Acknowledgements

This project began in the summer of 2014, when one member of our team found the manuscript Hull-House Songs in the special collection archives of the University of Illinois, Chicago. Since then, numerous scholars, musicians, administrators, friends, and family, have made possible the transformation of an idea into a book. Both time’s passage and imperfect memories make it impossible to name all those who have contributed along the way. But we owe a special debt to Lisa Junkin Lopez, Executive Director of the Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace in Savannah, Georgia, and previous Director of the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, at the University of Illinois at Chicago. While at the Jane Addams Museum, Lisa Junkin Lopez inspired and mediated the intellectual connections that eventually evolved into this project. Jackie Wiggins, the former Director of the Oakland University School of Music, Theatre and Dance, was also instrumental in making this book possible. She introduced two of the authors, and was a constant source of support, both material and spiritual.

We owe an important debt to the Special Collections archive at the University of Illinois, Chicago, for giving us permission to publish Hull-House Songs and the related materials. Associate Professor Valerie Harris, the Special Collections Librarian at the University of Illinois, Chicago, has been an invaluable resource, guiding us with her knowledge of the collection, and making the process of securing permissions easy and efficient. Cathy Moran Hajo, Assistant Professor of History and Director, Jane Addams Papers Project, College of Ramapo, New Jersey, provided access to materials associated with the Jane Addams Papers.

Jocelyn Zelasko (soprano) and Amanda Sabelhaus (piano) brought these songs to life through their live performances and through their recordings (found at the Hull-House Songs website, hullhousesongs.org). Terry Herald engineered, mixed, and mastered Zelasko’s and Sabelhaus’s Hull-House Songs. Ros Hartigan designed and built the Hull-House Songs website.

We are also indebted to Jennifer A. Scott, Director, the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, University of Illinois, Chicago, to Kevin Corcoran, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Oakland University, to Anne Hitt, Interim Associate Provost, Oakland University, and to Dorothy Nelson, former Chair of the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, Social Work, and Criminal Justice, at Oakland University, for supporting this project and helping fund public performances of Hull-House Songs. Professor Jo Reger, of Oakland University, encouraged us to publish the manuscript in its present form. In addition, input from a number of scholars helped us refine our ideas and arguments. These include Ann Durkin Keating, Professor of History, North Central College, Naperville, Illinois, Ellen Skerrett, Historian and Chicago Researcher, Jane Addams Papers Project, Victoria Bissell Brown, Emerita Professor of History, Grinnell College, Grinnell, Iowa, Dr. Barbara Dobschuetz, Independent Scholar, Contributing Editor, Urban Experience in Chicago: Hull-House and Its Neighborhoods, 1889–1963, Suellen Hoy, Guest Professor and Independent Scholar, University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana, and Fran Shor, History Professor Emeritus, Wayne State University. Bia Cassano assisted with editorial work, helped find citations, and participated in the fastidious process of manuscript correction. This project would never have been completed were it not for the support of our editor, David Fasenfest, Associate Professor of Sociology, Wayne State University.

Finally, we would like to thank our partners, Ros Hartigan, Richard M. Schultz, and Michael Gurevich, for bearing with us during the necessarily obsessive process of creating a new kind of intellectual engagement with the past, the present, and the future. Because of their support, we have had the time and energy to build new disciplinary and intellectual bridges. This book is the result.