Addams, Jane
Jane Addams (1860–1935) is remembered primarily as the feisty American founder of the Settlement House Movement, which sought to challenge the industrial and urban order of the period to achieve social and environmental reforms. Inspired by a visit to London's East End and Toynbee Hall, a "settlement house" addressing the needs of the urban poor, Addams and her friend Ellen Starr cofounded Hull House in the slums of Chicago in 1889. Hull House became the central organizing hub and political force to provide social services to the exploding number of immigrants coming to Chicago to work in the unregulated factories. The living and working conditions around industrialized Chicago were horribly unsanitary, unhealthy, stinking, and crowded, and the politics were fairly corrupt.
Addams's Hull House confronted questions of housing, sanitation, and public health, areas not typically seen as being connected. A major campaign attacked the inadequate and inequitable garbage collection in the neighborhoods of crowded tenements. Addams's unsuccessful bid for the contract to
SEE ALSO A CTIVISM ; S ETTLEMENT H OUSE M OVEMENT ; S OLID W ASTE .
Bibliography
Internet Resources
Jane Addams Hull House Museum. Available from http://www.uic.edu/jaddams/hull/hull_house.html
Susan L. Senecah
Comment about this article, ask questions, or add new information about this topic: