Immigration and Urbanization
(1865-1914)
The New Immigrants
•Poor Catholic or Jewish
immigrants
often moved to urban
areas
•1870’s and 1880’s consisted of
Northern/Western immigrants.
Examples included:
Irish, Scottish and Germans
•1890’s and early 1900’s included
Immigrants from Italy, Hungary and Greece
Statistics
 Between 1870 to 1920 about 20
million Europeans arrived in the
United States
 Many came to escape religious
persecution
 Other Europeans left because of the
rising population
 Between 1800 and 1900 the
population of Europe doubled to nearly
400 million
 This resulted in land scarcity,
competition for labor, etc.
Ways the New Immigrants were
different
•
•
•
•
2006
Skin color
Customs
Religion
Language
– Very different from
English, German,
French
4
The Push and Pull Factors
• Push
– Immigrants fled from religious persecution, wars, political
revolt, and land reform
• Pull
– Plentiful land and employment, recruited for work
– “Chain immigrants” joining
family or friends who
have already settled in
America
The Immigrant Experience
• long voyage
– steamships were safer and faster to cross the Atlantic
– most traveled in steerage
– arrival
– New York Harbor: Ellis Island
– San Francisco Bay: Angel Island
Ellis Island
 Located in New York Harbor
 Once the main entry facility for
immigrants entering the U.S.
 Operated from January 1892 to
November 1954
 12 million immigrants were
inspected by 1954
 Before Ellis Island 8 million immigrants
had been processed at Castle Garden
 1907 was the peak year for immigration
with 1,004,756 immigrants processed
 April 17 saw 11,747 immigrants
Ellis Island

Those with health problems or diseases were sent
home

About 2% were denied admission to
 Reasons such as disease, criminal
background, or insanity

Immigrants who were approved spent from 3 to 5
hours at Ellis Island

Ellis Island was sometimes known as "The Island
of Tears"

Mass processing of immigrants at Ellis Island
ended in 1924 after the Immigration Act of 1924
• Vito Andolini arrives at Ellis Island
Angel Island
 An island in San Francisco Bay
 Provided the same service for those
crossing the Pacific as did Ellis Island in the
East
 1 million people were processed through
Angel island
 Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 provided
tough entry restrictions
 Immigrants waited on the island for as long
as two years as they attempted to get in
 In 1906 a fire destroyed the facility
 All processing took place in San Francisco
Angel Island
• Tour
Immigrants Assimilate into• Society
“melting pot”
• some city populations had
more than 40% foreign born
• most new immigrants stayed
in cities, close to industrial
jobs in factories
– ghettoes
• Americanization programs
– faced hostility and
competition among natives
Overcrowded and Poor Housing
•
•
•
•
housing conditions deteriorated
Immigrants lived in tenements
crime
poor sanitation
– Cholera
– Germ Theory
Technological Cities
• Mass transit
– Electric trolley and subway
• Elevators
• Skyscrapers
• Central heating
- Trolleys and subways were developed in order to make
transportation more efficient.
A train of Brooklyn Union elevated cars circa 1907 belonging to the
New York Transit Museum collection.
The New American Culture
 Once admitted immigrants faced many
challenges:
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


Finding a place to live
Getting a job
Adapting to a new culture
Understanding a new language
 Many immigrants sought out people that
were of similar backgrounds, culture, and
language
 They formed their own communities
throughout the nation
 Created social clubs, churches, and
synagogues as a means of bonding together
in a new land
Cultural Changes
• conspicuous consumerism
– sale methods change
– department stores
– brand names
• mass culture
• education increased
– training for urban careers
• new forms of entertainment
Educate
• Schools assimilate immigrants
faster than anything else
• Upsets some of the older
immigrants because the kids
want to learn American
culture and not their own
GROWING CONSUMERISM
• The turn of the century
witnessed the
beginnings of the
shopping center,
department and chain
stores, and the birth of
modern advertising
CATALOGS AND RFD
• Montgomery Ward and
Sears were two pioneers in
catalog sales
• By 1910, 10 million
Americans shopped by mail
• In 1896 the Post Office
introduced a rural free
delivery (RFD) system that
brought packages directly to
every home
• sears ad.pdf
DAWN OF A MASS CULTURE
• Many middle class
Americans fought off city
congestion and dull
industrial work by enjoying
amusement parks, bicycling,
tennis and spectator sports
• American leisure was
developing into a multimillion dollar industry
THE DEPARTMENT STORE
• Marshall Field of Chicago
brought the first
department store to
America
• Field’s motto was “Give the
lady what she wants”
• Field also pioneered the
“bargain basement”
concept
Marshall Fields has been around for
almost 150 years
Shopping, Sports and Entertainment
- Macy’s opens a nine-story building in New York City.
Macy’s, New York City, 1902
CHAIN STORES
• In the 1870s, F.W. Woolworth
found that if he offered an
item at a low price, “the
consumer would purchase it on
the spur of the moment”
• By 1911, the Woolworth chain
had 596 stores and sold
$1,000,000 per week
- Baseball, football and basketball gain in popularity.
The Cuban Giants
began life in 1885 as a
team that entertained
guests at the Argyle
Hotel in the resort town
of Babylon, Long
Island.
- Vaudeville shows became extremely popular.
Examples: comedians, song and dance routines, and acrobats
Vaudeville
- Music such as ragtime became extremely popular as well.
Example: Scott Joplin – an African American composer