Library Briefings
Spring 2007
A faculty newsletter from Northwestern University Library
Individual Article:
At the Archives
Settlement house records document social history of near northwest side
Like Jane Addams’s Hull House, the Northwestern University Settlement Association was founded in the late 19th century to provide social services to the largely poor and immigrant communities of Chicago—in its case, on the near northwest side. Established in 1891 by University president Henry Wade Rogers, his wife, Emma Winter Rogers, and alumnus Charles Zeublin (Class of 1887), the Settlement is independent of Northwestern University but has maintained, since its establishment to the present, ties with many NU faculty, administrators, and alumni. Evanstonians have been devoted benefactors of the Settlement for several generations.
More than 80 linear feet of administrative files, scrapbooks, photographs and client records held by University Archives trace the history of the Settlement and the eleemosynary programs it developed to accommodate successive waves of immigrants in an inner-city neighborhood. Client case files dating from the early years of the 20th century offer a detailed look at immigrant families and their interactions – as mediated by the Settlement and its staff - with employers, schools, government agencies and the criminal justice system. Supplementing these records is a lengthy run of The Neighbor, the Settlement’s newsletter.
The Northwestern University Archives, established in 1935, holds material pertaining to every aspect of the history of Northwestern. The Archives serves as the repository for both non-current official University records and a wide variety of other records including the papers of individual faculty members, the records of student organizations, materials pertaining to alumni, publications, photographs, scrapbooks, and artifacts. The Archives' holdings are non-circulating, and are open for research and reference use.
Kevin Leonard
University Archives
kbl767@northwestern.edu
Like Jane Addams’s Hull House, the Northwestern University Settlement Association was founded in the late 19th century to provide social services to the largely poor and immigrant communities of Chicago—in its case, on the near northwest side. Established in 1891 by University president Henry Wade Rogers, his wife, Emma Winter Rogers, and alumnus Charles Zeublin (Class of 1887), the Settlement is independent of Northwestern University but has maintained, since its establishment to the present, ties with many NU faculty, administrators, and alumni. Evanstonians have been devoted benefactors of the Settlement for several generations.