Station 1:
Robber Barons or Captains of Industry
1
Robber Barons or Captains of Industry
You make the call!
2
Andrew Carnegie
• Working class beginnings
• Made his millions in the steel
industry by paying employees
little and working them long
hours
• Was once the richest man in the
world
• Gave away his fortune later in
life
3
4
John D. Rockefeller
• Owner of Standard Oil, represented
90% of pipelines and refineries at
on time.
• Unethical practices, undercutting
prices
• Gave away $500 million at the end
of his life.
5
6
JP Morgan
 Financier, banker,
collector,
philanthropist
 Played a big role in
margining Carnegie
Steel with other
companies.
 The Political Cartoon to
the right implies his
role in the US economy
was overpowering.
7
8
Cornelius Vanderbilt
• Made his millions in shipping and
the railroad. Thought to be
ruthless and competitive.
Neighbors in up scale NYC thought
him to be rough and uncultured.
• Made RR more efficient.
• Donated his largest, fastest
steamship to the Union Navy
during the Civil War.
• Died with $100 million. Donated
$1 million to Vanderbilt University
in Nashville. His nickname
Commodore, same as the
Vanderbilt.
9
10
11
Station 2:
Tenements
12
Tenements
13
A large number of tenement houses* the lower portion of New
York are only a little below the common uptown flat. It is often
difficult to tell where the flat leaves off and the tenement begins. You
get about as little air and sunshine in the one as in the other. The
main difference lies in the number of rooms and the location. If some
downtown tenement houses stood uptown they would be called
flats. The word tenement is becoming unpopular downtown, and
many landlords have dubbed their great caravansaries** by the more
aristocratic name of “flat,” and the term “rooms” has been changed
to “apartments.”
*low rent apartment building that barely meet minimum housing standards
** inns for travelers
14
15
Jennie Rizzandi, 9 year old girl, helping mother
and father finish garments in a dilapidated
tenement. New York, New York, 1913
Tenement life improved somewhat after 1901, when
new-law tenements were mandated by the city: These
were required to have bathroom facilities and running
water in each apartment, and a window in every room.
A major improvement, but not for the thousands of
people still stuck in hot, stinky, firetrap old-law units.
16
1885
1912
17
There are three distinct classes of houses in the tenementhouses; the cheapest and humblest of these is the attic home, which
usually consists of one or two rooms, and is found only downtown.
These are generally occupied by old person. Occasionally three or
four attic rooms are connected and rented to a family, but as small
single room are sought after by lonely old people, the landlord often
rents them separately. An old lady who has to earn her read with the
needle*** finds the attic at once the cheapest and best place for her
needs. The rent of one or two unfurnished attic rooms range from $3
to $5 per month.
*** make a living by sewing
18
19
A large number of very poor people live in three rooms – a
kitchen and two dark bedrooms. Where the family is large the kitchen
lounge is opened and converted into a double bed at night. The rent
for three rooms is generally from $8 - $12 per month.
The vast majority of respectable working people live in four
rooms – a kitchen, two dark bedrooms, and a parlor. These parlors
are generally provided with a bed-lounge, and are used as sleeping
rooms at night. The best room is always carpeted and often provided
with upholstered chairs. The walls are generally decorated with
family photographs and inexpensive pictures, and in some of them I
have found a piano. These parlors compare very favorably with the
best room in the house of the average farmer. The rent for four room
is from $12 to $16 per month.
20
L = Light from outside
D = Dark; no outside light
Dumbbell Tenement
21
Station 3:
Rail Roads
30
Rail Roads: WHY?
• Communication from East to West was not very good
• Travelling time from East to West took 6 months
• The U.S. needed to keep up with other countries
• Trade links with China and Japan
• Help to bring law and order to the West
It would help fulfil ‘Manifest Destiny’-In the 19th century, Manifest
Destiny was the widely held belief in the United States that American
settlers were destined to expand throughout the continent.
31
32
Rail Roads: Transcontinental
• Even when Abraham Lincoln was President, plans were being made to connect railways that would
allow one to travel from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific coast. Railroads had been built from the
Atlantic coast to Nebraska. Now, the goal was to connect a railway from Nebraska to the Pacific coast. In
1862, Congress gave two companies the right to build the railroad. The government also gave them the
land and loaned them money. The Union Pacific Railroad built west from Omaha, Nebraska. The
Central Pacific Railroad built east from Sacramento, California.
• The majority of the Union Pacific track was built by Irish laborers, veterans of both the Union and
Confederate armies, and Mormons who wished to see the railroad pass through Ogden, Utah. Chinese
workers built most of the Central Pacific track. Most of the men received between one and three
dollars per day, but the workers from China received much less. Eventually, they went on strike and
gained a small increase in salary. On May 10, 1869, the two railroads met at Promontory, Utah. A golden
spike with a prayer written on it was used to complete the first transcontinental railroad.
33
34
The Central Pacific Railroad
The Union Pacific Railroad
35
36
37
Rail Roads: The Effects
Quick and easy travel to the West
The railroad turned a 6 month journey into a maximum of 8 days
Cheap land for people wanting to go West
Once the Railroads were built the Railroad companies had no use for the excess land. Sold
land off cheap
Destruction of the Indians Hunters used the Railroad to go west to hunt the buffalo.
Hunters were only interested in buffalo skin. Indians depended on the buffalo, but now
they were gone!
Helps develop the Cattle IndustryCattle were transported by the railroads making it easier
to move them from Texas to the East. Cow Towns grew up around these railroad stops
38
39
Rail Roads: Innovation
• George Westinghouse- air brakes that improved the system for putting the trains to a halt,
which made the trains themselves much safer.
• Eli H. Janney- Janney car couplers made it easier for railroad workers to link train cars.
• Gustavus Swift- refrigerated cars helped railroads to ship meat, and other perishable goods
over long distances.
• George M. Pullman- the Pullman sleeping car- a luxury railway car with seats that converted
into beds for overnight journeys. Pullman also made improved dining cars, raising train travel to
a new level of comfort
• Time Zones-Our system of time zones is a result of the railroad boom. Towns kept their
own time. 1883 all railway clocks were set to new standard. Congress enacted Standard
Time Act -1918- based on railroad time zones
40
Time Zones
•Railroads affected the way Americans thought about time as well!
•People began measuring distances by how many hours the trip would take rather than the number miles!
•This led to a national system of time with four time zones!
41
Station 4:
City Problems
42
• The poor lived in buildings
divided up into small apartments
called tenements.
• Many had no windows, heat, or
indoor bathrooms. 10 or more
people would share a room.
• Other Disadvantages Included:
•Poor Housing
•Lack of Sanitation
•Fire
•Lack of Fresh Water
•Poor Working Conditions
•Crime
•Transportation Issues
43
Urban and Rural Population, 1870-1900 (in millions)
ADVANTAGES OF CITY LIFE
•Economic Opportunity
•Urban Lifestyles
•Consumer Goods
•Similar Ethnic Groups
•Less Discrimination
•Education
•Entertainment
44
Many African Americans also moved from Southern farms
to Northern cities.
Rural
Population
80
70
Urban
Population
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
1860
1880
1900
1920
45
Cities Grow Due to Industry
Chicago- Meat Packing
Cleveland- Oil
PittsburghSteel
San Francisco
- Railroads
Salt Lake CityRailroads
Kansas City- Railroads
46
URBAN PROBLEMS
The influx of so many immigrants in such a short space of time created a major housing crisis in most major cities. Poor
immigrants were forced to live in tenement buildings where as many as 20 people might be forced to live in a single small
room. Early tenements had no running water or waste systems with heat provided by open fires. As a result tenements
were breeding grounds for disease as people dumped waste outside or in hallways. In winters temperatures in the
buildings dropped to well below freezing while in summer they could reach well into the hundreds. Fires were common,
as were collapses, as the tenements had no safety rules. Landlords would often add extra rooms or even whole stories to
bring in more rent regardless of what this might do to the structure of the buildings.
City streets quickly became dangerous places as well. Gangs of children, often orphans, would assault and pickpocket
people. Adults also formed gangs, often based on ethnicity, to protect themselves and their property from other gangs.
Most cities had no sanitation departments so animal waste and dead bodies would often lie in the gutters for weeks
before they were cleared – if at all.
Cities were also lacking effective police forces. New York had several different police forces which often fought each other
more than the gangs or criminals. Police officers were badly paid and often resorted to committing crimes themselves to
make ends meet.
In the absence of official support, gangs often provided services to their communities. Firefighting companies were
established by individual gangs which competed with each other to reach fires first. Unfortunately for the inhabitants of
affected houses, the companies would often fight each other or loot their property rather than put out the blaze.
47
The exorbitant rent of houses, compels them [European immigrants] to occupy a narrow space of
house room for their families. One or two rooms is generally as much as one family can afford; thus
boys and girls lodge in the bedchamber with their parents, and one room serves for cooking and
eating; the children are driven off as early as possible into the streets to run like wild colts. Thus they
grow up ignorant, idle, and disobedient to their parents. They make bad apprentices and worse
citizens. Money is the only object they ever desire to obtain, and for that object nothing is too mean
and scarcely any thing dishonest if they can evade the laws. . . . The girls grow up thus, associating
with their depraved brothers, ignorant, vain and idle. Conscious of no other distinctions in society than
externals, they look with envy on their wealthy neighbors, and essay every art to equal them in dress
and expense. This lays the basis of their ruin, and at an early age makes them easy prey to the
profligate libertine. Nay, many of these girls assist their parents with the wages of their shame.
Another source of this horrid crime arises in the custom of requiring security for house rent. This
compels women to resort to some means of obliging a friend to obtain a roof to shelter her family.
Men are not generally willing to risk their money for pure friendship; yet security must be had.
John R. McDowell – Report on the 5-Points Region of New York
48
49
50
Station 5::
Settlement Houses
51
Settlement Houses
The major purpose of settlement houses was to help to
assimilate and ease the transition of immigrants into the
labor force by teaching them middle-class American values.
In Chicago, for instance, Hull-House helped to educate
immigrants by providing classes in history, art, and literature.
Hull-House also provided social services to reduce the effects
of poverty, including a daycare center, homeless shelter,
public kitchen, and public baths. Settlement houses like HullHouse were a nexus for political activism, with reformers like
Jane Addams becoming involved in advocating social
legislation to combat poverty in local, state, and national
politics.
52
One of the revolutionary characteristics of the
settlement house movement was that many of the
most important leadership roles were filled by
women, in an era when women were still excluded
from leadership roles in business and government.
Approximately half of the major US settlement houses
were led and staffed predominantly by women.
Among the most influential leaders were Jane
Addams, Mary Simkhovitch, Helena Dudley, Lillian
Wald, Mary McDowell, Florence Kelley, Alice
Hamilton, and Edith Abbott.
53
The settlement idea was different – the “social workers”
would actually live among those they were trying to help.
Addams thought the idea would work in Chicago. She had
recently inherited $50,000
54
The Hull House was founded in 1889 by Jane Addams in Chicago to help
out the poor immigrants. Hull House offered hot lunches, child care
services, tutoring in English, and parties for the poor immigrants
Here is a list of activities that took place in the Hull House in January 1895:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Arithmetic
Beginning Latin
Chemistry
Cloak Makers' Union (women)
Club Lectures
Dancing Class
English and Letter Writing
Geometry
Gymnastics (men)
Gymnastics (women)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Italian Class
Italian Reception
Italo-American Club
Jolly Boys' Club
Mandolin Club
Parliamentary Law
Physics
Singing
Social Science Club
Young Citizens
55
HULL HOUSE ACTIVITIES
Art class around 1924
Children sketching in the alley
56
Hull House Activities
Coffee Room
Children playing around 1900
57
Hull House Activities
1895
58
Hull House Activities
Addams’ attempts to improve the diets of her
neighbors were not immediately successful. She
writes that some people felt indignant about the
Hull-House’s focus on healthful foods, explaining
one woman’s confession that she liked to eat “what
she’d ruther.”
The original Hull House served immigrants
and the poor, teaching 19th-century skills
like weaving.
59
Cabbage Patch Settlement House – Louisville, KY
• In 1910, Louise Marshall founded The
Cabbage Patch Settlement House
with the help of her community,
church, and family. Named for
the Louisville neighborhood where it
was originally established, The
Cabbage Patch was formed in the
spirit of Christian love as a safe haven
for children in the neighborhood to
play, grow, and learn. The Cabbage
Patch quickly grew, gaining continued
support from the Louisville
community. By 1929, it had outgrown
the capacity of its original facility and
moved to its current location on
South Sixth Street.
60
Cabbage Patch – Louisville KY
• “You know, if you’d lived a
lifetime here, you’d just have
all kinds of experiences. It’s
just so fascinating. I love
people, big and little and, oh
my dear, I knew what I
wanted to do and it’s never
changed. It’s been one long
love affair.” –Louise Marshall,
Founder, The Cabbage Patch
61
Station 6:
UNIONS
62
UNIONS: Problems to Solve!
1.) UNFAIR WORKING CONDITIONS: Low wages, Long hours (10-14 hours a day) No
unemployment, no health care benefits, Government does not help because of Laissez
Faire.
2.) UNHEALTHY WORKING CONDITIONS: Black lung, white lung
High injury rate
3.) CHILD LABOR: Children as young six were employed. Many worked full time Jobs to
help support their families. Children were often injured on the job
4.) POOR LIVING CONDITIONS: Lack of sanitation and police. Families were often
crowded into one room
63
64
“Galley Labor”
65
UNIONS: Triangle Shirt-Waist Fire
One hundred and fifty people, mostly young women, died in a fire at the Triangle
Shirtwaist Factory in New York City. Fire fighters arrived soon after the alarm was
sounded but ladders only reached the 6th floor and pumps could not raise water to
the highest floors of the 10-story building. Still the fire was quickly controlled and was
essentially extinguished in half an hour. In this fire-proof building, 146 men, women,
and children lost their lives and many others were seriously injured.
The 240 employees sewing shirtwaists on the ninth floor had their escape blocked by back-to-back
chairs and workbaskets in the aisles. The 75-foot long paired sewing machine tables obstructed
essential access to the windows, stairs, and elevators. For endless hours, police officers held lanterns to
light the bodies while crowds filed past victims laid out in numbered rough brown coffins. As the dead
were identified the coffin was closed and moved aside. Forty-three were identified by sunrise on
Sunday. Six days later 7 were still unrecognized.
Labor unions, religious communities, political groups and social reform organizations
assembled to mourn the lost lives and demand real progress in worker protection.
66
67
68
UNIONS: TACTICS
• Strike: stop working
• Picket: Protest usually by parading and holding signs
• Boycott: Refuse to use a service or buy a product
• Arbitration: When the Union & employer representatives
meet to try to come to an agreement w/out having to go
to court
69
70
Working Conditions
What does this graph
represent?
Why do you think
Union membership
increased at the turn of
the century?
Why not before?
71
UNIONS: THE GREAT STRIKES
• Haymarket Riot (1896)—8 hour workday (national strike); scabs hired
(replacement workers) in Chicago (fights); rally—bombing & gunfight btw. Police &
strikers. Law: help with murder, then you are a murderer: 4 strikers hanged for
murder (one blew himself up in prison). Never determined who threw the bomb.
• Homestead Strike (1892)—Carnegie Steelworkers called a strike (factory cut their
wages) & were fired; management sent in “private” police force (fight with
deaths); strike called off.
• Pullman Strike (1894): Company town; wages cut 25% (Panic of 1893); food prices
in town NOT cut; Pullman fired three negotiators; strike; all rail road traffic halted;
strike ordered illegal because mail couldn’t get through.
72
73
74
Station 7:
Skyscrapers
75
Skyscrapers:
Just the Facts
• From 1865-1914 America experienced immense growth in industry,
immigration and invention.
• Land of Opportunity
• NYC and Chicago went from 6 million to 40 million people in one
decade (10 years).
• Problems arise- over crowding, waste, crime
• Architects began building up instead of out. Skyscraper first coined
in 1880’s
• Skyscraper is considered by many, America’s greatest contribution
to Architecture.
76
1884 Home Insurance Building in Chicago
• First skyscraper in the world
• Stands 10 stories
• First to use a steel frame
• Rooms were small and cramped
77
1909 Metropolitan Life Insurance Tower
• 50 floors
• Worlds tallest building from 19091913
• Sold insurance to immigrant wage
workers
78
1913 Woolworth Building NYC
• 55 floors
• Architect Cass Gilbert
• Considered leading example of tall
building design
• Innovations of steel, elevators
(1850), heat, electrical plumbing
pumps and telephone helped
skyscraper dominate skylines at
the turn of the century.
79
1903 Flatiron Building NYC
• 21 floors
• The most photographed
skyscraper
• Steel cages supported the weight,
instead of outside walls
• In many movies, Spider-man 1 and
2 as office of The Daily Bugle
• Located at 5th and Broadway
• Shaped like a triangle due to
location.
80
Empire State Building
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Open date May 1, 1931
103 floors
410 days to build
3400 works (5 died)
For 41 (1931-1972) years tallest
building in the world
73 elevators including 6 fraight
Has its own zip code, 10118
1872 steps
Struck by lightening 23 times a year
Cost $24 million to build, with land
$40
81
Station 8:
Vertical & horizontal
Integration
82
Vertical Integration
• When a company expands its
business into areas that are at
different points on the same
production path, such as when a
manufacturer owns its supplier
and/or distributor. Vertical integration
can help companies reduce costs
and improve efficiency by
decreasing transportation expenses
and reducing turnaround time,
among other advantages. However,
sometimes it is more effective for a
company to rely on the expertise
and economies of scale of other
vendors rather than be vertically
integrated.
Horizontal Integration
• The acquisition of additional
business activities that are at
the same level of the value
chain in similar or different
industries. This can be achieved
by internal or external
expansion. Because the
different firms are involved in
the same stage of production,
horizontal integration allows
them to share resources at that
level. If the products offered by
the companies are the same or
similar, it is a merger of
competitors. If all of the
producers of a particular good
or service in a given market
were to merge, it would result in
the creation of a monopoly.
83
84
Spin the Wheel
• Spin the wheel to determine the type of business you will have in
the future.
• You will create a flow chart that will explain how your business will
use horizontal integration to become more successful.
• You will create a flow chart that will explain how your business will
use vertical integration to become more successful.
85
86
Testing the Immigrants
• Dr. Knox created visual
comparisons to test illiterates
suspected of being mentally
deficient.
• In the top test, immigrants had
to discover the four happy
faces, and in the other two
tests they had to pair up the
identical images.
• The time for the “happy face”
test was 29 seconds and the
identical images were 28
seconds”
87
Station 10:
WORKPLACE
PROBLEMS
88
WORKPLACE PROBLEMS: Child Labor
WHY?
Families depend on the income.
Unavoidable stage of development.
Essential for competition.
EFFECTS OF CHILD LABOR
Bodies become physically harmed.
Children are deprived of their childhood Their job is all they
know.
Little to no education
89
90
91
WORKPLACE PROBLEMS: SOCIAL CHANGES
• Monotony of assembly lines and factory life
• Loss of craftsmanship in manufactured goods
• War became more deadly as weapons became more
technologically advanced and were mass produced
• Economic insecurity – workers relied entirely on their jobs
for sustenance
92
WORKPLACE PROBLEMS : FACTORIES
 Factories were crowded, dark, and dirty
 Workers toiled from dawn to dusk
 Young children worked with dangerous machinery
 Employment of women and children put men out of work-Women and children
were paid less for the same work
 Technological unemployment – workers lost their jobs as their labor was replaced
by machines
93
WORKPLACE PROBLEMS : Unemployment
 Overproduction
 Also called under-consumption
 Mass production anticipates demand – if goods don’t sell, a manufacturer produces less and
lays off workers
 Recession
 Overproduction across many industries with widespread lay-offs
 Depression
 Long-lasting recession
94
WORKPLACE PROBLEMS : THE JUNGLE
In 1906 Upton Sinclair’s novel The Jungle drew outrage against the Chicago meatpacking industry for its arrogant
disregard of basic health standards. This led to government regulation of food and drugs. President Roosevelt
responds by appointing a commission of experts to investigate the meatpacking industry.
Commission backed up Sinclair’s account of disgusting conditions in the industry.
Meat Packing Act (1906): Strict cleanliness requirements for meatpackers.
From Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle…
“There would be meat that had tumbled out on the floor, in the dirt and sawdust, where the
workers had trampled and spit uncounted billions of germs. There would be meat stored in
rooms and thousands of rats would race about it.. A man could run his hand over these piles of
meat and sweep handfuls of dried rat dung. These rats were nuisances, and packers would put
poisoned bread out for them; they would die, and then the rats, bread, and meat would go into
the hoppers together…”
95
96
97
Letter to President Teddy Roosevelt
• Imagine you are a concerned citizen of the United States in the early 1900s.
• You have read parts of Upton Sinclair’s novel, The Jungle.
• Write a letter to the President explaining:
•
•
•
•
What you have read? What does Sinclair say about the meatpacking industry?
Do you think the government should intervene? How should this problem be resolved?
Why is this important to you and your family?
Is it the government’s responsibility to “protect” Americans from unsafe/unsanitary foods
and work conditions?
98
Station 11:
Leisure Time
99
Vaudeville
• At the turn of the century in America, the Wright Brothers made
their first successful flight, Jack London wrote Call of the Wild,
Henry Ford started his motor company, and thousands of people
escaped small apartments in big cities to see the amazing acts of
vaudeville. Vaudeville was made of comedians, singers, platespinners, ventriloquists, dancers, musicians, acrobats, animal
trainers, and anyone who could keep an audience’s interest for
more than three minutes. Beginning in the 1880s and through the
1920s, vaudeville was home to more than 25,000 performers, and
was the most popular form of entertainment in America. From the
local small-town stage to New York’s Palace Theater, vaudeville was
an essential part of every community.
100
• There was usually a dozen or more acts in every vaudeville performance.
Starting and ending with the weakest, the shows went on for hours. The
performances ranged from the truly talented to the simply quirky. There
were musicians, such as the piano player Eubie Blake, and the child star,
Baby Rose Marie. There were great acts of physical talent; everything from
contortionists, to tumblers to dancers such as the Nicholas Brothers.
Actors performed plays, magicians put on shows, jugglers juggled, but the
real focus of vaudeville was comedy. Great comic acts such as Witt and
Berg and Burns and Allen brought in the biggest crowds.
• Vaudeville’s attraction was more than simply a series of entertaining
sketches. It was symbolic of the cultural diversity of early twentieth
century America. Vaudeville was a fusion of centuries-old cultural
traditions, including the English Music Hall, minstrel shows of antebellum
America, and Yiddish theater. Though certainly not free from the prejudice
of the times, vaudeville was the earliest entertainment form to cross racial
and class boundaries. For many, vaudeville was the first exposure to the
cultures of people living right down the street.
101
102
Coney Island
• Coney Island is the story of a tiny spit of land at the foot of Brooklyn
that at the turn of the century became the most extravagant
playground in the country. In scale, in variety, in sheer
inventiveness, Coney Island was unlike anything anyone had ever
seen, and sooner or later everyone came to see it. "Coney," one
man said in 1904, "is the most bewilderingly up-to-date place of
amusement in the world." Coney Island is a lively and absorbing
portrait of the extraordinary amusement empire that astonished,
delighted and shocked the nation -- and took Americans from the
Victorian age into the modern world.
103
Quittin’ Time:
A Visit to Chicago’s Saloons
• In the mid-19th century, moral reformers viewed the saloon with unmitigated
outrage. By the turn of the 20th century, though, anti-liquor groups such as the
“Committee of Fifty” attempted to take a more dispassionate look at the saloon
and its appeal to workingmen. Their goal was to displace the saloon by
sponsoring non-liquor centered “substitutes.” These efforts largely failed, but
reformers’ inquiries produced highly informative descriptions of saloon life at
the end of the 19th century. The following article by sociologist Royal Melendy
on “The Saloon in Chicago,” published in 1900, conveyed a sense of how the
saloon met a range of urban workers’ social, economic, and cultural needs.
Melendy’s use of the term “workingman” emphasized the male character of the
saloon. This should not be taken to mean that working-class women did not
drink, but that drinking frequently took place at home. Some women, however,
especially German and English immigrants, did drink in saloons and beer
gardens.
104
105
106
Leisure Time in America
• People responded to this increased allowance of free time by attending a
variety of leisure activities both within and away from the city. New types
of amusements that people of all classes and both sexes could attend
came into existence and quickly spread across the country.
• Within cities, people attended vaudeville shows, which would feature a
multitude of acts. Shows often ran continuously so that theatergoers
could come and go as they pleased. Vaudeville shows crossed economic
and ethnic boundaries, as many different social groups would mix in the
audience.
• Other popular shows of the time included circuses and Wild West shows,
the most famous of the latter being William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody's.
107
Sports
• After the Civil War, the popularity of sports as leisure activities grew as people began to see
the importance of exercise to health. While initially only the wealthy could partake of most
sporting events, the opening of publicly available gymnasiums, courts, and fields allowed the
working and middle classes to participate also.
• Clubs such as the New York Athletic Club were organized and the YMCAs began to institute
sports programs. These programs mostly focused on track and field events, instituted by
communities of Scottish and English descent, and gymnastics, heavily influenced by German
athletics. Gymnasiums, which featured exercises using Indian clubs, wooden rings, and
dumbbells, were opened in many Eastern cities.
• Derived from the English game of rugby, American football was started in 1879 with rules
instituted by Walter Camp, player and coach at Yale University.
• Basketball derived from the need for an indoor sport during the winter months. James
Nasmith, an instructor at the YMCA Training School at Springfield, Massachusetts, devised the
game in 1891. Soon YMCAs and colleges around the country began playing it. The game was
adapted for women at schools around the country with differing rules in the 1890s, until in
1899 a standard set of rules for women were adopted.
• Other sporting activities which people performed during this time included roller skating,
bicycling, swimming, ice skating, sleighing, hunting, and fishing.
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Station 12
Inventions
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Inventions
• The Industrial Revolution refers to •a change
from hand & home production to machine &
factory. Inventions from all over the world
helped transform American society and
economy into a modern industrial state. The
improvements in transportation, electricity, and
industrial processes changed the way people
lived and worked.
• Transportation Expanded
• One important major area was transportation.
As more and more people settled in the west,
the greater the need became to transport
materials & goods over longer distances. There
were three main types of transportation that
increased during the Industrial Revolution
period- waterways, roads, and railroads.
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Inventions
• Electricity Harnessed
• Another major area of during
the Industrial Revolution was
Thomas Edison's discovery of
the DC current generator, which
could provide entire cities with
electric power. By 1882, Edison
and Joseph Swan jointly created
a structure of power lines and
other equipment for
incandescent light bulbs- ones
that proved to be less noisy and
easier to operate.
• Improvements to Industrial Processes
• The third area was the advancements
in technologies to improve the
efficiency of factories and goods.
Elias Hower and Isaac Singer both
were involved in the invention of the
sewing machine which revolutionized
the garment industry and made the
Singer corporation one of the first
modern industries. Cyrus McCormick
invented the mechanical reaper
which made the harvesting of grain
more efficient and faster. This helped
farmers have more time to devote to
other chores. And Charles Goodyear
invented vulcanized rubber which
allowed rubber to have many more
uses due to its ability to stand up to
bad weather. Rubber became
important in industry as it could
withstand large amounts of pressure
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Inventions
•Eli Whitney
• In 1794, U.S.-born inventor Eli
Whitney (1765-1825) patented the
cotton gin, a machine that
revolutionized the production of
cotton by greatly speeding up the
process of removing seeds from
cotton fiber. By the mid-19th
century, cotton had become
America’s leading export.
• For his work, he is credited as a
pioneer of American manufacturing.
•Francis Lowell
• Consolidated Manufacturing
• This American industrial pioneer left as his legacy a
manufacturing system, booming mill towns, and a
humanitarian attitude toward workers.
• Bringing Industry to America
In just six years, Francis Cabot Lowell built up an
American textile manufacturing industry. He was born in
Newburyport, Massachusetts in 1775, and became a
successful merchant. On a trip to England at age 36, he
was impressed by British textile mills. Like Samuel
Slater before him, Lowell was inspired to create his own
manufacturing enterprise in the United States.
• Mill Girls
Another of Lowell's innovations was in hiring young farm
girls to work in the mill. He paid them lower wages than
men, but offered benefits that many girls, some as young
as 15, were eager to earn. Mill girls lived in clean
company boardinghouses with chaperones, were paid
cash, and benefitted from religious and educational
activities. Waltham boomed as workers flocked117
to
Lowell's novel enterprise.
Inventions
•Cyrus McCormick
• Not long after Eli Whitney invented
the Cotton Gin, Cyrus McCormick
invented another significant
agricultural invention that
revolutionized farming: the
mechanical reaper. Prior to this
invention, reaping was a painstaking
process (done by hand with a scythe)
that limited a farm's harvest.
• McCormick's invention
automatically cut, threshed and
bundled grain while being pulled
through a field by horses.
•John Deere
• John Deere was an Illinois blacksmith and
manufacturer. Early in his career, Deere and
an associate designed a series of farm
plows. In 1837, on his own, John Deere
designed the first cast steel plow that
greatly assisted the Great Plains farmers.
• The large plows made for cutting the tough
prairie ground were called "grasshopper
plows." The plow was made of wrought
iron and had a steel share that could cut
through sticky soil without clogging. By
1855, John Deere's factory was selling over
10,000 steel plows a year.
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Inventions
•Robert Fulton
• A savvy artist-turned-technologist
took steamboat inventions and
innovated them into the first viable
commercial steamboat service.
• To build an efficient, reliable
steamboat, Fulton used a special
English steam engine. The ship's
bottom was flat and its stern was
square.
•Workers in
New York City
• For over a hundred years, people had dreamed
of building a canal across New York that would
connect the Great Lakes to the Hudson River to
New York City and the Atlantic Ocean.
• Construction began in 1817 and was completed
in 1825. The canal spanned 350 miles between
the Great Lakes and the Hudson River and was
an immediate success.
• Between its completion and its closure in 1882,
it returned over $121 million in revenues on an
original cost of $7 million. Its success led to the
great CANAL AGE. By bringing the Great Lakes
within reach of a metropolitan market, the ERIE
CANAL opened up the unsettled northern
regions of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.
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Inventions
•George Stephenson
• The ‘Father of Railways’, George
Stephenson, built the first
commercial locomotive and railways,
setting a standard adopted
worldwide.
•Elisha Otis
• A ceaseless tinkerer created the first safe
elevator, then died before he could see it
revolutionize architecture, cities, and the way
we live.
• Otis designed the first safe elevator when he
needed to lift heavy building materials, while
converting a sawmill into a factory in Yonkers,
New York.
• He made toothed wooden guide rails to fit into
opposite sides of the elevator shaft, and fitted
a spring to the top of the elevator, running the
hoisting cables through it.
• The cables still guided the elevator up and
down, but if they broke, the release of tension
would throw the spring mechanism outward
into the notches, preventing the cabin from
falling.
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Station 13:
Temperance Movement:
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Temperance Movement:
Words to Know
• Temperance- enjoying HEALTHFUL things in moderation and abstaining
completely from unhealthful things (alcohol)
• Moonshine- illegal alcohol distilled at home
• Wets- those opposed to prohibition
• Drys- those in favor of prohibition
• Bootlegging- the illegal manufacture, same and transportation of
alcoholic beverages
• Speakeasies- illegal drinking establishments
• Prohibition Era- the period of time from 1920-1933 when the sale of
alcoholic beverages was prohibited (law that stops) in the US by a
constitutional amendment.
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Temperance Movement:
In the know
• In the 1800’s alcohol was a widespread problem.
• American’s over the age of 15 consumed 7 gallons of
pure alcohol a year, this is 3 times more than the
average adult drinks today.
• Saloons (bar, pub) were places for men only. Fancy
saloons could be found in large cities. Smaller,
rickety wood buildings were found in Western
towns. MEN’s social clubs.
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Women’s Christian Temperance
• Formed in 1873
• 70 women from Hillsboro, Ohio
• Women prayed on the floor of
saloon after pro temperance
sermon in the church.
• Started strong political force
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Temperance Political
Cartoon 1874
• Alcohol was seen as source of
social problems, violence, crime
and poverty
• This cartoon is how people in
the movement saw saloons,
taverns and bars.
• Describe everything you see in
the photo.
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• Drawing one in a
series of prints
distributed by the
movement
• Family being
destroyed by fathers
drinking. In an alcohol
induced rage, kills his
wife.
• Alcohol (then and
now) is a major cause
of serious problems in
many families.
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BE CAREFUL WHO YOU MARRY
• A young lady will be very unsafe in marrying a young man who uses ardent spirits, either temperately or
intemperately, because more women have been rendered wretched on account of drunken husbands, than
by anything else. When Lavinia and Laura and Margaret, were led by their husbands to Hymen's altar, their
husbands only took a little. Lavinia was the mother of four children, when the sheriff sold the last bed she
had, for her husband's drams. Laura had three lovely babes, when her husband was carried off to jail, and
she was left without bed, bread or home. Margaret had two children when their sottish and brutish father
went to an untimely grave, and she and her babes were cast upon the world penniless. Beware young
ladies of him who can drink a dram even in a week. Don't marry a reformed drunkard, as a man hardly
ever gets clear of this awful disease. If you want to be miserable marry a man who drinks, who takes a
little, and you are more likely to have the above enjoyments than in marrying any other character. If a man
cannot give up his dram, he can sacrifice the happiness or property of any woman by taking a little.
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