Jane Addams

 As a pioneering social worker in America, a feminist, and an internationalist in the first third of the 20th century, Jane Addams (born Laura Jane Addams, September 6, 1860-May 21, 1935) gained recognition on a global scale. She was the eighth of nine children to be born in Cedarville, Illinois. Her father was a successful miller and prominent local politician who served as a state senator for sixteen years and participated in the Civil War as an officer; he was a close friend of Abraham Lincoln, to whom he often wrote letters that began "My Dear Double D-'ed Addams." The congenital spinal defect that prevented Jane from being physically active as a child or truly robust even as an adult was fixed through surgery.

In 1881, Addams completed her studies at the Illinois-based Rockford Female Seminary, and the following year, when the school changed its name to Rockford College, she was awarded a degree. She spent two years as an invalid due to her father's passing in 1881, her own health issues, and a difficult year at the Woman's Medical College in Philadelphia. She did not discover a profession during her subsequent travels in Europe in 1883–1885 or her residence in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1885–1887.\

Addams discovered her second major calling—promoting world peace—during World War I. She was an outspoken pacifist who opposed the United States' involvement in World War I, which hurt her popularity and led to harsh criticism from some newspapers. However, Addams thought that people were capable of resolving conflicts amicably. She toured the warring nations with a group of female peace activists in an effort to bring about peace. She served as the Women's Peace Party's leader in 1915, and shortly after that she was elected president of the International Congress of Women. Addams contributed to the founding of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom in 1919, serving as its president from 1919 to 1929 and as honorary president until her passing in 1935. She also published essays and delivered speeches in support of peace around the world.

• Jane Addams
• The Nobel Peace Prize 1931
• Born: 6 September 1860, Cedarville, IL, USA
• Died: 21 May 1935, Chicago, IL, USA
• Residence at the time of the award: USA
• Role: Sociologist, International President, Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
• Prize motivation: “for their assiduous effort to revive the ideal of peace and to rekindle the spirit of peace in their own nation and in the whole of mankind”
• Prize share: 1/2