Jane Addams was born on September 6, 1860 in Cedarville, Illinois, a small farming town where her affluent father, John Huy Addams, ran a successful mill. Friends with Abraham Lincoln and a prominent figure in local politics, John raised his children with liberal Christian values and a committed sense of social mission. Jane was part of the first generation of “New Women” in America, women who went to college and were not dependent on men for their livelihood. She completed her education in 1881 and, after an 1888 visit to London, become a passionate activist for the settlement house movement.

The following year, Addams and her friend Ellen Gates Starr opened Hull House in Chicago, the first settlement house in the United States. Settlement houses were created to provide shelter, food, and education to the poor and disadvantaged, with educated women acting as the facilitators. In addition to her work with Hull House, Addams was instrumental in pushing for a juvenile court system, improved work conditions in factories, and better urban sanitation.

An avowed pacifist, she became a vocal critic of U.S. participation in World War I, becoming leader of the Women’s Peace Party and president of the International Congress of Women. For her pacifist efforts, Jane Addams was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931, making her the first woman to receive the honor.

The present collection of portraits, all credited to Brown Brothers, captures Addams throughout the latter half of her remarkable life. In addition to the many images of the woman herself, there is one photograph of “the house where she spent part of her girlhood.”