William Isaac Thomas and the Helen Culver Fund for Race Psychology: the beginnings of scientific sociology at the University of Chicago, 1910-1913.

Abstract

W. I. Thomas is not given full credit for his contributions to the early development of scientific sociology in the United States and, in particular, the Chicago School of Sociology. Based on new documentary evidence regarding the Helen Culver Fund for Race Psychology and also a reconsideration of a 1912 article by Thomas, it is suggested that Thomas had been evolving his new scientific approach to sociology very early (1910 to 1913), before contact with men who were said to have influenced him (for example, Robert Park and Florian Znaniecki). In discussing the substance of his scientific approach to sociology, emphasis is placed on six traits: empirical, inductive, comparative, systematic or strategic, analytic or conceptual, and social psychological. Each quality is illustrated from his personal and professional writing from that period. The implications of Thomas's work for “schools” of sociological thought and for the role of private philanthropy are considered briefly.