‘Let Us Go Then, You and I’ – Journeying with Ada Eliot Sheffield

Abstract

My purpose in this article is to illustrate how framing social work in the life world of Ada Sheffield, a largely forgotten woman, yields not only knowledge and understanding, but may exemplify a way of doing social work history. The article draws on two kinds of material. First, I have developed a provisional, if still incomplete, bibliography of her work, included as an annex to this article. Second, I have searched the various Eliot archives in the USA and England to discover what survives of her correspondence. Through her surviving correspondence with her brother, T S (‘Tom’) Eliot, I take Ada Sheffield’s life experiences and thoughts – her self-consciousness – as the frame, wishing insistently to hear her voice. The article is written largely around a single year, which acts as a point of balance for her life. I conclude with several more direct suggestions for social work implications. I briefly attempt an outline of what would constitute her intellectual biography.