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She was born
Mary Ellen Richmond was born in Belleville, United States. She is daughter of Henry Richmond, and Lavinia Harris Richmond. -
Her family died
Her parents and siblings died of tuberculosis, so she had to move to Baltimore to live with her grandmother and aunts. Richmond grew up idolizing her grandmother, a radical activist who fought for women's suffrage. -
She graduated
She graduated from Baltimore's Eastern Female High School at age sixteen; then she moved to New York with one of her aunts. When her aunt died, Richmond was left alone and in poverty for two years until she decided to return to Baltimore. -
Society for Charity Organization
She began working as an assistant treasurer in the Society for Charity Organization, also known as “COS”. From there, she became the first woman to hold a position that was traditionally held by men. -
National Conference
She presented her ideas at the National Conference of Charitable Institutions. She intended to reform social work to professionalize all those interested in improving the quality of life for those in need. -
School of Applied Philanthropy
She materialized her idea with the creation of the New York School of Applied Philanthropy. At first, she joined as a teacher with the faithful idea of turning social work into a profession. -
Her first work
Mary Richmond published her first work, which consisted of a small manual for charity workers. With this first work she expressed her desire to train professionals in the area of social work. -
Richmond
Richmond was one of the pioneers in American social work. She had the idea of turning this work into a formal work; created techniques, systems, contents and theories of social work inclined towards the formation of a discipline. -
Social diagnosis
At the age of fifty-six, she captured in a work the fifteen years of research and the 2,800 cases she worked on in her first book dedicated to the techniques and methods of social work, entitled The Social Diagnosis. -
What is Case Social Work ?
She published a book, What is Case Social Work ?, which explains the correct way of behaving a professional dedicated to the area of social work. -
She died
Mary Richmond never married or had children, and she died in New York City of cancer.