- Jane Addams (1860-1935), social reformer and pacifist. Travelling abroad in 1888, she discovered Toynbee Hall in London, generally acknowledged as the prototype of the settlement house. It answered her years of seeking for a career in which she could benefit others. She founded Hull House in Chicago in 1889. The working-class ethnic neighborhood flocked to the classes, clubs, day nursery, gym, dispensary, concerts, plays, art exhibits, and all functions of the settlement. It also became a headquarters of education and labor reform, and a major political influence. An era of volunteer work began among young women, and thousands of centers modeled on Hull House sprang up over the next 30 years. Addams gained the support of the rich and influential, but often risked losing it for causes she believed in. She sided with strikers in labor riots and was a lifelong feminist and a founder of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. Her pacifism throughout World War I brought bitter opposition. Nonetheless, she lived and died one of the most admired Americans in the world. Explaining the successful methods of Hull House, she called it “an institution attempting to learn from life itself.”
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