Addams
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Addams. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
Jane, an American settlement worker. Born at Cedarville, Illinois, September 6, 1860. Graduated at Rockford College in 1881. While pursuing postgraduate studies in England, Miss Addams became interested in the workings of Toynbee Hall, a university settlement in the Whitechapel district of East London. In 1889 she secured the cooperation of wealthy people and established Hull House, a similar settlement in a crowded portion of Chicago. The various buildings occupy a plat of ground an acre or two in extent. There is a main building for the resident workers, a cooperative club house for working girls, a gymnasium building with baths, a theater, a restaurant, a music hall, and lodging apartments. Some notion of the work may be had from a mere list of activities. In general, Hull House aims to do what the churches and schools do not do. By way of industrial education, there is spinning and weaving, printing and book-binding, woodworking and metal-working, sewing and cooking. There are accommodations for babies when mothers must work. There are academic courses in the common branches, in literature, in music, and in art. There is advanced work in drawing, painting and modeling, millinery and dressmaking, and, in short, any subject for which a need is seen. The young people of the vicinity are drawn into wholesome evening amusements. There are large adult clubs, some for men and some for women. There are dancing classes, music lessons, and athletic training. In winter a skating park is opened. What with lectures, instruction, and amusements, every effort is put forth to get hold of the people, young and old, and help them to get something out of life. There are liberal people behind the movement. There are many skillful workers, but Miss Addams is the directing genius. Miss Addams is thoroughly democratic--an admirer of Tolstoi. She has served on the Chicago school board and is well known as a magazine writer, lecturer, and author. Of her books, Democracy and Social Ethics is best known. It is too early to enter upon a biography, but it is safe to say that Miss Addams has won a place among the women of America who have done something notable.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
JANE, an American philanthropist and social worker; born in Cedarville, III., Sept. 6, 1860. She was graduated at Rockford College in 1881, and after post-graduate studies in Europe and the United States, became an active social reformer. She inaugurated in 1889 the establishment known as Hull House, an adaptation of the "social settlement" plan to Chicago conditions. She has acted as street-cleaning inspector in Chicago, and has lectured on the improvement of the condition of the poor in great cities. In 1912 she took a prominent part in the formation of the Progressive party. Besides many contributions to current periodicals she has published a number of books.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's in 1910 said it was "too early to enter upon a biography" of Miss Addams; the story ran on for another quarter-century. Her opposition to American entry into the First World War made her briefly one of the most reviled figures in the country, but she helped found the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom in 1919 and in 1931 became the first American woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. She died in Chicago in 1935. Hull House kept running as a settlement until 1963, when most of its buildings were demolished for the University of Illinois at Chicago campus; the original 1856 house survives on the site as a museum, and the social service agency that bore its name closed in 2012.
Written for this edition, 2026.