Changemaker name [38]: Jane Addams [11]
Dates [15]: 1860–1935 [11]
Quote [190]:
[T]he Bible formed the inspiration for her life of service and was a
foundational source for determining how best to live the vocation for which
she was destined.
Quote credit [50]:
Ann W. Duncan, religious studies scholar, 2015
Image credit [270]: National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, partial
gift of Mrs. Nancy Pierce York and Mrs. Grace Pierce Forbes
Subheader [40]: Inspired by Faith [17]
Synopsis copy [220]:
Jane Addams, the “Mother of American Social Work,” was a pioneer of the
Settlement House Movement for urban poor, founder of the famed Hull House
in Chicago, and an international peace advocate and Nobel laureate.
Quote (optional) [184]: N/A
Quote credit (optional) [50]: N/A
Image credit [270]:
Swarthmore College Peace Collection [35]
Subheader [40]: A Life of Faith [15]
Body copy [311]:
Jane Addams worked to end child labor, support workers’ rights, achieve
women’s suffrage, promote human potential among all classes and peoples,
and champion democracy and international peace. [259]
Date [15]: 1881 [4]
Title [83]: Graduates from Rockford Female Seminary [39]
Description [340]:
Jane Addams was raised in a pious and privileged Illinois home. She attended a
Christian female college and struggled with her faith. Leo Tolstoy’s book My
Religion led her to belief and baptism in 1886 as a Presbyterian. [221]
Image caption [142]:
Jane Addams holding a parasol in her class photo at Rockford Seminary, 1881
[75]
Image credit [278]:
Swarthmore College Peace Collection [35]
Date [15]: 1889 [4]
Title [83]: Cofounds Hull House [20]
Description [340]:
Addams and Ellen Gates Starr founded Hull House on Chicago’s Near West
Side. America’s first social settlement house engaged its resident “community
of university women” (young upper-class women) in service and fellowship
with immigrants and urban poor through cultural and educational programs.
Image caption [142]:
Hull House in the early 1900s [25]
Image credit [278]:
Wikimedia Commons
Date [15]: Feb. 12, 1909 [13]
Title [83]: NAACP Founded [13]
Description [340]:
Inspired by her friend and fellow activist Ida B. Wells, Jane Addams spoke out
against lynching and advocated for African American civil rights. She was a
founding member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People (NAACP). [245]
Image caption [142]:
Jane Addams, W. E. B. Du Bois, and other activists attend the Fourth Annual
Conference of the NAACP in Chicago, 1917 [114]
Image credit [278]:
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library
Date [15]: 1911 [4]
Title [83]: Elected Vice President of the National Woman Suffrage Association
[65]
Description [340]:
Addams was a vocal advocate for women’s rights, publishing writings on the
subject and serving as the Vice President for the National Woman Suffrage
Association for four years. [176]
Image caption [142]:
Women riding in a truck with a “Votes for Women” banner that advertises Jane
Addams speaking at Carnegie Hall, February 9, 1913 [127]
Image credit [278]:
Paul Thompson/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images [47]
Date [15]: 1915 [4]
Title [83]: Starts Work with the Woman’s Peace Party [40]
Description [340]:
As the national chairman of the Woman’s Peace Party, Addams was invited to
preside over the International Congress of Women at the Hague, in the
Netherlands, during World War I. This congress led to the formation of the
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, with Addams serving
as its first president. [311]
Image caption [142]:
American delegates to the International Congress of Women held at the Hague
in the Netherlands, 1915 [99]
Image credit [278]:
Library of Congress [19]
Date [15]: 1931 [4]
Title [83]: Receives the Nobel Peace Prize [30]
Description [340]:
Jane Addams’s efforts to preserve peace earned her the Nobel Peace Prize. She
was the first American woman to receive this honor. She donated her prize
money to the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. [215]
Image caption [142]: Nobel Peace Prize medal [23]
Image credit [278]:
Akademie / Alamy Stock Photo [28]
Subheader [40]: Faith in Action [15]
Body copy [227]:
Hull House was “to provide 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.”
Image caption [144]:
Hull House library, ca. 1890 [27]
Image credit [60]:
Swarthmore College Peace Collection [35]
Body copy [227]:
Hull House served people of a variety of faiths. According to Addams,
“diversity of creed was part of the situation in American Settlements, as it was
our task to live in a neighborhood of many nationalities and faiths.” [220]
Image caption [144]:
Jane Addams and others in the Hull House dining room, 1934 [58]
Image credit [60]:
Swarthmore College Peace Collection [35]
Body copy [227]:
Hull House was an 1856 Italianate mansion, a relic now enveloped by the
blight of an industrialized neighborhood. Addams and Starr wanted to create a
place of beauty for the neighborhood to enjoy. [212]
Image caption [144]: People seated in the Hull House reception room, ca. 1930
[56]
Image credit [60]:
Swarthmore College Peace Collection [35]
Body copy [227]:
The original Hull House site has been preserved as a museum that informs the
public about Jane Addams and other social reformers. It continues to serve the
Chicago community, as it has since its founding in 1889.
Image caption [144]:
Interior of the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, 2020[52]
Image credit [60]:
Image used with permission from Jane Addams Hull-House Museum. 2020
Subheader [40]: Legacy of Liberty [17]
Question/alignment statement [179]:
Do you think that the call of Jesus requires a life of self-reflection and
self-sacrifice?
Image credit [270]:
Jane Addams Hull-House Museum. 2020. Jane Addams Hull-House Museum is
an independent institution and a part of the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Jane Addams Hull-House Museum is not affiliated with ABS or FLDC.
Scripture [200]:
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you want to come with me, you must
forget yourself, carry your cross, and follow me.”
Scripture credit [50]: Matthew 16:24
Image credit [270]: Granger
Related changemakers: Dorothy Day, William Jennings Bryan and Rebecca
Gratz
