Understanding the Hull-House Legacy: Biography and Autobiography
A Symposium at Rockford College
October 20-22, 1989
This symposium brings together major interpreters of the life, works, and careers of Jane Addams and her distinguished colleagues, the first residents of Hull-House.
Rockford College occupies a special place in the history of women reformers in the Progressive Era. Among the women attending the college, during the 1880’s were Jane Addams, Ellen Gates Starr, Julia Lathrop, and Catherine Waugh McCulloch. Rockford College, then known as Rockford Female Seminary, brought this unique group of talented women into contact with one another, and fostered a special relationship among them.
The leadership style practiced by Jane Addams brought forth leadership in others. She believed power was not a quality to be jealously guarded, but one that grew as it was shared. Her leadership at Hull-House inspired her colleagues and neighbors, many of whom adopted her style and spread it far beyond the walls of the settlement house. Jane Addams claimed that she had learned this style of leadership at Rockford College.
Friday, October 20
9:30 am Check-in
Burpee Center Lobby
10:00 am Session I
Welcome
Gretchen Kreuter, president of Rockford College
Moderator: Joan Surrey, Public Services Librarian and Archivist, Rockford College
“The Snare of Preparation”
Victoria Brown, Grinnell College
“The Radicalism of Ellen Gates Starr”
Eileen Boris, Howard University
“Julia Lathrop, First Head of the Federal Children’s Bureau”
Molly Ladd-Taylor, Northwestern University
12:30 pm Bus trip to Cedarville, Illinois and reception in Jane Addams’ childhood home
6:30 pm Cocktails (cash bar)
Regents Hall, Burpee Center
7:30 pm Dinner
Evening Program
Moderator: Mary Ellen Schmider, Dean of Graduate Students, Moorhead State University
“The Women of Hull-House”
Slide presentation by Mary Ann Johnson, Jane Addams’ Hull-House Museum
Keynote Address
“Empowerment: The Legacy of Hull-House”
Clarke Chambers, University of Minnesota
Response: “A Jane Addams Legacy”
Mary Lynn McCree Bryan, Editor, The Jane Addams Papers
Saturday, October 21
8:30 am Check-in
Burpee Center Lobby
9:00 am Session II
Moderator: Dorothy Delman, Professor and Chair, Department of Anthropology/Sociology, Rockford College
“Florence Kelley and the Protection of Working Women and Children”
Kathryn Kish Sklar, State University of New York at Binghamton
10:30 am Session III
Moderator: Gordon Ross, Professor and Chair, Department of History, Rockford College
“Hull-House, Place and Idea: The Experience of Alice Hamilton”
Barbara Sicherman, Trinity College
“Jane Addams’ Concept of American Nationalism and Culture”
Rivka Lissak, Author, Pluralism and Progressives: Hull-House and New Immigrants, 1890-1919
12:30 pm Lunch
Regents Hall, Burpee Center
1:45 pm Session IV
Moderator: David Sytsma, Associate Professor of History, Rockford College
“The Hull-House Model of Social Work and the Emerging Profession”
Donald Brieland, Jane Addams College of Social Work, University of Illinois at Chicago
“Hull-House as Incubator for Female Professions”
Robyn Muncy, LeMoyne College
3:30 pm Session
Moderator: Donald Martin, Professor of Language and Literature, Rockford College
“Jane Addams and the Chicago Social Justice Movement, 1889-1912”
Rosemarie Scherman, City University of New York Graduate Center
“Extending the Legacy”
Nancy McCullar, Jane Addams Center, Hull-House Association
6:30 pm Cocktails
Clark Arts Center
Music by Suzuki violin students of the Rockford College
Music Academy, Eleanor Stanlis, Director
8:00 pm Banquet
Forrest Cool Lounge, Burpee Center
Sunday, October 22
9:30 am Chapel Service
Fisher Chapel
10:30 am Brunch
Forrest Cool Lounge, Burpee Center
