Zilpha Drew Smith

Her parents were involved in numerous social causes including abolitionism, education, temperance, and women's suffrage,[1] She graduated from the Boston Girls' High and Normal School in 1868.

[1] She volunteered, alongside her mother, in relief efforts to care for victims of the Great Boston Fire of 1872; the experience led her towards a career in social work.

The charity organization movement aimed to coordinate private agencies in order to use their resources efficiently to ameliorate urban poverty.

[1] Under her administrative leadership, the Associated Charities of Boston successfully brought together the majority of the private charitable and relief organizations in the city.

[3] Smith created a system for volunteer "friendly visitors" to assist the needy, as well as a method for applicants to request aid.

In 1888, she and Charles W. Birtwell (of the Boston Children's Aid Society) founded a group for Bostonians interested in social service, bringing together both volunteers and professionals for discussion.

[3] In 1892, she gave an address on "The Education of the Friendly Visitor," in which she reflected on the relationships between volunteers and professionals, as well as between social workers and clients.

Zilpha Drew Smith died in Boston in 1926 and was buried in the Mayflower Cemetery, Duxbury, Massachusetts.