1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Addams, Jane

ADDAMS, JANE (1860–), American sociologist, was born at Cedarville, Illinois, on the 6th of September 1860. After graduating at Rockford (Illinois) Female Seminary (now Rockford College) in 1881, she spent several years in the study of economic and sociological questions in both Europe and America, and in 1889 with Miss Ellen Gates Starr established in Chicago, Illinois, the social settlement known as Hull House, of which she became the head-worker. The success of this settlement, which became a great factor for good in the city, was principally due to Miss Addams’s rare executive skill and practical common-sense methods. Her personal participation in the life of the community is exemplified in her acceptance of the office of inspector of streets and alleys under the municipal government. She became widely known as a lecturer and writer on social problems and published Democracy and Social Ethics (1902), Newer Ideals of Peace (1907), and The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets (1909).