Folklorist, Author, Leader of the Russell Sage Foundation, Social Worker, Genealogist. She was born at sea aboard the sailing vessel Charlotte A. Littlefield, captained by her father Lincoln Alden Colcord on the passage from Newcastle, N.S.W., to Yokohama, near the island of New Caledonia. She spent most of her early years with her family sailing between her home of Searsport, Maine, and ports as distant as Hong Kong. Like her younger brother, noted author and journalist Lincoln Ross Colcord, she was also a noted writer, heavily influenced by her time spent at sea. She is best remembered for her books about sea language, and also her books on the work songs and sea chanties of the sailors. These works remain as noted works for those researching folk music and life at sea. John and Alan Lomax at the Library of Congress consulted with her on the topic of West Indian songs. At a young age, she also became a skilled photographer. Her shipboard images are now held in various museum collections, including the Penobscot Marine Museum. As a young woman she attended the University of Maine, studying chemistry, and obtained a Masters degree in the field. She soon found the careers for women in this field did not suit her, so she turned toward the study of social work at the urging of a professor. She soon entered a program of study at the New York School of Philanthropy. Following her schooling in 1911, she was employed with the New York Charity Organi­zation Society. Within just three years, she was in charge of its twelve district offices. During her time with the organization, she took a leave for two years to work with the Red Cross in the Virgin Islands. Upon leaving New York in 1925, she became General Secretary of the Minnesota Family Welfare Association. She returned to New York in 1929, taking on the role in social work for which she is best known, as Director of the Charity Organization Department of the Russell Sage Foundation. She was highly regarded in the field of public assistance and social policy. She also advocated for raising the professional training standards for her field, and for promoting scientific research and administration in social work. During the depression, she became an important link between the world of private social work and the federal government's welfare and relief administrators. She advocated for the federal responsibility for relief, and for a new economic security program. She was supportive of President Roosevelt, but at times she was also critical that the New Deal was not doing enough. She wrote many important and lasting books in the field of social work, as well as the previously mentioned popular works such as, Roll and Go: Songs of American Sailormen, the enlarged Songs of American Sailormen, and Sea Language Comes Ashore. For the Russell Sage Foundation she authored pioneering social work texts such as, Community Planning in Unemployment Emergencies, Broken Homes: A Study of Family Desertion and its Social Treatment, Setting Up a Program of Work Relief, Cash Relief, Your Community: Its Provisions for Health, Education, Safety, and Welfare, and Community Programs for Subsistence Gardens, as well as numerous pamphlets and articles. She was also a skilled genealogist, who researched her Colcord line, including a published journal article on her earliest immigrant ancestor entitled, Edward Colcord: Rebel. In 2003, a book of correspondence from her childhood years was published by Tilbury House Publishers entitled, Letters From Sea, 1882-1901: Joanna and Lincoln Colcord's Seafaring Childhood, edited by Parker Bishop Albee, Jr. Worsening health problems forced her to retire in 1945. She remained single until age 68, when she married her colleague and widower, Frank J. Bruno. Bruno died within five years of their marriage, and she lived out the rest of her days with relatives in Lebanon, Indiana. She passed five years after her husband due to complications related to a stroke.

Bio by: Jon Colcord