Jane Addams made several visits to Grinnell, because of her close ties to leaders of the Social Gospel movement at the college (such as Carrie Rand, George Herron, President George Gates,and Edward Steiner).

In 1906, Addams gave a lecture on “The Rise and Development of the Social Settlement Idea” at the Congregational church, which also served as a local fundraiser for the Uncle Sam’s Club, which received the proceeds from the ticket sales for the sold-out event.  Newspaper coverage noted that this might be audiences last chance to hear from Addams because her growing list of duties and responsibilities were such that she would have to “retire from the stage” (i.e. be unable to lecture widely in the future).  Addams discussed the origins of the settlement movement in Whitechapel London, begun by students at Oxford and Cambridge, and focused heavily on her own work at Hull House in Chicago. Adams emphasized that settlement houses stood for “high moral, political, and educational ideals” which she juxtaposed with the “tin-pan Americanism” that animated nativists and their calls for assimilation. Addams also detailed some of the programming at Hull House: study classes, social clubs, a kindergarten, a labor museum, a music school, a theater program, a gymnasium, a coffee house, and gardens (serving a communities made up of more than 25 nationalities).

In true Grinnell fashion, Jane Addams also combined a class visit with her lecture, attending a course taught by her friend and colleague, Prof. Edward Steiner.