Jane Addams: debunking the American hyper-individualistic histories and enlarging her collectivistic sensibilities (And a case study of how leisure textbooks can be encapsulated within national ideologies)

ABSTRACT

Jane Addams was one of the most important pioneers to help develop leisure services in America. Many American leisure textbooks hyper-individualize Jane Addams actions at Hull-House and make it seem that she was individually supervising the massive Hull-House complex and hundreds of programmes. The purpose of this manuscript is to debunk the hyper-individualistic histories of Jane Addams cloaked in the ideology of American individualism, written by American leisure studies authors, and outline Jane Addams collectivistic sensibilities and underscore the many residents and volunteers who helped establish Hull-House. To readers outside of the United States, this paper also serves as an example of how leisure textbooks can be encapsulated within national ideologies, which are often invisible to readers. As such, this manuscript will underscore Hull-House as being a collectivistic gestalt of kindred spirits who partnered with Jane Addams to make Hull-House a success. The last section of this manuscript will highlight the “galaxy of stars” who helped Hull-House flourish (Stebner, 1997), such as Louise de Koven Bowen Julia Lathrop, Helen Culver, Mary Rozet Smith and Neva Boyd.

Keywords:

• Jane Addams
• Hull House
• American individualism
• collectivistic values

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The settlement house movement started in 1884 with the founding of Toynbee Hall in Whitechapel, in the East End of London. (See https://ifsnetwork.org/history/).

2 John Huey Addams was an extremely wealthy businessman and was a founding member of the Illinois Republican Party, served as an Illinois State Senator from 1855–1870, and supported his good friend, Abraham Lincoln, in his candidacies for senator (1854) and the presidency (1860).

3 This part of the edited book Hull-House Maps and Papers authored by the “Residents of Hull-House” does not identify an actual author. Schultz (2007) provides historical evidence that Jane Addams wrote this section of the book, which is the appendix.

4 The first Hull-House Board of Trustees consisted of these six members: Mary Wilmarth (Vice President), Allen pond (secretary), William Colvin (Auditor) Helen Culvert, Edward Butler and Mary Rozet Smith (Stebner, 1997).

5 Three hundred dollars in 1910 would be approximately $9000 in 2020. Likewise, $6500 in 1901 would be approximately $196,000 in 2020.

6 This biography was published right after Jane Addams herself died.

7 The Chicago Woman's Club was formed in 1876 by wealthy and middle-class white women, who had a social agenda toward social and educational reform in Chicago, especially related to restructuring the court system (Getis, 2000).

8 Helen Culvert taught both primary grades and high school classes from 1854 to 1861.

9 When Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr first looked at Charles J. Hull past house, it was subdivided to contain a cabinet shop and various apartments (Stebner, 1997). Helen Culver allowed them to start the settlement in a few of the rooms.

10 $50,000 in 1906 is worth approximately $1,424,411 in 2020 and $500,000 in 1906 is worth approximately $14,244,111 in 2020.

11 See Bowen (1946) for an accounting of Mary Rozet Smith enjoyment of smoking and Bowen’s dislike of Smith’s smoking habit.

12 As one example, Sarah Porter Smith, Mary Rozet Smith’s aunt, donated $12,000 in 1898 to help build the Jane Club Building (Bryan et al., 2019).

13 Although these two women had the same last name, there was no family relationship.

14 Viola Spolin became famous for her groundbreaking work in improvizational games for acting training (see Syssoyeva & Proudfit, 2016).

15 Alice Hamilton was also the first woman professor in the Harvard School of Medicine and was appointed to the Illinois Commission on Occupational Diseases in 1908.