Jane Addams was the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
She dedicated her life to caring for others and co-founded one of the first
settlement houses in the United States.
Born on September 6, 1860, Laura Jane Addams was the eighth
child of Sarah and John Addams. The Cedarville, Illinois, family prospered, thanks to the good business sense of Addams’s father, who owned
a mill and eventually a bank. Addams lost her mother to illness before
her third birthday, and her eldest sister, Mary, took over the responsibility of raising the children. Addams formed an especially close relationship with her father, who instilled in her a strong sense of morality and
responsibility in helping others.
After graduating at the top of her class in 1881 from Rockford
Female Seminary, Addams enrolled in medical school, but she did not
stay there long. Her father died suddenly of a burst appendix, and
around that time Addams’s own health took a turn for the worse. She
spent years in and out of the hospital and took six months of bed rest to
recover from spinal surgery. Afterward, Addams traveled around Europe
for nearly two years. She took another two years to write and decide what
she wanted to do with her life.
Finds inspiration in England
During another trip to Europe, this time in
1888, twenty-seven-year-old Addams and her
close friend Ellen Gates Starr (1859–1940) visited a settlement house (community center) in
London. Toynbee Hall was Great Britain’s first
university settlement. There, college students
could work together to help improve the lives of
the city’s poverty-stricken population. Addams
and Starr were so impressed with the settlement
project that they returned to America determined to develop their own settlement house.
(See Settlement House Movement.)
The following year, the two women leased a
large, rundown building in the heart of
Chicago’s immigrant slum (a district marked by
intense poverty and filth). Starr and Addams
moved into the building with the goal of restoring it and providing neighborhood families with
a place to go where they could improve themselves while forging a sense of community with
one another. They named the building Hull
House (real estate tycoon Charles Hull [1820–1889] had once lived in the building). Although Hull House was
not the first settlement house in America, it would become the most famous.
The birth of Hull House
The settlement became a key component of the immigration experience
in Chicago. Historians estimate that in 1890, 68 to 80 percent of
Chicago’s population was foreign-born. Immigrants who sailed to
America’s shores and headed for Chicago went directly to Hull House,
where they knew they could find trustworthy people to help them locate
jobs, homes, and food. That year Hull House was servicing two thousand people each week.
Once Hull House proved itself a worthy cause, Addams and Starr
had little problem securing monetary donations to help keep it running.
Free medical care was provided, as was relief for the unemployed.
Addams made sure Hull House clients received education not only in academics but also in skills necessary for daily life. She and her colleagues
taught immigrants the English language and how to count money and
perform simple math calculations. She taught them how to read and
made sure they learned how to use the political system to their advantage.
Through the decades, Hull House continued to provide a safe gathering place for its neighborhood citizens. In 1961, the University of
Illinois at Chicago decided it would build its campus on the site of Hull
House. Although the neighborhood fought the decision, Hull House officially closed in 1963. Closing of the settlement house proved to be a
major loss for Chicago’s poor and displaced, as they now had one less
place to which they could turn for help.
Addams goes national
Addams became involved with other organizations as her reputation
grew. In 1905, she was appointed to the Chicago Board of Education
and elected as chairperson of the School Management Committee.
Three years later, she helped found the Chicago School of Civics and
Philanthropy (charitable giving), and she became the first female president of the National Conference of Charities and Corrections in 1909.
That same year, she helped establish the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), an organization that promotes equality between the races and is still active in the twenty-first
century. From 1911 to 1914, Addams was vice president of the National
American Women’s Suffrage Association, one of the key women’s organizations of the era. All the while, she remained at the center of social reform in Chicago. Addams headed investigations involving city sanitation
issues and even accepted a position as a garbage inspector.
Throughout, a feminist
Addams believed women should have voting rights, and she encouraged
women to create their own opportunities for growth and development.
She was also a pacifist (one who is against violence of any kind), and she
traveled the country speaking on the importance of peace. She gave lectures against America’s involvement in World War I (1914–18) and was
made chairperson of the Women’s Peace Party in 1915. Shortly after that,
she was elected president of the Women’s International League for Peace
and Freedom, a position she held until 1929.
Addams’s public disapproval of America’s involvement in the war
brought attacks upon her in the newspapers and political magazines.
Addams did not let the controversy weaken her position; she chose instead to work with Herbert Hoover (1874–1964), who would soon be
elected U.S. president, in a program that provided food supplies to the
women and children of America’s enemies in the war. For her tireless humanitarian efforts, Addams was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931.
In addition to her many social and political activities, Addams found
time to write. She authored numerous magazine articles on social reform
issues and published seven books on social reform and pacifism. Addams
died of cancer on May 21, 1935.