“… a rich and compelling portrait …”
—Elizabeth Lunbeck, Professor of History, Princeton University

The memoir of her career by a Boston woman, Maida Herman Solomon (1891-1988), who worked to build a profession of psychiatric social work (later also clinical social work), in a unique collaboration with her prominent psychiatrist husband.

Coming of age in the Progressive era, Maida Solomon was a rebel who fused her interests both imaginatively and constructively throughout her life. She was founding President of the American Association of Psychiatric Social Workers in 1926; and she helped found the Massachusetts Academy of Psychiatric Social Work in the 1970’s. The Solomons’ book, Syphilis of the Innocent, from 1922 is a classic of the field; and Maida Solomon’s study of the field from the 1940’s was used as a text in schools of social work throughout the country. Her research group in the 1960’s and ’70’s published many seminal books and articles. During a long career as a social worker and professor of social work, she blended mentoring, program development, research, and work on the institutional development of her profession, while supporting the training of social workers in a human service philosophy and methods that enabled the emergence of a fully modern professional social work.

Accompanying the memoir are short excerpts from documents by contemporaries, historians, and Solomon herself; and two longer essays, “Reflections on the Career of Maida Solomon: Program Development, Research, and Training” by Helen Z. Reinherz, Professor at the Simmons College School of Social Work, and “Notes on the Professional Partnership of Maida Solomon and Harry Solomon – from ‘Taped Interviews with Dr. Harry C. Solomon,’” by Judy Radner.

“... Together with her husband Harry C. Solomon (himself a major figure in twentieth-century American psychiatry), Maida H. Solomon played a key role in creating a … profession that has had a major impact on social welfare policies.”

—Gerald N. Grob, Henry E. Sigerist Professor of the History of Medicine (Emeritus), Rutgers University

“… a splendid contribution to history … I particularly appreciated the mix of explanatory commentary by her associates, and Maida Solomon’s own words. That combination of context and personal narrative brings both the history and the person to life remarkably. Social work and psychiatric social work have been slighted in the history of mental disorders. Carrying a Banner is a lively and authoritative redress of that omission.

“… It is a charming and valuable piece of work.”

—Miles F. Shore, M.D., Bullard Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School

“Maida H. Solomon's memoir ... with contributions from distinguished colleagues, is an important addition to the historical record of the emergence and definition of the social work profession onto the ‘new’ turf of mental health.”

—Betsy S. Vourlekis, Ph.D., Professor, University of Maryland School of Social Work

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