When Jane Addams's travels took her away from her close companion Mary Rozet Smith, she took along a painting of Smith, even though the portrait was a rather bulky piece of luggage.
Jane Addams, a brilliant woman, graduated from Rockford Female Seminary in 1881. With her Rockford classmate, Ellen Gates Star, together they She founded Chicago's Hull House in 1898 along with Rockford classmate Ellen Gates Star. Hull House was an experimental model of reform to help provide for the neighborhood's needs. Much of the early financial support came from Addams' intimate friend, Marie Roset Smith, one of the richest women in America. Addams & Smith traveled together often. Addams would demand a hotel for a double bed, instead of 2 singles. They also shared Smith's summer home in Bar Harbor, Maine. They were together until Smith's death in 1933.
As an educated woman with free time to pursue her interests, Addams was dedicated to the welfare of women & children in Chicago & in locking in legislation for their protection. Addams was involved in other social issues as well. Her social reform efforts included: housing, sanitation issues, factory inspection, rights of immigrants, pacifism & the 8-hour workday. She publicly supported the candidacy of attorney Pearl Hart, long active in juvenile & women's court cases. Hart would later become a well-known civil rights attorney in the McCarthy era & a staunch supporter of gay rights.
Jane Addams, a brilliant woman, graduated from Rockford Female Seminary in 1881. With her Rockford classmate, Ellen Gates Star, together they She founded Chicago's Hull House in 1898 along with Rockford classmate Ellen Gates Star. Hull House was an experimental model of reform to help provide for the neighborhood's needs. Much of the early financial support came from Addams' intimate friend, Marie Roset Smith, one of the richest women in America. Addams & Smith traveled together often. Addams would demand a hotel for a double bed, instead of 2 singles. They also shared Smith's summer home in Bar Harbor, Maine. They were together until Smith's death in 1933.
As an educated woman with free time to pursue her interests, Addams was dedicated to the welfare of women & children in Chicago & in locking in legislation for their protection. Addams was involved in other social issues as well. Her social reform efforts included: housing, sanitation issues, factory inspection, rights of immigrants, pacifism & the 8-hour workday. She publicly supported the candidacy of attorney Pearl Hart, long active in juvenile & women's court cases. Hart would later become a well-known civil rights attorney in the McCarthy era & a staunch supporter of gay rights.
Marie Roset Smith
As a pacifist before World War I, Addams spoke out against Republican President William McKinley's instigation of war after an explosion sank the battleship Maine. In 1899, Addams joined Mark Twain, Chicago’s attorney Clarence Darrow & the gay novelist Henry Blake Fuller in an anti-Imperialist League to protest the war in Cuba & the Philippines. She viewed United States involvement as a 'murderous extension of American Capitalism'.
Addams lived a life of commitment to social reform. She received a number of honors during her lifetime. In 1931 she became the first American woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Addams died in 1935, just days after attending a celebratory dinner hosted by another woman who preferred to share her life with female companions, former first lady & UN delegate- Eleanor Roosevelt.
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