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The Social Welfare History Archives collects, preserves, and makes available for use the archives of voluntary-sector social service and social reform organizations and the personal papers of individual leaders in the field.

These materials serve as sources for original research on the history of social service and social reform, focused on, but not limited to, late nineteenth and twentieth century America. Among the range of social services and concerns represented in the archives are social casework and related counseling services, community organization, recreation, settlement houses, child welfare, aging, race relations, community planning, services to migrants and immigrants, public health and volunteerism. The archives also houses an extensive collection of published materials in the welfare field, including books, periodicals, pamphlets, reports, and newsletters.