Jane Addams

born September 6, 1860, died May 21, 1935

In 1889, Jane Addams with friend Ellen Starr founded the first major 
settlement house in America. Hull House, located in a poor
area of Chicago, provided numerous services to the people of the community 
including child care, health education, work for the unemployed, and classes 
in home economics, as well as a place of social gathering and recreation. 
Under Addams' influence, the state of Illinois passed its first Factory 
Inspection Act (1893), established the first juvenile court (1899), formulated 
child labor laws, streamlined welfare procedures, and initiated compulsory 
school attendance and worker's compensation regulations. In 1910, she received 
an honorary degree from Yale University in New Haven, CT, becoming the first 
woman to do so. In 1912, she became the first woman to make a nominating 
speech at a national political convention, when she seconded Theodore 
Roosevelt's nomination. She opposed U.S. entry into World War I, and formed 
the first Women's Peace Party (1915). In 1931, she became the first
American woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (she shared the prize 
with Nicholas Murray Butler).