Peace: 1931

1) Addams, Jane (1860-1935), was an American social worker and humanitarian. She and Ellen Gates Starr founded Hull House in Chicago in 1889. Addams shared the 1931 Nobel Peace Prize with Nicholas Murray Butler. Visiting Europe in 1883 and in 1888, she became interested in Toynbee Hall, a settlement in London. On her return home, Addams created a more democratic kind of settlement house, sometimes called a "neighborhood center," among the immigrants in Chicago. There she set up many programs, from day nurseries to college courses, designed for people of every nation and ethnic group.

Addams was not content with simple friendliness or with the programs she established. She believed strongly in the need for research into the causes of poverty and crime, in the importance of trained social workers, and in social action to press for reforms. She organized civic groups to bring pressure on legislatures and officials. Among the reforms with which she was closely associated were the first eight-hour law for working women, the first state child-labor law, housing reform, and the first juvenile court.

Addams wrote and lectured on a wide variety of social problems, including child labor, public health, unemployment relief, and social insurance. In 1909, she became the first woman president of the National Conference of Charities and Corrections, now the National Conference on Social Welfare. She led in the fight to give women the vote, and was a pacifist, serving as president of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom from 1915 to 1929.

The width of her interest is reflected in her books, which include Democracy and Social Ethics (1902), The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets (1909), Twenty Years at Hull-House (1910), Women at The Hague (1915), Newer Ideals of Peace (1915), and Peace and Bread in Time of War (1922).

Addams was born of Quaker parents on Sept. 6, 1860, in Cedarville, Illinois. She graduated from Rockford College, and began medical studies in Philadelphia. However, she was forced to give up her studies because of her health. She died on May 21, 1935.

Contributor: Alan Keith-Lucas, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Social Work, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

2) Butler, Nicholas Murray (1862-1947), served as president of Columbia University from 1902 to 1945 and founded Teachers College, Columbia University. Butler also helped found the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He shared the 1931 Nobel Peace Prize with Jane Addams.

Butler was born in Elizabeth, N.J. He earned a bachelor's degree, a master's degree, and a doctor's degree from Columbia before studying in Berlin and Paris. Butler also served as a delegate to 14 Republican national conventions.

Contributor: Glenn Smith, Ph.D., Professor and Chair, Department of Leadership and Educational Policy Studies, Northern Illinois University.