Jane Hutchins White was born in Chicago to parents who wanted their daughter to have a higher education. After the Great Chicago fire her family moved to Evanston in 1876 and White attended Northwestern Female College. She graduated in 1879 and became a foreign language high school teacher in Evanston for twenty five years. White was also a corespondent with the United Press in Germany from late 1882 to early 1900. She was fluent in German and French, which allowed her to translate two stories from German including, “The Forgotten Bell” and “A German Christmas Eve”. She was later able to use her French during WWI when she was sent to France to open a Red Cross relief station and served with the American Fund for French Wounded from August 8th, 1918 to August 9th, 1919. After she came home she worked with the Evanston Chapter of the Red Cross from 1920 until 1930.
Significance
White was the only Evanston woman who “went to war” during WWI to Colman in Alsace, France to open a Red Cross relief station under French command.