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Mary Ellen Richmond

Early Life
She was the second oldest daughter of Henry Richmond, a carriage blacksmith, and Lavinia Harris Richmond, the daughter of a prominent Baltimore, Maryland, jeweler and real estate broker. [1] Both of her parents died when Mary was just seven years old, along with all three of her siblings due to Tuberculosis. [1]

Richmond was then raised by her widowed maternal grandmother, Mehitable Harris, and two aunts. [1] Her grandmother taught the important topics of inequality, suffrage, racial problems, spiritualism, and a variety of liberal, social, and political beliefs. [2] Being around such strong intelligent women, Richmond was actually quite shy and liked to be by herself.

She graduated in 1878 from Baltimore Eastern Female High School, at the age of sixteen. [1]

Contributions to Social Work
During the time Richmond was connected to the Charity Organized Society, she demonstrated her qualities as a leader, teacher, and practical theorist. [2]

Her career took off from charity organization leadership in Baltimore and Philadelphia to an executive position with the prestigious Russell Sage Foundation in New York City. [4]

Some of the most notable contributions Mary Richmond gave was that she fought to obtain legislation for deserted wives and founded the Pennsylvania Child Labor Committee, the Public Charities Associated, the juvenile court, and the Housing Association. [3]

A huge part of her work was dedicated to research in the field of social work, which is shown by her instructions on how to gather information, interview methodologies, establishing contact and conducting conversations.[5] By making this, she became a great factor in the profession of social work, Mary Richmond showed the importance of the education of the social work field.

Richmond identified six sources of power that are available to clients and their social workers: sources within the household, in the person of the client, in the neighborhood and wider social networks, in civil agencies, in private and public agencies.[2]

Mary Richmond’s lasting impact on the field of social work comes from her deep commitment to ensuring families received appropriate services. Trained as a friendly visitor, she sought to fully understand the problems poor people dealt with and to train her staff to work with families in a structured manner. She felt that professionalization of the friendly visitors would mean that poor families would receive better treatment and therefore improve their circumstances. Richmond worked directly with families in the charity organization, but also as an advocate on the national stage. In addition to her advocacy to professionalize social work she also helped to lobby for legislation to address housing, health, education, and labor. She paid special attention to issues concerning the welfare of children and women.[2]

Mary Richmond never married or had any children, and died in New York City in 1928 due to cancer.[1]

Publications
Her book, Social Diagnosis (1917) was the first comprehensive introduction to social casework that spoke to both the theoretical aspects and practical application of the profession. Her other works include A Study of Nine Hundred and Eighty-five Widows (1913), What is Social Case Work (1922), Child Marriages (1925), and Marriage and the State (1929). These writings represent a broad range of experiences and lessons that she learned from her day-to-day work as well as the practice and research of her social work colleagues.[2]