Jane Addams

By: Shani Hagelberger.



Jane Addeams was born in Cedarville, Illinois in 1860. She was the eighth child in a family of nine. Her mother passed away when she was two years old and she succumbed to tuberculosis that left her with a deformed spine. Some say these two experiences in her life made her compassionate to the disadvantaged. After receiving a bachelor’s degree from Rockford College for Women, Jane pondered her future---she studied medicine, reading and writing and traveled. While touring Europe with her friend, Ellen Starr, she came to realize her vision after visiting a settlement house, Toynbee Hall, in London’s East End. Toynbee Hall offered recreation and educational programs to the poor. They decided to lease a house, built by Charles Hull, in an underprivileged area of Chicago that would serve “as a center for a higher civic and social life; to institute and maintain educational and philanthropic enterprises and to investigate and improve the conditions in the industrial districts of Chicago”. There were kindergarten classes, club meetings for older children, and adult courses at night that mimicked night school. As time went on, buildings were added, such as a coffee house, gym, pool, art studio, library—to name just a few. She held many titles throughout her lifetime. She was appointed to Chicago’s Board of Education, and the School Management Committee; she was one founder of the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy and became the first woman president of the National Conference of Charities and Corrections. She was against America entering the war and was attacked publicly for her views. She used this hostility to fuel her humanitarian ways and assisted Herbert Hoover in bringing relief supplies to women and children of enemy nations. She missed the presentation of her Nobel Peace Prize as she was hospitalized the same day. She died in 1935 of cancer and her funeral was held in the courtyard of the Hull House.


Jane Addams was a feminist. She believed that women should make their voices heard and women should have aspirations and search out opportunities to accomplish them.

Jane Addams: The Nobel Peace Prize 1931 retrieved from www.Nobelprize.org
Addams, Jane. Twenty years at Hull- House: With Autobiographical Notes. New York, Macmillan, 1910.