Peace, Passports, and Progressivism: Jane Addams and Her Postwar Journeys

Scholars have shown how Jane Addams experienced drastic changes in her reputation during her lifetime, as she was considered a celebrated social reformer before World War I, an outcast during the war for her pacifist views, and a notable international peace activist in the interwar years. This poster aims to shed light on the liminal moment that helped transform Addams from an outcast to a celebrated and accomplished international peace worker and humanitarian relief worker after the war. Focusing on this period will lead to a better understanding and appreciation of Addams’ abilities as an organizer during the Progressive Era and will show how differently she viewed the powers and nature of the federal government from municipal government, which has not been studied extensively.

Jane Addams’ postwar goal involved organizing a delegation of American women to travel abroad to be part of an international congress that would include women from the Central Powers. As a result of her travel and conference abroad after WWI, Addams helped further the peace aims of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom organization and humanitarian aims of Central European and American government organizations to ease the suffering of starving children and adults across war-torn Central Europe. Her efforts helped ease suffering and advanced her political goals of establishing foundations for international peace, for which she would be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931.

Seen through Addams’ letters to and from other delegates, however, this journey was far from guaranteed from happening. Addams surmounted many challenges at every step, wading through gender discrimination, discriminatory federal power, anti-pacifist hatred, and international anti-German hatred. She relied on her networks and tools to carefully negotiate the obstacles in her path to and in Europe. Before she commenced the meeting in Zurich, Addams harnessed all the resources she had to advocate for her mission as quietly as possible. Accustomed to engaging the public in her causes, Addams brought progressivism to the private sphere as the war ended, advocating and organizing intentionally out of the public eye. Though she had always felt the need to act on her principles and advocate for others, she changed tactics when dealing the federal government, urging patience over passion.

This poster will illustrate the difficulties Addams faced in accomplishing her goal and her strategies for navigating through all the obstacles in her way. The poster will show how isolated Addams was by 1918 by showing the various elements opposed to her views and mission. It will also show how differently Addams viewed the federal government than she did municipal governments. Following her trajectory through a visual maze of obstacles, I will showcase the passports of Addams and the delegates, which represented an enormous triumph for them. The poster will also display how she helped ease anti-German hatred in order to foster a collaborative working environment amongst all the delegates and the effects of her postwar journeys across Europe, which also signaled the end to this liminal moment.