Jane was born in 1860 in Cedarville, Illinois. Her mother and father were considered wealthy in their town. Her father was a business man and also a political figure, serving on several business boards and in the Illinois Senate. Jane’s mother Died in 1862, when she was only 2 years old.
Jane had 5 brothers and sisters at the time of her mother’s death. Her father re-married only 3 years later, and 2 stepbrothers were added to the family. Jane was raised by her father, despite the presence of her stepmother. Jane was encouraged by her father to pursue an education, but to keep in mind that her place as a woman was to seek marriage and family before a career.
Jane chose to attend Rockford Female Seminary, which has now been renamed Rockford College. Today, Rockford College is a private college for both men and women. Jane was one of the first women to take courses equivalent to those taken by men at other institutions. Jane graduated as the valedictorian of her class in 1881, but did not receive her degree until the school was accredited as Rockford College for Women in 1882.
Within months of Jane’s graduation, her father died. After his death, Jane went into a deep depression and was bedridden for over a year. Jane had a spinal disorder that became inflamed because of her depression, and she was forced to have surgery because of it.
After her recovery, Jane moved to Pennsylvania to attend Medical School. In 1883, she quickly withdrew from the school and decided instead to tour Europe with her friend from Rockford Female Seminary. Jane would go on to tour Europe at least two more times, including 1885 and 1888. Jane also made several trips to Europe later in life to fulfill her duties as the President of the Women’s International Leave for Peace and Freedom.
In 1888, Jane visited England with her friend Ellen Gates Starr. Her observations of the immigrants in England and the housing available to them inspired her to begin the plans for a settlement house in the United States. Jane invested the $50,000 that she inherited from her father’s death into what would become the Hull House.
Jane Addams founded the Hull House on September 18th, 1889. At this time, she and Ellen Gates Starr were the only residence of the one building establishment. By 1907, the Hull House had expanded to a 13 building complex and served thousands of people each week.
The Hull House now featured a gymnasium, a theater, an art gallery, a music school, a boys club, an auditorium, a cafeteria, cooperative residences for working women, a kindergarten facility, a nursery, libraries, a post office, meeting and club rooms, art studios, a dining room, a kitchen, and staff apartments (Encyclopedia of Chicago, 2009). Hull house fostered an environment for immigrants of many cultures to come together, learn, and grow.
Different Immigrant cultures lived together, for instance, the Italians lived near other Italians and the Russians lived near other Russians. This allowed cultures to keep customs from their native countries, but still learn and grow as a new community together with other cultures. The Hull House also served as an educational tool to new immigrants. Immigrants were taught the social policies of the local, state, and national governments.
The Hull House served as the flagship of nearly five hundred settlements nationally by 1920. From this, many men and women who may have otherwise faded into a low-income part of society instead flourished in politics and the arts. Many women who went through Hull House became influential reformers of local, state, and traditional governments.
Because of Hull House, women became self sufficient. Women began to think on their own, instead of adhering to what society dictated they must believe. The women of Hull House helped to establish the first juvenile court in the United States. Because of these same women, many women’s and children’s rights laws, including child labor laws, were established in both state-wide and nation-wide jurisdictions.
Jane Addams’ passion for the advancement of the arts was a strong presence at the Hull House. The theatre helped not only for the advancement of the arts in the community, but also for the advancement of women in the arts. It was often frowned upon for women to direct or write in the theatre, but at Hull House, women were celebrated for doing these things. For the first time, women were taught set design and performance technique.
Performances were done both for the advancement of the arts and for the preservation of culture. Performances were done in Russian, Yiddish, Lithuanian, Hungarian, Italian, Bohemian, and Latvian folk. This helped immigrants express the customs and culture of their native country. It also served as a way for immigrants to teach the native culture to children who were either too young to remember or were not yet born when their parents immigrated to the United States.
Hand in hand with the theatre, music lessons were also offered to residents of the Hull House community. Lessons were inexpensive to enable new immigrants to attend music school. When the school began in 1907, voice, ear training, and reading and writing music were the only classes offered. Even these few classes were more than the immigrants would have been afforded if not for the Hull House.
Beginning in the 1920’s, the music department was expanded to violin, piano, organ, music theory, and choral singing. With these new additions, recitals attracted people from all over Chicago of all economic classes. Both recital and theatre tickets sold for fifty cents per person.
In addition to the theatre and the music lessons, Jane Addams began an art gallery at Hull House. Jane felt that the arts would advance people both intellectually and economically. Photos and Paintings were on loan, mostly from Europe, and were financed by a wealthy English family. The art gallery was lit for both daytime and evening viewing.
The Hull House has continued to advance the education and prosperity of immigrants over the years and eventually expanded to aid in homelessness relief efforts. The Hull House continues to operate today under the name “Jane Addams Hull House Association.” Several social service centers across the Chicago area currently operate under the umbrella of this organization, and several museums have been established in honor of the original Hull House.
Jane Addams published 11 books and countless articles about peace efforts. Jane was known for and often criticized for being a pacifist even during World War 1. Many of Jane’s articles and books referenced her efforts at Hull House, but others references some of her many other efforts in peace women’s rights.
While highly criticized for her pacifism, Jane’s reputation began to improve towards the end of her life because of her peace efforts. Jane Addams was the first president for the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. Jane was also awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931. “At the time, she was the nation’s most distinguished women influencing people through her writing, her social work, and efforts toward national peace.” (Evisum, Inc., 2000) Jane died in 1935 after a battle with cancer. Her death came just ten days after a banquet in Washington, D.C. in her honor.
Because of Jane’s efforts, many social improvements have been made. Many women who had been under her care advanced in both the political and artistic cultures. Because of the women she helped to mentor, many social policies have been created that we still follow today, including the juvenile court system. Jane’s genius shines through in the truest sense of the word. Because of her enormous efforts in the advancement of women, in the arts, and in social policy, Jane Addams will continue to influence society for generations to come.
References:
Evisum, Inc.. (2000). Jane Addams 1860-1935. Retrieved June 23, 2009, from http://virtualology.com/virtualmuseumofhistory/hallofwomen/JANEADDAMS.COM/
Encyclopedia of Chicago. (2005). Hull House. Retrieved June 22, 2009, from http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/615.html
About.com: Women's History. (2009). Jane Addams. Retrieved June 23, 2009, from http://womenshistory.about.com/od/addamsjane/p/jane_addams.htm
University of Illinois. (2009). Bringing Art to Life: Women and the Arts at Hull-House. Retrieved June 21, 2009, from http://www.uic.edu/jaddams/hull/artlifeexhibit/theater.html
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