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Ellen Gates Starr, undated
Ellen Gates Starr was born near Laona, Illinois, the third of four children of Caleb Allen Starr and Susan Childs Gates Starr. She attended local schools and enrolled at Rockford Seminary, Rockford, Illinois, in 1877. She spent only one year at Rockford because her father could not afford the tuition. She taught at a country school in Mount Morris, Illinois, and in 1879 accepted a position at Miss Kirkland's School for Girls in Chicago where she taught a variety of subjects. Although religion was not part of her early upbringing, she spent much of her life in search of religious truth. She was greatly influenced by her aunt, Eliza Allen Starr, a devout Roman Catholic convert, writer, and lecturer. In 1884 Ellen joined the Episcopal Church.
During these years Starr was in frequent contact with Jane Addams, a close friend from Rockford Seminary. In 1888, while they were traveling in Europe, Addams confided her dream of establishing a settlement house. On their return they opened Hull House in Chicago in September 1889. Although Addams was the financial and executive force behind the establishment of Hull House, she depended on Starr's support and contacts in Chicago society. In an attempt to enlighten the lives of the immigrant population of Chicago, Starr established reading clubs, decorated Hull House with reproductions of great art, organized art history classes, and in 1894, founded and became the first president of the Chicago Public School Art Society. In the late 1890s she spent fifteen months in London studying bookbinding with T.J. Cobden-Sanderson. Although she was eager to teach the art of bookbinding on her return to the United States, she found that it was of little practical value to the people of Hull House.
Noting the prevalence of sweatshops, child labor, low wages, and long hours, she joined with Florence Kelley and others in the battle against child labor. She was a charter member of the Illinois branch of the National Women's Trade Union League and in 1896, 1910, and 1915 she came to the aid of striking textile workers. She delivered speeches, provided food and clothing, and marched in picket lines. She was arrested during a 1914 restaurant workers' strike. Starr was a close friend of Sidney Hillman and Jacob Potofsky and was made an honorary member of Hillman's Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America. She joined the socialist party in 1916 and unsuccessfully ran for alderman in Chicago.
Her spiritual quest culminated in conversion to Roman Catholicism in 1920. Thereafter she spent much of her time writing and speaking about Catholic art and worship and her own conversion experience. She continued to be an occasional visitor to Hull House until 1929, when an operation to remove a spinal abscess left her paralyzed from the waist down. In 1930, she settled at the convent of the Holy Child in Suffern, NY, becoming an oblate of the Third Order of St. Benedict in 1939. She died in 1940 and was buried at the convent.
The Ellen Gates Starr Papers consist of 9.75 linear feet and date from 1659 to 1975. The bulk of the papers range from 1850 to 1970. Types of material include correspondence, writings, artwork, diaries, legal documents, photographs, printed material, memorabilia, biographical and genealogical material. They relate to Starr's personal and professional life, Jane Addams, and Hull House, and the Starr family. Of particular interest is material on Jane Addams including correspondence, photographs and biographical material. Jane Addams material can be found in SERIES I, II, and IV. The bulk of the papers, however, consist of those of Ellen Gates Starr and her family, dating from her grandfather Oliver Starr's family in Deerfield, Massachusetts, in the early 1800s to her grand niece Angela Starr Van Patten in 1971. There are large amounts of correspondence, writings and art relating to her sister, Mary Houghton Starr Blaisdell and her aunt, Eliza Allen Starr, and correspondence of her niece, Josephine Susanna Starr.
Always devoted to the liturgy and history of the church, Starr studied, wrote, and corresponded with the learned and interested, both lay and clerical, and correspondence and writings reflects this long and close devotion and the manner in which she shared it with others. Her socialist activism is illustrated by clippings and articles as well as correspondence concerning the Amalgamated Clothing Workers strike in Chicago in 1915. Letters from Sidney Hillman and Jacob Patofsky, heads of the Clothing Workers, attest to their admiration and appreciation of Starr's contribution to the cause of organized labor.
This collection is organized into four series:
The Papers are open to research according to the regulations of the Sophia Smith Collection.
The Sophia Smith Collection owns copyright to the papers of the Starr family members represented in this collection. Copyright to materials created by others may be owned by those individuals or their heirs or assigns. It is the responsibility of the researcher to identify and satisfy the holders of all copyrights. Permission must be obtained from the Sophia Smith Collection to publish reproductions or quotations beyond "fair use."
Please use the following format when citing materials from this collection:
Ellen Gates Starr Papers, Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, Northampton, Mass.
The Ellen Gates Starr Papers were donated to the Sophia Smith Collection in 1960 by her niece, Josephine Starr, and grandniece, Angela Starr Van Patten. Johanna Doniat, a former Hull House associate, donated additional letters and articles on art, religion and bookbinding in 1966. In 1968, Mary Prentice Lillie Barrow donated a scrapbook of clippings which belonged to her mother, Frances Crane Lillie.
Processed by Susan Boone, 2001.
Related material can be found in the
Additional papers of the Starr/Allen family are located at Memorial Hall, Old Deerfield, Massachusetts.
An example of Starr's bookbinding (Albert Stanborough Cook, The Christ of Cynewulf, A Poem in Three Parts, Boston, 1900) is located at Smith College, Mortimer Rare Book Room.
Additional Ellen Gates Starr letters can be found in the Jane Addams Papers located at Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, and in the Charles Henry Adams Wager Papers in the Special Collections at Oberlin College, Oberlin Ohio.
Eliza Allen Starr Papers are also located in the Archives of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Cross, St. Mary's Convent, Notre Dame, Indiana.
See Starr entries in Women Building Chicago, 1790-1990 edited by Rima Lunin Schultz and Adlel Hast (Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 2001) for additional sources.
Although there is some material dating from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the bulk of this series dates from the mid 1800s to mid 1900s. It consists of three subseries: the Starr family, Jane Addams, and Lillie family.
The Starr family subseries contains general family records and material related to Ellen Gates Starr and other individual family members (Mary Houghton Starr Blaisdell, Caleb Allen Starr, Comfort Starr, Eliza Allen Starr, Jeanne Stutz Starr, Josephine Susanna Starr, Oliver Starr, Susan Gates Childs Starr, Wesley Starr, William Starr, Elizabeth Angela Starr Van Patten and Eunice Allen Starr Wellington). The general family material includes genealogical records (1781-1949) which contain biographical notes and articles giving the family background in Deerfield, Massachusetts before the family moved to Illinois in 1855.
The biographical material on Ellen Gates Starr consists of biographical notes by Josephine Starr (1960), three address books, one small diary (1938), her breviary and miscellaneous memorabilia. There is also financial material including bills and receipts (1938), correspondence (1937-39), and items related to her Hull House pension (1935-36). In addition there are clippings, speeches, writings and testimonials related to Starr's activity with the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (1915-16); obituaries and memorials (1940); and her wills (1925-40).
In addition to general biographical material (wills, obituaries, clippings and memorabilia) related to other members of the Starr family, of particular interest are Mary Houghton Starr Blaisdell's diaries (1891-1933), sea journals of Caleb Allen Starr (circa 1840-60) and William Starr (1762), Jeanne Stutz Starr's childhood memories of Switzerland (1920), early deeds and guardianship papers of Oliver Starr (1806-88), and a copy of Life and Letters of Eliza Allen Starr.
The Jane Addams subseries contains obituaries, articles and tributes (1935-39), Hull House clippings and brochures (1935, 1967-69) and an annual financial report (1932), and material related to a tribute to Addams by the WILPF (1935).
The final subseries consists of memoirs and reminiscences of Starr's friend, Frances Crane Lillie (1913, 1967), and her daughter Mary Prentice Lillie Barrow (1970).
Correspondence comprises the largest series in the Starr papers. It is arranged in two subseries, Family and Third Party. The first subseries begins with the primary correspondent, Ellen Gates Starr, followed by family members alphabetically. Where it applies, each person's correspondence is divided into two sections: family and friends and associates. Ellen's correspondence contains both incoming and outgoing letters filed together chronologically. Other family correspondence contains letters authored (i.e. outgoing) by that person. The friends and associates section contains both outgoing and incoming letters. Although Ellen's letters comprise the largest volume, there are substantial blocks of correspondence of Mary Houghton Starr Blaisdell, Albert Childs Starr, Eliza Allen Starr, Josephine Starr, Susan Gates Childs Starr, and Elizabeth Starr Van Patten.
Ellen Gates Starr's correspondence covers more than fifty years of her life and subjects such as the founding of Hull House, her work there, and her various trips to Europe. In addition it deals with her interest in literature, art and fine binding, and her religious life and final reception into the Roman Catholic Church in 1920.
Of particular interest is Ellen's correspondence with Deerfield photographers and cousins Mary and Frances Allen (1884-89). It includes two Allen photographs of Deerfield and Ellen's letter of September 15, 1889, in which she tells of Jane Addams and the opening of Hull House. Also of interest are three folders of correspondence with her aunt, Mary Starr Blaisdell, as well as letters to other family members that relate Hull House experiences.
The correspondence with Friends and associates is notable for the circa eighty letters between Jane Addams and Ellen Gates Starr. These include a record book of copies of letters between Starr and Addams (1896), which also contains clippings about early Hull House. There are also letters from Addams to Starr from Rockford and Cedarville (1877-83) and Europe (1883-85). The correspondence continues to 1931, four years before Addams' death. There is also a letter from Starr to Jane's stepmother, Anna Addams (1888). These letters reveal their close friendship and wide interests and include letters in which the idea of Hull House is first mentioned, its purchase, final realization in 1889, and growth into a world renowned social settlement.
Starr's correspondents also include a number of Catholic priests (mostly of the Benedictine Order with which she was closely associated), nuns of the Order, other close personal friends, and early residents of Hull House, many of whom were influential men and women in Chicago, Boston, New York, Washington. Other notable correspondents are Frank and Frances Lillie and Mary Hawes Wilmarth, T.J. Cobden-Sanderson (founder and owner of the Dove Press in London, under whom she learned the art of fine binding), Frederic Delano, Harold Ickes, and Vida Scudder.
Friends who sent greetings on her eightieth birthday (1938) include Emily Greene Balch, Alice Hamilton, Harold Ickes, Jacob Potofsky, Ruth Sessions, Sidney Hillman, Vida Scudder, Thornton Wilder, and Emily Greene Balch. There are also letters about bookbinding from T.J. Cobden-Sanderson (1895-1916); condolence letters on Jane Addams' death (1935); letters from John Handly, a spiritual advisor and friend (1922-35); Alice Hamilton (1936); Sidney Hillman about the Amalgamated Clothing Workers strike (1915); Jane Addams' nephew James Webber Linn about a biography of Addams (1935); Vida Scudder (1915-29); her friend, Cora Vawter (1912-39) and two letters from Thornton Wilder (1930-35). There are also Wilder letters in the Third party subseries.
There are thirteen folders of correspondence with Charles H.A. Wager (1906-35), head of the English Department at Oberlin College about their shared intellectual and spiritual interests. Wager and Starr became friends when they were both teaching at Chautauqua in the early 1890s. He followed Starr's preparation for conversion to Catholicism with interest.
Correspondence with Frances Crane Lillie (1906-40), Johanna Doniat (1912-39), Mary Hawes Wilmarth (1905-16), Mrs. Carl Linden (1912-40), Jane Reoch (1907-23), Edward L. Burchard, and Caroline Urie (1936) includes Hull House related discussions and reminiscences.
Frances Crane Lillie was a devoted friend, benefactor and early associate at Hull House. These letters reflect Starr and Lillie's parallel interest in the Anglican Church. Lillie was also a convert to Roman Catholicism and the correspondence mostly reflects their mutual religious interests.
Other notable Starr family are those of Susan Starr who wrote letters to her husband Caleb during a prolonged visit to Deerfield with her four children in 1863, in which she describes farming and the attitude of rural New Englanders toward the Civil War; Mary Houghton Starr Blaisdell who wrote to her family up until 1931 including letters from Europe (1881-82), and Josephine Starr, whose letters reflect her close relationship with her aunt, Ellen Gates Starr.
There are also letters from Jane Addams to Blaisdell (1914, 1918).
Josephine Starr's correspondence includes nine letters from Jane Addams (1930-31). Subjects related to Ellen including the arts and crafts movement (1972), an exhibit at Hull House (1973-74), T.J. Cobden-Sanderson (1974), and condolence letters on Ellen's death, and the sale of her books (1973-75) are addressed in Josephine's correspondence. Notable correspondents include Florence Converse (1918-20), Jill Ker Conway (1964-75), Constance McLaughlin Green (1970), Lydia Bush -Brown Head (1959-74), Frances Crane Lillie (1938-39), Archibald MacLeish (1965), Laura Lord Scales (1968-73), and Vida Scudder (1918-50).
Third Party correspondence includes letters of Catherine Breshkovsky (1910-15), Johanna Doniat (1919-41), Cora Vawter (1918), and four letters from Thornton Wilder to Charles Wager (1917-18). The Breshkovsky correspondence includes published letters from Russia (1917) and typed copies of letters to Alice Stone Blackwell (1911, 1915). Letters of Johanna Doniat and Cora Vawter are about Ellen Gates Starr and Charles H.A. Wager. The letters from Thornton Wilder include comments on his college life, writings, and views on the war, a sonnet written to Charles Wager and a manuscript of a short Christmas playlet entitled "The Last Miracle Of The Graal."
This series contains five subseries: Ellen Gates Starr, Mary Houghton Starr Blaisdell, Eliza Allen Starr, Jeanne Stutz Starr, and Thomas J. Cobden-Sanderson.
The works and writings of Ellen Gates Starr are arranged by subject: bookbinding, drawings, religion, Christian art, and miscellaneous writings and notes. The material on bookbinding includes articles by and about Starr and her craft (1897-1916). (See also Clark, T.J. The Arts and Crafts Movement in America, 1876-1916 located on the shelf). There are also photographs of her bindings and her studio at Hull House in SERIES IV. PHOTOGRAPHS - Miscellaneous. Drawings are primarily flower studies. Additional studies are located in the flat file.
Starr's religious writings consist of published material (1909-37) on Catholicism, Protestantism, and spirituality generally: typescripts and notes (1928, n.d.); and notebooks containing meditations and notes (1897-1935, n.d.). In addition there are notes and printed material on Christian art (1906, n.d.). The miscellaneous writings and notes contain Starr's work on socialism and settlements. There is also a folder of undated notes on The Odyssey, John Ruskin, and William Morris.
Mary Houghton Starr Blaisdell's drawings and art (1882, n.d.) include diagrams for Ellen's books; and her travel notes and speeches (1899-1903), particularly her trip to Egypt, Palestine, Corfu, Rome and Spain, which were probably used as lectures. There is large body of Eliza Allen Starr's work, consisting of writings on art and religion (1841-1901), lectures and art courses (1883-97), poems and sketches, plus six volumes of poetry and religious writings. She also contributed to Girlhood's Hand-Book Of Woman edited by Eleanor Donnelly which is located in the Sophia Smith Collection's Women: Position and Progress collection.
The remaining subseries consist of Jeanne Stutz Starr's lectures on Faust (n.d.); and a folder of material on T.J. Cobden-Sanderson containing brochures and announcements and articles about the Dove Press. There is also a first sheet from Dove Press in the flat file.
This series contains circa 250 photographs and is arranged in five subseries: Family, Friends and associates of Ellen Gates Starr, Family homes, Miscellaneous and Albums. The first subseries contains photographs of Ellen Gates Starr and Starr family members arranged alphabetically. The Friends and associates of Ellen Gates Starr subseries includes, among others, Jane Addams (1890-1920) and Thomas J. Cobden-Sanderson and his family (1888-99, n.d.). Family homes contains photographs of Eliza Allen Starr's home in Chicago and family homes in Deerfield and Conway, Massachusetts, and Durand, Illinois. The Miscellaneous photographs include Starr's bindings and her bindery at Hull House and crosses in Ireland photographed by her friend Cora Vawter in 1939. The three Albums (1886-1904; 1907-29; and 1904-14) are family photograph albums. The first is primarily of Josephine Starr; the second includes World War I photographs. There are photographs of Ellen Gates Starr throughout.
[see also Judson, The Arts and Crafts Movement in America on shelf]