Pre-tour and Post-tour SuggestionsHull-House Museum

Field Trip Activities: Grades 6-12

Objective: To introduce students the historical significance of the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum and the philosophy that inspired the settlement movement.

A successful field trip to the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum starts before students board the bus. It can begin with pre-visit activities that:

1) expose students to Jane Addams’ philosophy that inspired Hull-House.
2) introduce students to social issues the settlement house was responding to at the turn of the century.
3) integrate the subjects of this upcoming experience into their classroom studies.

The following are some suggested readings and questions that we at the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum suggest as effective pre-trip activities to familiarize students with the materials and concepts they will engage while on their field trip.

A good general resource for classes is Twenty Years At Hull-House by Jane Addams, widely available at area libraries and bookstores. An abridged version, Twenty Years At Hull-House by Jane Addams, edited and with an introduction by Victoria Bissell Brown, 1999, is also available. If your class is primarily concerned about the initial impetus for Hull-House and Immigration in the neighborhood, Chapter 5: “The First Days at Hull-House,”is a good pre-trip reading. For readings about poverty in the Near West Side neighborhood and the problems surrounding it, Chapter 8: “Problems of Poverty,” is a useful reference chapter. If the interest is strictly regarding immigration, Chapter 11: “Immigrants and Their Children,” may be more appropriate. These are recommended chapters, but others may be better suited for your classroom’s particular interests.

Two good articles on the overall living conditions of Chicagoans in the 1890s can be found in the Chicago Tribune. “The Gray 90's,”by Paul Galloway, is on the front page of the Tempo section from Sunday, January 27, 1991. “Sizzle City,”,by Paul Galloway, can be found in the July 28, 1991, issue in Section 5, page 5.

Another useful resource about living conditions in Chicago during the 1890s is A City Comes of Age: Chicago in the 1890s, by Susan E. Hirsch and Robert I. Goler, 1990.

Hilda Satt Polacheck’s book, I Came a Stranger, published in 1991, is a vivid and accessible first hand account of an immigrant woman’s experiences in the Hull-House community from childhood. Part three of her book is dedicated to her time in the Hull-House neighborhood and at the settlement itself.

A succinct description of the Near West Side neighborhood can be found in the Chicago Community Fact-book put out by the Geography Department at the University of Illinois at Chicago and is available at various Chicago Libraries and the University of Illinois Library at the reference desk. A more comprehensive description of the neighborhood is available in the book Chicago, City of Neighborhoods by Dominic A. Pacyga and Ellen Skerrett 1986. This book also offers a walking tour of the community.

Questions
The following questions are designed to generate discussion and can be used either as a post-reading or post-field trip activity.

Interpretive questions
• Were these predominately female reformers successful in their mission to serve their immigrant neighbors and help them solve the wide variety of problems affecting them?
• Was the community actively involved in determining Hull-House activities and advocacy or did the middle-class female reformers take primary responsibility?
• Did Hull-House reformers contribute to or condemn the racial/class/ethnic/ideological discrimination that was prevalent during their time period?
• How did industrialization influence immigration?
• How did rapid urbanization and industrialization affect the standard of living of immigrant families?
• Why did Jane Addams and other Hull-House residents choose to live and work in a settlement house?

Factual questions
• What kinds of issues/ problems did Hull-House address?
• Who was Jane Addams and why did she decide to start Hull-House?
• About how many ethnic/national/language groups lived in the Hull-House neighborhood?
• Where did the immigrants come from during the period between 1889-WWI?
• Who were some of the prominent residents at Hull-House and what did they do?

Subjective questions
• If you were a reformer at Hull-House, what kind of programs and initiatives would you suggest?
• Are there any parallels between the period when Jane Addams was active and your life today?
• How do you think being poor today would be different from being poor when the Hull-House settlement was operating?

Jane Addams Hull-House Museum questions
• Why were the Hull-House Maps and Papers that were initiated by Florence Kelley instrumental in understanding urban and industrial issues?
• The rapid physical growth of the Hull-House is a testament to the popularity of its mission. Referring to the model of the settlement house, how many buildings did the complex encompass? What were these buildings used for? At its height, how many people did the settlement house serve?
• Hull-House’s first organized program was held on the main floor of the mansion and was supervised by Jenny Dow. Identify the program and discuss its significance in this urban neighborhood.

Specific questions regarding the recommended readings
For Chapter 5 from Twenty Years at Hull-House
• Identify the qualities Jane Addams thought were necessary for a settlement house in Chicago to be successful.
• Why was Halsted Street the “natural” location for the settlement house?

For Chapter 8 from Twenty Years at Hull-House
• Pre- or post-reading activity: Write a creative journal entry from the perspective of an immigrant who arrives in Chicago at the turn of the century. What are your expectations/fears? What are your needs if you are elderly? A single mother? A child?
Compare the student’s responses to their reading and field trip experience.

For Chapter 11 from Twenty Years at Hull-House
• Why was it important for Jane Addams to preserve the “older forms of industry/crafts” indigenous to the immigrants native countries?
• How did the labor museum recognize cultural/ethnic differences while at the same time encouraging respect for those differences?

Field Trip Activities: Grade 3-6

Since many of the ideas surrounding Hull-House are steeped in abstract ideas such as moral reform and social philosophy, it is highly recommended that before a class attends a field trip teachers acquaint their students to basic vocabulary words, review the history at the turn of the century, and introduce Jane Addams. These activities can only enrich their experience and maximize the usefulness of the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum as a teaching resource. They are intended to hone students’ observation skills and critical thinking skills as well as encourage personal interpretation.

Resources
The following resources are geared for elementary school students and are available at the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum or through your local public library or interlibrary loan. Suggestions for additional reading for young readers are available on the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum website http://www.uic.edu/jaddams/hull/newdesign/youngread.html

Arnold, Caroline. Children of the Settlement Houses. Minneapolis, Carolrhoda Books Inc., 1998. (Grades 3-6)

Holli, Melvin G, “Hull-House and the Immigrants,” Illinois History Teacher 10:1 (2003): 23 - 35.

Kittredge, Mary. Jane Addams. American Women of Achievement Series. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1988. (Supplemental, special interest reader at the junior high school level)

McPherson, Stephanie Sammartino. Peace and Bread: The Story of Jane Addams. Minneapolis: Carolrhoda Books Inc., 1993. (Ages 9-12)

Piotrowski, Bonnie, ed. Jane Addams, 1860-1935. Cobblestone (Cobblestone Publishing Company, Petersborough, NH); Vol.20:3, March 1999. (Grades 4-9 and Ages 9-14)

Vocabulary
settlement house
social settlement
sweatshops
pacificist union
strike
tenements
xenophobia immigration
industrialization
juvenile delinquency
suffrage


Questions
The following questions are designed to generate discussion and can be used either as a post-reading or post-field trip activity.


Interpretive questions
• How did industrialization influence immigration?
• How did rapid urbanization and industrialization affect the standard of living of immigrant families?
• Why did Jane Addams and other Hull-House residents choose to live and work in a settlement house?

Factual questions
• Identify the problems that immigrants confronted in Chicago.
• Who was Jane Addams and why did she decide to start Hull-House?
• Approximately how many ethnic/national/language groups lived in the Hull-House neighborhood?
• Who were some of the prominent residents at Hull-House and what did they do?

Jane Addams Hull-House Museum questions
• Why were the Hull-House Maps and Papers that were initiated by Florence Kelley instrumental in understanding urban and industrial issues?
• The rapid physical growth of Hull-House is a testament to the popularity of its mission. Referring to the museum model of the settlement house, how many buildings did the complex encompass? What were these buildings used for? At its height, how many people did the settlement house serve?
• Hull-House’s first organized program was held on the main floor of the mansion and was supervised by Jenny Dow. Identify the program and discuss its significance in this urban neighborhood.

Making Connections: Now and Then

Objective: To develop critical thinking skills by having students apply their knowledge and make personal connections with turn-of-the-century social issues.
• What does it mean to be exploited? How were immigrants in the Hull-House neighborhood exploited? Explain why. Does exploitation happen today? How can exploitation be prevented?
• Are there any parallels between the neighborhood children at Hull-House and your life today?
• How do you think being poor today would be different from being poor when the Hull-House settlement was operating? How would it be similar?

Exploring Primary Source Documents

Objective: To develop analytical and research skills by teaching students how to study historical photographs/documents for clues about history.

Historical Photographs
Encourage students to find details and read information from the photograph by asking the following open-ended questions.
What elements in the scene, such as clothing or signs, provide clues as to when and where this photograph was taken?
What are the people in the scene doing? Do you think the people in this photograph posed? Why do you think the photographer chose to document this scene? Use three adjectives to describe this scene. Suggest a title for this photograph.

(Photographs from Chicago Historical Society coincide with new Youth slide show. ICHI 03808-children playing in littered street, 03852-tenement interior, ICHI 21030-littered alley with children, ICHI 00479-girls working in soap factory)

Hull-House Schedule
Allowing students to focus on details according to their own interests and experiences creates a relevant learning experience that engages critical thinking and observing skills.

Referring to sample copy of classes and activities offered at Hull-House, identify the different programs and classes. Why do you think these particular classes were offered? If you were a reformer at Hull-House what kind of programs and initiatives would you suggest? Which classes would you like to participate?


Pictured above: University of Illinois at Chicago, The University Library, Jane Addams Memorial Collection, JAMC neg. 290