Jane Addams in Ellis Island Era Immigration
Jane Addams (1860–1935) was a Progressive reformer and the most prominent advocate for the settlement house movement, which was dedicated to improving social conditions for immigrants and other residents of urban slums. In 1931, she became the first American woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 1889, Addams and her friend Ellen Gates Starr co-founded Hull House in Chicago to provide social and educational services to the predominantly immigrant residents of the city's crowded working-class tenements. Hull House soon grew into America's largest and most famous settlement house, serving thousands of Chicagoans. It epitomized Progressive efforts to reform and uplift immigrants in America.