Joanna C. (Joanna Carver) Colcord

Born on March 18, 1882, aboard her father's ship in the southwest Pacific, Joanna Carver Colcord grew up between life at sea and time ashore in Searsport, Maine. Her parents came from long-established Maine seafaring families, and that background deeply shaped the maritime knowledge she later preserved in her writing.

After studying at the University of Maine and the New York School of Social Work, she built a major career in social welfare. She worked with the New York Charity Organization Society, served with the American Red Cross in the Virgin Islands, led the Minnesota Family Welfare Association, and later headed the Charity Organization Division of the Russell Sage Foundation. She became known as a strong voice for professional standards, research, and cooperation between private and public welfare efforts.

Alongside that work, Colcord wrote books and articles that captured sailors' speech, work songs, and traditions, helping preserve parts of maritime culture that might otherwise have been lost. She died on April 8, 1960, but she remains remembered both for her contributions to social work and for her lasting record of American seafaring life.