The Hidden Legacy of May Morris

The Hidden Legacy of May Morris

On the second floor of the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum is Jane Addams’ bedroom. Many elements of the space have been fashioned to invoke how it may have looked when Ms. Addams was still alive. Several original furniture pieces reside in the room, but perhaps what stands out the most is the striking design on the walls. For many decades, it was believed that the design had been created by William Morris, a renowned textile artist, writer, and Socialist activist. In recent years, it has been discovered that many designs attributed to him were actually created by his daughter, May Morris.

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Who was Rachelle Slobodinsky Yarros?

Who was Rachelle Slobodinsky Yarros?

Hull-House Resident Dr. Rachelle Slobodinsky Yarros (May 18, 1869 – March 17, 1946) was an early pioneer in what would become the field of reproductive justice. Yarros immigrated at the age of 18 to the United States out of fear of the Russian government, due to her ties with revolutionary groups. In the US, she worked in a sweatshop before becoming the first woman to enroll in the College of Physicians and Surgeons in Boston. She went on to complete her MD at Philadelphia’s Women’s Medical College in 1893. Yarros met future fellow Hull-House Resident Alice Hamilton while they were both interning at New England Hospital for Women and Children. She and Hamilton would go on to be revolutionaries in the field of public health, working both in their own respective areas of expertise as well as combining efforts for wider access to basic health care for women and children.

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Who was Dewey Roscoe Jones?

Who was Dewey Roscoe Jones?

Jones moved to Chicago in 1923 and became a reporter for the Chicago Defender, a leading black-owned weekly newspaper that encourage Black people to leave the violence in the American South and move to northern urban centers like Chicago. A little over ten years later Jones became the first black assistant director at Hull-House.

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