Twenty Years at Hull-House
with Autobiographical Notes
by Jane Addams, illustrated by Norah Hamilton, 1910, 1990Hull-House was a settlement founded in 1889 by Jane Addams, after the mold of Toynbee's settlement in the slums of East London. Hull-House was located on Halsted by Polk, in Chicago's 19th ward, which at the time was an immigrants' neighborhood. The idea of the settlement house was to improve the lives of the residents and their neighbors. Because the residents of Hull-House lived among those whose lives they intended to enrich, they could better understand what was needed. In its first twenty years, Hull-House hosted numerous societies, devoted to various mixtures of debate, culture, recreation, education, reform, and neighborhood renovation. While leading Hull-House, Addams was also involved in securing justice by serving as a go-between during labor disputes, opposing the corupt local alderman, lobbying for cleaner streets, serving on the Board of Education, and diverse other endeavors.
I thoroughly enjoyed Addams' writing style. Although she often refers to characters and events no longer famous, and although she is careful not to say anything potentially embarrassing about anybody, her accounts and explanations remain clear. Addams' continued idealism after twenty years of social work is reassuring. The illustrations are very well done, but their subject matter is not the most relevant addition to the story: a picture of the building behind Hull-House doesn't tell me much about Hull-House's activities.
Happy reading.
