Abbott, Grace (1878-1939)

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Member of (4)
Participated in (1)
Mentioned in (100)
Written by (12)
Received by (19)
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American Committee for the Relief of Russian Women and Children

American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology

League for the Protection of Immigrants

United States Children's Bureau

International Congress of Women (1915)

Jane Addams to Sarah Alice Addams Haldeman, January 6, 1906

National Conference of Charities and Corrections Conference Program Draft, March 18, 1909

Immigrants: Report of the Committee, June 12, 1909

Immigrants, June 26, 1909

Jane Addams to Clara Landsberg, September 29, 1910

Jane Addams to Mary Rozet Smith, December 12, 1910

Gino Speranza, Outline of proposed work for the Committee on Crime and Immigration, January 18, 1911

Sophonisba P. Breckinridge to Jane Addams, March 13, 1911

Jane Addams to Edith Abbott, July 28, 1911

Jane Addams to Sophonisba P. Breckinridge, August 11, 1912

Margaret Dreier Robins to Frances Alice Kellor. October 9, 1912

Margaret Dreier Robins to Jane Addams, November 5, 1912

Anna R. B. Lindsay to Jane Addams, January 10, 1913

Albert Apponyi to Jane Addams, January 27, 1913

Suggestions for Advisory Committee Membership, Progressive Service Committee, January 28, 1913

Jane Addams to Ada Lois James, January 29, 1913

Jane Addams to Sophonisba P. Breckinridge, August 25, 1913

Immigrant Woman As She Adjusts Herself to American Life, June 10, 1914

Jane Addams to Jacob Gould Schurman, October 29, 1914

Lillian D. Wald to Jane Addams, December 17, 1914

Jane Addams to Emily Greene Balch, March 13, 1915

Secretary to Jane Addams to Berenice Morrison-Fuller, March 19, 1915

Jane Addams to Emily Greene Balch, March 26, 1915

Mary Rozet Smith to Lillian D. Wald, March 31, 1915

Alice Peloubet Norton to Jane Addams, April 19, 1915

Alice Hamilton to Mary Rozet Smith, April 22, 1915

Women in Earnest, Says Jane Addams, April 28, 1915

Woman's Position in War Worse than Hellish, April 28, 1915

Women's Congress Honors Belgians, April 30, 1915

Alice Hamilton to Mary Rozet Smith, May 5, 1915

Jane Addams to Mary Rozet Smith, May 9, 1915

Sarah Anne Unwin Byles to Jane Addams, May 10, 1915

Harriet Park Thomas to Alice Thacher Post, December 27, 1915

Emily Greene Balch to Jane Addams, May 1916

Jane Addams to Harriet Park Thomas, May 30, 1916

National Public Ownership League circular, ca. June 1916

Eleanor Daggett Karsten to Jane Addams, August 8, 1916

Harriet Park Thomas to Jane Addams, August 8, 1916

Jane Addams to Eleanor Daggett Karsten, November 11, 1916

Sophonisba P. Breckinridge to ICWPP--International Congress of Women After the War--Delegates and Alternates--U.S., November 21, 1916

Eleanor Daggett Karsten to Arthur Deerin Call, February 6, 1917

Emily Greene Balch to Jane Addams, June 21, 1917

Alice Thacher Post to Hannah Clothier Hull and Lucia Ames Mead, November 8, 1917

Alice Thacher Post to Hannah Clothier Hull, November 11, 1917

Alice Thacher Post to Lucia Ames Mead and Hannah Clothier Hull, November 16, 1917

Alice Thacher Post to Hannah Clothier Hull and Lucia Ames Mead, November 17, 1917

Alice Thacher Post to Jane Addams, November 20, 1917

Woman's Peace Party Delegates and Alternatives, November 1918

Julia Clifford Lathrop to Jane Addams, December 13, 1918

Jane Addams to Alice Thacher Post, December 17, 1918

Browse all documents that mention "Abbott, Grace (1878-1939)"

Jane Addams to Edith Abbott, August 10, 1910

Gino C. Speranza to Grace Abbott, March 21, 1911

Jane Addams to [Grace or Edith?] Abbott, August 17, 1912

Jane Addams to [Grace or Edith?] Abbott, August 31, 1912

Jane Addams to Grace Abbott, March 17, 1913

Jane Addams to Grace Abbott, March 19, 1913

Jane Addams to Grace Abbott, June 20, 1913

Jane Addams to Grace Abbott, August 19, 1913

Jane Addams to Grace Abbott, September 4, 1913

Jane Addams to Grace Abbott, October 16, 1914

Jane Addams to Grace Abbott, August 30, 1916

Alice Thacher Post to Grace Abbott, November 24, 1916

Jane Addams to Grace Abbott, October 18, 1917

Jane Addams to the Delegates of the International Congress of Women, November 5, 1918

Eleanor Daggett Karsten to Grace Abbott, December 6, 1918

Jane Addams to Grace Abbott, September 7, 1921

Anna Mary Lloyd to Grace Abbott, May 18, 1922

Jane Addams to Grace Abbott, December 28, 1923

James Frederick Jackson to the National Conference of Social Work Executive Committee, October 26, 1925

Comments

Birth Date

1878-11-17

Death Date

1939-06-19

Birthplace

Grand Island, NE

Biographical Text

Grace Abbott was an American social worker who specialized in improving immigrant rights, advancing child welfare, and regulating child labor. Abbott attended and graduated from Grand Island College in 1898. During this time, there was a family economic crisis; she barely was able to graduate and pursue a career. Abbott worked as a high school teacher in her hometown before following in her sister’s footsteps to pursue graduate studies. She earned her master's degree from the University of Chicago in 1909. Abbott worked on several committees, including the Immigrants’ Protective League (IPL), the Child Labor Division of the U.S. Children’s Bureau, and the Women’s Trade Union League. While working as the director of the Child Labor Division of the U.S Children’s Bureau, she was responsible for administering the Keating-Owen Act. This law prohibited the exchange between states of goods made by child laborers. In addition, Abbott worked tirelessly for a (never ratified) constitutional amendment against child labor.

Another achievement of Abbott's occurred when she became the director of the IPL. This group created legislation for recent immigrants and new arrivals that improved medical care, stopped ethical mistreatment by employers, and cracked down on deportation. Abbott then worked as a political lobbyist in Washington D.C, having helped draft the Social Security Act in 1935. She was the first woman to be nominated for a Presidential cabinet position. In 1934, Abbott became a professor of public welfare at the University of Chicago and remained until her death from multiple myeloma in 1939.

Abbott neither married nor had children.

Abbott moved into the Hull House in 1908. She attributed a large part of her independence to Hull House. Addams often recommended Abbott for speaking engagements, and the two conferred on various social issues of the time.