Industrial Revolution Thought Gallery
Teacher Resources: Print these images/quotes and place at various locations throughout your
classroom. Make sure that you have enough room between stations for your students to gather around
the image/quote.
Student Resources: The Industrial Revolution Thought Gallery Chart is located at the end of this
document. You may choose to print one for each student or each group.
Center for Historyhttp://www.centerforhistory.org/pdfdoc/The%20Industrial%20Revolution%20activity%20sheets%2035.
pdf
1. Pollution:
2. Child Labor:
By 1900, there were close to 2 million children under the age of 15 working throughout the
country. The working age was as young as six years old.
3. Productive Factories:
Scientific Management
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Many of the factories in the early 20 century
operated under the philosophy of scientific
management. Frederick Winslow Taylor, an
American industrial engineer, made this theory
popular. Taylor believed that workers should be
hired to perform a small number of tasks, in a
repetitive manner.
Scientific management principles discouraged
workers from working more effectively and
efficiently. The theory was that workers would
definitely make mistakes, but inspectors would
catch these at the end of the assembly line.
Workers could then be docked for faulty
workmanship. If a worker made too many
mistakes, they could be fired.
4. Faster Production:
Interchangeable Parts
In the early 1800’s, Eli Whitney came up with an idea that had a great impact on the way
goods were produced.
Before his idea of interchangeable parts, skilled workers who made each item by hand from
start to finish produced most goods. For example, a gunsmith worked long and hard on
each gun he made. First the stock was made, then the barrel, and also the trigger. Each
gun came out a little different, so if a part on a gun broke, the gunsmith would have to make
a new part for that particular gun. This took a lot of time.
5. Working Conditions:
Hours: The factory workers began their
day at 4:00 a.m., and it ended at 7:30 p.m.
They were allowed one break at 7:30 a.m.
for breakfast, and another at noon for lunch.
Conditions:
o Factories often had no windows to allow
for ventilation, or heating systems to
help the workers stay warm in the
winter.
o Poor lighting led to accidents.
o Machines crushed workers hands and
arms, because there were no safety
devices on them.
o Textile workers got lung diseases from
breathing dust and fiber all day.
o Steel workers risked injuries working
close to red-hot vats of melted steel.
o In mines, cave-ins buried miners alive.
o If a worker got hurt, they were fired.
o There was no such thing as insurance.
6. Growth of Cities
Before Industrial Revolution:
After the Industrial Revolution:
Name:__________________________________
Date:_________
Thought Gallery: Effects of the Industrial Revolution
Directions: Look at each Thought Gallery Image/Description about life during the Industrial Revolution.
Choose weather each image or description is portraying a positive or negative effect. Describe the
positive or negative effect in the chart below.
Positive Effects
Negative Effects
Your Opinion:
1. Do you feel that the positive effects of the Industrial Revolution outweigh the negative effect?
Why or why not?
2. How do you think would life have changed for the average American during the Industrial
Revolution?