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Jane Addams grew up in a cultured, middle-class, liberal environment in northern Illinois. Her mother died when she was two; her father was a prosperous businessman, state senator and fervent abolitionist. After graduation from Rockford Female Seminary in 1882, several years of travel, aborted studies, occasional charity work, depression and poor health followed. Concerned over urban poverty and seeking purpose in her own life, Addams gradually formulated the ambitious project which would become her life's work. |
In 1889, she and Ellen Starr purchased an old mansion in the middle of Chicago's immigrant neighborhoods and turned it into the Hull House settlement. This innovative institution aimed to alleviate the poverty and alienation of urban life, serving as community center, meeting place, nursery, educational resource, gymnasium, arts center and boardinghouse. Under Addams' leadership, the settlement also fought for progressive social reform, sponsoring studies of urban conditions and lobbying for legislation on housing, working conditions and child labor. Addams envisioned the settlement house not simply as charity for the poor, but as invaluable life experience for the educated, privileged but reform-minded young women who worked there. The success of Hull House spawned similar institutions in many other cities.
Addams developed her social philosophy in lectures and writings, including the bestselling autobiography Twenty Years at Hull-House (1910). Her political activity stretched beyond the settlement movement. During World War I, she led international efforts to mediate between the warring parties and helped found the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. She also helped found the American Civil Liberties Union. In 1931, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
SOURCE: Notable American Women. |
