Papers of Natalie Walker Linderholm, 1910-1979

Natalie Walker was born in Philadelphia in 1892 and attended Girl's Latin School in Boston. She attended Radcliffe 1910-1914, graduating magna cum laude in political science. While at Radcliffe she was a member of the English and Ideler Clubs and served as Vice President of the Guild (1912-1913), Class Secretary (1911-1912) and first Editor-in-Chief of Fortnightly. She was also class historian and was elected a charter member of the Radcliffe chapter of Phi Beta Kappa. Also at Radcliffe she began her career in social work, performing volunteer service in the North End. Upon graduation she went to the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy, where she was the recipient of a fellowship. She received her certificate in 1915, having written a report on housing conditions in the area around Hull House. She stayed on at the Chicago School for another two years serving as research assistant and secretary to the Dean. In 1917 she served as an inspector in North Carolina under the new child labor law until the law was declared unconstitutional. In 1918 she married Ernest Linderholm and moved to Vermont, where she studied infant mortality in Burlington and became a member of the original board of the Vermont Children's Aid Society. Moving to Boston in 1921, she worked for the Family Service Association of Boston, serving as editor of Family Welfare. Continuing her career in New York, she worked for the Russell Sage Foundation (1937-1939), the Greater New York Fund (1939-1958), the New York City Commission for the Foster Care of Children (1958-1961), the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies of New York City (1961-1975), and Woodycrest-Five Points Child Care (1973-1977) as well as other agencies. She has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the Keystone Award of the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies (1971) and in 1979 the Radcliffe College Alumnae Recognition Award.