Accomplishments and Honors
Jane Addams stated, "I was involved in many organizations that dealt with a variety of issues. I was part of the settlement house movement, the National Women Suffrage Association, Anti-imperialist League, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and the American Civil Liberties Union. I was also a Charter member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. In 1905 I was appointed to Chicago’s Board of Education and made chairman of the School Management Committee. I helped found the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy and I also became the first woman president of the National Conference of Charities and Corrections. I helped improve sanitation in cities and I am glad that I was able to help in any way possible."
At the age of 71, Jane Addams became the first American women to receive the Nobel Peace Prize with another American Dr. Nicholas Murray.
The Peace Prize committee added referring to Jane, "We also pay homage to the work which women can do for the cause of peace and fraternity among nations for twenty-five years she has been the faithful spokesman of the idea of peace."
Other honors that came to Jane Addams: Good House Keeping magazine named her "The first among twelve of the greatest living women in America." Mark A. Dewolf Howe, a Boston writer and Pulitzer Prize winner, chose Addams as "one of the six most outstanding present-day Americans," the other five being men. In 1931, she was awarded the M. Carey Thomas Prize for her "great contribution to American living." Also, President Theodore Roosevelt said "the best argument for women's suffrage." (Bonnie C. Harvey)