This post is one Jane Addams, the person on which I did an internship over the summer. I recall having learned about her in my APUSH class earlier in the year. Addams is a very important but very unspoken person in American History.

Her work with immigrants was admirable. She worked to ensure that they would be able to join American society without barriers or restrictions. She was also very moderate in her views, rejected anarchism yet supported workers workers, trade unions and strikes. She was also a suffragist and always fought to help people (Gibbon 2021).

Her work with Hull-House is what I recall learning. It began as a “run-down mansion” in Chicago and would expand greatly to help many of the new immigrants coming from Europe. It would expand to 13 buildings and would include many different things such as English instruction to boys and girls clubs. Hull-House would become well-known throughout the country as Addams become more famous. She was well-connected with many different peoples such as politicians to philanthropists to ensure that her houses would not die out (Gibbon 2021).

Addams was friends with multiple American presidents including Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, two champions of progressivism. Her other friends included people such as Florence Kelley, who lived at Hull-house and would eventually go on to become the Chief Factory Inspector of Illinois (Gibbon 2021). This is an example of someone who was directly helped by Hull House.

In all, Addams’s work with Hull-House was extraordinary. It helped many people and continues to inspire students of history, such as myself, into the present day.