Disability History Fact: Ima Hogg
Office of the Governor Texas sent this bulletin at 10/30/2013 08:00 AM CDTCommittee on People with Disabilities
Ima Hogg (1882 – 1975) was eight years old when her father was elected Governor of Texas. After attending the University of Texas, she studied music in New York and abroad for many years, winding up in Houston where she helped found the Houston Symphony Orchestra. She became ill in late 1918 and spent the next two years in Philadelphia under the care of a specialist in mental and nervous disorders.
Perhaps because of her own experience, she became an active advocate for people with mental illness. In 1940, she established the Hogg Foundation for Mental Hygiene, which later became the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health at the University of Texas. In its early years the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health concentrated on educating the people of Texas about mental health.
One of the main concerns of the donors was that the knowledge of human behavior and mental health available through the intellectual resources of a university campus should be disseminated throughout the country. During the 1940s the Hogg Foundation's small staff traveled to hundreds of small Texas towns and rural communities to talk to professional and civic groups about the new ideas in mental health.
By 1954 the Foundation's annual income had grown sufficiently to allow the development of a major research program. A Hogg Foundation program was established to award grants in support of meritorious projects throughout the state. In addition, the Foundation became involved in programs for the education and training of professional mental-health workers; the expansion of state and community services; the extension of mental-health education by the large-scale use of pamphlets and by using other media such as books, radio, and television; and the strengthening of cooperative efforts with other foundations in the Southwest.
The 1960s brought increasing concern at the Hogg Foundation for the larger problems of society. Emphasis focused on campus mental health and on intervention with special population groups.
Adapted from:
Virginia Bernhard, "HOGG, IMA," Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fho16), accessed September 30, 2013. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
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