Jane Addams: Conclusion

After the Hull House was founded, within two years, 2,000 people were passing through it every week. This successful settlement continued for 120 years of service. Jane Addams became a person that was not only after peace in the United States, but also world peace. Today, through the creation of the Hull House, she has influenced many social workers with her work in one of the poorest communities in the city of Chicago with the inspiration of her past experiences and Tonybee Hall. Addams built strong relationships and accepted everyone with love and free of judgment. She was successful at constructing a place for immigrants and neighbors, who wanted the help to grow, learn and have hope. She truly was changed a teacher who motivated the poor and trained them so they could eventually move on with their lives. In 1931, she won the Noble Peace Prize for her work with the peace organization. A house that started out as one ended up taking residence on a full street in Chicago before Addams passed away. Jane insisted on letting everyone know that in the midst of helping others she was too, blessed. 

Thesis & Brief Outline

Thesis::

With the creation of the Hull House, Jane Addams changed the way social services functioned which benefited the immigrants. The Hull House was a place located in Chicago, where immigrants were welcomed and free of judgment, and could get an education, learn English, and find a job. 

• Childhood of Jane Addams (Family life)
• Death of Jane Addams Mother
• Where Jane went to school/college
• What inspired Jane to start the Hull House
• What made Jane so different?
• Important people in Jane's life
• Purpose of the Hull House
• Daily Routine of the Hull House
• Jane's role in the Hull House
• What the surrounding neighbors felt about this project?
• Success of the Hull House

Hull House & Immigration: Works Cited

Addams, J. (1990). Twenty years at Hull-House with autobiographical notes. Urbana, IL:

University of Illinois Press.

I chose this journal article that I found through the database because it gave personal journal enteries from Jane herself but also background information that described her life and what it looked like related to the Hull House.

 

Davis, A. F. (1973). American heroine: The life and legend of Jane Addams. NY: Oxford

University Press.

This Bibliography describes how Jane Addams changed the way that social services functioned. This will back up my thesis. 

 

Linn, James. Jane Addams: A Biography. New York: D. Appleton-Century Company, 1943. 

            This is a book that I will be gaining most of my information from. It puts Jane Addams life in perspecitve from birth all the way through to her death. It focused on her family, life experiences, education, inspiration of the Hull House, and those who inspired her. 

Rima, Schultz. "Urban Experience in Chicago: Hull House & It's Neighbors." Last modified 2009. Accessed May 18, 2013. http://www.arch.uic.edu/urbanarch/mainpage.html. 

     The Urban Experience is a website that provided many primary source articles, images, and information in a timeline fashion. This website gave me perspective on her life and the social world in order. 

Immigration: Yesterday and Today

Since we can remember, living the "American Dream" has been a desire for many immigrants from every continent around the globe. What makes America so special? As the United States developed hundreds of years ago, so did the dream of happiness. Many immigrants came to New York in hopes of a new life and a better future. The word was spread that jobs were increasing, food supply was easier to find, and the country itself was increasingly growing. However, life as an immigrant was not easy at all. In fact, it was incredibly difficult to become a citizen and America, the melting pot, began to put restrictions on immigration. As this topic has become controversial, I want to explain that I am not taking any side, but will be researching the immigration laws, and how they have emerged and changed over the years from the late 1800's until now. I will also compare and contrast the role of immigrants from the time of Ellis Island to today's immigrants who wish to begin a new life here in the United States. What does this look like for Christians as we in come in contact with many immigrants and some who are even illegal?

Over the years of learning about immigration laws in the classroom and on the news, I have learned that there are a wide variety of opinions on this matter. It is a touchy topic to cover and often very challenging. In this research paper I want to figure out what this means for us as Christians and in what ways can we handle this situation as Christ followers. As I state facts throughout this paper, I will also pull out Biblical truths as well. I am in no way trying to force anything onto anyone, but rather to challenge our beliefs and maybe to understand why the issue of immigration has changed and evolved so much.

As I expand my own knowledge on topic of Immigration, I also wish to approach this with Biblical truth along with facts from my research. In this, I hope, that others can also have an open mind with this challenging matter.

Pre-Research

Each of the research topics that I have chosen I have continued to carefully pick valid resources to continue finding information on them:

When I began researching each topic I came to the conclusion that my topics and questions were pretty broad. I originally thought that the more broad my topics were the more information I could find on them. My only topic that was not broad was Jane Addams and the Hull House. Unfortunately, I have not been having much luck finding a good source for that particular topic that I could use to help write an in depth paper. So I had to ask myself if the questions/goal I have are not enough?

For Jane Addams I found plenty of websites/books on Jane herself. I found her (biography, her time in the White House, and her other contributions to society. The types of websites I found were primary and reliable. All of them came from .edu site. I was surprised that I didn't find any from a government page on the Hull House. There was one website, except the page could not be found. Must have been deleted. 

The Statue of Liberty had a number of sources on it as well. I found about 7 reliable sites along with 2 books from the library that gave me in depth information about the purpose of the Statue of Liberty, what it meant at the time, and how it impacted our world. The websites gave plenty of information, one especially from Harvard, that included facts that I never knew about the Statue of Liberty. Specifics that go all the way down the number of points she had on her crown and why. The information from these pages will allow me to go more in depth about immigration as well. I am thinking about rewording some of my questions so they focus more on the immigration aspect on coming to America and what that looked like for them (ie. the process of entering America and becoming a citizen, beginning life here in the states).

The last topic on my last blog post included the New Madrid earthquake which shaped history by changing the flow of the Mississippi River. Even though there is so much information on this topic as well, I'm weary of choosing this topic because I am afraid that most of the information I found were based on scientific information and even though it was historical, I would feel that I am turning in a science research paper rather than an American History paper. I looked at changing my end goal of this specific topic and relating it back to how people lived and how it effected society after the shock of the quake, but information did not appear to be as reliable and finding good information was scarce. 

Based on the research I have found and the number of reliable sources, I am going to focus my paper around Immigration to the United States. I will focus in on why immigrants chose to begin life in the US, what the conditions were, and dig into journals of a few immigrants and what it was like to begin life here in America beginning in the late 1800's. 

Research Topics

Jane Addams- Jane Addams, who?
What did life look like during this time for the immigrants?
What was considered "poor"?
What was Chicago like at this points in history?
Significant events?
Hard or easy for immigrants to come over?
What was the purpose of the Hull House?
What types of "help" could the poor recieve?
Was this something open for everyone or just immigrants?
What diseases were present and brought over?

I would be writing about the role of immigrants in the Hull House during years of the late 1800's.

Statue of Liberty-
What is the significance and purpose behind the Statue of Liberty?
Does it still stand for something today?

I would be writing about the significance and role of the Statue of Liberty in Liberty, New York during the late 1800's.

New Madrid Earthquake-

I would be writing about the role of  the New Madrid Earthquake (person, place, thing, idea) in Missouri that changed the course of the Mississippi River in 1812.

Interpretation: Lewis & Clark

Fern Leaf (Christmas fern, Polystichum munitum),
February 13, 1806, Codex J, p. 71

 Lewis & Clark: An Epic Journey
After exploring and reading through journal entries that were written by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, along with their other members that were on this expedition I've been able to understand, feel, and comprehend the type of journey they encountered. Even through the long, harsh, winter they braved the fearless mountains, the heat of the summer, finding their own food, fighting their own sicknesses, and overcoming one obstacle after another in order to discover and bring back these experiences with them. Since the time of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, Thomas Jefferson had a curiosity about the west. He knew that Meriwether Lewis had some knowledge about the West and appointed him to explore this land. Lewis knew that he needed to be accompanied by someone in case something went wrong. He chose his old time army friend, William Clark. Each person brought their different strengths to the table while they were on the trail. Lewis has always had the stereotype of being extra-sensitive and somewhat moody. Clark was strong and determined.

Area about Fort Mandan and North to the
Assinboine River, undated (winter 1804–05),
Voorhis Collection, Missouri Historical Society

As each of these men set out on the trail, they kept journals. These journals consisted of many things. They kept a series of pictures and notes about the natural things they encountered along the trail such as, trees, plants, vegetation, rivers, streams, animals, etc. These observations took a lot of time and work to transfer onto paper. This was a collaborative effort that they took together, but there was evidence that Lewis did more extensive writing on other loose leaf paper. 
During the time that they were between Missouri and the Great Falls, they were separated at several different points because one got ahead and the other fell behind. When this happened, Clark often kept the records and Lewis did not write in his journal.
The secondary source which included the geographical analysis of this Great Expedition. In this source, the author, concluded that Thomas Jefferson gave Meriwether Lewis authority to locate the Missouri and Columbia rivers. Along this passage they also encountered the Rockies and various Indian tribes. He also pointed out that their journals at some points were overoptimistic, and leaving out real knowledge. Some of the knowledge was based off of perceived thoughts. They thought this trip was going to be along a short passage and instead in reality the 2,000 mile trip took much longer than they thought. Lewis and Clark traveled on the Missouri and took the Columbia River all the way to the West Coast.  This trek took two years to complete with the evidence of both the primary and secondary sources.

The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. 2005. U of Nebraska Press / U of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries-Electronic Text Center. 5 Oct. 2005 .

: Investigation: Analysis of the Exploratory Process of Lewis and Clark

The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition were put online for others to have the opportunity to investigate this exploration. These first-hand accounts from the travelers themselves give readers vivid images of the types of things they encountered along the way. As I was browsing this website, I began to think about the interpretations. The professionals that worked long hours to put this together for us to view also had to read through writing that was old, very different from the language we use today, and could possibly be misleading. How would we know if these journal entries were true? The secondary source that I researched was written by John Allen, who explored the process of this journey and remarkably found many things that stood out to him as well as lining up with the information that was found in the original journals themselves. There were a few questions that arose for me after investigating the secondary source was knowing how accurate their journal entries were with the date, time, etc. Each person experienced different feelings as well and how do we determine opinion vs. facts?

Cascade on left bank Columbia River (Cascades of the Columbia)

An example with the journals that was pointed out were the actual dates that they were written. Research shows that the exploration started on August 30, but the letter Lewis and Clark wrote to Jefferson, said that they had actually left on the 31st of August. There is no August 31st entry, but the entry dated August 30 showed that they left Pittsburgh. 
From the secondary source which analyzed the exploration of their trip showed much of the geography and how it was in the western United States during this period. The Lewis and Clark case study gives a perfect examination of the geographic knowledge available to them and their relationship with the behaviors during the expedition. They were guided by their geographical knowledge. The origins of the first transcontinental movement west were determined by their reactions to the geography. From the journals, Thomas Jefferson gathered the height and how narrow the Rocky Mountains and the major rivers were Columbia and Missouri.
I often thought to myself after reading through the journal entries written by Lewis and Clark themselves that what they had accomplished was remarkable. Traveling through the harsh conditions of the winter and through the mountains had to an experience all in itself. Not knowing what you are getting yourself into and having to live off of pure faith. I wonder what type of faith they had and what belief system they valued. This was not something that was mentioned in the journals so I wonder if they did believe in Jesus Christ. Most of their writings were more information and their reactions to it for Thomas Jefferson when they returned from the trip.