The Hull-House Collection was assembled by the Special Collections Department of the University of Illinois at Chicago beginning in 1966. It consists of material documenting the history of Hull-House from its founding in 1889 until the mid 1960s when the settlement moved from its original location on Halsted Street. The materials have been collected from a variety of sources including members of the Hull-House Board of Trustees. The majority of this collection was acquired between 1966 and 1972, however new material continues to be added.
The digitized portion of the collection covers the Hull-House bulletin publications from 1896-1999. There is significantly more material available if you visit the Library in person. To use the collection in person, consult the Hull-House collection finding aid.
In 1889, Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr rented the former home of real estate developer Charles Hull and opened Chicago's first social settlement. The Hull-House settlement house offered educational and social activities to the surrounding neighborhood and its pioneering staff used social science research as the basis of a wide range of influential reform initiatives. Hull-House gained local, national, and international attention for its programs and activities. An important leader in the Progressive movement, the settlement house provided a model for other settlement houses throughout the United States. Hull-House operated for 74 years at its Halsted Street location before decentralizing into several neighborhood centers.
Hull-House was located on the Near West Side of Chicago, a port of entry neighborhood for new immigrants in the late 19th century. An 1895 study done by Hull-House residents identified 18 different ethnic/nationality groups living in the area surrounding the settlement. Italian, Russian, Polish, and Lithuanian Jews, Irish, Bohemians, and later Greeks worked in neighborhood sweatshops and in the factories and lumberyards lining the Chicago River. The neighborhood was densely populated and suffered from congestion, inadequate housing, poor sanitation, and one of the highest infant mortality rates in the city.
For a more complete history, see the Hull-House collection finding aid.