1878-1939
Social Worker and Director, Federal Children's Bureau

Passion to Reform.

Grace Abbott inherited her inclination toward public affairs from her father, who was active in Nebraska politics and the state's first lieutenant governor. From her mother, an abolitionist and suffragist, she derived her passion to reform the world. Abbott grew up on the expansive Nebraska prairies and in 1898 graduated from Grand Island College in her hometown. She taught high school in Grand Island for eight years and in 1907 followed her sister, social worker Edith Abbott, to Chicago to attend graduate school in political science at the University of Chicago. Grace Abbott earned a master's degree in 1909.

Hull House.

 During the first decade of the twentieth century, Chicago was home to a vital circle of women intellectuals and social reformers. Grace Abbott was immediately attracted to Hull House, Jane Addams's pioneer social settlement, where she...