SUI & ICWRS – Helping Children Grow.

Except for the name – Carl E. Seashore – long-time professor at SUI, I’m guessing you’ve never heard of the names we’ve listed here. Yet, in truth, it’s dedicated people like these who truly helped transform the way our society treats children, and without them and their work here at Iowa, many of the valuable childhood health & development programs we appreciate today just might not have happened.

Founded in 1917, the Iowa Child Welfare Research Station (ICWRS) hosted by the State University of Iowa (SUI) was the first institution in the world devoted to the study of the “normal child.” A pioneer in child development research and child psychology, ICWRS – for nearly 60 years – conducted studies on the SUI campus in the normal physical growth rates of children, studies in intellectual development in children and its relation to environment, studies in classroom management techniques that support positive outcomes, and developed collections of data regarding speech development and therapy for children with cerebral palsy. ICWRS also played a key role in establishing ethical standards for conducting research in child development.

**Cora Bussey Hillis** was a child welfare advocate and her work advanced children’s health care, education, and the juvenile justice system in Iowa. Born in Bloomfield, Iowa on August 8, 1858, her parents were Cyrus Bussey – a merchant and Union General in the American Civil War, and Ellen (Kiser) Bussey. Cora met Isaac Hillis – a lawyer – on a family vacation to Keokuk, Iowa, and they married in 1880. Together, they had five children – Ellen, Cyrus, Philip, Isaac, and Doris, and they also cared for Cora’s sister, Laura, after the death of her mother in 1881.

In 1887 Hillis helped found the Des Moines Women’s Club (see pic above), and she raised money for the organization by giving lectures on the fine arts in her home. Cora first ventured into advocacy work in 1894 when she campaigned to create a safe public swimming facility for children in the Des Moines River, including a bath house and rental swimwear for those who could not afford their own. Hillis also organized the first Parent Teacher’s Association branch in Iowa, served as president of the organization for six years, and used this network to advocate for other political and social changes that would benefit children and families. She campaigned for the creation of a juvenile court system in Iowa, which, at the time, existed in very few states, and she helped write the legislation that was passed in 1904.

Cora helped establish a system for tracking infant births and deaths as a way to reduce child mortality, and she worked with the newly-established Baby Saving Campaign in Des Moines, which included birth registrations, ice and milk distribution, visiting nurses, and a fresh-air camp. This camp took place in the summer of 1913, and Hillis raised the funds for it and supervised the camp for a month. The aim of the camp was to provide a respite for young and poor mothers during the hot summer months, as well as to provide education about nutrition, health, and hygiene.

For many years, Cora B. Hillis fought hard to convince the Iowa Legislature to establish a research unit devoted to child development, which was an area poorly understood at the time. Hillis was inspired in this work by: 1) her experiences caring for her invalid sister, Laura, who developed a rare spinal disease when she was two years old. Doctors provided contradictory and insufficient guidance in Laura’s case, in part because there was very little research into child development. And: 2) Cora and her husband Isaac lost three of their five children prior to them reaching adulthood. It was out of all this personal pain and loss that Cora B. Hillis rose to occasion – for a time such as this!

In 1915, when Cora proposed a $25,000 appropriation to establish a child development research center at SUI, the Iowa Legislature said no. Instead, they used the money to build a sheep barn at the Iowa State Fairgrounds in Des Moines! As you can see (below), The Des Moines Register and its Pultizer-Prize winning artist – Ding Darling saw the idiocracy of such a decision…

Finally, after unsuccessfully pitching her idea to four previous presidents of the University, SUI President Thomas Macbride (above left) agreed to support and move forward with her idea. Together with Professor Carl E. Seashore (above right) – Dean of the Graduate College – Hillis campaigned diligently, trying to convince the state legislature to allocate funds to establish her dream. This time, with MacBride and Seashore’s support, it worked!

In April 1917, the Iowa Child Welfare Bill was finally signed into law (see above), and Cora B. Hillis’ Iowa Child Welfare Research Station (ICWRS) in Iowa City became a reality.

Bird T. Baldwin (above) was appointed the first director of ICWRS, and under his direction, the emphasis centered on anthropometry – the study of children’s physical development by measuring growth. Baldwin and his staff took detailed, annual measurements of children from around the Iowa City area, and their results were placed on record cards – following the children throughout their education until their growth was completely charted. Records show that Baldwin and his team took more than one million measurements that were, then, sent to the children’s schools, homes, health organizations and physical education departments, with the results also being analyzed and published by the U.S. government. With the exception of a stint of military service during World War I, Dr. Baldwin successfully served as the first director of ICWRS until his death in May of 1928.

From the very beginning of ICWRS, and well into the 1940’s, SUI photographer Fred Kent took hundreds of photographs of the work going on within the program. Much of the research done here in Iowa City was making news across the nation, and magazines like Popular Science (see below) ran articles that offered some of these breakthroughs to the general public.

*1931 article in Popular Science describing some research conducted at ICWRS.*

Which brings us now to the famed German-American psychologist who has been pegged as…

Kurt Zadek Lewin – Born on September 9, 1890 in Mogilno, Germany (today’s Poland), Lewin began lecturing on philosophy and psychology at the Psychological Institute of the University of Berlin in 1921. His popularity with students and prolific writing drew the attention of Stanford University, and he was invited to be a visiting professor in 1932.

The following year (1933), as Adoph Hitler became the new chancellor of Germany, Lewin – a Jew – saw the handwriting on the wall and immigrated with his family to the United States, teaching briefly at Cornell University before moving to Iowa City (1935) to become a highly-successful research professor with the Iowa Child Welfare Research Station (ICWRS). In 1940, Lewin and his wife – Gertrud Weiss – became naturalized citizens of the United States – an important fact when we look at the rare postal cover sent from Lewin’s Iowa City office in May 1941 – addressed to a friend back home in Berlin, Germany…

(JP-087) This rare **1941 Postal Cover** was mailed by **Kurt Lewin** in **Iowa City on May 31, 1941** – addressed to **W.H.A. deHeer** back in Lewin’s homeland (**Berlin, Germany**). On the back side, we see that the letter had no problem going across the U.S. and was postmarked in New York City on June 3, 1941. But then, everything came to a stop en route to Europe as all mail going into Germany at this point was not allowed. While the U.S. had not yet entered the war (May 1941), this registered letter was still confiscated by the British government in Bermuda and was held until after the war ended in 1945. Looking at the postmarks (see back side), the letter was sent on to Berlin (September 4, 1946), was opened for inspection, resealed with tape, and sent on to Holland (October 7, 1946). It was then returned to New York City (October 22, 1946), to Iowa City (October 24, 1946), forwarded to Boston (October 26, 1946), and finally returned to Lewin (October 28, 1946) – who was now working as a professor at MIT in Cambridge, Mass. A five-and-one-half year journey for one “return to sender” letter from Iowa City!

Kurt Lewin is often recognized as the “founder of social psychology” and was one of the first to study group dynamics and organizational development. A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Lewin as the 18th-most cited psychologist of the 20th century. *Lewin worked with ICWRS in Iowa City from 1935 to 1945, when he went on to become a world-renowned professor at MIT until his death in 1947.*

As we mentioned earlier, over a nearly 60-year period, the Iowa Child Welfare Research Station was known as one of the nation’s finest research centers on childhood development. ICWRS hallmarks include studies used to establish national standards for child growth rates, the country’s first freestanding preschool, and early intervention strategies that paved the way for initiatives like Head Start. Between 1963 and it’s closing in 1974, ICWRS – due to negative association amongst the public with the phrase “Child Welfare” – was renamed the Institute of Child Behavior and Development. Author Hamiton Craves (below) describes the reasons behind the difficult decision to close the doors in the 1970’s…

Today, on East Market Street in Iowa City – in front of the Pomerantz UI Visitors Center, you will find a large stone marker dedicated to Major Bird T. Baldwin and his pioneering work with SUI’s Iowa Child Welfare Research Station. Originally placed next to Old Brick, the memorial by sculptor R. Stites was moved to its more visible location at 56 E. Market Street and serves as a reminder of the good work of Baldwin and his ICWRS team.

Sadly, Cora Bussey Hillis – age 66 – died in a car accident on August 12, 1924, near St. Cloud Minnesota, and is buried at Woodland Cemetery in Des Moines. While she never saw the long-term benefits of her vision for ICWRS, Cora’s accomplishments were not forgotten. Hillis was admitted into the Iowa Women’s Hall of Fame in 1976, and Hillis Elementary School in Des Moines is named for her.