Social worker and activist Jane Addams received the Google Doodle treatment on Friday to commemorate her birth on Sept. 6, 1860. The founder of Hull House, social reformer, and activist in the women's suffrage movement was the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, which she received in 1931, four years before her death.
Google's ode to Addams is one the search giant's simpler doodlesa static illustration of the distinctive, light red-bricked Chicago settlement house co-founded in 1889 by Addams and Ellen Gates Starr, with cut scenes depicting the various roles Addams played in her life, ranging from planning the design of Hull House to educating children, fostering the arts, and promoting public health.
Early on Friday, some Wikipedia vandals apparently leaped on the opportunity afforded by the Google Doodle spotlight placed on Addams, briefly changing some key "facts" about her life on the online encyclopediaan example, switching out "Hull House" for the "play boy mansion" with a link to the Los Angeles landmarkbefore other users stepped in to fix Addams's Wikipedia page.
A child of privilege and the finest education in her hometown of Cedarville, Ill., Addams spent her early adulthood pursuing the study of medicine, but abandoned it due to illness. After a trip to Europe and time spent reflecting upon her goals, Addams set out with Starr for another trip across the Atlantic, where the pair would finally determine their calling during a visit to London.
Addams and Starr conceived the idea for Hull House after visiting Toynbee Hall, a settlement house in London's East End. In 1889, the pair leased a large building in Chicago's Near West Sidethe name of the house came from its builder, Charles Hulland converted it into a refuge for recent immigrants to the city and their children.
The settlement house complex eventually grew to encompass 13 buildings and also incorporated a summer camp called the Bowen Country Club. The Hull House complex was completed in 1912 and designated a U.S. National Historical Landmark on June 23, 1965.
The Chicago settlement complex was her signature accomplishment, but Addams devoted her life to a host of reform issues that were worldly in scope. Hull House itself inspired the building of other refuges for the poor throughout the United States. Some 500 such settlement houses were operational by 1920, according to Mary Ann Johnson's 2004 history Hull House, with many incorporating the signature educational and health programs developed by Addams in Chicago.
Addams also championed Progressive Era causes ranging from women's rights to improving public education and health programs for the needy. She is considered by many historians to be an original shaper of the women's suffrage movement and remains an inspirational figure in the modern feminist movement.
Her relationship with Starr has also been the subject of much speculation. Though never open about the nature of their friendship, some historians believe Addams and Starr were lovers during an era when homosexual relations could not be openly expressed.
The Hull House Association ceased operations just last year, but the Hull House mansion still stands in Chicago and remains open as a museum for the public.
For more of Google's doodles, see the slideshow above. Recently, the search giant has honored Rembrandt van Rijn, the Roswell UFO incident, architect Antoni Gaudí, author Maurice Sendak, Julius Richard Petri, graphic designer Saul Bass, Ella Fitzgerald, Hitchhiker's Guide author Douglas Adams, and composer Claude Debussy.