Helen Thompson Woolley

Helen Bradford Thompson was born on November 6, 1874 in Englewood, Chicago. As the middle child of three siblings, she and her sisters were raised in a middle-class Chicago suburb. The eldest sister, Jane, attended the University of Michigan for one year but left school due to the financial burden. Lilian, the youngest sister, attended Cook County Normal School and went on to become a teacher. Their mother, Isabella Perkins Faxon was an active missionary during a time when women were expected to confine their interests to family and household activities. Woolley's father, Paul Thompson (though his name is disputed in several articles)[1][2] was a partner in a shoe manufacturing business and an inventor, producing implements such as burglar alarms, a heat regulating thermostat for a coal furnace, and a letter sorting device for the post office. Her father's work was more appealing to Woolley compared to that of her mother, sparking an interest in scientific endeavours.

As a single-income, middle-class family, Woolley's family presumably struggled with some financial constraints. The eldest daughter, Jane, was able to attend the University of Michigan for one year however, she had to withdraw due to the family’s inability to carry the financial burden of tuition payment. However, Woolley won a scholarship to the University of Chicago as a result of her high average upon graduating from Englewood High School in 1893. Woolley's family would have been affected by The Panic of 1893, a serious economic depression in the US that started in 1893–1897. The scholarship she received allowed her to attend university with only expenses of books and travel fare. Without the scholarship, Woolley's education and career might have met the same fate as her older sister Jane.

Woolley met her husband, Paul Gerhardt Woolley in university when she was a senior and Paul was finishing medical studies at Chicago. Soon after meeting, they were engaged and remained engaged for eight years during which time both completed their professional training. After completing their undergraduate studies, Woolley was offered a graduate fellowship and remained in Chicago while Paul left for residency at Johns Hopkins University.

After working in Massachusetts for four years, Woolley left her job and moved to Japan where Paul was working as an epidemiologist. She and Paul were married in Yokohama. Soon thereafter, they moved to the Philippines where Paul directed a laboratory. In the Philippines, Woolley began working for the Bureau of Education, performing research on childhood education and the best years for learning. While Woolley took on this project, Paul took a job in Siam (now called Thailand) doing public health work and manufacturing vaccines for smallpox and anthrax. She joined Paul once her project was done.

When Woolley became pregnant, Paul sent her home out of concern for her and the baby’s health. At six months pregnant, Woolley took a boat to the West Coast, then taking a train back to her parents’ home, arriving barely six weeks before her first daughter, Eleanor Faxon Woolley, was born (August 26, 1907). Eleanor's birth sparked Woolley's interest in child and developmental psychology.

University of Cincinnati in 1918

After spending a year in Omaha, Nebraska the family moved to Cincinnati. Paul began teaching at the medical school, while Woolley was a philosophy lecturer at the University of Cincinnati. However, during their years in Cincinnati, Woolley and Paul drifted apart. Paul eventually took on a job in Detroit running a medical testing laboratory, and Woolley left Cincinnati in 1921 to follow Paul to Detroit.

In 1924, Paul contracted tuberculosis from the diagnostic laboratory and left for a sanatorium in Pasadena, California. Paul Woolley filed for a divorce from Woolley in 1927 with the plans of marrying Millie Thompson (no relation) and eventually died in 1932. Woolley died of a cerebral hemorrhage at age 72 in Pennsylvania on Christmas Eve of 1947.

Helen Woolley was a pioneer in the practical application of developmental psychological principles. As director of the Cincinnati Vocation Bureau, appointed in 1911, she contributed significantly to the understanding of influential factors in the physical and mental development of adolescents.[2] The Vocation Bureau was responsible for the issuance of "working certificates" to children between the ages of 14 and 16 years and therefore provided a wide pool of data for Woolley to successfully conduct her research.[1] 

Woolley aimed to establish intelligence tests appropriate for adolescents and the statistical norms to accompany such tests, as well as examine the potential relationship between test and job performance.[2] Woolley compared the performance of 14-year-old subjects who had joined the workforce to subjects regularly attending school classes for the span of four years.[1] After completing an extensive data analysis with her assistant, Charlotte Fischer, Woolley did not find support for her cognitive tests; however, her project increased awareness of the utility of experimental psychology in the advancement of the public-school sector and educational policies.[2] The results of the study were subsequently published in 1926 under the name “An Experimental Study of Children at Work and in School Between the Ages of Fourteen and Eighteen Years”. The Vocation Bureau was expanded to include the testing of children in order to establish class placements.

She was additionally the first woman and first psychologist to be appointed president of the National Vocational Guidance Association in 1921.[2]

In an attempt to follow her husband to Michigan, Helen Woolley accepted a position as a psychologist and assistant director at the Merrill-Palmer School in 1921.[2] The Merrill-Palmer School was a nursery school offering courses in child care. The school also represented research initiatives in early child development and attracted a great deal of attention as one of the first laboratory nursery schools in the United States.[2] Woolley's experimental work within the school was limited, however it facilitated a change in her research interests to younger populations of children.[2] Moreover, she expressed concerns with the validity of cognitive testing in young children and emphasized the importance of environmental factors in the development of IQ in such ages.

Teachers College, Columbia University in 2013

In May 1925, Helen Woolley received an offer to become a director for the Institute for Child Welfare Research at Teachers College, Columbia University.[2] Woolley became the only woman at the time to become a director of one of the most prestigious research centers.[2] In an attempt to smooth the transition between her position at the Merrill-Palmer School and her new position at Teachers College, Woolley travelled between Detroit and New York from January to June, 1926.[2] By April, 1926, Woolley started receiving criticism from friends and coworkers regarding her work ethics. The director of the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial, Lawrence K. Frank, had interviewed the Dean of Teachers College, James Russell, and reflected on it in a memorandum:

"I told Dean Russell that had been approached by several of Dr. Woolley’s friends with a request that I help her out of the difficulties she was facing and that as nearly as I could understand the matter, Dr.Woolley’s temperamental aversion to any disputes or self-assertion put her at considerable disadvantage at Teachers College."[4]

In late May, it was discovered that Woolley had developed an abdominal tumour for which she had to undergo an appendectomy and hysterectomy.[2] During her treatment, Teachers College was kindly supporting Woolley by continuing her salary and paying her medical bills.[5] Despite her health issues, Woolley officially moved to New York in September 1926, and subsequently developed two nursery schools within Teachers College for the purpose of studying early childhood education.[1] She hired about fifteen female graduates to work under her, who developed innovative work on early childhood education and collectively advocated for nursery schools.[1]

The death of her close friend, Bess Cleveland, and her divorce from Paul, were only two of many factors in Woolley’s life that caused emotional instability.[1][2] Woolley took a leave of absence for a year and traveled to various nursery schools in England, Brussels, Vienna, and Geneva in order to gain knowledge on early childhood education in European countries.[1][2] She resumed her duties in August 1928 and presented two papers at the International Congress of Psychology Conference in Fall 1929.[1]

Woolley was shocked when she was asked to resign in February 1930 by Dean William Russell, son of the previous Dean Russell.[1] Woolley’s accomplishments during her time at Teachers' College included becoming an internationally-known researcher and scholar,[1] having multiple publications, and being considered as one of America's top child psychologists by the age of 55.[2] Unfortunately, she felt that all of this went unrecognized when she was asked to resign, as Dean Russell cited difficulties in her teaching.[2] Woolley harboured resentment towards Dean Russell, and went on to write an 11-paged typescript called, "The Experience of Helen T. Woolley in being employed in Teachers College, Columbia University, and in being dismissed from Teachers College."[2] In May, Dean Russell replied to her claims by identifying multiple errors within her typescript which highlighted Woolley's impaired recollection.[2] Woolley spent the next decade attempting to find work in academia but found no success.[1]