Jane Addams

Jane Addams was an American settlement campaigner, reformer, social worker, sociologist, public official, philosopher, and novelist. She played an essential role in the history of social work and women's suffrage in the United States. Addams co-founded Chicago's Hull House, one of America's most well-known settlement homes, which provided comprehensive social services to impoverished, primarily immigrant families. In 1910, Addams received an honorary Master of Arts degree from Yale University, making her the school's first female recipient. In 1920, she co-founded the American Civil Liberties Union. Jane Addams was born in Cedarville, Illinois, as the youngest of eight children to a rich northern Illinois family of English-American origin with roots in colonial Pennsylvania. Sarah Addams, Addams' mother, died in 1863, when she was two years old and pregnant with her ninth child. Addams was thereafter cared for primarily by her older sisters. By the time Addams was eight, four of her siblings had died: three in infancy and one at the age of sixteen. Addams spent her childhood playing outside, reading inside, and going to Sunday school. When she was four years old, she acquired tuberculosis of the spine, also known as Potts' illness, which resulted in a spinal curvature and lifelong health issues.