Lilian Brandt

{{short description|American social work historian (1873–1851)}} {{Infobox writer | embed = | honorific_prefix = | name = Lilian Brandt | honorific_suffix = | image = | image_size = | image_upright = | alt = | caption = | native_name = | native_name_lang = | pseudonym = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth-date|May 15, 1873}} | birth_place = Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S. | death_date = {{dda|June 4, 1951|May 15, 1873}} | death_place = | resting_place = | occupation = Author, historian, philanthropist | language = | education = | alma_mater = Wellesley College | period = | genre =  | subject =  | movement = | notableworks = ''The Negroes of St. Louis: A Statistical Study'', ''The Causes of Poverty'', ''The Social Aspects of Tuberculosis'' | spouse =  | partner =  | children = | relatives = | awards = | signature = | signature_alt = | years_active = | module = | website =  | portaldisp =  }} '''Lilian Brandt''' (1873–1951) was an American author, historian, philanthropist, and social reformer. She is noted for her involvement in social welfare-related projects, particularly her works that compiled and interpreted statistical and factual information for social workers.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/no99018346.html|title=LC Linked Data Service: Authorities and Vocabularies (Library of Congress)|last=Congress|first=The Library of|website=id.loc.gov|access-date=2020-03-16}}</ref> Brandt was also a historian of the Russell Sage Foundation.<ref name=":2">{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1951/06/06/archives/lilian-brandt-78-active-in-welfare-research-worker-for-50-years-for.html|title=LILIAN BRANDT, 78, ACTIVE IN WELFARE; Research Worker for 50 Years, Former Historian of Russell Sage Foundation, Is Dead|date=1951-06-06|work=The New York Times|access-date=2020-03-17|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

== Background == Brandt was born May 15, 1873<ref name=":0" /> in Indianapolis.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last1=Roy|first1=Ananya|title=Territories of Poverty: Rethinking North and South|last2=Crane|first2=Emma Shaw|date=2015|publisher=University of Georgia Press|isbn=978-0-8203-4842-1|location=Athens, GA|pages=39, 40}}</ref> She graduated at Wellesley College, where she also completed a master's degree in economics and history in 1901.<ref name=":1" /> It is said that her graduate studies reoriented her focus from humanities to practical social science and reform.<ref name=":1" /> Her thesis called ''The Negroes of St. Louis: A Statistical Study'' was later published by the American Statistical Association.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Donald H. Ewalt|last2=Kremer|first2=Gary R.|date=1981-10-01|title=The Historian as Preservationist: A Missouri Case Study|journal=The Public Historian|language=en|volume=3|issue=4|pages=5–22|doi=10.2307/3376841|jstor=3376841|issn=0272-3433}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=House of Representatives|title=United States Congressional Serial Set|date=1907|publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office|isbn=|location=Washington, D.C.|pages=117}}</ref>

After completing her undergraduate studies, Brandt started teaching history and classical languages in different colleges. Her early work on social welfare attracted the attention of Edward T. Devine, who appointed her in 1902 as the secretary of the Charity Organization Society's Bureau of Labor Statistics.<ref name=":1" /> She was also a fellow of the College Settlements Association,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://repository.wellesley.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1162&context=news|title=Annual Meeting of Electoral Board|last=Carpenter|first=Ruth|date=May 23, 1906|website=Wellesley College|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=March 17, 2020}}</ref> which is a group of "college women" who were interested in social settlement work. Brandt served as a mentor to fellow social reformer Mary van Kleeck in New York City before World War I.<ref name=":10">{{Cite book|last=Alchon|first=Guy|title=Gender and American social science : the formative years|date=1998|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=0691017492|editor-last=Silverberg|editor-first=Helene|location=Princeton, N.J.|pages=|chapter=The "Self-Applauding Sincerity" of Overreaching Theory, Biography as Ethical Practice, and the Case of Mary van Kleeck|oclc=37806197}}</ref>

Brandt died June 4, 1951.<ref name=":2" /> She was 78 years old.

== Works == The ''Negroes of St. Louis: A Statistical Study'' is considered one of Brandt's notable works due to its groundbreaking conclusions. In this study, she explored the issue of poverty among African-Americans. One of her findings revealed that Black entrepreneurs had the tendency to draw in, close off, and target people of their own race.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Lowry|first=Beverly|title=Her Dream of Dreams: The Rise and Triumph of Madam C. J. Walker|date=2011|publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-307-76595-6|location=|pages=156}}</ref> Other related works that directly addressed poverty include ''The Causes of Poverty'' (1908), which highlighted the assumptions that explained the persistent differences in the conceptualization of poverty as well as the consequences of these differences in theoretical orientations.<ref name=":1" />

Brandt also worked as a statistician for the New York Charity Organization Society's Committee on the Prevention of Tuberculosis. During this period she published two pioneering studies, ''The Social Aspects of Tuberculosis'' and the ''Facts about Tuberculosis''. These publications identified the socioeconomic factors that contributed to the persistence of the disease.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Burch Jr.|first=John|title=Poverty in the United States: A Documentary and Reference Guide|date=2018|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-4408-5849-9|location=Santa Barbara, CA|pages=69}}</ref> She also suggested that data in many of America's largest cities have underestimated the death rates from tuberculosis.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Morone|first1=James A.|title=Healthy, Wealthy, and Fair: Health Care and the Good Society|last2=Jacobs|first2=Lawrence R.|date=2005|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-029101-3|location=Oxford|pages=}}</ref>

== References == {{reflist}} ==External links== *{{Wikisource author-inline|Lilian Brandt}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brandt, Lilian}} Category:1873 births Category:Wellesley College alumni Category:American women historians Category:American social reformers Category:American social workers Category:American women statisticians Category:American medical writers Category:People from Indianapolis Category:Activists from Indiana Category:1951 deaths Category:American women medical writers