Our History
The Merrill Palmer Skillman Institute's mission is to promote and improve the development, health and well-being of infants, children, youth and their families across the lifespan, through research, training and outreach.
Merrill-Palmer in Detroit: A Century of Community Making (1920-2020) – A digital version of our historical exhibit celebrating our 100th Anniversary. This exhibit is currently on display in the Pauline Knapp Building on Wayne State's campus.
THEN & NOW: Brief History of the Merrill Palmer Skillman Institute
From the beginning to the present
In 1916, Lizzie Pitts Merrill Palmer left a bequest to found the Merrill-Palmer School. She believed that the welfare of any community is divinely, and inseparably, dependent upon the quality of its motherhood and the spirit and character of its homes." Mrs. Merrill Palmer thought that training women and men in child development and family functioning would build both the families and communities. Through the insightful leadership of Tracy McGregor, the executor of Mrs. Merrill Palmer's will, the School was organized, found a home in the Freer House, and began operating by 1920.
Edna Noble White, an early pioneer in child development research, was hired by Mr. McGregor in 1919 and served as the first director of the school from 1920 until 1947. Well ahead of her time, Ms. White established the highly innovative model of multidisciplinary training, research and community engagement that informs MPSI to this day.
The Institute's early efforts were aimed at serving Detroit's children through formal academic programs in infant, toddler, child and adolescent development, and in family functioning, for both professionals and parents/caregivers. Over the decades, MPSI trained students from across the nation and around the world, and hosted renowned visiting scientists including Jean Piaget and Margaret Mead. Today graduate research training program at MPSI includes students in social work, developmental and clinical psychology, and neuroscience. MPSI training today also features the world's only dual-title Infant Mental Health program in which students can earn graduate degrees in infant mental health and, education or nursing or social work.
MPSI established a nursery school in 1922, later named the "Child Development Laboratory," as both a training site for its students and a resource for the community, and that served as a model for similar organizations across the country for decades. Today, in collaboration with colleagues in the College of Education, the current Early Childhood Centers on campus remain honored and valued resources.
MPSI has a long and respected history of producing ground-breaking research in the area of child development, and in providing training and education to scientists at many levels and in various fields. For example, MPSI researchers played important roles in the emergence of the field of pediatric nutrition (i.e., the work of Icie Macy Hoobler), standardized assessment of child development (i.e., "the Merrill-Palmer Scales"), the concept of "school readiness," and the development of national standards for Head Start programs. Today's MPSI researchers and their collaborators across the university continue to have an impact nationally in areas of infant mental health, adolescent development, developmental neurobiology, prenatal substance exposures, child maltreatment, early childhood education, and more.
In 1981, MPSI was incorporated into Wayne State University as a university-wide research institute within the Office of the Vice President for Research. In 2005, the Merrill Palmer Institute for Child Development was merged with Wayne State's Skillman Center for Children and Families to form the current Merrill Palmer Skillman Institute for Child & Family Development. The vision of the Skillman Center to promote the well-being of children, especially in urban settings was perfectly consistent with the mission of the Merrill Palmer Institute and the merger increased MPSI's reach and effectiveness in community outreach and advocacy through the current Healthier Urban Families program.
Today, under Director Alissa Huth-Bocks, MPSI continues to serve as a model of multidisciplinary research, training and community outreach and engagement, and as a leader in child development at Wayne State University, across Detroit and Michigan, and beyond.
TIMELINE
1916
Lizzie Merrill Palmer bequeaths $3 million to establish a school for young women. With insightful leadership, executor Tracy McGregor organizes the school, purchases the Freer House as its home and enrolls students by 1920.
1920
Edna Noble White becomes the first director of the Merrill-Palmer School for Motherhood and Homemaking. Direct engagement with children and families is a foundational principle.
1920
Merrill-Palmer researches malnutrition in young children due to World War I food shortages.
1922
Merrill-Palmer opens the country’s second nursery school and demonstrates the importance of studying and working directly with young children.
1923
Merrill-Palmer joins Children’s Hospital to research nutrition in pregnancy and early infancy.
1924
Merrill-Palmer School establishes one of the country’s first community child guidance clinics.
1927
The Infant Service began as an extension of the pregnancy service. Mothers could bring their babies to Merrill-Palmer to check on their feeding and physical development. Interest in babies led to later involvement in the Cornelian Corner. This Detroit professional group promoted healthy parent-child development. Their "Rooming-In" project in four Detroit hospitals kept mothers and babies together immediately after birth. This common practice today was novel at the time.
1929
Merrill-Palmer creates rating scales for personality development and attitudes in young children. Versions of these scales are still in use today.
1931
Merrill-Palmer publishes the results of an eight-year research project on “The Measurement of Intelligence of the Preschool Child.”
1943
Merrill-Palmer School publishes the landmark book, “Child Development: Physical and Psychological Growth through Adolescence.”
1943
The Works Progress Administration (WPA) started emergency nursery schools in the 1930s to help working parents through the Great Depression and to create jobs for teachers, cooks and nurses. As World War II loomed, women filled jobs when men went to war. Their children would need care and the WPA programs became a model for how the government could help working women during the war. By late 1943 these nursery schools and daycare facilities hit capacity and many often had waiting lists. Merrill-Palmer worked with the Detroit Board of Education to train staff and develop standards for these "war nurseries" in Michigan. Despite assurances that federal funding would continue after the war, support ended in 1946. Two decades later, the war nurseries provided a model for federal Head Start programs.
1944
Merrill-Palmer began a conferences to share information about infant and maternal health. The Infant Conferences, held annually between 1957 and 1975, helped launch infant studies as a specialty subfield and the Institute's Infant Mental Health program in the 1980s.
1947
Edna Knoble White retires and Ester McGinnis served as director for three years.
1947
In 1947 Detroiters presented their idea at the conference of the American Medical Association.
1950
Pauline Wilson Knapp take leadership of Merrill-Palmer.
1952
The "School" becomes an institute and name changes to Merrill-Palmer Institute
1952
Merrill-Palmer also explored ways of reaching deeper into the community through new media. In 1952, the Institute joined 18 other organizations to form what became Detroit's public television station, WTVS Channel 56. For many years, Merrill-Palmer aired a half-hour program on child development and parenting.
1954
The Merrill-Palmer Quarterly is established and quickle becomes a top scientific journal for child development research and is still published by Wayne State University Peess.
1964
Merrill-Palmer is key in developing the philosophy and national standards for Head Start.
1965
Funded by a large gift from Rose P. Skillman, the Skillman Building opened its doors for use by community members to educate and support families. The building was intended to bring people of different backgrounds together and foster community through events, programs, classes, clubs, and recreation.
1965
President Lyndon Johnson introduced Head Start as part of his Great Society program. Head Start's national director at the time said, "Project Head Start offers resources with which communities may develop programs for preschool children designed to prepare them to meet the challenge of school and to learn to succeed rather than to fail." Keith Osborn, chairman of Community Services at Merrill-Palmer, served on the national advisory committee and began the Detroit branch of the program. The Head Start program still exists today and has served over 36 million children.
1981
Merrill-Palmer Institute becomes part of Wayne State University.
1982
1983
Inaugural Giant Step Teen Conference promotes harmony across diverse groups through frank discussion that bridges race, culture, ethnicity, religion and income. Each year the conference welcomes approximately two hundred 9th and 10th grade students from accross metro Detroit to Michigan's longest-running teen conference.
1988
Merrill-Palmer launched the Infant Mental Health program (in conjunction with schools and colleges at Wayne State University) and granted more than 120 graduate certificates
1989-1999
Merrill-Palmer partners with Chrysler’s UAW to create the country’s first resource and referral center to help employees find quality childcare.
1991
Merrill-Palmer hosts “100 Languages of Children” on the innovative Reggio Emilia approach to play-based early childhood education.
2003
WSU's President Irvin D. Reid creates Children's Bridge with Merrill-Palmer Institute
2005
The Skillman Center for Children is integrated into Merrill-Palmer to create the Merrill Palmer Skillman Institute, emphasizing both organizations’ commitment to community outreach.
2008
Peter A. Lichtenberg, PhD, WSU, Institute of Gerontology (Director 1999-2024) is named as director of MPSI and founds the Lifespan Alliance for developmental science campus at Wayne State University.
2010
The Woodward Corridor Early Childhood Consortium was formed by MPSI and the College of Education in response to the needs of nearby childcare providers. Funded by a Kresge Foundation grant it provided resources and professional development to neighborhood childcare centers.
2011
The Early Childhood Center at MPSI is accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), reserved for only the most highly qualified preschools that meet or exceed more than 400 separate criteria in staffing, curriculum, physical environment, and parent, child and school relationships.
2013
The annual Giant Step Teen Conference (hosted by MPSI) observes its 30th anniversary of uniting teens from diverse Detroit neighborhoods so they can understand and respect each other. Nearly 6,000 teens have participated since 1983.
2014
MPSI’s community program reaches 8,000 people in metro Detroit with trainings on child and family issues for parents, educators and children
The Freer House was honored to receive a visit recently from Lee Glazer, curator of American Art, Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian, shown visiting Freer’s new courtyard garden. Lee is author of a new book, Charles Lang Freer: a Cosmopolitan Life. S
2020
MPS celebrate 100 years of women, Science, Children and Community
2022
Alissa Huth-Bocks, PhD, named Director.