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In 1917 the newly created Department of Public Welfare assumed control of the Cook County Juvenile Psychopathic Institute and made it a part of the Division of the Criminologist (Department of Public Welfare, Twenty-Third Annual Report [Springfield, 1940], pp. 692, 774). Renamed as the Institute for Juvenile Research, the institution began to serve as a research center and to coordinate statewide activity in child guidance and delinquency prevention.
The State Criminologist acted as director of the Institute for Juvenile Research until 1941 when the Division of the Criminologist was transferred to the Department of Public Safety. The institute, however, then was made an independent division within the Department of Public Welfare and was specifically empowered to conduct scientific studies and to diagnose and promote the treatment of mentally ill, socially maladjusted, or delinquent children (L. 1941, vol. 1, p. 303).
The institute, located in Chicago, also operates the William Healy School as an inpatient unit, provides child guidance services to children and their families, and trains personnel in these fields. Since its transfer to the Department of Mental Health in 1961 the institute has expanded its research activity to encompass the entire field of clinical psychiatry (L. 1961, p. 2666).
Access to some of these records is restricted according to the provisions of the Mental Health Code and the State Records Act of 1957 as amended.
266.001
ADMINISTRATIVE RECORDS. Ca. 1925-1950. 8 cu. ft. No index.
File contains correspondence primarily among the director and staff members of the Institute for Juvenile Research and employees of the Department of Public Welfare, state universities, and private organizations involved in child welfare. Correspondence concerns such matters as research in child psychiatry, female juvenile delinquency, treatment of inmates of state institutions, operation of community clinics, classification of prisoners and the development of questionnaires for the examination of prisoners, summer courses on child guidance for teachers, medical students working in state institutions, induction of outpatients into the armed forces, and the treatment of emotionally disturbed veterans.
File also contains a substantial amount of material on a cooperative program among state teachers' colleges and the Institute for Juvenile Research designed to familiarize student teachers with child guidance concepts and to provide training in mental hygiene. Often included are case studies presented at these child guidance clinics which give detailed descriptions of each child's family and social history, emotional and psychological problems, results of intelligence tests, and suggested treatment.
File also includes papers given by the director and other staff members on such topics as legal aspects of psychiatry, classification of mental illness, psychiatric social work, teacher training programs on problem children, and hypnotism. Scattered throughout the file are departmental orders and divisional bulletins, organizational charts, publications, payroll vouchers, personnel requisitions, job specifications and salary ranges, and copies of proposed legislation.
A small portion of the file contains weekly reports for the institute staff working at the Illinois Soldiers' and Sailors' Children's School (1941); monthly classification reports on prisoners received at the diagnostic depot of the Illinois State Penitentiary at Menard (February 1938-February 1941); reports on sickness, tubercular conditions, and number of deaths at the Menard penitentiary; minutes and reports of the Advisory Committee of St. Charles School for Boys (1935-1937); scattered minutes of meetings of the superintendents of state institutions; and correspondence, scattered reports, and minutes of such organizations as the Illinois Society for the Prevention of Blindness, Illinois Society for Mental Hygiene, Juvenile Protection Association, Mary Bartelme Club, and the American Orthopsychiatric Association.
Materials relating to adult correctional facilities and treatment therein were created while the director of the Institute for Juvenile Research also acted as the State Criminologist (1917-1941).
These records are available at the Illinois State Archives, Office of the Secretary of State.
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