Hilda Satt Polacheck Papers

An inventory of the collection at UIC

Biography of Hilda Satt Polacheck

Hilda Polacheck was born Hinda Satt in Wloclawek, Poland, a community located in the Pale Settlement on October 12, 1882. She was the eighth of twelve children of Dena Miriam (Faltz) Satt, a housewife and Louis Satt, a tombstone carver. Her family immigrated to the United States to avoid conscription of their three sons into the Russian army.

The family settled in the Jewish immigrant neighborhood near Hull-House on Chicago's Near West side. Hinda and her siblings enrolled in the Jewish Training School where the school clerk Americanized Hinda's name to Hilda.

Hilda Satt's father died suddenly on March 4, 1894. Satt, who had just started the fifth grade, and her older sister Rose, left school to work in a knitting factory. Hilda was first introduced to Hull-House when she attended a Christmas party as a teenager, but she did not become aware of Hull-House's programs until she was eighteen years old. Jane Addams introduced Satt to the newly established Hull-House Labor Museum where Satt learned to spin and weave cloth and demonstrate these tasks to Hull-House visitors.

Jane Addams also encouraged Satt to enroll in a Hull-House English composition class. Her teacher was so impressed with her writing skills that she arranged for a scholarship at the University of Chicago. Satt attended the University of Chicago for one quarter. A Hull-House benefactor provided her family with the funds Satt would have earned by working.

Satt continued to volunteer at Hull-House leading tours and teaching English, as well as acting in Hull-House plays. In 1909 a friend, Sidney Teller, superintendent of the boy's club, edited a small magazine, The Butterfly to which Satt contributed articles in 1909. In 1911, Satt published two articles in the Jewish Sentinel. That same year Satt wrote two one-act plays that were performed by the Chicago Hebrew Institute.

In the spring of 1911, Jane Addams proposed that Satt dramatize a novel, The Walking Delegate, by Hull-House resident Leroy Scott. Upon Addams' suggestion, Satt took a summer job waiting tables at the Forward Movement Park, a camp in Saugatuck, Michigan, while she wrote her play. During her stay in Saugatuck, Satt became engaged to young Milwaukee businessman and socialist William Polacheck, whom she met through her friend Sidney Teller. Satt's play was performed by the Hull-House Players, April 10 - 27, 1912. Satt and Polacheck were married April 17, 1912, attending the play that evening. Soon after their marriage, the couple moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Polacheck was also active in social reform, participating in the suffrage movement, the National Council of Jewish Women, and the Abraham Lincoln House, a Milwaukee settlement modeled on Hull-House. Although she supported the goals of the Women's Peace Party, organized by Jane Addams and others in 1915, Polacheck was not active in that organization due to public animosity toward pacifists during World War I and out of concern for the safety of her children. William and Hilda Polacheck had four children: Charles Lessing, Dena Julia, Demerest Lloyd, and Jessie. In the 1920s, Polacheck joined a local peace society, which later became the Wisconsin branch of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.

William Polacheck died in 1927 leaving Hilda with four children to support. Polacheck's attempt to operate her husband's business ended in bankruptcy whereupon she returned to Chicago with her children and managed a number of apartment buildings to support her family. From 1938 until the early 1940s, Polacheck found work as a writer for the Illinois Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration. Her unpublished writings included pieces on Hull-House, immigrant life and folktales. Polacheck also wrote a number of one-act plays.

At the age of 63, with the support of her children, Polacheck was able to retire from work at the end of World War II. She remained an active member of WILPF and participated in local political campaigns. About 1953, she wrote her autobiography, which remained unpublished due to a lack of publishing interest. Polacheck died at the age of 85 in Chicago on May 18, 1967. Her daughter, Dena J. Polacheck Epstein edited her manuscript, which was published in 1989, I Came A Stranger: The Story of a Hull-House Girl.

Scope and Contents

Various version's of Hilda Polacheck's I Came A Stranger, make up the bulk of this collection. Other materials include correspondence with Jane Addams and William Polacheck, copies of the journal The Butterfly, a copy of the play The Walking Delegate, Polacheck's unpublished writings, and family photographs. This collection also contains Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) materials (c. 1950s-1960s) including proceedings from WILPF International Congresses, WILPF (US Section) Annual Meetings, and National and International WILPF publications. It also contains several documents for the Chicago South Side branch of WILPF (c. 1960). Books were removed from this collection and cataloged.

Restrictions

Restrictions on Access

None

Administrative Information

Acquisition Information

Materials in this collection were donated to the University of Illinois at Chicago, Main Library, Special Collections, in two accessions by Dena J. Polacheck Epstein, and Michael Young (Hilda Polacheck's grandson)

Bibliography

Polacheck Epstein, Dena J.,"Hilda Satt Polacheck," in Women Building Chicago: 1790-1990, Rima Lunin Schultz and Adele Hast, eds., Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2001.

Detailed Description/Box and Folder Listing