Edith Abbott (1876-1957)
Immigration to the US Resources | Other Resources
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| Illustration entitled "Sweatshop Workers" in Twenty Years at Hull-House, with Autobiographical Notes, by Jane Addams, 1912. |
Edith Abbott was an influential economist who championed reforms to alleviate urban social problems that afflicted immigrants in American industrial centers.
She was born in Grand Island, Nebraska, to active, civic-minded parents. Her mother was an abolitionist and women's suffrage leader, and her father was the first lieutenant governor of Nebraska. Her sister, Grace, was born two years later, and their lives were intertwined with mutual interests and involvement in the public welfare and in federal and state responsibilities involving social problems.
Abbott graduated from the University of Nebraska in 1901 and earned her doctoral degree in economics from the University of Chicago in 1905. She also studied at the London School of Economics. Abbott taught economics at Wellesley College until 1908, when she became assistant director of the Research department of the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy, which later became part of the University of Chicago as the School of Social Service Administration. Abbott was dean of the School of Social Service Administration from 1924 to 1942. (For a survey of her contributions at the University of Chicago, visit the School of Social Service Administration's web site.)
Abbott's contributions were unique, significant, and extensive. She stressed the importance and the essential need of a public welfare administration, the need for a more humane social welfare system, the responsibility of the state in relation to social problems, and the social aspects of legislation.
Abbott helped establish the Cook County (Illinois) Bureau of Public Welfare in 1926. She assisted in drafting the Social Security Act of 1935. She was a confidant and special consultant to Harry Hopkins, adviser to President Franklin Roosevelt.
Abbott was president of the National Conference of Social Work and the American Association of Schools of Social Work. She was a founder of Social Service Review. Her publications, basic documents in the field of social work and public welfare, are numerous.
(Biography courtesy of the National Association of Social Workers Foundation.)
^ TOPImmigration to the US Resources
Listed below are digital resources from the Immigration to the US collection by, about, or related to Edith Abbott. These resources represent only a selection of what exists on these topics. More physical materials on these topics may be available at the owning repositories, some of which are open to the public.
Abbott, Edith and Sophonisba P. Breckenridge. Employment of Women in Industries: Twelfth Census Statistics. Chicago: [Chicago Women's Trade Union League?], 1906.
Abbott, Edith and Sophonisba P. Breckenridge. The Wage-Earning Woman and the State: A Reply to Miss Minnie Bronson. Boston: Boston Equal Suffrage Association for Good Government, [191-].
Abbott, Edith. Finding Employment for Children Who Leave the Grade Schools to Go to Work: Report to the Chicago Woman's Club, the Chicago Association of Collegiate Alumnae and the Woman's City Club. Chicago: Manz Engraving Co., Hollister Press, 1911.
Abbott, Edith. Women in Industry: A Study in American Economic History. New York; London: D. Appleton and Co., 1910.
Addams, Jane. Twenty Years at Hull-House, with Autobiographical Notes. New York: Macmillan, 1912.
Women's Trade Union League of Massachusetts. Special Committee Appointed by the Executive Board. The History of Trade Unionism Among Women in Boston. [Boston]: Women's Trade Union League of Massachusetts, [1906?].
^ TOPOther Resources
Listed below are web sites about, or related to, Edith Abbott. These resources are listed to point users to further information outside the context of the Immigration to the US collection. The Open Collections Program and Harvard University bear no responsibility for the contents of these web sites. This list is not intended to be comprehensive.
The papers of Edith Abbott and those of her sister Grace Abbott are in the University of Chicago Library, Special Collections Research Center. Finding aid 