Jane Addams

1860-1935

Jane Addams was born on September 6, 1860 in Cedarville, Illinois. She was committed to the democratic ideals that inspired her many diverse achievements as a social reformer, writer, activist, feminist, and international peace advocate. She co-founded the Hull-House with Ellen Starr Gates, which was the first settlement house in the United States. Addams and the other residents of the settlement provided services for the neighborhood around Hull-House, which was a residential and industrial neighborhood where
immigrants to Chicago crowded into.

They made speeches about the needs of the neighborhood, raised money, convinced young women of well-to-do families to help, took care of children, nursed the sick, and listened to outpourings from troubled people. By its second year of existence, Hull-House was host to two thousand people every week. There were kindergarten classes in the morning, club meetings for older children in the afternoon, and for adults in the evening more clubs or courses in what became virtually a night school. The first facility added to Hull-House was an art gallery, the second a public kitchen; then came a coffee house, a gymnasium, a swimming pool, a cooperative boarding club for girls, a book bindery, an art studio, a music school, a drama group, a circulating library, an employment bureau, a labor museum.

The Hull-House residents and their supporters forged a powerful reform movement lead by Addams. Among the projects that they launched were the Immigrants' Protective League, The Juvenile Protective Association, the first juvenile court in the nation, and a Juvenile Psychopathic Clinic, later called the Institute for Juvenile Research. Through their efforts, the Illinois legislature enacted protective legislation for women and children and in 1903 passed a strong child labor law and an accompanying compulsory education law. With the creation of the Federal Children's Bureau in 1912 and the passage of a federal child labor law in 1916, the Hull-House reformers saw their efforts expanded to the national level.

Addams wrote prolifically on topics related to Hull-House activities, producing eleven books and numerous articles, as well as maintaining an active speaking schedule nationwide and throughout the world. She also played an important role in many local and national organizations. A founder of the Chicago Federation of Settlements in 1894, she also helped to establish the National Federation of Settlements and Neighborhood Centers in 1911. She was a leader in the Consumers League and served as the first woman president of the National Conference of Charities and Corrections, later the National Conference of Social Work. She was chair of the Labor Committee of the General Federation of Women's Clubs, vice-president of the Campfire Girls, on the executive board of the National Playground Association, the National Child Labor Committee and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. In addition, she actively supported the campaign for woman suffrage and the founding of the American Civil Liberties Union

In the early years of the twentieth century Jane Addams became involved in the peace movement, becoming an important advocate of internationalism. This interest grew during the First World War, when she participated in the International Congress of Women at the Hague in 1915. She maintained her pacifist stance after the United States entered the war in 1917, working through the Women's Peace Party, which became the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom in 1919. She served as president until 1929, as presiding officer of its six international conferences in those years, and as honorary president for the remainder of her life. In 1931 she was recognized as the first among the twelve greatest living American women. That same year she received the Nobel Peace Prize and was the second woman—and the first American woman—to receive that honor. Her life’s work was truly spent promoting understanding, tolerance, and mutual respect among people and she is an inspiration to all people.

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