Neva Leona Boyd (February 25, 1876 in Sanborn,

Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...

– November 21, 1963 in Chicago) was an American sociologist. She founded the Recreational Training School at the

Hull House Hull House was a settlement house in Chicago, Illinois, that was co-founded in 1889 by Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr. Located on the Near West Side of Chicago, Hull House, named after the original house's first owner Charles Jerald Hul ...

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. The school taught a one-year educational program in group games, gymnastics, dancing, dramatic arts, play theory, and social problems. She was on the faculty of

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

from 1927 to 1941.

Biography

Born in 1876 in Iowa, Boyd moved to Chicago after high school. She enrolled in the Chicago Kindergarten Institute (now

National Louis University National Louis University (NLU) is a private nonprofit university with its main campus in Chicago, Illinois. NLU enrolls undergraduate and graduate students in more than 60 programs across its four colleges. It has locations throughout the Chica ...

) and eventually arrived at Hull House, a

settlement house The settlement movement was a reformist social movement that began in the 1880s and peaked around the 1920s in the United Kingdom and the United States. Its goal was to bring the rich and the poor of society together in both physical proximity an ...

for European immigrants. She taught

kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cen ...

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is a Administrative divisions of New York (state), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and county seat of Erie County, New York, Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of ...

, before returning in 1908 to attend the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

. The Chicago Park Commission hired Boyd as a social worker, specifically to organize social clubs, direct dramatics, supervise social dances and play activities. At Hull House, Neva Boyd ran movement and recreational groups for children. She used games and improvisation to teach language skills, problem-solving, self-confidence and social skills. During the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

, Boyd worked with the Recreational Project in the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; from 1935 to 1939, then known as the Work Projects Administration from 1939 to 1943) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to car ...

, (WPA). In 1927, Boyd accepted Northwestern University's invitation to move The Chicago Training School for Playground Workers from Hull House to its own Department of Sociology. Boyd became a sociology and theatre professor at the University of Chicago and is one of the founders of the

Recreational Therapy Recreational therapy or therapeutic recreation (TR) is a systematic process that utilizes recreation, leisure, and other activities as interventions to address the assessed needs of individuals with illnesses and/or disabling conditions, as a mea ...

and Educational Drama movements in the U.S. Boyd also worked in military convalescent homes. The

Red Cross The organized International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 16million volunteering, volunteers, members, and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ...

, which established these convalescent houses, ensured that all wounded veterans engaged in playful games to prepare them for leaving the hospital. By the 1940s, Boyd's methods found their ways into every military hospital in the country. Colonel William C. Menninger, co-founder of the Menninger Foundation, an internationally known center for treatment of behavioral disorders and

Viola Spolin Viola Spolin (November 7, 1906 — November 22, 1994) was an American theatre academic, educator and acting coach. She is considered an important innovator in 20th century American theater for creating directorial techniques to help actors to be ...

, originator of

Theater Games Theatre games are structured activities and exercises designed to train actors, that was developed in the 20th century by practitioners such as Viola Spolin and son Paul Sills, Joan Littlewood, Clive Barker, Keith Johnstone, Jerzy Grotowski and A ...

improvisational theater techniques, were two of her students.

Books published

* ''Old Square Dances of America'' by N. Boyd e Tressie M. Dunlavy (1932, 2007) * ''Handbook of Recreational Games'' (1975). Dover Publications facsimile reprint of ''Handbook of Games'' (1945), see below * ''Play and game theory in group work: A collection of papers by Neva Leona Boyd'' por N. Boyd e Paul Simon (1971) *''Social group work: A definition with a methodological note'' de Neva Leona Boyd, (1971). Ed Jane Addams Graduate School of Social Work, University of Illinois at Chicago Circle * ''Social group work;: A definition with a methodological note'' (1949) * ''Handbook of games'' (1945) * ''Home games: A collection of games'' Neva Leona Boyd (1942) * Group work experiments in state institutions. In ''Proceedings of the National Conference on Social Work'' (pp. 339–345). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (1935). * ''Folk Games and Gymnastic Play for Kindergarten, Primary, and Playground'' Dayny, and Neva L. Boyd Pedersen (1914, 1932) * ''Hospital and bedside games'' (1930, 1945) * ''Schoolroom games'' (1932) * ''Outline for recording on clubs and dramatic groups'' (1932) * ''Hospital and Bedside Games'' (1919) * ''Old English and American Games for School and Playground'' by Florence Warren and Boyd, Neva L. Brown (Paperback - 1915) * ''Folk Games of Denmark and Sweden for School, Playground and Social Center'' Dagny and Boyd, Neva L. Pedersen (1915)

Biography

Books published

References

Further reading