Captains of Industry or Robber Barons
Gallery Walk Poster
125 Points TOTAL
Standard: 4.2.3 Analyze and evaluate how technology and ideas have shaped U.S. History.
Assignment Directions: You will research in assigned groups a selected Captain of
Industry/Robber Baron from the Gilded Age. While researching you will gather biographic
information, but you will focus on their business and labor practices, their fortunes, and how they
used their wealth. From your research you will be asked to complete a poster that will be used for
a gallery walk so that other students in the class can learn about your captain/robber baron. Once
the gallery walk is completed, you should be able to answer a short essay question asking you to
choose a position whether the Industrialists of the Gilded Age were Captains of Industry or
Robber Barons.
Procedures:
1. You will be assigned one of the following: Andrew Carnegie, Cornelius Vanderbilt, John
D Rockefeller or JP Morgan.
2. You will be asked to read the handouts provided in class about your assigned
captain/robber baron and research on your own more than 4 sources if you want an A.
3. You will use the attached handout to help you find information about your
Captain/Robber Baron.
4. You will divide your poster between the Good and the Bad for your Captain/Robber
Baron.
5. Your poster must be organized, creative and include at least 3 graphics/pictures to receive
an A.
Poster Requirements: 80pts
A. Nameplate: Your assigned Captain/Robber Barons full name, nickname and picture
B. Biography: Date they were born, their family, net worth, what they are known for, how did
they acquire wealth, personal characteristics. You should also include at least 3 graphics or
pictures that represent your Captain/Robber Baron.
C. The Good: At least three reasons why your leader is a Captain of Industry (these should not be
vague but as specific as possible) – these should be written in complete sentences.
D. The Bad: At least three reasons why your leader is a Robber Baron (these should not be vague
but as specific as possible) – these should be written in complete sentences.
E. Bibliography: At least 4 sources cited on the back of the poster using proper MLA format to
receive an A.
Captains of Industry/Robber Barons Research Questions: 20 Points
Use the attached handout to complete your research. ALL group members must turn in their
OWN copy for points.
Robber Barons or Captain of Industry Gallery Walk Chart: 25 Points
Complete the chart on the three industrialists you did not research in class and fill in the blanks.
Once the blanks are filled out, you need to determine whether you think each Industrialist was a
Robber Baron or a Captain of Industry and explain why.
Captains of Industry or Robber Barons
Gallery Walk Poster Research Questions
20 points
Name of Industrialist _________________________________________________
Born:_____________________________
Died:__________________________
Lived:_____________________________________________________________
Family?Wife/Children:________________________________________________
Net Worth:_________________________________________________________
Start of their Business: How did he make his money?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
How did he acquire his wealth?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
How did he treat his workers?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
How did he spend his money?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Examples of the GOOD things he did:
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Examples of the BAD things he did:
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
His Legacy:
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
Robber Baron or Captain of Industry?
25 points
Learning Target: I can evaluate whether each Industrialist was a Captain of Industry or a
Robber Baron.
Use your classmate’s posters to fill out the chart below about each of the other
businessman.
Person:
How he acquired
his wealth.
What did he do
that was Good?
What did he do
that was Bad?
How did he
spend his
money? How
did he donate his
money.
Robber Baron or
Captain of
Industry? Why?
Resources that might help you
ANDREW CARNEGIE (STEEL)
 Meet Andrew Carnegie: The Two Andrews
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carnegie/sfeature/meet_andrews.html
 Meet Amazing Americans: Andrew Carnegie
http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/aa/carnegie
 The Richest Man in the World: Andrew Carnegie
http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/aa/carnegie
 Letters about the Homestead Strike
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carnegie/sfeature/mh_letters.html
 Information about the Carnegie Mansion
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carnegie/gallery/carnegieman.html
 Carnegie Biography
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carnegie/peopleevents/pande01.html
 How to Succeed in Life by Andrew Carnegie
http://www.clpgh.org/exhibit/neighborhoods/oakland/oak_n751.html
 Andrew Carnegie Preaches the Gospel of Wealth
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/1900/peopleevents/pande2.html
 The Gospel of Wealth
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1889carnegie.html
 Personal Recollections of Andrew Carnegie
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/modeng/public/LynCarn.html
JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER (OIL)
 The Rockefellers
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/rockefellers/
 John D. Rockefeller
http://archive.rockefeller.edu/bio/jdrsr.php
 A Fastidious Life
http://www.rockefeller.edu/centennial/jdrexhib.html
 John D. Rockefeller
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USArockefeller.htm
 John /d, Rockefeller and the /standard Oil /company
http://www.micheloud.com/FXM/SO/rock.htm
 JDR
http://www.pocanticohills.org/rockefeller/jdr.htm
 Rockefeller and Standard Oil... Rags to riches...
http://www.bilderberg.org/whatafel.htm
 John D. Rockefeller - A Short Biography (Video)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_y7XbLri4ZE
 “John D. Rockefeller: A Character Study” by Ida /tarbell
http://tarbell.allegheny.edu/archives/jdr.html
 The Dismantling of the Standard Oil Trust
http://www.linfo.org/standardoil.html
CORNEIUS VANDERBILT (STEAMSHIPS AND RAILROADS)
 The House of Vanderbilt
http://www.nps.gov/archive/vama/house_of.html
 Cartoon, "The Great Race for the Western Stakes"
http://loc.harpweek.com/LCPoliticalCartoons/IndexDisplayCartoonMedium.asp?Sou
rceIndex=People&IndexText=Fisk%2C+James&UniqueID=33&Year=1870
 Business Biography of Cornelius Vanderbilt
http://www.stfrancis.edu/ba/ghkickul/stuwebs/bbios/biograph/vanderbi.htm
 Vanderbilt Mansion Historical Site
http://www.nps.gov/archive/vama/about.html
 Cornelius Vanderbilt
http://www.voteview.com/vanderb2.htm
 Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt fought war over route through Central America
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/News/register/Mar11_02/story8.html
 Cornelius Vanderbilt
http://www.nnp.org/nni/Publications/Dutch-American/vanderbiltc.html
 Tales of the Commodore
http://www.library.vanderbilt.edu/speccol/vrr/tales.shtml
 Cornelius Vanderbilt
http://www.costarica-net-guide.com/vanderbilt.html
 Why We Should Be Lucky Bill Gates and Warren Buffet Don't Take After Cornelius
Vanderbilt http://hnn.us/articles/43736.html
JOHN PIERPONT MORGAN (BANKING AND FINANCE)
 JP Morgan The most influential banker in history
http://www.financial-inspiration.com/JP-Morgan-biography.html
 J.P. Morgan (Brief Biography}
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/1900/peopleevents/pande10.html
 Now It Is Told
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,745650-1,00.html
 Capital and Labor
http://www.learner.org/biographyofamerica/prog17/transcript/index.html
 First Public Demonstration of Edison's Light Bulb
http://www.americaslibrary.gov/jb/gilded/jb_gilded_edison_1.html
 The Morgan Bonds
http://projects.vassar.edu/1896/morganbonds.html
 John Pierpont Morgan Quotes
http://thinkexist.com/quotes/john_pierpont_morgan/
 The House of Morgan
http://coat.ncf.ca/our_magazine/links/53/morgan.html
 John Pierpont Morgan and the American Corporation
http://claver.gprep.org/fac/sjochs/jpmorgan-1.htm
 John Pierpont Morgan
http://thehobophilosopher.blogspot.com/2006/02/john-pierpont-morgan.html