Hull House

The building that Jane Addams turned into Hull house to assist the poor in her neighborhood is now a museum entitled the Jane Addams Hull-house Museum.

Poverty represented in Media.

The image shows the belief that people contemporary to Hull house held that those who lived in poverty were predispositioned to violence and crime. 

Boys forced to live on the streets as they are so impoverished, learn to pickpocket out of necessity.

The image shows the physical tolls of living on the street or in poverty. 

Boys stick together when sleeping on the streets, but there are no adults with them, suggesting adults may not want to go near them because of the stigma around poverty.

Poverty in the Midwest.

Children sometimes felt, and still feel, they must go out on their own to earn money for their families. The children sometimes left the city or state they lived in to earn money for their families to survive.

Poverty represented in a Political Cartoon.

Comparasion of the classes contemporary to Hull House.

Political cartoons, such as this one, reveal much about public perception of certain topics. The Tournament of Today reveals a struggle between classes, and the apparent futility of the lower class fighting the upper class, and by extention the futility of trying to get out of poverty. 

The politcial cartoon again demonstrates the inability for the poor to get out of poverty. Some may be able to escape poverty, but try to bring everyone above the poverty level and they will take everyone else down with them.

The political cartoon was drawn to spread fear about socialism, which seemed like a valid opportunity to the desperate poor. The upper classes of the United States of America were so afraid of the stigma around the poor, and becoming poor themselves, that they made sure socialism did not appear to be a valid form of assistance for the poor. 

One of the people depicted is described as being an Irishman, which were known for being poor, and were considered to be beneath the rest of polite society.

The political cartoon represents the people's belief that the government was intentionally trying to keep the poor impoverished.

There was a belief that the poor were a drain on society and the economy, those in the wealthier classes would have wanted the poor to earn their keep and assistance.