Jane Addams

1860-1935

Spirit in ActionPresented by:Amber Hosch

at two and a half years old...❖ Mother, Sarah Weber

Addams, dies

❖ Sarah’s death devastated the family and town

❖ Jane was excluded from the funeral

❖ Jane’s family refused to grieve together or speak of their sorrow

❖ Mary, Jane’s oldest sister and 18 years old, assumed the duties of their mother

❖ Jane’s other siblings included 13 year old Martha, 11 year old John “Weber,” and 10 year old Alice

❖ Prior to Sarah’s passing, four other children had died in infancy or soon after

after Sarah’s death...

When Jane was 6 years old…

❖ Martha, now 16 years old and living at a distant boarding school, dies of typhoid fever

❖ Again, her family excludes her from the funeral

When Jane was 16 years old…

❖ She witnessed death alone

❖ Polly, a family servant who had also helped raise Jane’s mother, died

family death continues in years to come

John Huy Addams❖ Jane adored Mary for

taking care of her as her mother would have

❖ By early childhood Jane quickly became completely absorbed by her devotion to her father

❖ a “doglike affection,” as Jane described it

John’s Legacy

❖ Purchased numerous commercial real estate

❖ Held great industrial wealth

❖ State Senator

❖ Perfectionist

❖ Emphasis on moral integrity

During Jane’s childhood with her father...❖ She was greatly influenced by him and was eager to

gain his respect

❖ She was persistent to learn about his political career

❖ She observed her father’s faith and morality

❖ She witnessed her father’s international engagement and feelings toward others... “a sense of genuine relationship which may exist between men who share large hopes and like desires, even though they differ in nationality, language, and creed.”

as a young intellectual...

❖ books became a lifelong passion of hers

❖ through books she was connected to great minds

❖ she discovered an outlet for her curiosity and imagination, and found meaning

❖ Jane’s father paid her to read a number of biographies of heroic men

❖ Messages of 19th Century American culture: self-reliance, courage, and moral ambition.

at age eight...❖ John married to second

wife, Anna Hostetter, who became Jane’s third mother

❖ Anna and her 7 year old son, George, move into the Addams home

❖ Jane rebelled against Anna’s stern discipline and temperamentality

Oil and Water❖ Anna was dramatic, had a fierce and quick temper, and

“explosions”

❖ Jane was never dramatic, had a cool personality and was quiet and equitable

❖ Anna viewed herself as refined and elegant, and treated Jane like a servant despite the family’s wealth

❖ Anna and Jane had daily fights over Anna’s self-righteous convictions, which hurt and angered Jane

❖ As Jane grew, she developed a passionate hatred for anger, conflict, and opposition

John’s expectations of his young-adult daughters

❖ be skillful in good housekeeping

❖ bake a “perfect” loaf of bread

❖ make John comfortable and happy

The cultural zeitgeist

❖ women of their generation were taught from “babyhood” to be “self-forgetting and self-sacrificing”

❖ Atlantic Monthly, 1878: “The woman who does not please is a false note in the harmony of nature”

by age twelve...❖ Jane was inspired by social

reformers

❖ her favorite author was Ralph Waldo Emerson, of which his essay “Man the Reformer” greatly impacted Jane’s future

❖ she viewed ideas of classless, cooperative societies as “thrilling”

Mid-1870’s Medical Appeal

❖ Jane wanted a career as a social reformer

❖ she wanted to live next to the poor

❖ influenced by town doctor who treated both rich and poor

❖ Harry Haldeman was a doctor

Cultural Zeitgeist

❖ women becoming doctors was popularly emerging

❖ a woman doctor was not a daring idea at that time

Mid-1870’s social obstructions

❖ Less than one percent of young women went beyond high school

❖ Nearly all colleges were for men

❖ Women attended “seminaries”

❖ coeducational universities were just emerging

However,

...Jane was determined to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree!

Smith College❖ New women’s college in Massachusetts

❖ To open in fall of 1877

❖ Offered distinguished science courses, essential for studying medicine

❖ Jane greatly admired Smith College

❖ At the time women received certificates, not degrees.

❖ Smith College was to offer women “real” B.A.’s

Rockford Female Seminary❖ Jane’s older sisters had

attended Rockford Female Seminary

❖ She obeyed her father out of duty,but was “greatly disappointed”and felt “resentful”

❖ She planned to excel academically to show the school was too easy for her

at Rockford Female Seminary...

❖ Anna Sill, founder, intended to train women as missionaries for Christian service overseas

❖ Jane was raised an evangelical Christian and was a deist while she attended the Seminary

❖ She was “unspeakably embarrassed” by the teachers attempts to convert her, but followed her father’s advice to not say what she didn’t believe

Rockford’s impact on Jane

❖ Reflecting on her resistance to pressure, she later wrote that her “clinging to individual conviction” was “the best moral training”

❖ Inspiring teacher, Caroline Potter, taught about great women in history

❖ Jane read Margaret Fuller’s Woman in the Nineteenth Century, 1845, which debated women’s nature and status, ideal womanhood, and the conflicts with current reality--advocating social reform

❖ at the end of Jane’s first year, she had earned a high 9.3 out of 10 grade point average

❖ Anna encouraged Jane’s interest in attending Smith

❖ John, who didn’t mention Jane’s grades, wrote her saying he was glad to hear she was in good health. He again refused her request that summer to attend Smith in the fall

❖ After being well associated with bold ideas and good friends by the end of her sophomore year, Jane decided she would, the following fall, willingly return to Rockford

❖ In her Junior year, Jane began writing for the Rockford

Seminary Magazine, became class president, and president of the Castalian Society, developed and gave speeches in an oratorical exhibition--including a speech about charity work and social reform

❖ As a senior, She became editor-in-chief of the Rockford Seminary Magazine, was chosen to represent the seminary at the Illinois state intercollegiate oratorical contest at Knox College, of which no women’s college had ever participated in

❖ Jane graduated Valedictorian of her class and planned to attend Smith the following year

after college...

❖ Jane tries to persuade her father to let her attend Smith, but she fails

❖ John kindly argues that she had strained her health to exhaustion at Rockford and needed to first rest. He also reminds her that her duty was to her family and selfishness was a moral danger

❖ She did not rebel against his decision, but felt hurt that he did not honor the depth of her seriousness

❖ Stress in Cedarville impacts John

● Shooting of President Garfield

● Banker’s son “Julius”

● Weber’s “exhaustion” and onset paranoid schizophrenia

❖ Trip to Michigan. John dies in Wisconsin at age 59

❖ Anna moves the family to Philadelphia, and Jane is enrolled in the Woman’s Medical College

❖ Jane has an inheritance and could attend Smith, but does not pursue the independent venture

in Philidelphia...

❖ Jane suffers a nervous collapse and is hospitalized

❖ She thought she had tried to fulfill too much at once and that she had “moral defeat”--a diagnosis given by S. Weir Mitchell, a specialist in nervous disease

❖ The cure? deny her own freedom for the sake of others

❖ Failing to do so was selfish and would lead to illness

❖ She aspired to be the “highest, gentlest, and kindliest spirit”

off to Europe! 1883...

❖ Brother-in-law, Harry, performs surgery on her back

❖ Prescribes a trip to Europe to reduce stress on her nerves--typical of the time

❖ John had planned for all his daughters to travel Europe for the cultural experience

❖ Ireland, Scotland, Northern England, London, Holland, Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, and France! a two-year endeavor

London’s East End❖ at the time, largest city in the world! Population 4.7

million. In comparison to NYC with 1.2 million❖ concern of the working class poverty was published

describing the living and working conditions of the city’s poorest

❖ Buildings in miserable repair, severe overcrowding in housing, children suffering neglect, starving families, criminally low wages

❖ a missionary takes Jane to Mile End Road market at midnight on a Saturday night to see...

❖ Decaying meat and rotten fruit and vegetables were being sold for pennies. Thousands of people came!

❖ Jane did nothing to help the starving people in London, but when she later saw women being burned and scalded from carrying freshly brewed beer she spoke to the owner about the cruel working conditions.

❖ Jane had been deeply affected by what she saw in Europe what was happening

❖ ...back in the United States, Jane read works that inspired her to work, based on her gifts and experience

❖ New philanthropic organization called a “settlement house” in London’s East End, four years after her visit there

Toynbee Hall, established 1884

Toynbee Hall❖ an elegant building within a crowded, poor neighborhood

❖ “Residents” included fifteen young men, Oxford University graduates

❖ was a place to enrich the lives of the poor through lectures and clubs, and offered classes in singing, dancing, arts, literature, and history

❖ Jane again tours Europe, this time visiting Toynbee Hall in 1888

❖ She found a way to live among the poor without abandoning gracious living or her love of culture

1889. Destination: Chicago❖ Population: one million+

❖ industrial giant and 2nd largest city in U.S.

❖ business owners greatly prospered, upper class expands

❖ 78% foreign-born or children of

❖ lacked industrial skills, language barriers, urban living was new to them

❖ conditions mirrored London

❖ Jane and friend, Ellen Gates Starr, move there and have many affluent connections

Jane’s work at hull house…

❖ Together, Jane and Ellen establish Hull House (1st settlement house in U.S.) on Halsted Street.

❖ 19 nationalities! ❖ Jane does not wish to “study” her neighbors or “stem

poverty,” but rather to “fortify” their spirits

❖ Necessity and curiosity drew people to Hull House

❖ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tw4GZeABlNI 0:50-5:17

❖ 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago

The Pullman Strike!

Jane’s Legacy

❖ Hull house became the most famous and well known settlement house

❖ remained very active in social clubs and organizations till her death

❖ orator and writer of articles, speeches, and books

❖ very well connected and well known

❖ politician and advisor❖ pacifist❖ dissenter ❖ beloved❖ buried in Cedarville, IL, at age 74