The beautiful ethnographic maps published in Hull-House Maps and Papers (1895) have long been heralded as one of the first social surveys of its kind in the United States and for their unique design. But Hull-House continued to produced studies with maps in the decades following. In addition to the Hull-House ethnographic maps, Chicago women used maps in their campaign for suffrage, for temperance, and as part of their campaigns to improve the living conditions in Chicago. During the Progressive Era (1890-1930), women activists wielded geography and cartography to advance their social agendas on a variety of fronts. Using the example of Chicago, this paper will examine the ways in which geography and cartography were used by activist women as part of their campaigns to improve living and working conditions in their communities.

Geography and cartography have long been associated with masculinist ways of knowing the world. These Chicago examples of women’s mapping represent the adoption of geography and cartography as part of women’s social work, carving out a public women’s space focused on issues that transcended the public/private divide, such as public sanitation, public schools, and tenement conditions, and applying scientific methods of social service and geography. Through their employment, women activists were presenting their arguments using the language and tools of science and politics, terms that those in power would understand.

In addition to the studies and maps generated, I will also explore Chicago’s collaborative network of women activists, who were often involved simultaneously in multiple campaigns. For example, Anna Nicholes was active with the Neighborhood Settlement House, the local and national suffrage movements, and the Women’s Trade Union League. Through settlement organizations, city clubs, local and national suffrage organizations, temperance organizations, progressive organizations (such as trade unions and organizations) and education institutions, women from a wide variety of stations and experiences worked for change. By focusing on this network of active women, I will attempt to delineate how these women adopted and adapted geographic knowledge and created knowledge and maps for their own purposes.