# Miss Starr — Twenty Years at Hull House character guide

> Miss Starr in Twenty Years at Hull House by Jane Addams.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Ellen Gates Starr

**First appearance:** 0008-v-first-days-at-hull-house

## Snapshot

Addams's co-founder and closest ally, who carried art and beauty into Halsted Street and turned framed photographs into a civic mission.

## Who they are

Ellen Gates Starr is the friend with whom Addams dares the whole Hull House experiment, and her particular passion is art as a form of welcome. Her loan collection of photographs grows into the Public School Art Society, and she becomes its first president, insisting that the neighborhood deserves beauty as much as bread. She matters because she gives the settlement its aesthetic conscience and shows that reform can be made of pleasure, not only of need.

## In the story

### [Twenty Years at Hull House](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/twenty_years_at_hull_house_se/chapters/twenty-years-at-hull-house)

Co-founder of Hull House, instrumental in its early development.

### [First Days at Hull House](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/twenty_years_at_hull_house_se/chapters/v-first-days-at-hull-house)

Co-founder of Hull House, joins Jane Addams in Chicago to implement their settlement plan.

### [Subjective Necessity for Social Settlements](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/twenty_years_at_hull_house_se/chapters/vi-subjective-necessity-for-social-settlements)

Not directly mentioned in this excerpt, but referenced as a co-founder of Hull House in earlier chapters; here the focus is on the broader settlement movement.

### [Some Early Undertakings at Hull House](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/twenty_years_at_hull_house_se/chapters/vii-some-early-undertakings-at-hull-house)

Co-founder, involved in the early activities and decisions at Hull House.

### [Pioneer Labor Legislation in Illinois](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/twenty_years_at_hull_house_se/chapters/x-pioneer-labor-legislation-in-illinois)

Co-founder of Hull House; referenced indirectly as part of the settlement's work.

### [XIV: Civic Cooperation](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/twenty_years_at_hull_house_se/chapters/xiv-civic-cooperation)

Created a loan collection of art photographs that led to the Public School Art Society.

### [Socialized Education](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/twenty_years_at_hull_house_se/chapters/xviii-socialized-education)

Co-founder of Hull House; referenced implicitly through the collective 'we' of the settlement's early efforts.

### [List of Illustrations](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/twenty_years_at_hull_house_se/chapters/list-of-illustrations)

Photographed seated at a desk writing a letter.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/twenty_years_at_hull_house_se/characters/miss_starr
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/twenty_years_at_hull_house_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/twenty_years_at_hull_house_se/characters