US History

The Emergence of Modern America (1890-1930)

Women

This collection uses primary sources to explore settlement houses during the Progressive Era.

A photograph showing early leaders of the settlement house movement, ca. 1900s.

The photograph includes Helen French Greene, Helena Dudley, John Lovejoy Elliot, Meyer Bloomfield, Mary K. (Mary Kingsbury) Simkhovitch, Ellen Coolidge, Cornelia Bradford, Jane Addams, Lillian D. Wald, Elizabeth Williams, James Hamilton, Graham Romeyn Taylor, Mary McDowell, and Robert Archey Woods.

A map of ethnic groups in a Chicago neighborhood served by Hull House, 1895.

This map was part of a series published in *Hull House Maps and Papers*, an 1895 study of Chicago’s Nineteenth Ward.

Excerpts from a weekly schedule of lectures, clubs, and classes at Hull House in Chicago, 1892.

Excerpts from *The City Wilderness: A Settlement Study*, written by “residents and associates” of South End House in Boston, 1898.

A fundraising brochure for the Los Angeles Settlement House, sponsored by the Rotary Club of Los Angeles, ca. 1910s.

Excerpts from the 1920 Annual Report of the Unity Settlement Association in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

This Annual Report summarizes the activities, services, and facilities provided by the Unity Settlement House as well as statistics documenting the organization’s impact in the community. This excerpt highlights the employment services provided to women, the nursery, the children’s clinic, and classes and clubs available for school age children. 

A photograph of a group outside Palama Settlement in Honolulu, Hawaii, 1909.

At the turn of the twentieth century, Hawaii had a diverse population of native Hawaiians, Puerto Rican migrants, and American and European missionaries and entrepreneurs. Palama Settlement in Honolulu, Hawaii was founded in 1896 and by the early 1900s was offering many of the same services offered by settlement houses in major American cities, including public health training, childcare, and American history and civics classes. Hawaii was not yet a state but had been annexed as a territory of the United States.

A photograph by Lewis Hine of the singing class at Hull House in Chicago, 1910.

Lewis Hine was a photographer and social reformer. He became particularly well known for his photographs of child laborers and urban working conditions on behalf of the National Child Labor Committee, which helped to secure the passage of new policies regulating and preventing child labor. This photograph is from a photo study of Hull House and the conditions in the surrounding communities that it served.


A photograph of a citizenship class held at Neighborhood House in Louisville, Kentucky, ca. 1930s.

Neighborhood House, established in 1896, was the first settlement house in Kentucky and is still in operation today.

A photograph of a group of girls in gym class at Settlement Home in Atlanta, Georgia, 1903.

A photograph of children reading in the Mulberry Settlement House library, New York City, 1920.

A page featuring photographs of the play facilities and children served by Social Settlement in Washington, DC, 1905.

This page is excerpted from a special issue of the Charities Publication Committee’s journal *Charities* entitled “The Negro in the Cities of the North.” The leadership of the Colored Settlement House, or “Social Settlement,” in Washington, DC, included the educator Anna Julia Cooper, Francis Grimké, a minister, and the civil rights and women’s rights activist Mary Church Terrell.


A photograph of a settlement house kindergarten in Chicago, Illinois, 1901.

 This renovated storefront served as a year-long kindergarten for mostly German and Italian immigrants.

A photograph of a group of adults and children outside Brownson House in Los Angeles, California, 1919.

A photograph of the Phyllis Wheatley Settlement House football team, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1929.

Questions

1. Based on the [fundraising brochure](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/settlement-houses-in-the-progressive-era/sources/1160), the [Unity Settlement House report](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/settlement-houses-in-the-progressive-era/sources/1161), and the [photo of citizenship class](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/settlement-houses-in-the-progressive-era/sources/1164), describe ways in which settlement houses tried to “Americanize” their visitors. What were the pros and cons of these “Americanization” programs? What impact might these programs have had on the different cultural groups that made up many immigrant communities?
2. Based on the [photo of the early leaders](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/settlement-houses-in-the-progressive-era/sources/1156) of the settlement house movement, what can you infer about their class background?
3. Using the [Hull House map](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/settlement-houses-in-the-progressive-era/sources/1157), the [photo of the kindergarten class in Chicago](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/settlement-houses-in-the-progressive-era/sources/1168), and [*The City Wilderness* excerpt](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/settlement-houses-in-the-progressive-era/sources/1159), describe the racial and ethnic makeup of the neighborhoods served by these settlement houses. Considering the [photo of the Phyllis Wheatley Settlement House football team](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/settlement-houses-in-the-progressive-era/sources/1170) and the [photographs of the play facilities and children served by the Social Settlement in Washington, DC](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/settlement-houses-in-the-progressive-era/sources/1167), why might these organizations appear to serve predominantly or entirely African American communities? In what ways might the services offered at these settlement houses be similar or different to those offered in European immigrant communities? 
4. Do a close reading of the [photograph of singing class at Hull House](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/settlement-houses-in-the-progressive-era/sources/1163). What can you learn about the participants? Using the [Hull House map](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/settlement-houses-in-the-progressive-era/sources/1157) as a guide, choose a person in the photo and imagine his or her backstory. Where is s/he from? What brought him/her to Hull House? What is his/her relationship to the other people in the picture? 
5. Using the source set, list the range of specific activities, services, or facilities that settlement houses offered to children and families. In what ways did these services combat or prevent some of the dangers that these children may have faced at the time—on the streets or as workers?


Activity

1. Inspired by the [weekly schedule of programs available at Hull House](http://dp.la/primary-source-sets/settlement-houses-in-the-progressive-era/sources/1158) and using the photographs in the set for reference, ask students to consider what services and programs a settlement house might offer for local working class or immigrant communities today. Ask students to create a brochure advertising the weekly programs for a modern settlement house serving their community. The brochure should target local community members and include images and descriptions of the programs and services offered.
2. As a follow up to the first activity, ask students to research a settlement house founded between 1880s and 1920s and still in operation today. Suggestions might include: Henry Street Settlement in New York, Neighborhood House in Seattle, Neighborhood House in Louisville, Kentucky, and United South End Settlements in Boston. How do the students’ imagined programs align with the programs and services actually offered by these organizations today?


Teaching Guide: Exploring Settlement Houses in the Progressive Era

Resources

1. [*Children in Progressive-Era America*](http://dp.la/exhibitions/exhibits/show/children-progressive-era) online exhibit, Digital Public Library of America.  
2. [Settlement House Movement](http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/immigration/settlement.html), *Aspiration, Acculturation, and Impact: Immigration to the United States, 1789-1930*, Harvard University Library Open Collections Program. 
3. [Jane Addams Hull-House Museum](http://www.hullhousemuseum.org/)
4. Stanton Coit, [Social Welfare History Project](https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/), Virginia Commonwealth Libraries. 

Overview

Between the 1880s and 1920s, hundreds of settlement houses were established in American cities in response to an influx of European immigrants as well as the urban poverty brought about by industrialization and exploitative labor practices. Settlement houses were organizations that provided support services to the urban poor and European immigrants, often including education, healthcare, childcare, and employment resources. Many settlement houses established during this period are still thriving today.

In 1886 Stanton Coit, American-born leader of the Ethical movement in England founded the Neighborhood Guild on New York’s Lower East Side. In May 1891, the guild was as the University Settlement Society with the aim “to bring men and women of education into closer relations with the laboring classes in this city, for their mutual benefit. The society shall establish and maintain in the tenement house districts places of residence for college men and others desirous of aiding in the work, with rooms where the people of the neighborhood may meet for social and educational purposes.”—Constitution.Incorporated March, 1892.

Co-founded by Jane Addams and Ellen Starr in 1889, The Hull House in Chicago quickly becomes most famous settlement house in U.S. and serves as a model for over 400 other settlements across the country. Significantly, many settlement houses were established, led, and staffed by women, often from middle and upper classes. Addams believed in the interdependence of social classes; rather than encourage charity towards the poor, she advocated the importance of working with and among working class communities. By 1893 Jane Addams begins referring to herself as “the grandmother of American settlements.”

Settlement houses reflected a broader commitment to social reform during the Progressive Era. Jane Addams and Lillian Wald, founder of New York’s Henry Street Settlement, for example, were also active in campaigns against child labor and for public health, sanitation, industrial workplace safety reform, and women’s suffrage. Programs for children and young people featured prominently among settlement houses’ services. Many offered kindergarten classes before kindergarten was offered in many public school districts. Settlement houses also provided classes, clubs, and social opportunities for children and teenagers.


English

Settlement Houses in the Progressive Era

settlement-houses-progressive-era_07_de7cf8dcff1e22b7bf6feff30d6b82c2.jpg

Courtesy of National Anthropological Archives via the Smithsonian Institution.

“Young Women in Costume and Group Outside Wood Frame House Used as Social Settlement 1909,” Digital Public Library of America, https://dp.la/item/de7cf8dcff1e22b7bf6feff30d6b82c2.

A photograph of a group outside Palama Settlement in Honolulu, Hawaii, 1909.

Cite this item

Tips for Students

Item 7 of 15 in the Primary Source Set Settlement Houses in the Progressive Era