Making America Grow and Divide
 Engineering innovations lay the foundation
for modern American cities
 Cities not only expand outward but upward
 In 1870 only 25 cities in American had
populations over 50,000
 By 1890 there were 58
 By the turn of the century 4 out of 10
Americans lived in cities because of their jobs
 Architects could create taller buildings for 2
reasons
 Invention of the elevator
 Development of internal steel skeletons to bear
the weight of the building
 Louis Sullivan
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1890-1891
Wainwright Building in St. Louis
10 stories tall and graceful looking
Sullivan called it a “proud and soaring thing”
 Skyscraper became America’s greatest
contribution to architecture
 They solved the problem of how to make the
best use of limited and expensive space
 Daniel Burnham
 Flatiron Building
 Perfect for its location
 Built in 1902 and stood 285 feet tall
 Served as a symbol of a rich and optimistic society
 Richmond, Virginia became the first city in
America to electrify its urban transit
 By the turn of the century, trolleys ran from
the suburbs to the cities
 New Railroad lines contributed to the
growing number of commuters in New York
 Some cities, like Chicago, built “el” trains
while others, like New York City, built
subways
 Steel-cable suspension bridges like the
Brooklyn Bridge brought cities closer
together
 Need for open space in a crowded city
inspired the science of urban planning
 Sometimes provided recreational
opportunities
 City planners wanted to restore a measure of
serenity to the environment by designing
recreational areas
 Frederick Law Olmstead
 Spearheaded the movement for planned urban
parks
 He along with Calvert Vaux, an English born
architect designed “Greensward” which was
selected to become Central Park in New York
City
 Park was envisioned to be a rustic haven in the
center of a busy city
 Central Park features
 boating and tennis facilities
 A zoo
 Bicycle paths
 A fountain
 Olmstead wanted the city’s people to have a
place where they could enjoy a “natural” setting
 Chicago
 Explosive growth between 1850 and 1870
 Population went from 30,000 to 300,000
 Was a nightmare of unregulated expansion
 Daniel Burnham was given the job of
recreating the city
 He oversaw the transformation of a swampy
are near Lake Michigan into a beautiful city
 Chicago
 City hosted the World’s Columbian
Exposition in 1893
 Created grand exhibition halls
 First Ferris wheel was shown there
 Had a lagoon which greeted 21 million visitors
 Elegant parks
 Printing
 By 1890 ~ Literacy rate in the U.S. was close to
90%
 Publishers turned out large numbers of books,
magazines, and newspapers to meet the needs of
the public
 American mills produced a cheap paper made
from wood pulp that could withstand the high
speed presses
 New presses allowed for printing on both sides of
the paper and also cut, folded, and counted the
pages as they came down the line
 Made newspapers cheaper and magazines more
affordable
 Orville and Wilbur Wright
 Bicycle manufacturers from Dayton, Ohio
 Experimented with new engines to keep an
airplane aloft
 The first built a glider and then commissioned a
4-cylinder engine to be built
 They chose a propeller and designed a biplane
with a 40’4” wingspan
 Orville and Wilbur Wright
 First successful flight ~ December 17, 1903 ~ in
Kitty Hawk, NC
 Wilbur Wright flew 120 ft. for 12 seconds
 By 1905 they were flying 24 miles
 By 1920 the federal government established its
first transcontinental airmail service
 Photography
 Before 1880s ~ professional activity
 time required to take a picture
 Weight of the equipment
 Could not shoot a moving object
 Had to be developed immediately because of
the heavy glass platens
 George Eastman
Developed a series of alternatives
Created flexible film coated with gelatin emulsions
Film could be sent to a studio for processing
Professional photographers slow to use
Aimed new product at the masses
1888 ~ introduced the Kodak camera with a 100picture roll of film for $25
 Take pictures, send camera back to Eastman who
would reload and then develop the pictures for $10
 Prompted millions to become amateur
photographers
 Camera helped create the field of photojournalism
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A self portrait on
experimental film
 Schools for children
 1865 – 1895
 States passed laws requiring 12 to 16 weeks
annually of schools attendance by students
between ages 8 and 14
 Emphasis on reading, writing, and arithmetic
 Strict rules and physical punishment made
students miserable
 Children will begin to attend school earlier
 Schools for children
 Kindergarten ~ originally created outside of
schools to offer childcare for employed mothers,
became more popular
 1880 ~ 200 kindergartens
 1900 ~ 3,000 kindergartens
 William Torrey Harris ~ helped to establish
kindergartens in public schools
 White vs. Black
 More opportunities for whites
 Children attending elementary school in 1880
 Whites ~ 62%
 Blacks ~ 34%
 1940s ~ public education will become
available to the majority of black children
living in the South
 The Growth of High Schools
 Economy demanded advanced technical and
managerial skills
 By 1900 more than a ½ million students
attended high school
 Expanded curriculum included science, civics,
and social studies
 Vocational courses prepared
 Males for industrial jobs in drafting, carpentry, and
mechanics
 Females for office work
Expanding Education/Increasing Literacy
Year
Students Enrolled
Literacy in English
(% of Population age
10 and over)
1871
7.6 million
80%
1880
9.9 million
83%
1890
12.7 million
87%
1900
15.5 million
89%
1910
17.8 million
92%
1920
21.6 Million
94%
Sources: Statistical Abstract of the U.S., 1921
Historical Statistics of the U.S.
 Racial Discrimination
 African Americans were excluded from public
secondary education
 1890 ~ fewer than 1% of black teenagers attended
high school
 2/3 of black students went to private schools with
no governmental funding
 1910 ~ 3% of African Americans attended high
school (ages 15 – 19)
 Majority still attended private schools
 Education for Immigrants
 Immigrants were encouraged to go to school
 Most children were sent to American public
schools where they became “Americanized”
 Some people resented the suppression of their
native languages
 Parochial schools were set up by Catholics
because public schools were teaching them
Protestant values
 Adult immigrants attended night school to learn
English and to qualify for American citizenship
 Changes in Universities
 1880 – 1920
 College enrollment quadrupled
 Industrial development change the nation’s
educational needs
 More courses offered in modern languages, the
physical sciences, psychology and sociology
 Professional law and medical schools were established
 Private colleges and universities began requiring
entrance exams
 High diploma needed to enter into college
 Higher Education for African Americans
 Post Civil War ~ thousands of African Americans
pursued higher education
 Freedmen’s Bureau and other groups helped
blacks to found Howard, Fisk, and Atlanta
Universities
 All opened between 1865 and 1868
 Private donors could not support black
institutions financially
 By 1900 3,880 African Americans out of 9
million were in college or professional schools
 Booker T. Washington
 Prominent African American educator
 Believed racism would en once blacks acquired useful
labor schools and were able to prove their economic
value
 Graduated from Hampton Institute now Hampton
University
 1881 ~ headed Tuskegee Normal and Industrial
Institute (now Tuskegee University)
 Aim of Tuskegee was to equip African Americans
with teaching diplomas and useful skills in
agricultural, domestic, or mechanical work
 W.E. B. Du Bois
 First African American to receive a doctorate
from Harvard University in 1895
 Disagreed with Washington’s approach
 Founded the Niagara Movement in 1905
 Insisted blacks should seek a liberal arts education
so that the African American community would
have well-educated leaders
 Even with millions of people receiving the
education they needed, racial discrimination still
existed in America
 New rights given to African Americans
during Reconstruction led to hostile and
violent opposition from whites
 African Americans were often victims of laws
restricting their civil rights
 By 20th century Southern states had adopted
a broad system of legal policies of racial
discrimination and devised methods to
weaken African-American political power
 All Southern states imposed new voting
restrictions and denied legal equality to
African Americans
 Some states limited voting to those that
could read and required literacy tests
 Blacks trying to vote were given more
difficult questions or given a test in a foreign
language
 New rights given to African Americans
during Reconstruction led to hostile and
violent opposition from whites
 African Americans were often victims of laws
restricting their civil rights
 By 20th century Southern states had adopted
a broad system of legal policies of racial
discrimination and devised methods to
weaken African-American political power
 Poll Tax
 Had to be paid before qualifying to vote
 Blacks and sharecroppers were often too poor to
pay the tax
 To help out the whites that could not pay the tax or
failed the literacy test, officials instituted the
grandfather clause
 Even if you failed the literacy test or could not
pay the poll tax, if your grandfather voted before
January 1, 1867, then you could vote
 Racial segregation laws passed to separate
white and black people in public and private
facilities
 Named after a popular old minstrel song that
ended in the words “Jump, Jim Crow”
 Put into effect in schools, hospitals, parks,
and transportation systems throughout the
South
 Come, listen, all you girls and boys, I'm just from Tuckahoe;
I'm going to sing a little song, My name's Jim Crow.
 Chorus: Wheel
about, and turn about, and do just
so; Every time I wheel about, I jump Jim Crow.
 I went down to the river, I didn't mean to stay,
But there I saw so many girls, I couldn't get away.
 I'm roaring on the fiddle, and down in old Virginia,
They say I play the scientific, like master Paganini,
 I cut so many monkey shines, I dance the galoppade;
And when I'm done, I rest my head, on shovel, hoe or spade.
 I met Miss Dina Scrub one day, I give her such a buss [kiss];
And then she turn and slap my face, and make a mighty fuss.
 The other gals are going to fight, I told them wait a bit;
I'd have them all, just one by one, as I thought fit.
 I whip the lion of the west, I eat the alligator;
I put more water in my mouth, then boil ten loads of
potatoes.
 The way they bake the hoe cake [corn bread] cooked on
open fire on metal implement such as a hoe], Virginia never
tire;
They put the dough upon the foot, and stick them in the
fire.
 1896
 Supreme Court ruled that separate facilities
for blacks and whites are legal as long as they
did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment
 Established the “separate but equal doctrine”
 Allowed states to maintain separate facilities
for blacks and whites
 Racial etiquette became part of the relationship
between blacks and whites
 Most of the customs belittled and humiliated
blacks
 Blacks and whites could not shake hands
 Blacks had to yield to white on the sidewalk
 Black men had to remove their hats for whites
 If blacks did not follow racial etiquette they
could face severe punishment
 Most if accused of violating the etiquette were
lynched
 1882 - 1892 ~ 1,400 men and were shot,
burned, or hanged without a trial
 Still continued into the 20th century
 Last lynching took place in 1968
 By 1900 many blacks had moved North in
search of better paying jobs and social equality
 In the North, blacks were forced into
segregated neighborhoods
 Faced discrimination in the workplace
 Labor unions discouraged black membership
 Blacks were often hired as a last resort
 Blacks were fired before whites
 Blacks and whites often clashed in the
workplace because of competition
 New York City had a race riot in 1900
 A young black man believing his wife was
being mistreated by a white police officer,
killed the policeman
 Word of the killing spread and whites began
attacking blacks
 Late 1800s railroads hired more Mexicans than
members of any other ethnic group to
construct railroads in the West
 Mexicans were used to the climate
 Railroads paid them less than other ethnic
groups
 Were vital to the development of mining and
agriculture in the Southwest
 National Reclamation Act of 1902
 Gave government assistance for irrigation projects
~ made desert areas bloom
 Mexican workers became the major labor force in
the agricultural industries of the region
 Mexicans were often forced into debt peonage which
is a system that bound laborers into slavery in order
to work off a debt to the employer
 1911 ~ Supreme Court declare involuntary peonage a
violation of the 13th Amendment
 Excluding the Chinese
 By 1880 more than 100,000 Chinese
immigrants lived in the U.S.
 White fears of job competition with the Chinese
pushed the Chinese into segregated schools and
neighborhoods
 Racial discrimination posted terrible legal and
economic problems for non-whites in the U.S.
at the turn of the century
 American Leisure
 New leisure activities, nationwide advertising
campaigns, and the rise of consumer culture
began to level regional differences
 Americans begin enjoying amusement parks,
bicycling, new forms of theater and spectator
sports
 To meet recreational needs major cities like
Chicago and NYC became setting aside green
space for outdoor enjoyment
 Many cities built small playgrounds and playing
fields in neighborhoods
 Amusement parks were usually found on the
outskirts of cities
 Built by trolley car companies who wanted more
passengers
 Parks had picnic grounds and a variety of rides
 Coney Island in 1884 drew customers to its new
roller coaster
 Chicago in 1893 drew record numbers to the
World’s Columbian Exposition to ride the
Ferris wheel
 Americans were ready for new and innovative
forms of entertainment
 Bicycles
 Had huge front wheels with solid rubber tires
 Challenge to ride
 A bump could throw the rider off the bike
 Began as a male only sport
 1885 ~ commercial sale of a safety bicycle with
smaller tires filled with air made the activity
more popular
 Victor safety bicycle held an appeal to women
 Bicycles
 Women got rid of their corset put on shirtwaist
and split skirts to go riding
 New attire became popular daily wear
 Freed women from having to have a chaperone
 By 1888 50,000 men and women had taken to
bicycles
 By 1890 312 manufacturers turned out 10
million bikes in one year
 Modern version began in North Wales in 1873
 1874 ~ first match held in U.S.
 Enthusiastically
taken up by
Americans just
like bicycling
 First Hershey chocolate bar was sold in 1900
 Coca-Cola was first created by an Atlanta
pharmacist as a cure for headaches in 1886
 Ingredients included Peruvian cocoa leaves and
African cola nuts
Dr. John Stith Pemberton
 Americans became huge fans of spectator
sports
 Two major sports were boxing and baseball
 Boxing
 Fans who could not attend boxing matches
would crowd into hotel lobbies or barber shops
to hear news of the fights
Billy Irwin
Billy Gallagher
 Baseball
 New rules transformed it into a spectator sport
 1845 ~ Andrew J. Cartwright organize a club in
NYC and set up new rules based on an English sport
called rounders
 1850 ~ 50 clubs were located throughout the U.S.
 New York had 12 clubs
 1869 ~ Cincinnati Red Stockings ~ a professional
team ~ toured the U.S.
 Baseball
 1876 ~ National League was formed
 1900 ~ American League was formed
 1903 ~ First World Series held and the Boston
Pilgrims beat the Pittsburgh Pirates
 African American players were excluded from
playing on major league teams so they for the
Colored National League and the Colored
American League
 1890s ~ had a published game schedule, official
rules , and a standard sized diamond
 Mass Circulation Newspapers
 Newspapers begin using sensational headlines to
capture readers’ attention
 Joseph Pulitzer
 Hungarian immigrant bought the
World in 1883
New York
 Pioneered popular innovations including the
Sunday edition, comics, sports coverage and
women’s news
 Paper emphasized “sin, sex, and sensation”
 William Randolph Hearst
 Purchased the New York Morning Journal in 1895
already owned the San Francisco Examiner
 Sought to outdo Pulitzer
 Filled the Journal with exaggerated tales of personal
scandals, cruelty, hypnotism, and an imaginary
conquest of Mars
 By 1898 the sensational news coverage had each
paper selling more than a million copies a day
 By 1900 every large city had at least one art
gallery
 Thomas Eakins
 Embraced realism (the attempt to portray life as
it is really lived) in his paintings
 Used painstaking geometric perspective in his
work
 Also used photography to make realistic studies
of people and animals
 Ashcan School
 Led by Robert Henri, a student of Eakins
 Painted urban life and working people with gritty
realism and no frills
 Soon challenged by European abstract artists
 Libraries
 By 1900 free circulating libraries in America
numbered in the thousands
 Some scholars felt that literature should uplift
America’s literary tastes ~ crime tales and
western adventures
 Most people preferred light fiction
 Edward Wheeler who
Deadwood Dick in 1877 and
by 1887 he had produced over 30 more
 Realistic portrayals of American life were written
by writers such as Sarah Orne Jewett, Theodore
Dreiser, Stephen Crane, Jack London, and Willa
Cather
 Samuel Langhorne Clemens a.k.a. Mark Twain
 Wrote many famous classics including The
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer, and
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
 Art galleries and libraries attempted to raise
cultural standards
 Did not succeed because of low interest
 Blacks were often excluded from visiting museums
or other white controlled cultural institutions
 Nation’s earliest form of a shopping center
opened in Cleveland, Ohio in 1890
 Glass-topped arcade had four levels of jewelry,
leather goods, and stationery shops
 Provided band music on Sundays so resident could
spend their Sundays strolling and gazing at the
window displays
 Retail shopping districts formed where public
transportation could bring shopper from outlying
areas
 Marshall Field of Chicago brought the concept to
America
 Worked as a clerk in a store and paid close attention
to women customers which increased sales
 1865 ~ opened his own store ~ Marshall Fields ~
which featured several specialized departments
 Motto ~ “Give the lady what she wants”
 Pioneered the bargain basement selling bargain goods
that were “less expensive but reliable”
 Retail stores that offered the same merchandise
under the same ownership sold goods for less
by buying in quantity and limiting personal
service
 1870s ~ F.W. Woolworth found that
consumers would purchase goods on a whim if
it was a good bargain ~ a nickel or dime
 By 1911 there were 596 Woolworth stores
selling more than a million dollars of goods a
week
A five and dime store
 Advertising explosion brought about modern
consumerism
 1865 ~ advertising expenditures were under $10
million
 1900 ~ expenditures increased to $95 million
 Patent medicines had largest number of advertising
lines followed by soaps, and baking powders
 Advertisers pushed their products in newspapers and
magazines or on billboards, the sides of barns, houses,
and even rocks
 Montgomery Wards and Sears Roebuck brought retail
merchandise to small towns
 Ward’s catalog launched in 1872 went from a single
page to a catalog printed with ordering instruction in
10 foreign languages
 Richard Sears started his company in 1886
 By 1910 about 10 million Americans ordered by mail
 U.S. Post Office boosted mail order business in 1896
by introducing RFD ~ rural free delivery ~ which
brought packages to every home