{{Short description|American physician and social worker (1860–1946)}} {{use mdy dates|date=August 2023}} {{Infobox person | name = Jane E. Robbins | image = Jane Elizabeth Robbins.jpg | image_upright = 0.8 | alt = | caption = Robbins in 1902 | birth_name = | birth_date = December 28, 1860 | birth_place = Wethersfield, Connecticut, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|1946|08|16|1860|12|28|mf=y}} | death_place = Hartford, Connecticut, U.S. | nationality = | other_names = | occupation = Physician, settlement house leader | education = Smith College | employer = Rivington Street Settlement<br>New York Infirmary | years_active = | known_for = | notable_works = }}

'''Jane Elizabeth Robbins''' (1860–1946) was an American physician and social worker. She was a pioneer in the settlement house movement, founding the Rivington Street Settlement with Jean Gurney Fine in 1889. Robbins advocated for civic reform and on behalf of residents of tenement housing and immigrant families. She graduated from Smith College and taught obstetrics at the Women's Medical College of the New York Infirmary. She headed settlement houses in New York's Lower East Side, Cleveland, and Baltimore. She worked with the Red Cross and served as a nurse in the Spanish–American War and World War I, later working in Italy and Greece.

==Early life and education== Jane Elizabeth Robbins was born on December 28, 1860, in Wethersfield, Connecticut, to Harriet (née Welles) and Richard Austin Robbins.<ref name="DoWW">{{cite book |title=Dictionary of Women Worldwide: 25,000 Women Through the Ages |date=2007 |publisher=Gale |location=Detroit |isbn=978-0-7876-7585-1 |chapter-url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/robbins-jane-elizabeth-1860-1946 |chapter=Robbins, Jane Elizabeth (1860–1946)}}</ref> Robbins graduated from Smith College in 1883 before moving to New York City to study medicine.<ref name="NYT">{{cite news |title=Dr. Jane E. Robbins: Sociologist Worked With Riis and Addams on Settlements |work=The New York Times |agency=AP |date=August 17, 1946 |page=13}}</ref>

==Career== Robbins was a pioneer in the settlement house movement in the U.S. She advocated for tenements, civic reform, labor issues, education, and public parks.<ref name="DoWW"/>

In 1888 and 1889, Robbins lived across the street from the Neighborhood Guild (later the University Settlement Society of New York) with Jean Gurney Fine. They established Girl's Clubs, providing activities for girls.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Stebner |first1=Eleanor J. |title=Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America, Set |date=2006 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-34685-8 |page=1064 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=we2KvdT3zOsC&dq=%22jane+e.+robbins%22&pg=PA1064 |language=en |chapter=The Settlement House Movement}}</ref> By September 1889, they had established College Settlement (later known as the Rivington Street Settlement) in a brick building at 95 Rivington Street, just north of the Neighborhood Guild. Robbins served as the settlement's physician-in-residence. Fine served as director of College Settlement until 1892, when Robbins succeeded her, staying in the role of director for five years.<ref name="Recchiuti2007">{{cite book |last1=Recchiuti |first1=John Louis |title=Civic Engagement: Social Science and Progressive-Era Reform in New York City |date=2007 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |isbn=978-0-8122-3957-7 |page=68 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HqrIlzMao2gC&dq=%22jane+e.+robbins%22&pg=PA68 |language=en}}</ref>

Robbins started her own medical practice in Little Italy around 1891.<ref name="DoWW"/> By 1893, she was an instructor in obstetrics at the Women's Medical College of the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children.<ref>{{cite news |title=Dr. Jane Robbins's Campaign: Enlisting Children to Oppose Cholera Invasion |work=The New York Times |date=April 15, 1893 |page=11}}</ref> During the 1894 tailors' strike in New York, Robbins served as a representative of the tailors' interests alongside Josephine Shaw Lowell.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Waugh |first1=Joan |title=Unsentimental Reformer: The Life of Josephine Shaw Lowell |date=1997 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-93036-0 |pages=195–196 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0x5k9HvZrwkC&q=robbins&pg=PA195 |language=en}}</ref> She was a nurse during the Spanish–American War in 1898.<ref name="NYT"/>

In 1901 Robbins headed New York's Normal College Alumnae House.<ref name="DoWW"/> She worked with Jacob Riis to secure a law requiring New York schools to have outdoor playgrounds. In 1902, she moved to Ohio to engage in settlement work with the Italian American community.<ref>{{cite news |title=Jacob A. Riis Scores City Administration: At a Dinner to Dr. Jane E. Robbins He Denounces Fusionist Attitude Toward School Census and Playgrounds |work=The New York Times |date=April 27, 1902 |page=10}}</ref> She worked at the Alta House in Cleveland.<ref name="DoWW"/> From December 1904 to April 1905 she was the head of the Locust Point Social Settlement House in Baltimore, Maryland.<ref>{{cite news |title=Dr. Jane Robbins Resigns: New York Settlement Worker Retires from Baltimore Place |work=The New York Times |date=April 3, 1905 |page=2}}</ref>

Robbins was part of an influential group of social progressives who argued that public schools should be involved in welfare work. She "wrote that it was necessary for the school to assume a parental role because under modern conditions it was not possible for the poor to protect the young adequately."<ref name="Berrol1970">{{cite journal |last1=Berrol |first1=Selma C. |title=Health Education and Welfare: The Progressive Impulse in the New York City Public Schools |journal=The Elementary School Journal |date=1970 |volume=71 |issue=3 |page=136 |doi=10.1086/460624 |jstor=1000447 |s2cid=145577568 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1000447 |issn=0013-5984|url-access=subscription }}</ref> In 1911, she worked in Brooklyn at the Little Italy Settlement. In 1914, she worked at the Jacob A. Riis Neighborhood Settlement.<ref name="DoWW"/> Robbins wrote articles for newspapers, including ''The Outlook'' and ''Charities'' magazines.<ref name="Berrol1970"/> She gave many public lectures. In a 1918 talk about sympathy for immigrants, she spoke out on behalf of anarchist Emma Goldman, whom she said she had known since Goldman had come to the United States.<ref>{{cite news |title=Says Emma Goldman Had a Big Heart: Dr. Jane E. Robbins Gives Sidelight on Career of Anarchist |work=Hartford Courant |date=February 27, 1918 |page=14}}</ref>

After World War I, Robbins worked with the Red Cross in Italy<ref>{{cite news |title=Italy Deserves America's Help |work=Hartford Courant |date=May 25, 1919 |page=24}}</ref> and in Greece where she assisted in the organization of temporary hospitals. Following the uprising against Turkey, she returned to Greece in 1927 where she helped refugees until 1929.<ref name="DoWW"/> In the 1930s, she toured the United States as part of the National Federation of Settlements.<ref>{{cite news |title=Volunteer Workers Needed |work=The Kansas City Times |date=March 29, 1933 |page=6}}</ref>

Robbins died on August 16, 1946, in Hartford, Connecticut.<ref name="DoWW"/>

==See also== {{Wikisource|Author:Jane Elizabeth Robbins}} *College Settlements Association

==References== {{reflist}}

{{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Robbins, Jane Elizabeth}} Category:1860 births Category:1946 deaths Category:American social reformers Category:American social workers Category:Medical doctors from New York City Category:Smith College alumni Category:People from Wethersfield, Connecticut Category:Medical doctors from Connecticut Category:19th-century American women medical doctors Category:19th-century American medical doctors Category:20th-century American women medical doctors Category:Settlement workers Category:20th-century American medical doctors Category:Settlement houses in New York City Category:College Settlements Association