This collection consists of research notes and materials that Professor Michael Engh, S.J., then of the Department of History, Loyola Marymount University, compiled for a proposed biography of Mary Julia Workman (1871-1964), a Roman Catholic social activist and member of a prominent Los Angeles family. The call to the presidency of Santa Clara University, and its incumbent responsibilities, on Michael Engh, S.J., halted this project, but the research materials gathered for this project provide a wealth of information on not only Mary Julia Workman and her important family, but also on Los Angeles history in the early 1900s, the history of settlement houses in Los Angeles, Roman Catholic social activism, and women’s history.

Mary Julia Workman was born in 1871 as the daughter of William and Maria Workman. The Workman family are a prominent Los Angeles family. William was Protestant, but the Roman Catholic faith of her mother, Maria, predominated; consequently, Mary Workman received a Catholic education, graduating in 1890 from the Convent of the Sacred Heart of Mary and Jesus, in Oakland. In 1902 she completed studies in kindergarten teaching, at the State Normal School in Los Angeles; Workman would teach in the city's public schools until 1923.

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Collection is open to research under the terms of use of the Department of Archives and Special Collections, Loyola Marymount University.