Helping those in Need: Barnard & the Seven Sisters Colleges in NYC’s Settlement House Movement

A presentation by Joyce Milambiling, author of Skyscraper Settlement: The Many Lives of Christodora House

In the late 19th century, the concept of the settlement house spread from England and was adapted for U.S. cities. Scores of female students and graduates of the Seven Sisters Colleges were recruited to be “settlers” in New York City neighborhoods struggling with overcrowding and poverty. The classes, health clinics, and arts programs that settlement house workers provided helped narrow the gap between social classes and opened settlers’ eyes to the hardships faced by many adults and children in the nation’s cities.