HISTORY

With roots dating back to 1941, Josephine Herrick Project (JHP) began as a volunteer service charity that provided free programs to wounded veterans to support their rehabilitation and transition to civilian life. New York City photographer Josephine Herrick taught our first course, in defense photography, under the auspices of the War Service Photography Division of the American Women’s Voluntary Services. In these early years, War Service Photography received assistance from the Camera Club of New York.

WARTIME

After the United States joined World War II in December 1941, Herrick organized a group of fellow volunteers to photograph servicemen at canteens. Their mission: to make portraits of those headed overseas and send the photos home to their families with an attached personal note. This was their heartfelt attempt to keep families united and to raise spirits during a time when war brought so much uncertainty and distance. Herrick soon started receiving moving letters from the families with thankful expressions of the importance of the photographs and notes.

POST-WAR REHABILITATION

This powerful sentiment was widely recognized, and Dr. Howard Rusk, a pioneer of rehabilitative medicine, invited Herrick to visit veterans’ hospitals and work with him to aid their healing. As wounded soldiers returned home for indefinite hospital stays, his idea was to teach photography as a unique form of therapy. In 1942, the U.S. military commissioned volunteers to teach photography skills at more than 50 locations around the country. Portable darkrooms were designed so that even bedridden patients could partake in photography sessions as well as learn to develop and print their own photographs. In May 1944, War Service Photography began providing rehabilitation photography services at veterans’ hospitals including St. Albans Naval Hospital and Brooklyn Naval Hospital in New York City. WSP’s teaching and nurturing of veterans continued after the war, and in 1946 our organization incorporated as an independent nonprofit named Volunteer Service Photographers (VSP).

MISSION EXPANSION

Josephine Herrick served as VSP’s executive director and guiding force. Over the next several decades our organization continued to work in veterans’ hospitals during the Korean War and Vietnam War. Seeing the limitless therapeutic potential of photography, we broadened our efforts to reach other populations. Josephine Herrick’s volunteer and grassroots work became so well known that requests started pouring in from facilities serving terminally ill and emotionally challenged individuals. During this time, we expanded our focus to cover civilian hospitals, nursing facilities, and—one of the first civilian beneficiaries of our photography programs—Memorial Hospital, which subsequently became Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

EVOLUTION IN LEADERSHIP

Josephine Herrick remained involved with our organization until her death in 1972. Her successor, Jean Lewis, who had begun work at VSP in 1954, remained for 55 years and served as the executive director for more than 20 years.

NAME CHANGES

In 1982, our organization was renamed Rehabilitation Through Photography (RTP), reflecting our broader mission, as a division of American Women’s Voluntary Services. By 2013, the popular understanding of the word “rehabilitation” had shifted, and the name of our organization changed again, this time to honor our founder. Since then, our work has further expanded to encompass a wide array of under-served communities, bringing our powerful photography programs to disadvantaged youth, people with disabilities, senior citizens, and people of all ages living in public housing.