The collection is stored off-site. Researchers will need to request this material from Archives & Special Collections at least two business days in advance to use the collection in our reading room. Generally, Archives & Special Collections will not recall more than 12 boxes at a time.
Because the papers include Confidential Health Information (CHI) as defined by Columbia University policies governing data security and privacy, access is allowed only under the terms of Archives and Special Collections’ Access Policy to Records Containing Confidential Health Information.
Papers of Rivière, an expert in the rehabilitation of the disabled. While they span the entirety of Rivière's life and contain much personal as well as professional material, the bulk documents her work with Association for Aid of Crippled Children (1954-1960) and her time as Director of Rehab Codes (1958-1968). Included are general business correspondence, committee minutes, annual and project reports, financial records, and correspondence and reports related to the testing of the codes at various rehabilitation centers around the country.
A special feature of the collection are the hundreds of ephemeral publications relating to the rehabilitation of the disabled collected by Rivière in Great Britain in the late 1940s and early 1950 and in the U.S. from 1957-1968. In addition to professional records, there is also considerable personal material including family correspondence, genealogical records, diaries, notebooks, newspaper clippings, educational records and photographs.
History and Biography
Maya Rivière Ward was an important mid-20th century American expert in the rehabilitation of the disabled. As Director of Rehabilitation Codes, Inc., Rivière coordinated the groups that produced the Rehabilitation Codes, conducted extensive research that shaped the final text of the code itself, and also served as the administrator of Rehab Codes, Inc.
Mary Richey (Maya) Rivière was born in Georgia on September 16, 1908. She received her BA from Agnes Scott College in 1928 and later studied voice at the Juilliard School. She worked at a variety of jobs, including church organist and Hollywood script reader, before becoming a caseworker for the Musicians Emergency Fund in 1932. In the late 1930s she also worked as a director in the WPA Federal Theater Project.
After recovering from several years of incapacitation due to tuberculosis, she joined the National Tuberculosis Association Rehabilitation Service as a field consultant in 1945. In 1948-49 she served as Executive Director of the National Council on Rehabilitation. Awarded one of the first Fulbright Scholarships, she studied at Oxford University under G.D.H. Cole, 1949-1954.
She received the D.Phil. in 1954 for her dissertation “Rehabilitation of the Disabled, with Special Reference to the Administration of the Disabled Persons (Employment) Act.” Upon her return to the U.S., she worked briefly for the Kessler Institute of Rehabilitation in New Jersey before being hired by the Association for the Aid of Crippled Children in New York City to work on the project that evolved into Rehabilitation Codes, Inc. After Rehabilitation Codes closed in 1968, Rivière served as a consultant for a variety of organizations before retiring due to ill health in 1970. She died in New York City on November 7, 1989.
Rivière was married twice: first in 1937 to Girvan George Higginson whom she divorced in 1942; and second in 1954 to John Owen Ward, a British musicologist and music editor eleven years her junior, who survived her. She kept her maiden name professionally.
Rehab Codes, Inc.
The purpose of the Rehabilitation Codes as an information management tool was threefold: to create a consistent record-keeping structure that could be navigated by rehabilitation professionals from multiple disciplines; to connect often voluminous medical data with therapeutic reports within one patient file in order to highlight individual rehabilitation goals and purposes; and to shift the public perception and professional focus of rehabilitation from managing individual handicaps to maximizing individual assets and capabilities in order to improve the social status of rehabilitated persons.
The groundwork for the project that became Rehabilitation Codes was laid in 1950, when the World Health Organization (WHO) requested the creation of a U.S. Surgeon General’s Subcommittee on Physical Impairment whose primary task would be revising the International Statistics Classification of Disease. Their request was granted, and the resulting subcommittee worked for several years on a three part code: one part for Impairment, one part for Cause, another part for Etiology.
Meanwhile, in 1954 the Association for the Aid of Crippled Children’s (AACC) Queens Rehabilitation Program conducted a demonstration project for community organizations serving children with cerebral palsy, which included a diagnostic rehabilitation clinic. The project revealed many inconsistencies in the nomenclature used to describe children with cerebral palsy. An advisory committee was formed within AACC to explore the issue, and further studies showed that inconsistent descriptive nomenclature was a widespread problem in the general pediatric rehabilitation community.
In 1956, AACC Executive Director Leonard Mayo and other members of the AACC Advisory Committee met with Mary Switzer, Director of the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation (OVR) at the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare to discuss the nomenclature issue. Following that meeting, Switzer allowed OVR Special Project funds to be used to examine the possibility of developing a code to describe musculoskeletal and neuromuscular disabilities and the AACC Advisory Committee became the Advisory Committee on Classification of Nomenclature and Criteria Related to Disability and Rehabilitation (known as the Advisory Committee).
In 1959, members of the Advisory Committee met with members of the U.S. Surgeon General’s Subcommittee on Physical Impairment (the Subcommittee). Examining the work of the Subcommittee, participants determined that the Subcommittee code focused more on the pathology of disability than its treatment. They also decided that because of the overlap in the membership of the Subcommittee and the Advisory Committee, it was appropriate for the Subcommittee to suspend their activities and transfer the responsibility for completing the code to the Advisory Committee.
At this same time the scope of the codes expanded, and five new subcommittees were created to study different areas of rehabilitation: Psychosocial, headed by Donald M. Carmichael of the Aftercare Clinic, New York State Department of Mental Hygiene; Vocational Rehabilitation, headed by Janet Pinner, Director of Selective Placements, New York State Employment Office; Human Communication (later Communication Disorders); Speech; and Visual Function.
Also starting in 1959, the codes were tested at eight different institutions: Thayer Hospital, Waterville, Maine; Meeting Street School, Providence, RI; Chronic Disease Section, Michigan State Dept. of Health, Lansing, MI; Home for Crippled Children, Pittsburgh, PA; Kansas City Goodwill, Kansas City, MO; Craig Rehabilitation Center, Denver, CO; Mary T. Morrison Rehabilitation Center, San Francisco, CA; and Community Rehabilitation Industries, Los Angeles, CA.
The results of the test were applied to the ongoing development of the codes, and between 1962 and 1964, the revised codes were extensively field tested by rehabilitation organizations across the U.S., most notably by the Home for Crippled Children in Pittsburgh, PA where the codes had been in continuous use since 1959.
Individual parts of the code were also field tested. The Visual Function code was tested by organizations including the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, MA and the American Center for Research in Blindness and Rehabilitation in Newton, MA. The Communications Disorder code was evaluated by the New York Medical College in Valhalla, NY and New York City Department of Welfare’s Children’s Center. In 1964, the Third Party Payers Subcommittee was created, for organizations that used or implemented the codes as a baseline guide for evaluating patients for admittance to rehabilitation programs and to benchmark patient progress in the programs.
In 1965, Rehab Codes secured a grant from the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness (NINDB) and used the funds to extend the work of the Communications Disorders subcommittee for three additional years. A parallel grant was secured for the Visual Function subcommittee, and the Visual Code was split into “measurements” and “impairment.”
Between 1965 and 1968, the codes continued to be revised based on data gleaned from ongoing testing and information gathered from a series of Rehab Codes-sponsored regional workshops in Nantucket, MA; Berea, KY; Lake Ozark, MO and Carmel Valley, CA. Furthermore, Rehab Codes collaborated with the California Department of Public Health to produce a series of six workshops that further tested the codes. The final iteration of the code was published in 1968, following the closing of Rehab Codes, Inc.
The growth of Rehab Codes, Inc. paralleled the development of the codes. For the first three years of its existence the Rehab Codes project was a special project of the AACC and was funded by grants from the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation (OVR). When the OVR ceased funding the project in 1960, the AACC took over on an emergency basis for the fourth year. A Steering Committee replaced the Advisory Committee, and a Subcommittee on Future Planning was created to investigate future sponsorship and funding.
Rehab Codes took the first steps towards becoming an independent entity around 1961, when the Rehabilitation Codes project moved out of the offices of the AACC. The project remained connected to AACC administratively, but the bulk of funding for the project was provided by grants from the Vocational Rehabilitation Association (VRA), Easter Seals, and the NINDB.
In 1963 it was proposed that the project should be formally incorporated and become an independent entity. The Committee on Rehab Codes was formed. Switzer and Mayo conducted a site visit on behalf of the VRA, and made extensive administrative and programmatic recommendations. On April 1, 1964, Rehab Codes, Inc. was incorporated in the state of New York. The following years were marked by great difficulties in funding the project, as well as in recruiting and retaining qualified staff. In 1968, unable to secure additional funding after NINDB funds were exhausted, Rehab Codes, Inc. formally dissolved, closed its New York City offices, and transferred all of the corporate records to Rivière’s home.
Organization
Arranged in fourteen series:
I. Personal papers
II. Oxford University
III. Other professional records
IV. Rehab Codes
V. Rehab Codes: corporate records
VI. Rehab Codes: code construction
VII. Codes test: first round
VIII. Codes test: second round
IX. Other committees and special projects
X. Conferences
XI. Post-retirement work
XII. Photographs
XIII. Journals
XIV. Oversize.
Some series contain multiple sub-series.
The papers span the entirety of Rivière’s life, and the life of Rehabilitation Codes as an organization. The bulk of the papers is material documenting Rivière’s work with AACC (1954-1960) and her files as Director of Rehabilitation Codes (1958-1968), including general business correspondence, committee minutes, annual and project reports, financial records, and correspondence and reports related to the testing of the codes at various rehabilitation centers around the country.
A special feature of the collection are the hundreds of ephemeral publications relating to the rehabilitation of the disabled collected by Rivière in Great Britain in the late 1940s and early 1950s and in the U.S. in the period 1957-1968. Also included are newspaper and magazine clippings from Britain and U.S. from 1970-71.
The papers also include materials that document the extensive research Rivière conducted on British government-subsidized and/or sponsored organizations dedicated to rehabilitation in the course of writing her Oxford University thesis. Most notably she had significant contact with Reemploy, Inc., the Tottenham Disability Registry Office (DRO) and the Birmingham Accident Hospital (BAH).
The work with the Tottenham DRO and the BAH was initially done as research for Rivière’s thesis. Following her retirement from Rehabilitation Codes, Rivière returned to the data from both institutions and pursued additional follow-up research to create crude longitudinal studies. The Tottenham project is the most complete of the two.
Finally, in addition to professional records, there is also considerable personal material including family correspondence, genealogical records, diaries, notebooks, newspaper clippings, educational records and photographs.
Series I. Personal papers
Boxes 1-3
The correspondence is rich in detail of events in Rivière’s personal life. Also includes biographical documents, family correspondence and family history and genealogy, mainly for her maternal (Branham) line, 1883-1989.
Subseries are as follows:
Sub-series 1.1: Family history and genealogy
Box 1, 4 folders
Family trees, histories, and correspondence from her maternal line (Branhams), 1883-1935.
Sub-series 1.2: Biographical information
Box 1-3, .66 cu. feet
Birth, death and education records, including college transcripts, yearbooks, Hudson family correspondence and letters regarding donating the bodies of Rivière and John Owens Ward to science, 1904-1990.
Series II. Oxford University
Boxes 3-7
Correspondence, Fulbright-related documents, foundation proposals, personal correspondence, mixed clippings, and Rivière’s doctoral thesis, 1949-1965, 1991.
Subseries are as follows:
Sub-series 2.1: Correspondence
Boxes 3-4, .66 cu. feet
Correspondence, includes letters exchanged with Professor G.D.H. Cole at Oxford, as well as Fulbright-related and early professional communications, 1949-1959.
Sub-series 2.2: General records
Boxes 4-5, .66 cu. feet
Rehabilitation publications, Fulbright articles and related records from Oxford University, foundation proposals, travel documents, mixed clippings and personal correspondence, 1947-1970, 1991.
Sub-series 2.3: Thesis and related research
Boxes 6-7, .66 cu. feet
Papers and notecards relating to research performed involving the Tottenham Disability Registry Office (DRO) which Rivière later turned into a longitudinal study, and the two volumes of her Oxford University thesis, 1950-1954, 1970.
Series III. Other professional records
Box 8
Documents covering Rivière’s early work in the field of rehabilitation, including National Tuberculosis Association newsletters and sample forms from tuberculosis hospitals across the United States, 1943-1970.
Series IV. Rehab Codes
Boxes 9-19
Records documenting the growth and development of the Rehabilitation Codes as a data management tool and also the early growth of Rehab Codes as an organization. Includes annual and interim reports, meeting minutes and other documents produced by the various predecessor committees to Rehab Codes, as well as materials used for background research and the process of field testing the codes, 1950-1968.
Subseries are as follows:
Sub-series 4. 1: Bylaws and founding documents
Box 9, 3 folders
History of the development of the Rehabilitation Codes, and a summary of the purpose of rehabilitation, 1959-65.
Sub-series 4.2: Surgeon General’s Subcommittee on Physical Impairment
Box 9, .33 cu. feet
Annual and progress reports, memos and minutes, impairment code and correspondence with Eugene L. Hamilton, Chief, Medical Statistics Division, Office of the Surgeon General, Department of the Army, 1955-1963.
Sub-series 4.3: Subcommittee on Standardization of Nomenclature and Criteria for Musculoskeletal and Neuromuscular Diseases
Box 10-11, .66 cu. feet
Annual, interim and other special reports produced by the Association for Aid to Crippled Children (AACC) on research done to determine the viability of the project that became Rehab Codes, Inc., 1958-59.
Sub-sub-series 4.3.1: Annual and interim reports, Association for Aid to Crippled Children (AACC)
Box 10-11, .66 cu. feet
Annual, interim and special project reports relating to Rehab Codes produced while Rehab Codes was still a special project within the Association for the Aid of Crippled Children (AACC) and related impairment code forms and revisions, 1957-68.
Sub-sub-series 4.3.2: Board meetings and other documents, AACC
Box 11, 4 folders
Board meeting minutes and agendas produced while Rehab Codes was still a special project within the AACC; and Nomenclature project planning and documents related to Leonard Mayo’s trip to Israel, 1959-60.
Sub-series 4.4: Advisory Committee for Nomenclature and Classification Relevant to Disability and Rehabilitation, Office of Vocational Rehabilitation (OVR) Special Project
Box 11, 10 folders
Members list, committee and annual reports from the committee founded to explore the need for a shared common vocabulary for rehabilitation professionals, 1955-61.
Sub-series 4.5: Subcommittee on Standardization of Nomenclature and Criteria for the Diagnosis of Orthopedic and Neuromuscular Handicaps
Box 11, 4 folders
Meeting minutes and memos from the committee that was the earliest incarnation of Rehabilitation Codes, 1958-59.
Sub-series 4.6: Advisory Committee on the Classification of Nomenclature and Criteria for Musculoskeletal and Neuromuscular Disabilities
Box 11, 6 folders
Second incarnation of Rehabilitation Codes, documenting the first of many committee name-changes; meeting minutes, 1958-59.
Sub-series 4.7: Tech Advisory Committee (T.A.C.)
Box 12, 4 folders
Meeting minutes from this committee dedicated to the overall management of the process of developing the Rehabilitation Codes, and a direct predecessor of the Committee on Rehab Codes, 1961-63.
Sub-series 4.8: Committee on Rehab Codes
Box 12, 5 folders
Committee list and minutes, including a chart documenting contributions of time and money by committee members, 1960-62.
Sub-sub-series 4.8.1: Subcommittee on Vocational Terminology (Pinner)
Box 12, 5 folders
Committee list and meeting minutes, 1959-60.
Sub-series: 4.9: Correspondence
Box 12, 9 folders
Correspondence between AACC, various Rehab Codes committees, and the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation (OVR) regarding general administrative topics and grants, 1954-63.
Sub-series 4.10: Advisory Committee on Nomenclature and Classification related to Disability and Rehabilitation
Box 13, 8 folders
Correspondence regarding the cancelation of the OVR grant, notes and grant-related correspondence with the American Hospital Association and memos on extending funding for Communications Disorders and Visual Impairments committees, 1959-65.
Sub-series 4.11: Fieldwork schedules and notes
Box 13, 9 folders
Rivière’s fieldwork schedules, note and appointments, 1958-66.
Sub-series 4.12: Research materials
Box 13-15, .66 cu. feet
Sample forms, reports and manuals produced by rehabilitation institutions and assembled by Rivière as part of research performed for the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation (OVR), 1945-64.
Sub-series 4.13: Grants and Budgets Correspondence
Box 15-16, .33 cu. feet
OVR and Department of Health, Education and Welfare grant applications and budgets, 1955-1961.
Sub-series 4.14: Subcommittee on Communications Disorders
Box 16, 7 folders
Progress reports, memos, meeting minutes and impairment codes, 1961-64.
Sub-series 4.15: Subcommittee on Neurological/Sensory Diseases
Box 16. 3 folders
Meeting minutes, 1963-64.
Sub-series 4.16: Subcommittee on Impairments of Psychosocial Function (Carmichael)
Box 16-18, .49 cu. feet
Committee list, background material, meeting minutes, annotated codes, and some research materials, 1941-65.
Sub-series 4.17: Subcommittee on Visual Impairment
Box 18-19, .66 cu. feet
Resumes, reports, test charts, and field test reports, 1964-68.
Sub-sub series 4.17.1: Correspondence and other records
Box 19, 9 folders
Code revisions and correspondence between Rivière/Rehab Codes and physicians, 1961-68.
Series V. Rehab Codes: Corporate Records
Boxes 20-29
Papers documenting the corporate development and daily administrative activities of the Rehabilitation Codes organization as it separated from Association for Aid to Crippled Children (AACC), 1961-78.
Subseries are as follows:
Sub-series 5.1: Grants and Association for Aid to Crippled Children changeover
Box 20, 13 folders
Grant applications made to Easter Seals, National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Blindness (NINDB), United States Public Health Service Neurological and Sensory Disease Service and the Institute for the Crippled and Disabled following the withdrawal of Association for Aid to Crippled Children funds, related reports and correspondence, 1961-67.
Sub-series 5.2: Vocational Rehabilitation Association (VRA) Site visit
Box 20, 9 folders
Report of a site visit made by Leonard Mayo and others to Rehab Codes on behalf of the Vocational Rehabilitation Association (VRA), list of recommendations and related correspondence, 1963-65.
Sub-series 5.3: General corporate records
Box 21-22, .49 cu. feet
By-laws, officer lists, annual reports, and minutes from annual, board and executive meetings from Rehab Codes, Inc., 1962-67.
Sub-series 5.4: Board Correspondence
Box 22-23, .33 cu. feet
Memos to the Board and correspondence with individual Board members, including Drs. Wishik, Scholz, Spencer, Flower, Doerfler, Knute, Lowenthal and Muller, 1964-67.
Sub-series 5.5 : Dissolution
Box 23, .25 cu. feet
By-laws revisions, annual reports, memos and correspondence related to the dissolution of Rehab Codes, Inc., 1964-68.
Sub-series 5.6: General business correspondence
Boxes 24-26, 1 cu. foot
Correspondence with professionals in various fields of rehabilitation and responses to requests for codes-related materials, 1951-78.
Sub-series 5.7: Administrative Committees
Boxes 26-27, .33 cu. feet
Committee by-laws, member lists, minutes, notes and background material for committees relating to the growth, development and management of Rehabilitation Codes, Inc., 1949-68.
Sub-sub series 5.7.1: Future Planning Subcommittee
Box 26-27, 6 folders
Minutes, notes and a projected budget for the future of the Rehab Codes project, 1959-60.
Sub-sub series 5.7.2: Committee on Research and Statistics
Box 27, 8 folders
Committee lists, background material and meeting minutes, 1949-63.
Sub-sub series 5.7.3: Steering Committee
Box 27, 6 folders
Committee list, planning documents and correspondence produced by the committee formed to chart the institutional and financial growth of Rehab Codes, Inc. following the separation from AACC, 1960.
Sub-series 5.8: Corporate Finance
Boxes 27-29, .66 cu. feet
Print cost estimates for the Codes, sales orders, expense accounts and travel expenses, 1958-61.
Sub-sub series 5.8.1: Problems of accounting by Association for Aid to Crippled Children (AACC)
Box 28, 10 folders
Correspondence and other documents relating to problems encountered in managing finances of Rehab Codes, Inc. while it was still connected to Association for Aid to Crippled Children (AACC), 1961-63.
Sub-sub series 5.8.2: Revolving account settlement
Box 28, 15 folders
Correspondence and other documents relating to the management of a grant account begun while Rehab Codes was part of AACC and concluded following the final separation of the two organizations, 1957-1964.
Sub-sub series 5.8.3: Treasurer’s correspondence
Box 28-29, 7 folders
Treasurer’s correspondence and early audits documenting the tangled financial history of Rehab Codes, Inc., 1964-66.
Sub-sub series 5.8.4: Audit reports
Box 29, 9 folders
One of Rivière’s greatest challenges as administrator of Rehab Codes was managing the financial aspects of the business. Notably hampered by lack of professional staff and obstructive behavior by existing employees, Rivière kept careful records of the several audits that had to be done, 1966-1968.
Series VI. Rehab Codes: Code construction
Boxes 29-65
Reports, notes, sample codes, sample forms, manuals and other documents that trace the design and implementation of the Rehabilitation Codes as a data management tool, 1935-1970.
Subseries are as follows:
Sub-series 6.1: Research Science (Teare)
Box 29-31, .55 cu. feet
Correspondence and notes from a partnership with a specific research vendor used in conjunction with developing the codes, 1957-68.
Sub-series 6.2: General files and reports
Box 30-31, .49 cu. feet
Annotated iterations of the Codes, reports and sample forms, 1957-63.
Sub-series 6.3: Code design and sample forms
Box 32-34, 1 cu. foot
Sample forms, case records, intake and diagnosis forms, patient folders and evaluatory checklists from numerous rehabilitation institutions, 1957-70.
Sub-series 6.4: Research files
Box 34-51, 5.66 cu. Feet
Divided into the following sub-sub series:
Sub-sub series 6.4.1: Reemploy (Company)
Box 34, 4 folders
Annual reports, correspondence and other corporate information for Reemploy, Inc., Britain’s largest state-sponsored program for providing factory work for the disabled, 1952-1970.
Sub-sub series 6.4.2: Reemploy factories
Box 34, 2 folders
Newsletter articles and extensive correspondence with Gordon McCracken concerning practices within Reemploy factories, 1951-54.
Sub-sub series 6.4.3: General files
Box 34-41, 2 cu. feet
Research materials, including surveys, indices, reprints, sample forms, reports, pamphlets and instructional leaflets on medical and rehabilitative treatment for a variety of illnesses and chronic conditions, including stroke (hemiplegia), paraplegia, heart disease, multiple sclerosis, tuberculosis, mental retardation, alcoholism, and communicative disorders, 1949-70.
Sub-sub series 6.4.4: Rehabilitation centers.
Box 41-43, 1 cu. foot
Pamphlets, brochures, annual reports and other documents from rehabilitation centers across the United States, including Montefiore Hospital (New York); Jewish Vocational Service (Illinois); McDonald’s Training Center (Florida); Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation (New Jersey); and the Atlantic Street Center (Washington State), 1948-66.
Sub-sub series 6.4.5: Clipping files
Boxes 44-45, .44 cubic feet
Clippings from the Lancet and other magazines and newspapers on various medical and rehabilitation related topics, 1960-70.
Sub-sub series 6.4.6: Cross-referenced files
Boxes 45-50, 1.66 cu. feet
Subject files wherein Rivière used an idiosyncratic notation system within the file labels that appears to be related to the development of the codes themselves. The system/code is a combination of abbreviations and numbers. The abbreviations appear to match with sections of or concepts contained by the codes. It is not immediately obvious how the numbers were used, and some of the numbers repeat. Arranged in numerical sequence.
|
Defined Terms |
Undefined Terms |
|---|---|
| A: Aged (?) | CI |
| Co: Counselor (?) or Codes (?) | F |
| Cr: Childhood OR Communication rehab? | L |
| De – Definition | N |
| Et – Etiology | P |
| E – Education (about rehab or Emotional aspects of rehab (?) | |
| Sc – Self Care | |
| T – terms? |
Types of materials in the files include surveys, pamphlets, facility brochures, diagnostic standards materials, reports, clippings and other informational works for a wide variety of physical and mental disabilities and medical conditions, including epilepsy, mental retardation, tuberculosis, mining injuries, muscular dystrophy, hearing problems and cerebral palsy, 1935-58.
Sub-series 6.5: Government documents and other literature
Boxes 50-65, 4.33 cu. feet
Statutes, reports, institutional brochures and other documents relating to the social and medical treatment of disability in the United Kingdom and the United States and multinational conference proceedings and related materials printed at the Hague, 1890-1973.
Sub-sub series 6.5.1: United Kingdom Government documents.
Box 50-51, .22 cu. feet
Printed and bound copies of statutes relating to disability, the National Health Service and social services, 1890-1968.
Sub-sub series 6.5.2: United Kingdom Reports
Box 51-53, 1 cu. foot
Reports on a variety of issues within the topic of the medical and social treatment of disabled persons in the United Kingdom from the Poor Laws to the implementation of the National Health Service, 1909-1970.
Sub-sub series 6.5.3: United Kingdom Literature
Boxes 53-55, .55 cu. feet
Brochures, pamphlets, catalogs, and annual reports from rehabilitation institutions in the United Kingdom, including St. Dunstan’s, British Council for Rehabilitation, the British Limbless Ex-Serviceman’s Association (BLESMA), the paraplegic branch of the British Foreign Legion, the Cripples Help Society and the Nuffield Foundation, 1936-68.
Sub-sub series 6.5.4: Multi-national publications.
Boxes 55-57, .66 cu. feet
Reports, monographs, and proceedings from various international bodies with an interest in rehabilitation, including the World Federation for Mental Health, the International Labour Office, UNESCO and the World Health Organization, 1923-1961.
Sub-sub series 6.5.5: Alaska and United States Government documents.
Box 57-58 .33 cu. feet
Reports, guidelines, manuals, and rating schedules produced by the State of Alaska and the United States government, 1943-68.
Sub-sub series 6.5.6: United States reports
Box 59-62, 1. 33 cu. feet
Reports, surveys, handbooks, manuals, conference proceedings, monographs, and pamphlets on various topics relating to disability and rehabilitation in the United States, 1943-1973.
Sub-sub series 6.5.7: United Kingdom bound volumes
Box 62, 2 volumes
Books on rehabilitation topics printed in the United Kingdom, 1937-43.
Sub-sub series 6.5.8: United States bound volumes
Boxes 62-65, 12 volumes
Reports and studies on various topics in rehabilitation; one directory of programs and facilities in Western Europe printed by the US Department of Health and Human Services, 1956-67.
Series VII. Codes test: first round
Boxes 65-66
Reports and correspondence from the first round of codes testing at Goodwill Industries, May T. Morrison Center for Rehabilitation, the Home for Crippled Children, the Thayer Hospital, and the Michigan Dept. of Public Health, 1956-63.
Series VIII. Codes test: second round
Boxes 66-75
Correspondence, manuals, reports and workshop papers from the second round of codes development, 1961-67.
Subseries are as follows:
Sub-series 8.1: General files and correspondence
Box 66-67, .22 cu. Feet
Correspondence, manuals and reports relating to the second round of codes testing, 1961-66.
Sub-series 8.2: Rehab Codes workshops
Boxes 68-70, .44 cu. feet
Proceedings, programs, transcriptions, invitee lists and other records relating to codes development and testing at regional workshops produced by Rehabilitation Codes, Inc., in Bethesda, MD, Nantucket, MA, Lake Ozark, MO and Carmel Valley, CA., 1959-68.
Sub-sub series 8.2.1: Workshop financial documents
Box 70, 4 folders
Financial documents and workshop expenses, 1963-66.
Sub-sub series 8.2.2: Other workshops and seminars
Box 70, 3 folders
Correspondence and other documents from non-regional seminars and workshops, 1962-64.
Sub-series 8.3: Home for Crippled Children, Pittsburgh, PA
Box 70-71, .33 cu. feet
Correspondence, expense reports, brochures and clippings related to the Home and codes testing, 1961-67.
Sub-series 8.4: Northern and Southern California workshops
Box 71-75, 1.55 cu. feet
Background information, reports, correspondence, transcriptions and other documents from a series of workshops produced by Rehab Codes in collaboration with the State of California, 1956-66.
Series IX. Other Committees and special projects
Box 75-76
Reports and correspondence from various rehabilitation-related projects that Rehab Codes/Rivière participated in while constructing the codes, including a stroke project at New York Medical College, 1961-68.
Subseries are as follows:
Sub-series 9.1: American Psychological Association (APA) Division 22 [Rehabilitation Psychology]
Box 75, 2 folders
Notes, membership list and correspondence, 1963-65.
Sub-series 9.2: New York City Regional Interdepartmental Rehabilitation Committee
Box 75-76, 6 folders
Reports, notes, correspondence and profile project information, 1965-69.
Sub-series 9.3: Development of a rehabilitation center, Beckley, WVA
Box 76, 5 folders
Notes, correspondence, regional maps, reports, and other planning documents relating to the development of a new regional rehabilitation center, 1967-70.
Series X. Conferences
Boxes 77-78
Notes, correspondence, reports, brochures and other documents pertaining to rehabilitation-focused conferences attended by Rivière, including the Indiana Governor’s Conference on the Handicapped and the Miners Black Lung Conference, 1956-70.
Series XI. Post-retirement work
Boxes 79-80
Rivière retired from Rehab Codes in 1969, but she did not stop working, reading or writing in the field of rehabilitation. She was notably active in the area of health-care related issues within her neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, and continued to maintain a clipping file for general rehabilitation news. Contains materials related to grant applications and clippings, 1968-71.
Subseries are as follows:
Sub-series 11.1: Neighborhood Family Care Center (NFCC) Principal Application
Box 79, 7 folders
Notes, correspondence and grant application documents assembled in support of the development of a Neighborhood Family Care Center on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, 1968-70.
Sub-series 11.2: Clipping files, Great Britain
Box 79-80, .55 cu feet
Clippings of articles on rehabilitation and non-rehabilitation topics from British newspapers, 1970-71.
Series XII. Photographs
Box 81
Formal and informal portraits of Maya Rivière Ward, photographs from theatrical activities and an assortment of family pictures, 1918-1952.
Series XIII. Journals and appointment books
Boxes 82-87
Throughout her entire life Rivière kept journals in which she recorded the events of her day, pasted advertisements of interest, and, as she grew older, kept a detailed record of her personal medical history. Arranged chronologically; loose in box, 1927-1989.
Subseries are as follows:
Sub-series 13.1: Personal journals
Sub-sub-series 13.1.1: Early life and Oxford University
Box 81, 6 vols.
These journals document Rivière’s life up to and including moving to England to study at Oxford. There is some information about Rivière’s work on her thesis, meetings with advisors, and related topics, 1927-1957 (with gaps).
Sub-sub-series 13.1.2: Travel journals
Box 81, 5 vols.
These journals detail Rivière’s adventures during multiple trips she took to Italy with husband John Own Ward following her retirement from Rehabilitation Codes, 1970-80.
Sub-sub-series 13.1.3: Landlord diaries
Box 82-84, 21 vols.
These diaries are a rich source of information on difficulties of being a landlord on the Upper West Side of New York City in the 1960s and 1970s. Contain detailed discussions of landlord-tenant disputes as well as newspaper clippings. Some entries made by John Owen Ward. Arranged chronologically, loose in box, 1962-68, 1970-73, 1975-77, 1979-85.
Sub-sub-series 13.1.4: Notebooks and appointment books
Box 85, 63 vols.
These items contain both personal and professional information, including often detailed notes from meetings with rehab professionals, and, as Rivière aged, meticulous accounts of her own medical history. One of the few sources of information about Rivière’s pre-Rehab Codes career and first marriage. Arranged chronologically; loose in box, 1937-1989.
Sub-series 13.2: Professional diaries
Boxes 87, 6 vols.
Small collection of diaries from the Rehabilitation Codes office, as well as two expense account notebooks, one undated, one c. 1969. Arranged chronologically; loose in box, 1965-68.
Series XIV. Oversize
Boxes 88-95
Oversized materials from other series. Includes information about Reemploy factories, studies done at the Tottenham Disability Registry Office (DRO) and the Birmingham Accident Hospital (BAH), Rehab Codes manuals and code development materials, and Visual and Communications Disorders subcommittee papers, 1947-1970.
Subseries are as follows:
Sub-series 14.1: Remploy factories
Box 89, 6 folders
Reports, memoranda, newspaper clippings, correspondence, research notes and individual charts relating to research done by Rivière at Reemploy factories while writing her dissertation and following her retirement from Rehab Codes, Inc., 1947-53, 1970-71.
Sub-series 14.2: Tottenham Disabled Registry Office (DRO)
Box 89-90, 7 folders
Research notes, forms, correspondence, home visit reports and notes for individual respondents relating to work done by Rivière at the Tottenham DRO while writing her thesis and following her retirement from Rehab Codes, Inc., 1945-52, 1970.
Sub-series 14.3: Rehabilitation Codes
Box 90-94
Summary reports and annotated working copies of the Rehabilitation Codes, 1961-70.
Sub-sub series 14.3.1: Impairment manual and codes
Box 90-91, 7 folders
Working copy of the Impairment manual and several annotated iterations of the codes, 1964-70.
Sub-sub series 14.3.2: Code Section development
Box 91, 8 folders
Notes, annotated text and annotated forms for individual sections of the Rehab Codes, 1965-66.
Sub-sub series 14.3.3: Communication Disorder Subcommittee
Box 92, .33 cu. feet
Grant applications, workshop planning documents, manual, code revisions and research materials and final report of the Communication Disorder Subcommittee, 1964-70.
Sub-sub series 14.3.4: Visual Impairment Subcommittee
Box 93, 9 folders
Grant applications, field test materials, code revisions, drafts of reports and correspondence produced by the Visual Impairment Subcommittee, 1963-73.
Sub-sub series 14.3.5: Articles, correspondence and corporate documents
Box 93, .22 cu. feet
Articles, sample intake and medical record forms, mixed clippings and correspondence related to the development of the Rehabilitation Codes and the functioning of Rehabilitation Codes, Inc., 1963-67.
Sub-sub series 14.3.6: Research materials
Box 94, 5 folders
Government documents and literature on the subject of rehabilitation published in the United Kingdom, 1943-1950.
Sub-sub series 14.3.7: Bound volumes, oversize photographs and artifacts
Box 95, 1 flat box/.33 cu. feet
Bound notebooks in which Rivière recorded notes and observations about her activities at the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation (New Jersey) and the Birmingham Accident Hospital (Birmingham, England), 1949-60.
Subject Headings and Related Records
Administrative Information
Gift of the estate of Ward’s husband, John Owen Ward; Jody Shields, executrix of the Ward estate, facilitated the transfer in December 2001.
First weeding and basic collection summary done by Stephen Novak in 2001. Processed by Jennifer McGillan, September 2008-July 2009, finding aid written by Jennifer McGillan, October 2009, incorporating some material written by Stephen Novak.