Kelley, Florence. Letter, 1897

This collection is comprised of a letter from Florence Kelley addressed to Dr. Braun regarding Kelley's writings on labor reform.

Florence Kelley (1859-1932) was a social reformer who campaigned against child labor and sweatshops, successfully advocating for a minimum wage and eight-hour workdays. From 1891 to 1899 Kelley lived at the Hull House, a settlement house in Chicago known as a hub for social welfare programs and labor reform. In 1893 she was appointed Chief Factory Inspector for the state of Illinois, becoming the first woman to hold statewide office in Illinois and the first woman factory inspector in the country. She held this position until August 1897.

The recipient of Kelley's letter is most likely Dr. Heinrich Braun (1854-1927), a German Social Democrat and writer. He was the editor of several German socialist publications, including the weekly magazine Socialpolitisches Centralblatt, for which Florence Kelley wrote several articles.

The collection consists of a February 11, 1897 letter from Florence Kelley to Dr. Braun written on Hull House letterhead. In the letter, Kelley assured Braun of her intention to keep her writings about social reform objective and described the challenge of doing so with issues she felt strongly about. She alluded to the difficulty she had faced finding newspapers to publish articles and reports that exposed sweatshop abuses and violations of labor laws.

The Library purchased this letter in 2020 with support from the Bruce C. Creamer Fund.