The Life and Work of Jane Addams adapted from The Library of Congress

Social reformer and pacifist Jane Addams was born on September 6, 1860, in Cedarville, Illinois. After graduating from Rockford Female Seminary in 1881, Addams left her native Illinois for Philadelphia where she enrolled at the Woman's Medical College. In the 1880s Jane Addams traveled to Europe. While she was in London, she visited a settlement house called Toynbee Hall. Settlement houses were created to provide community services to ease urban problems such as poverty.

Inspired by Toynbee Hall, Addams and her friend, Ellen Gates Starr, opened Hull House in a neighborhood of slums in Chicago in 1889. Many who lived there were immigrants from countries such as Italy, Russia, Poland, Germany, Ireland, and Greece. For these working poor, Hull House provided a day care center for children of working mothers, a community kitchen, and visiting nurses. Addams and her staff gave classes in English literacy, art, and other subjects. Hull House also became a meeting place for clubs and labor unions. Most of the people who worked with Addams in Hull House were well educated, middle-class women. Hull House gave them an opportunity to use their education and it provided a training ground for careers in social work.

Jane Addams's Hull House offered many programs to the Chicago community, even music lessons. Solomon Saranoff lived near Hull House. He was the son of Russian immigrants. His father worked for a rag shop for $8 a week. "Solly," as he was called, wanted to learn to play the piano, but his family had no extra money to buy one, much less pay for lessons. One day, friends of Solly and his sister, Rosie, took them to Hull House, where, guess what? There was a piano! Stories like this one were the reason that Jane Addams founded Hull House in the first place. She wanted to create a place where people who didn't have much money were able to have access to programs and learning that they would otherwise never be able to afford.

Jane Addams, who had become a popular national figure, sought to help others outside Hull House as well. She and other Hull House residents often "lobbied" city and state governments. When they lobbied, they contacted public officials and legislators and urged them to pass certain laws and take other actions to benefit a community. For example, Addams and her friends lobbied for the construction of playgrounds, the setup of kindergartens throughout Chicago, legislation to make factory work safer, child labor laws, and enforcement of anti-drug laws.

Addams believed in an individual's obligation to help his or her community, but she also thought the government could help make Americans' lives safer and healthier. In this way, Addams and many other Americans in the 1890s and 1900s were part of the Progressive movement. For a while, they even had a political party. When Theodore Roosevelt ran for president for the Progressive Party in 1912, Jane Addams publicly supported him at the party convention.

Jane Addams was a strong champion of several other causes. Until 1920, American women could not vote. Addams joined in the movement for women's suffrage (women's right to vote). She was a vice president of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Addams was also a founding member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

1

Select all the correct answers.

Which two sentences best explain the central ideas of the passage?

#1 Jane Addams lived a successful and satisfied life after migrating to London from America.

#2 Jane Addams fulfilled her dream of helping poor children and providing them with opportunities.

#3 Jane Addams worked to provide for the poor through the establishment of the Hull House in Chicago.

#4 Jane Addams believed that justice was achieved through the work of individuals and the government.

#5 Jane Addams established Hull House to offer people an opportunity to develop their creative side.