry and the service trades. It was taken over by Rutgers University in 1952 and merged with its Labor-Management program. Smith worked for Bryn Mawr College and the Affiliated Schools until 1933 when she was appointed a Specialist in Workers'' Education under the Federal Emergency Relief Administration. She became Director of the Workers'' Service Program when the workers'' education program was continued under the Works Progress Administration. Under her direction, centers were established in thirty-five states to train unemployed teachers, many with no prior experience in workers'' education, in working with labor. Also schools and camps were organized to educate approximately 8,000 unemployed women. Jurisdiction over the latter program was transferred to the National Youth Administration in 1937. From 1939 until its termination in 1943 the Workers'' Service Program became more involved in projects relating to national defense. From 1943 to 1945, Smith was Chief of the Project Service Section of the Federal Public Housing Administration, an advisory service in education and recreation. She resigned this position to serve as Chairman of the Nation Committee for the Extension of Labor Education, an organization lobbying for legislation to establish a Labor Extension Service under the Department of Labor. She worked for this proposal until 1951 when it became clear that the bill would not pass Congress. Later, she became interested in services for the elderly, working for the New York State Education Department on a program of Recreation for the Elderly. From 1965 to 1972 she served as a consultant to the Office of Economic Opportunity in Washington.

From the description of Smith, Hilda W. (Hilda Worthington), 1888-1972 (U.S. National Archives and Records Administration). naId: 10677888

Hilda Worthington Smith (1888-1984) was a specialist in workers' education and wrote numerous papers on the topic throughout her life. Smith was the first director of the Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers in Industry and also founded the Affiliated School for Workers, Inc.

From the description of Hilda Worthington Smith workers' education collection, 1937-1972. (Pennsylvania State University Libraries). WorldCat record id: 213371634

A pioneer in workers' education (Bryn Mawr, B.A., 1910, M.A., 1911 and the New York School of Philanthropy), Smith was the first director of the Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers in Industry (1921-1933), a founder of the Affiliated Schools for Workers, Inc., in 1927, and affiliated with numerous government and labor organizations including the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, the Workers' Service Program of WPA, the Federal Public Housing Authority, and during the late 1940s the National Committee for the Extension of Labor Education.

From the description of Papers, 1837-1975 (inclusive), 1900-1975 (bulk). (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 122506517

Educator, social worker.

Miss Smith (d. 1984) held many positions including Dean at Bryn Mawr College, Director of the Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers in Industry, and government official with the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, the Works Progress Administration, the Federal Public Housing Administration, and the Office of Economic Opportunity.

Smith founded the Vineyard Shore Workers' School at her family's summer home at West Park, N.Y. in Ulster County for the education of working women. The name was changed to Hudson Shore Labor School and it included men eventually. When financing became difficult, the program was eventually turned over to Rutgers University and their workers education program.

The Affiliated Schools for Workers was founded in 1927 in New York City to provided education for workers. In 1940 the name was changed to American Labor Education Service.

From the description of Papers, 1884-1972, 1932-1945 (bulk) (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 155525693

Hilda "Jane" Worthington Smith, labor educator, was born June 19, 1888, in New York City, first of three children of John Jewell and Mary Helen (Hall) Smith. The Smith family spent its summers in West Park, N.Y., where HWS was to found two resident workers' schools in the 1930's. The rest of the year was spent in their home near Central Park where HWS, her sister Helen Hall Smith (1892-1971), and brother Jewell Kellogg Smith (18??-1956) created an imaginary world described in her 1934 essay, "A Post Office in Fairyland."

Mary Helen Hall was one of three children of Charles Mason and Elizabeth A. (Peaslee) Hall. Her father was a lawyer in Chatham Four Corners (now Chatham Village), New York and served for one year as a United States Commissioner in New York City. Mary Helen Hall married John Jewell Smith in 1884. JJS first worked in the Treasurer's office of the Central Railroad of New Jersey. In 1859, with his brother-in-law, William C. Baker, he formed the firm of Baker, Smith and Company, a steam heating firm in New York City. The Company grew so rapidly that JJS soon m moved to New York City. He eventually became president of the Company and remained so until his death in 1901. JJS was also active in St. Timothy's Church (later Church of Zion and St. Timothy) and the Seamen's Mission. For further information on MHHS and JJS, see Opening Vistas in Workers' Education by HWS in the Schlesinger Library printed book collection.

Helen Hall Smith (1892-1971), sister of HWS, was in poor health during most of her childhood and adolescence. In 1917 she began working at the Spring Street Settlement (New York City) and Varick House, one of the early experiments in housing for women workers. Through an apprenticeship with the New York State Charities Aid, she was able to advance in the field of social work without a college degree. Most of her life was dedicated to helping dependent and neglected children. For a more complete biography of HHS see Helen Hall Smith: Her Book (#56v).

HWS was graduated from the Veltin School in 1906, and from Bryn Mawr College in 1910. Here, through her friendships with President M. Carey Thomas and other faculty members, she became interested in suffrage and social work. She served as president of the (student) Self-Government Association and as vice-president of the Christian Union. Returning home to act as companion to her mother, as she felt was expected of her, she arranged a volunteer position with the Girls' Friendly Society.

Her mother allowed her to return to Bryn Mawr for a year of graduate work, during which she taught Bible classes for black women service workers, her first experience with adult education. She received her M.A. in philosophy in 1911 and again returned home, this time volunteering for the Episcopal Church Mission of Help, an organization for delinquent girls. In 1912, she was permitted by her mother to enroll in the New York School of Philanthropy, as she had long wished to do; this provided a useful background for her later work with poor and immigrant students. In the fall of 1913 she accepted a position as a dormitory warden at Bryn Mawr College, leaving after one year to complete her two-year degree at the NYSP, from which she was graduated in June 1915.

She returned home for the last time and volunteered at a local orphanage, resigning in May of 1916 to accept the Directorship of the newly created Bryn Mawr Community Center. She remained in this position until 1919 and served for several years after-ward as the Center's president. HWS' mother and aunt lived with her for the first year, both volunteering at the Community Center. In 1917 her mother died; from that time until 1933 HWS made her home in Bryn Mawr. From 1919 to 1921 she was first Acting Dean and then Dean of Bryn Mawr College, directing academic advising and health services as well as supervising classes for black service workers at the College.

In 1921, Bryn Mawr College began the Bryn Mawr Summer School for Women Workers in Industry, with HWS as its first director. BMSS was modeled on European workers' schools visited by M. Carey Thomas. The school, in consultation with trade union women and the National Women's Trade Union League (for which HWS served as educational director in 1927), chose half of its student body from organized and half from unorganized labor. In 1924 and 1925 HWS herself spent a year observing European workers' schools. She continued as Director of the BMSS until 1933, in 1924 relocating the central office in New York City.

In 1926 HWS began organizing the first year-round resident workers' school. She and her sister purchased property near the family's West Park summer home in 1928, and tried unsuccessfully to operate one of the buildings as an inn. In 1929 HWS opened the Vineyard Shore Labor School, but was forced to close it by 1934 for lack of funds. This site eventually housed the Hudson Shore Labor School, the coeducational successor to the BMSS, of which HWS was also a founder and member of the Board of Directors. In 1951 the HSLS was discontinued as a resident school. The teacher training sessions were incorporated by Rutgers University as the Workshops in Workers' Education and Techniques at the Institute of Management and Labor Relations; HWS remained on the Advisory Committee for two years.

By 1927 workers' schools existed in many parts of the country and HWS served officially and unofficially on many of their advisory committees. She and other labor educators established the Affiliated Schools for Workers (1927-1939), later known as the American Labor Education Service (1939-1962), and HWS served as first Director (1927-1933). In addition to her involvement with the resident workers' schools, HWS helped in 1929 to establish the Art Workshop, a studio for workers in New York City, sponsored by the College Settlement Board. She also served as treasurer for the William Roy Smith Memorial Fund, which began in 1939 to develop labor education workshops around the United States.

HWS had been amazed to discover that European workers' schools, unlike her own, were receiving government subsidies. She was pleased therefore when Harry Hopkins appointed her as a specialist in Workers' Education for the Federal Emergency Relief Administration in 1933. This position lasted until 1943 and was the first of HWS' many federal appointments. Much of her work for the FERA, and after 1939 as Director of the Workers' Service Program for the Works Progress Administration, consisted of placing unemployed teachers with organizations requesting federally sponsored instructors. From 1934 to 1936 she directed a program of resident camps for unemployed women (the so-called "She-She-She Camps"), modelled after her resident workers' schools.

After the termination of the WPA, HWS remained briefly as a Consultant in Labor Education, resigning in 1943. That same year she accepted a position with the Federal Public Housing Authority as Chief of the Project Services Section. She directed management of housing for war workers, who like her former students were mostly industrial workers, coordinating tenant organizations and education and health services.

HWS resigned this post in 1945 to become Chairman of the National Committee for the Extension of Labor Education. Acting as coordinator for this coalition of university and labor groups, HWS scheduled Congressional hearings, lobbied legislators, and supervised drafts and revisions of the Labor Extension Bill, which provided for federally funded workers' classes. Though this effort ended in 1951 without achieving its goal, many university extension programs were initiated by this campaign.

Having received a grant from the Ford Foundation's Fund for Adult Education to write a history of workers' education in the United States, HWS spent from 1952 to 1954 writing and gathering archival materials. From 1951 to 1957 HWS again made her home in West Park, remaining active in the community and running for Supervisor of the town of Esopus in 1956. In 1957 HWS began a series of relatively brief writing and consulting positions, which continued until her retirement in 1972. She served on the New York State Adult Education Bureau, directing a program of recreation for the elderly, from 1957 to 1959, and as Consultant for the Connecticut State Commission for Services to Elderly Persons from 1959 to 1961.

A three-month writing appointment with the Public Housing Administration brought her back to Washington, D.C. in 1962. She also wrote on contract for the Vocational Rehabilitation Administration, the Women's Bureau, and the Gerontology Branch of the Public Health Service. Her last appointment (1965) was as Consultant for the Training Division of the Community Action Program of the Office of Economic Opportunity. It gave her an opportunity to return to teacher education, observing and directing staff training for community centers.

At the age of 83, HWS retired to write a narrative of her seven years with the OEO, and thereafter to revise and expand her autobiography, Opening Vistas in Workers' Education, which was published in 1978. A poet all her life, HWS' poems have appeared in songbooks and periodicals, and in two privately printed volumes, Castle of Dream (1910) and Poems (1964). She died on March 3, 1984.

From the guide to the Papers, 1837 (1900-1975), (Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute)