Archive for the ‘Reform’ Category

17 Oct

Thoreau quotes

Posted by scoop2go in Antebellum era, Arts/ Literature, Chapter 15, Reform.

Quotes from Henry David Thoreau

It is never too late to give up your prejudices. Walden

Why should we be in such desperate haste to succeed, and in such desperate enterprises? If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Walden

Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth. Walden

Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk.

Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind. Walden

Things do not change; we change. Journal

In any weather, at any hour of the day or night, I have been anxious to improve the nick of time, and notch it on my stick too; to stand on the meeting of two eternities, the past and the future, which is precisely the present moment; to toe that line.

We do not enjoy poetry unless we know it to be poetry.

Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.

So behave that the odor of your actions may enhance the general sweetness of the atmosphere, that when we behold or scent a flower, we may not be reminded how inconsistent your deeds are with it; for all odor is but one form of advertisement of a moral quality, and if fair actions had not been performed, the lily would not smell sweet. The foul slime stands for the sloth and vice of man, the decay of humanity; the fragrant flower that springs from it, for the purity and courage which are immortal.

For more than five years I maintained myself thus solely by the labour of my hands, and I found, that by working about six weeks in a year, I could meet all the expenses of living.

On tops of mountains, as everywhere to hopeful souls, it is always morning.

All this worldly wisdom was once the amiable heresy of some wise man. Journal

I heartily accept the motto, “That government is best which governs least”; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Civil Disobedience

Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison. Civil Disobedience

17 Oct

Quotes from Civil Disobedience

Posted by scoop2go in Chapter 15, Primary Source Document, Reform.

From Thoreau’s masterpiece!

I heartily accept the motto, “That government is best which governs least”; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically.Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe–”That government is best which governs not at all”; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which the will have. Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient. (opening lines)

______________________________________________________

But, to speak practically and as a citizen, unlike those who call themselves no-government men, I ask for, not at one no government, but at once a better government. Let every man make known what kind of government would command his respect, and that will be one step toward obtaining it.

After all, the practical reason why, when the power is once in the hands of the people, a majority are permitted, and for a long period continue, to rule is not because they are most likely to be in the right, nor because this seems fairest to the minority, but because they are physically the strongest. But a government in which the majority rule in all cases can not be based on justice, even as far as men understand it.

_______________________________________________________

Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once? Men, generally, under such a government as this, think that they ought to wait until they have persuaded the majority to alter them. They think that, if they should resist, the remedy would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the government itself that the remedy is worse than the evil. It makes it worse. Why is it not more apt to anticipate and provide for reform? Why does it not cherish its wise minority? Why does it cry and resist before it is hurt? Why does it not encourage its citizens to put out its faults, and do better than it would have them? Why does it always crucify Christ and excommunicate Copernicus and Luther, and pronounce Washington and Franklin rebels?

________________________________________________________

Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison.

________________________________________________________

A minority is powerless while it conforms to the majority; it is not even a minority then; but it is irresistible when it clogs by its whole weight. If the alternative is to keep all just men in prison, or give up war and slavery, the State will not hesitate which to choose. If a thousand men were not to pay their tax bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood. This is, in fact, the definition of a peaceable revolution, if any such is possible.

__________________________________________________________

I have paid no poll tax for six years. I was put into a jail once on this account, for one night; and, as I stood considering the walls of solid stone, two or three feet thick, the door of wood and iron, a foot thick, and the iron grating which strained the light, I could not help being struck with the foolishness of that institution which treated my as if I were mere flesh and blood and bones, to be locked up. I wondered that it should have concluded at length that this was the best use it could put me to, and had never thought to avail itself of my services in some way. I saw that, if there was a wall of stone between me and my townsmen, there was a still more difficult one to climb or break through before they could get to be as free as I was. I did nor for a moment feel confined, and the walls seemed a great waste of stone and mortar.

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(For the entire essay, click here: http://www.transcendentalists.com/civil_disobedience.htm)

6 Apr

“War on Poverty” speech

Posted by scoop2go in Chapter 38, Primary Source Document, Reform.

Proposal for A Nationwide War On The Sources of Poverty’
Lyndon B. Johnson’s Special Message to Congress, March 16, 1964

Because it is right, because it is wise, and because, for the first time in our history, it is possible to conquer poverty, I submit, for the consideration of the Congress and the country, the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964.

The Act does not merely expand old programs or improve what is already being done. It charts a new course. It strikes at the causes, not just the consequences of poverty. It can be a milestone in our one-hundred eighty year search for a better life for our people.

This Act provides five basic opportunities. It will give almost half a million underprivileged young Americans the opportunity to develop skills, continue education, and find useful work. It will give every American community the opportunity to develop a comprehensive plan to fight its own poverty-and help them to carry out their plans. It will give dedicated Americans the opportunity to enlist as volunteers in the war against poverty. It will give many workers and farmers the opportunity to break through particular barriers which bar their escape from poverty. It will give the entire nation the opportunity for a concerted attack on poverty through the establishment, tinder my direction, of the Office of Economic Opportunity, a national headquarters for the war against poverty.

This is how we propose to create these opportunities. First we will give high priority to helping young Americans who lack skills, who have not completed their education or who cannot complete it because they arc too poor. . . . I therefore recommend the creation of a Job Corps, a Work-Training Program, and a Work Study Program. A new national job Corps will build toward an enlistment of 100,000 young men. They will be drawn from those whose background, health and education make them least fit for useful work. . . . Half of these young men will work, in the first year, on special conservation projects to give them education, useful work experience and to enrich the natural resources of the country. Half of these young men will receive, in the first year, a blend of training, basic education and work experience in job Training Centers. . . .A new national Work-Training Program operated by the Department of Labor will provide work and training for 200,000 American men and women between the ages of 16 and 21. This will be developed through state and local governments and non-profit agencies. . . .A new national Work-Study Program operated by the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare will provide federal funds for part-time jobs for 140,000 young Americans who do not go to college because they cannot afford it. There is no more senseless waste than the waste of the brainpower and skill of those who are kept from college by economic circumstance. Under this program they will, in a great American tradition, be able to work their way through school. . . .

Second, through a new Community Action program we intend to strike at poverty at its source – in the streets of our cities and on the farms of our countryside among the very young and the impoverished old. This program asks men and women throughout the country to prepare long-range plans for the attack on poverty in their own local communities. . . .

Third, I ask for the authority to recruit and train skilled volunteers for the war against poverty. Thousands of Americans have volunteered to serve the needs of other lands. Thousands more want the chance to serve the needs of their own land. They should have that chance. Among older people who have retired, as well as among the young, among women as well as men, there are many Americans who are ready to enlist in our war against poverty. They have skills and dedication. They are badly needed. . .

Fourth, we intend to create new opportunities for certain hard-hit groups to break out of the pattern of poverty. Through a new program of loans and guarantees we can provide incentives to those who will employ the unemployed. Through programs of work and retraining for unemployed fathers and mothers we can help them support their families in dignity while preparing themselves for new work. Through funds to purchase needed land, organize cooperatives, and create new and adequate family farms we can help those whose life on the land has been a struggle without hope.

Fifth, I do not intend that the war against poverty become a series of uncoordinated and unrelated efforts – that it perish for lack of leadership and direction. Therefore this bill creates, in the Executive Office of the President, a new Office of Economic Opportunity. Its Director will be my personal Chief of Staff for the War against poverty. I intend to appoint Sargent Shriver to this post. . . .

What you are being asked to consider is not a simple or an easy program. But poverty is not a simple or an easy enemy. It cannot be driven from the land by a single attack on a single front. Were this so we would have conquered poverty long ago. Nor can it be conquered by government alone. . . .

Today, for the first time in our history, we have the power to strike away the barriers to full participation in our society. Having the power, we have the duty .. . . . We are fully aware that this program will not eliminate all the poverty in America in a few months or a few years. Poverty is deeply rooted and its causes are many. But this program will show the way to new opportunities for millions of our fellow citizens. It will provide a lever with which we can begin to open the door to our prosperity for those who have been kept outside. It will also give us the chance to test our weapons, to try our energy and ideas and imagination for the many battles yet to come. As conditions change, and as experience illuminates our difficulties, we will be prepared to modify our strategy.

And this program is much more than a beginning. Rather it is a commitment. It is a total commitment by this President, and this Congress, and this nation, to pursue victory over the most ancient of mankind’s enemies.

Source: from Public Papers of U.S. Presidents, Lyndon B. Johnson, 1963-1964 (Washington: G.P.O., 1965), 1, pp. 375-380.

6 Apr

Images from the War on Poverty and speech on Food Stamp Act

Posted by scoop2go in Audiovisual and video, Chapter 38, Primary Source Document, Reform.

Most of these are from the LBJ library….

Johnson personally went to Appalachia; here he visits the Fletcher family in Inez Kentucky. The Fletcher family still lives in this home.

Mrs. Johnson washes her hands before eating lunch with students at an elementary school. Note the lack of plumbing or running water.

Sadly, Appalachia is still mired in poverty. Visit this website to learn more:

http://www.appalachiacommittee.org/poverty.html

Another key component to fighting poverty was education, so Johnson initiated Project Head Start to provided federally funded preschool education to increase readiness for school among low-income children.

I think those two little boys sharing a chair are interfering with someone’s enjoyment of story time…

Adequate nutrition was a key component for helping families out of poverty. Here Johnson signs the bill initiating the Food Stamps program

Johnson signs the Food Stamp Bill

Here’s what he said on August 31, 1964 in an address to Congress:

Members of the Congress, ladies and gentlemen:

I am proud to sign the Food Stamp Act of 1964 because it is a realistic and responsible step toward the fuller and wiser use of our agricultural abundance.

I believe the Food Stamp Act weds the best of the humanitarian instincts of the American people with the best of the free enterprise system. Instead of establishing a duplicate public system to distribute food surplus to the needy, this act permits us to use our highly efficient commercial food distribution system.

It is one of many sensible and needed steps we have taken to apply the power of America’s new abundance to the task of building a better life for every American.

In 1961 President Kennedy’s first Executive order doubled the quantity and variety of foods to be distributed to the needy. Today nearly 6 million people enjoy a better share of our food abundance through this program and up to 15 different food items are now available.

Likewise, this year we anticipate that 17 million children–3.2 million more than in 1960–will enjoy hot lunches in their schools, many of them for the first time. This is because of the sustained effort made to help our schools provide student lunches.

For 3 years we have conducted pilot operations for the food stamp program in both urban and rural areas. These tests have exceeded our best expectations. They have raised the diets of low-income families substantially while strengthening markets for the farmer and immeasurably improving the volume of retail food sales.

As a permanent program, the food stamp plan will be one of our most valuable weapons for the war on poverty.

It will enable low income families to increase their food expenditures, using their own dollars.

Our efforts to make better use of abundance are not limited to domestic programs. Hunger is a worldwide challenge. Through the Food for Peace program, we are sharing 7 percent more of our food with other peoples than in 1960. Our food abundance is being used constructively not only to combat hunger but also to help other nations to control inflation, generate funds for financing development projects, and to help provide lunches for some 40 million school children throughout the developing world.

The support given the food stamp plan illustrates the willingness of thoughtful Americans to find better uses for our food abundance. I wish to compliment those who have played a role in the passage of this legislation, including the distinguished chairmen of the House and Senate Committees on Agriculture, Senator Ellender and Representative Cooley.

Special tribute is also due Congresswoman Sullivan and Senator Aiken, both of whom have long supported a Federal food stamp program effectively.

Finally, I wish to convey my personal note of thanks to all agencies of State and local governments and to those bankers, food retailers, and wholesalers who have cooperated with the United States Department of Agriculture in this program during its 3-year pilot trial, and, finally, to the majority of the Members of the House and Senate who made it possible for this bill to be on my desk tonight.

27 Jan

Florence Kelley on Child Labor

Posted by scoop2go in Chapter 28, Labor, Progressivism, Reform.

Florence Kelley Speaks Out on Child Labor and Woman Suffrage, Philadelphia, PA, July 22, 1905.

Consider these questions as you read:

1. What are Kelley’s criticisms regarding child labor?

2. What connection does she make about labor laws and the right of women’s suffrage?

3. Think: Why would “no labor organization in this country ever [fail] to respond to an appeal for help in the freeing of children [from labor]?

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We have, in this country, two million children under the age of sixteen years who are earning their bread.  They vary in age from six and seven years (in the cotton mills of Georgia) and eight, nine and ten years (in the coal-breakers of Pennsylvania), to fourteen, fifteen and sixteen years in more enlightened states.

No other portion of the wage earning class increased so rapidly from decade to decade as the young girls from fourteen to twenty years.  Men increase, women increase, youth increase, boys increase in the ranks of the breadwinners; but no contingent so doubles from census period to census period (both by percent and by count of heads), as does the contingent of girls between twelve and twenty years of age.  They are in commerce, in offices, in manufacturing.

Tonight while we sleep, several thousand little girls will be working in textile mills, all the night through, in the deafening noise of the spindles and the looms spinning and weaving cotton and wool, silks and ribbons for us to buy.

In Alabama the law provides that a child under sixteen years of age shall not work in a cotton mill at night longer than eight hours, and Alabama does better in this respect than any other southern state.  North and South Carolina and Georgia place no restriction upon the work of children at night; and while we sleep little white girls will be working tonight in the mills in those states, working eleven hours at night.

In Georgia there is no restriction whatever! A girl of six or seven years, just tall enough to reach the bobbins, may work eleven hours by day or by night.  And they will do so tonight, while we sleep.

Nor is it only in the South that these things occur.  Alabama does better than New Jersey.  For Alabama limits the children’s work at night to eight hours, while New Jersey permits it all night long.  Last year New Jersey took a long backward step.  A good law was repealed which had required women and [children] to stop work at six in the evening and at noon on Friday.  Now, therefore, in New Jersey, boys and girls, after their 14th birthday, enjoy the pitiful privilege of working all night long.

In Pennsylvania, until last May it was lawful for children, 13 years of age, to work twelve hours at night.  A little girl, on her thirteenth birthday, could start away from her home at half past five in the afternoon, carrying her pail of midnight luncheon as happier people carry their midday luncheon, and could work in the mill from six at night until six in the morning, without violating any law of the Commonwealth.

If the mothers and the teachers in Georgia could vote, would the Georgia Legislature have refused at every session for the last three years to stop the work in the mills of children under twelve years of age?

Would the New Jersey Legislature have passed that shameful repeal bill enabling girls of fourteen years to work all night, if the mothers in New Jersey were enfranchised? Until the mothers in the great industrial states are enfranchised, we shall none of us be able to free our consciences from participation in this great evil.  No one in this room tonight can feel free from such participation.  The children make our shoes in the shoe factories; they knit our stockings, our knitted underwear in the knitting factories.  They spin and weave our cotton underwear in the cotton mills.  Children braid straw for our hats, they spin and weave the silk and velvet wherewith we trim our hats.  They stamp buckles and metal ornaments of all kinds, as well as pins and hat-pins.  Under the sweating system, tiny children make artificial flowers and neckwear for us to buy.  They carry bundles of garments from the factories to the tenements, little beasts of burden, robbed of school life that they may work for us.

We do not wish this.  We prefer to have our work done by men and women.  But we are almost powerless.  Not wholly powerless, however, are citizens who enjoy the right of petition.  For myself, I shall use this power in every possible way until the right to the ballot is granted, and then I shall continue to use both.

What can we do to free our consciences? There is one line of action by which we can do much.  We can enlist the workingmen on behalf of our enfranchisement just in proportion as we strive with them to free the children.  No labor organization in this country ever fails to respond to an appeal for help in the freeing of the children.

For the sake of the children, for the Republic in which these children will vote after we are dead, and for the sake of our cause, we should enlist the workingmen voters, with us, in this task of freeing the children from toil!

20 Jan

The goals of Progressivism

Posted by scoop2go in Chapter 28, Progressivism, Reform.

Come to class the next time we meet ready to explain the main differences between Populism and Progressivism. By the way, “they happened at different times” is NOT a good answer! They WERE both reform movements, and both sought to promote fairness for common people.

Some people claim that Progressivism had four main goals: encouraging morality, promoting social welfare, encouraging efficiency, and creating economic reform. To me, there are actually three goals:

1) promoting morality,

2) encouraging democracy and fairness (including economic fairness), and

3) encouraging efficiency.

Progressivism was originally a movement, NOT a party, and there were Progressive Democrats as well as Progressive Republicans. During the Progressive era of roughly 1900-1920, there were three Progressive presidents: Teddy Roosevelt, William H. Taft, and Woodrow Wilson. Each man’s Progressivism had its limits: Teddy was pro-imperialist (many Progressives opposed imperialism), Taft got tripped up over the Payne-Aldrich Tariff (Progressive hated tariffs, by and large), and Wilson was not the most forward-thinking person when it came to race relations.

 

Take a look at the four Progressive Amendments to the Constitution. Which of the three goals does each promote?

16th Amendment (1913): Created a reliable source of government revenue through the creation of an income tax. What revenue source was this supposed to replace, and why? (See above for part of the answer.) Why, logically, did this amendment need to come first?

17th Amendment (1913): Allowed the people to DIRECTLY elect their Senators. How had Senators been elected previously? Why was this seen as a bad thing by Progressives? Think about the nickname given for the Senate in chapter 28.

18th Amendment (1919): Enacted national Prohibition of the manufacture and sale of Alcoholic beverages…. mostly. What were the intended consequences of this? What were the REAL consequences of this?

19th Amendment (1920): Gave women the franchise.

 

There’s a lot of interesting information about the ratification of Amendments on this site: http://www.usconstitution.net/constamrat.html

20 Jan

Explanation of major milestones in the fight against child labor

Posted by scoop2go in Chapter 28, Progressivism, Reform.

Go to http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAchild.htm

This touches on the opposition to child labor both in the US and the UK.

14 Jan

Chapter 28 Outline

Posted by scoop2go in Assignments, Chapter 28, Reform.

Chapter 28 Outline– due Wed/Th. Jan 19/20, 2011

Make sure you organize the details under these headings and subheadings. Put information in your own words– copying from the internet is plagiarism.

I. What were some of the societal ills that required intervention at the turn of the century?
—–A. economic injustice– monopolies and trusts
———-1. sweatshops and the Triangle fire
—–B. political corruption and undemocratic practices
———-1. graft 2. political machines
—–C. social injustice
II. Progressive Reforms

—–A. Progressives—a movement, not a party
———-1. Muckrakers (explain each one, his/her writings, and their targets)
———-2. goals
—–B. Political Progressivism
———-1. LaFollette
———-2. Charles Evans Hughes
———-3. initiative and referendum
———-4. Recall
———-5. secret (Australian) ballot
———-6. 17th Amendment
—–C. Morality and Progressivism
———-1. WCTU
———-2. Prohibition
—–D. Business and Progressivism
———-1. arbitration- coal strike
———-2. trust-busting (Northern Securities case)
———-3. railroads- Elkins and Hepburn
———-4. Worker protection (Muller v. Oregon, etc.)
———-5. Consumer protection (explain all important laws)
———-6. Environment (explain all laws)– Gifford Pinchot, Conservationism versus environmentalism

III. Comparison of Progressivism under Roosevelt versus that of Taft
—–A. Roosevelt and the Panic
—–B. Who was the greatest trustbuster?
—–C. dollar diplomacy
—–D. tariffs
—–E. Split in the Republican Party

5 Jan

Brief biography of Jane Addams

Posted by scoop2go in Chapter 25, Industrialization/Urbanization, Reform.

from the Hull House website

Born in Cedarville, Illinois, on September 6, 1860, and graduated from Rockford Female Seminary in 1881, Jane Addams founded, with Ellen Gates Starr, the world famous social settlement Hull-House on Chicago’s Near West Side in 1889. From Hull-House, where she lived and worked until her death in 1935, Jane Addams built her reputation as the country’s most prominent woman through her writing, settlement work, and international efforts for peace.

Social settlements began in the 1880s in London in response to problems created by urbanization, industrialization, and immigration. The idea spread to other industrialized countries. Settlement houses typically attracted educated, native born, middle-class and upper-middle class women and men, known as “residents,” to live (settle) in poor urban neighborhoods. Some social settlements were linked to religious institutions. Others, like Hull-House, were secular. By 1900, the U.S. had over 100 settlement houses. By 1911, Chicago had 35.

In the 1890s, Hull-House was located in the midst of a densely populated urban neighborhood peopled by Italian, Irish, German, Greek, Bohemian, and Russian and Polish Jewish immigrants. During the 1920s, African Americans and Mexicans began to put down roots in the neighborhood and joined the clubs and activities at Hull-House. Jane Addams and the Hull-House residents provided kindergarten and day care facilities for the children of working mothers; an employment bureau; an art gallery; libraries; English and citizenship classes; and theater, music and art classes. As the complex expanded to include thirteen buildings, Hull-House supported more clubs and activities such as a Labor Museum, the Jane Club for single working girls, meeting places for trade union groups, and a wide array of cultural events.

The residents of Hull-House formed an impressive group, including Jane Addams, Ellen Gates Starr, Florence Kelley, Dr. Alice Hamilton, Julia Lathrop, Sophonisba Breckinridge, and Grace and Edith Abbott. From their experiences in the Hull-House neighborhood, the Hull-House residents and their supporters forged a powerful reform movement. Among the projects that they helped launch were the Immigrants’ Protective League, the Juvenile Protective Association, the first juvenile court in the nation, and a Juvenile Psychopathic Clinic (later called the Institute for Juvenile Research). Through their efforts, the Illinois Legislature enacted protective legislation for women and children in 1893. With the creation of the Federal Children’s Bureau in 1912 and the passage of a federal child labor law in 1916, the Hull-House reformers saw their efforts expanded to the national level.

Jane Addams wrote prolifically on topics related to Hull-House activities, producing eleven books and numerous articles as well as maintaining an active speaking schedule nationwide and throughout the world. She played an important role in many local and national organizations. A founder of the Chicago Federation of Settlements in 1894, she also helped to establish the National Federation of Settlements and Neighborhood Centers in 1911. She was a leader in the Consumers League and served as the first woman president of the National Conference of Charities and Corrections (later the National Conference of Social Work). She was chair of the Labor Committee of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, vice-president of the Campfire Girls, and a member of the executive boards of the National Playground Association and the National Child Labor Committee. In addition, she actively supported the campaign for woman suffrage and the founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (1909) and the American Civil Liberties Union (1920).

In the early years of the twentieth century Jane Addams became involved in the peace movement. During the First World War, she and other women from belligerent and neutral nations met at the International Congress of Women at the Hague in 1915, attempting to stop the war. She maintained her pacifist stance after the United States entered the war in 1917, working to found the Women’s Peace Party (WILPF), which became the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom in 1919. She was the WILPF’s first president. As a result of her work, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931.

Jane Addams died in Chicago on May 21, 1935. She was buried in Cedarville, her childhood home town.

5 Jan

Article on Hull House

Posted by scoop2go in Chapter 25, Industrialization/Urbanization, Reform.

Straight from today’s news. Great timing!

New exhibits at Chicago’s Hull House Museum

By CARYN ROUSSEAU, Associated Press Caryn Rousseau, Associated Press Mon Dec 27, 10:53 am ET

CHICAGO – At the turn of the 20th century, thousands of immigrants sought out Jane Addams’ Hull House in Chicago. There they received medical treatment at settlement house clinics, learned job skills through training classes and found community at an art gallery, gymnasium and gardening club.

The stories of Addams and the immigrants are told at the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, which in December finished a major renovation following the 150th anniversary of Addams’ birth last fall. Visitors can now see new exhibits, walk into Addams’ restored bedroom and view two sides of the famous feminist social reformer’s life — her Nobel Peace Prize and the hundreds of pages of her FBI file.

Hull House was the most well-known of the 400 settlement houses in the United States in the early 1900s. The settlements were designed to provide services to immigrants and the poor while uplifting them through culture, education and recreation. The legacy of Hull House remains relevant today, said Victoria Brown, a history professor at Grinnell College in Iowa and author of “The Education of Jane Addams.”

“We’re in a time right now of people kind of realizing that they need to work locally and they need to work with fellow citizens in their community across class and across race,” Brown said. “That was certainly core to her convictions.”

Hull House, now a National Historic Landmark, was built as a country estate by Charles Hull in 1856. Addams started renting the property in 1889. At its peak, Hull House served more than 9,000 people a week, offering medical help, an art gallery, citizenship classes, a gardening club and a gym with sports programs.

In the 1960s, there were plans to tear down the entire settlement to build what is now the University of Illinois-Chicago campus. Eventually two of the original 13 buildings were preserved and have housed the museum since 1967. The Hull House Association social service group still exists but it has been decentralized throughout Chicago. The museum belongs to UIC’s College of Architecture and Arts.

The latest renovation started more than a year ago with $800,000 in grant money. Museum-goers can now walk up a curved wooden staircase to stand in Addams’ bedroom with its wallpaper of pink flowers and green leaves.

Her 1931 gold Nobel medal is in a glass case next to a clipboard that keeps her long FBI file together for visitors to flip through. Along one wall is a small twin bed with white embroidered linens and a black silk dress. Across the room, her 1881 diploma and class ring from Rockford Female Seminary are displayed.

Museum curators approached the renovation wanting to tell the many stories of Jane Addams and the immigrants who came to Hull House, said museum director Lisa Yun Lee.

“There’s actually more than one story about Jane Addams,” Lee said. “That’s why we placed the Nobel Peace Prize next to her FBI file.”

Addams’ writing desk is in the center of her bedroom, the top filled with copies of letters she wrote and received.

“The workers in the garment industry will forever remember your splendid aid in their efforts to abolish the sweat shop,” read one Western Union telegram to Addams from the president of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union for her 70th birthday in 1930.

Hull House’s reputation has persevered because of Addams’ skilled and prolific writing.

“She was out there writing magazine articles, giving speeches, publishing books,” Brown said. “That meant her voice was widely heard in the U.S. She was the premiere networker. She was brilliant at it.”

Museum curators hope to be experiential in their approach as well. Downstairs, visitors pass a velvet purple curtain into an empty octagon-shaped room where sounds from the era play: horse clops, typewriters, old telephone rings, a bicycle bell and a train. You can close your eyes and use the sounds to imagine what the din of the house would have been like 100 years ago.

Curators also take advantage of modern technology. Throughout the museum, visitors can use their cell phones to call a special phone number and hear commentary and discussion about exhibits from figures like the late Studs Terkel and retired UIC professor and former 1960s radical Bill Ayers.

Although it’s primarily a place to teach the public about Hull House’s history, the museum also functions as part of the community. It sponsors urban farm tours, free soup lunches with social justice discussions and documentary film series.

Visitors can find inspiration in the museum’s small rooms that became home to an important and influential movement, Brown said.

“Just seeing those rooms would give you a sense that very, very famous things often start from small beginnings,” Brown said. “Any of us starting with an idea . if you have faith in it and you nurture it, it can grow.”

___

If You Go.

JANE ADDAMS HULL HOUSE MUSEUM: 800 S. Halsted St., Chicago, http://www.uic.edu/jaddams/hull/ or 312-413-5353. Open Tuesday- Friday, 10 a.m.- 4 p.m.; Sundays noon-4 p.m.. Closed Saturdays and Mondays. Public tours are offered at 1 p.m. on Wednesdays and Sundays. Admission is free.

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