Taylor, Graham

Taylor, Graham, 1851–1938, American social worker and clergyman, b. Schenectady, N.Y., grad. Rutgers, 1870. Ordained as a minister in the Dutch Reformed Church, he served in several pastorates, becoming a Congregationalist in 1880, and teaching at Hartford Theological Seminary beginning in 1888. In 1892, he began teaching social economics at Chicago Theological Seminary. In 1894 he founded Chicago Commons, one of the first social settlements in the country (and modeled on Jane Addams Hull House); he was resident warden until his death. He was president (1903–20) of the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy and was associate editor of the Survey.

See his two autobiographical works, Pioneering on Social Frontiers (1930) and Chicago Commons through Forty Years (1936).

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