Jane Addams biography

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Social reformer, pacifist, and feminist. Born Laura Jane Addams on September 6, 1860, in Cedarville, Illinois. Jane Addams became the first American woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931. She also established the Hull-House in Chicago, which was the city’s first settlement house and one of the earliest ones created in the United States.

The daughter of an affluent state senator and businessman, Jane Addams lived a life of privilege. Her father had many important friends, including President Abraham Lincoln. In 1880s, Addams struggled to find her place in the world. She traveled, battled with health problems, and even attended medical school briefly. On one trip with her friend Ellen Gates Starr, she visited the famed Toynbee Hall in London, a special facility established to help the poor. The pair were so impressive by this settlement house that they sought to create one in Chicago.

In 1889, Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr opened the Hull-House, which was named after the building’s original owner. The house provided services for the immigrant and poor population living in the neighborhood. Over the years, it grew to include more than 10 buildings and extended its services to include child care, educational courses, an art gallery, a public kitchen, and many other social programs.

In addition to her work at the Hull-House, Jane Addams served the first female president of the National Conference of Social Work in 1910. She went on to establish the National Federation of Settlements the next year and held that organization’s top post for more than two decades.

Besides being a prominent social reformer, Jane Addams was a deeply committed pacifist. A frequent lecturer on the subject, she compiled her talks on ending war in the world in her 1907 book Newer Ideals of Peace. After the outbreak of World War I, Addams became the chair of the Women’s Peace Party. Along with Emily Greene Balch and Alice Hamilton, Addams attended the International Congress of Women in The Hague in the Netherlands in 1915. These three social reformers and peace activists worked together on a special report called Women at The Hague: The International Congress of Women and Its Results (1915).

As part of her commitment to finding an end to war, Jane Addams served as president of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom from 1919 to 1929. For her efforts, she shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Nicholas Murray Butler, an educator and presidential advisor, in 1931.

While often troubled by health problems in her earlier life, Jane Addams began to seriously decline after