In 1911 M. Carey Thomas, president of Bryn Mawr College, faced golden opportunity. An alumna of the college had died suddenly, leaving Bryn Mawr its largest gift since Joseph Wright Taylor's initial endowment for the establishment of the college. Emma Carola Woerishoffer's unrestricted $750,000 donation provided Thomas unaccustomed freedom to expand Bryn Mawr's curriculum. In 1915 Thomas used large portion of the bequest to establish the Graduate Department of Social Economy and Social Research for the training and certification of social workers and for the master's and doctoral education of social researchers. Bryn Mawr's department and program were unusual, as training schools for social workers were run largely by charity organization societies. The department's singularity was derived from its location within an academic institution and its determination to provide women the opportunity to pursue research in the social sciences. This effort to link research and practice was rare, although the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy under Sophonisba Breckenridge and Edith Abbott shared similar commitment. When the school joined the University of Chicago as the School of Social Service Administration in 1920, Breckenridge and Abbott walked a fine line between the established social sciences and the friendly visitors of the Charity Organization Society. The tension at Chicago was exacerbated by the gender distinctions marking the social science graduate departments staffed largely by men and the social service school staffed largely by women. Such distinctions did not exist within the Bryn Mawr faculty. At Bryn Mawr tension was evident between graduate professional