Portal:Chicago/Personalities

Jane Addams was an American social worker, sociologist, philosopher and reformer. She was also the first American woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, and a founder of the U.S. Settlement House Movement.

Addams helped to found one of the first settlement homes in the United States, named Hull House. It eventually grew into one of the largest facilities in the nation. At its height, Hull House was visited each week by around two thousand people. Its facilities included a night school for adults; kindergarten classes; clubs for older children; a public kitchen; an art gallery; a coffeehouse; a gymnasium; a girls club; a swimming pool; a book bindery; a music school; a drama group; a library; and labor-related divisions. When she died in 1935 due to poor health, thousands of people went to see her coffin.