Sec. 1 – Science & Urban Life
Sec. 2 – Education & Culture
Sec. 3 – Segregation & Discrimination
Sec. 4 – Dawn of Mass Culture
Facts About 1900-1910
•76,000,000 Americans in 46 states (by the
end of the decade.)
•Policeman arrests woman for smoking in
public
•$46,000,000+ in the U.S. treasury
•8,000 cars - 10 miles of paved roads
•1900 - Auto deaths 96; lynchings 115
•San Francisco earthquake took 700 lives
and cost over $4,000,000 in damage.
•Average worker made $12.98/week for 59
hours
•Life expectancy: 47.3 female, 46.3 male 33.0 blacks
Cost of Living
Fun Facts: Cost of Living
Item
One pound of coffee
Vest
Hammer
1903
.13
.35
.53
2003
2.64
7.10
10.76
Hotel Room (1 day)
2.00
40.60
Shotgun
21.75
441.48
Silver Thimble
Loaf of Bread
Automobile
.15
3.04
.05
1.01
850.00 17,253.00
Different shoe styles are not the norm in
1903.
School’s Reading Lists
Louisa May Alcott - Little Women (1868)
L. Frank Baum - The Wizard of Oz (1900)
Charles Chesnutt - The Marrow of Tradition (1901)
Charles Dickens - Oliver Twist (1838)
Arthur Conan Doye - The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes (1893)
Rudyard Kipling - The Jungle Book (1894)
L.M. Montgomery - Anne of Green Gables (1908)
Jack London - Call of the Wild (1903)
Howard Pyle - The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood (1883)
Anna Sewell - Black Beauty (1877)
Johanna Spryi - Heidi (1880)
Robert Lewis Stevenson - Treasure Island (1883)
Jonathan Swift - Gulliver’s Travels (1726)
Mark Twain - The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876)
Jules Verne - 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1870)
Kate Douglas Wiggins - Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1903)
Warm Up
 What type of technology could make Metro-Detroit
(including Algonac) a better place to live in?
Objectives for Sec. 1: Science &
Urban Life
 To describe technological advances and urban
planning and their affects on turn-of-the-century city
life.
 To summarize turn-of-the-century advances in
communications
Technology & City Life
 Rural & immigrant people flooded the cities
 By 1890 Chicago & Philadelphia had a population of 1
million
 By 1901 New York had a population of 3.5 million
 Urban areas need space, transportation &
communications
 Cities needed to expand upward & outward
Upward: Skyscrapers
 Architects could build taller buildings due to new
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technology in steel & elevators
Louis Sullivan designed the ten-story Wainwright Building
in St. Louis
Daniel Burnham designed the 285 foot tower, Flatiron
Building
In 1900s skyscrapers became the greatest contribution to
architecture
Skyscrapers solved the problem of how to make the best
use of limited & expensive space
The buildings served as a towering symbol of a rich &
optimistic society
Skyscrapers
 Wainwright Building
 Flatiron Building
Electric Transit
 Changes in transportation allowed cities to
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expand outward
Electricity transformed urban transportation
In 1888, Richmond, Virginia became the first
American city to electrify its urban transit by installing
streetcars driven by electric motors powered by an
overhead wire
Other cities followed & by the turn of the century,
streetcars carried the residents of outlying
neighborhoods to the downtown area
Cities became a sprawling metropolis
Electric Transit cont…
 New railroad lines also fed the growth of suburbs
 Some cities moved their streetcars above street level
called “el” trains
 New York built subways by moving their rail lines
underground
 Urban & Suburban areas grew due to how
transportation linked the two areas
 Bridges also connected different sections of cities:
Brooklyn Bridge
The Science of Urban Planning
 City planners wanted to restore a measure of serenity
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to the urban environment
Designed parks & recreational areas
Frederick Law Olmsted spearheaded this movement
Olmsted & Calvert Vaux drew up plans to make
“Greenwards” which became known as Central Park
Olmsted went on to develop parks & recreational areas for
Washington D.C., St. Louis & Boston
Daniel Burnham designed Chicago’s parks and an
entrance to the city called White City
1906 Postcard from White City
White City in Chicago
White City in Chicago
Central Park, New York
New Technologies Transform
Communications
 New developments in communications brought
people closer together in time
 Advances in aviation, printing & photography
helped to speed the transmission of information
Airplanes & Mail Delivery
 Orville & Wilbur Wright took their 1st successful flight
on December 17, 1903 – it lasted 12 seconds & covered
120 feet
 No one really paid attention, but by 1905 they had
increased their flights to 24 miles
 In 1908 the U.S. government took notice
 The government established the first transcontinental
airmail service in 1920
 At first it took a day and a half for mail to travel
between New York & San Francisco
A Revolution in Printing
 Better public education led to an increase in
literacy rate of 90%
 Due to the increased interest in reading,
publishers turned out ever-increasing numbers of
books, magazines, & newspapers to meet the
demands
 Less expensive paper & better printing presses
helped lower the costs of printing
 After chemists discovered wood pulp could make
paper, paper mills began to produce large
quantities of cheap paper
A Revolution in Printing cont…
 William Bullock invented the web-perfecting press
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that printed on both sides of a continuous paper roll,
then cut, folded & counted the pages
Faster production & lower costs made newspapers and
magazines more affordable – 1 penny per copy
Ottmar Mergenthaler invented the Linotype machine
that sped up the process of typesetting
1st used by a newspaper in 1886 & it streamlined the process
of setting type
Illustration became easier in the 1880s when the
process of chemical engraving enabled printers to
reproduce paintings & photographs cheaply &
accurately
Photography
 George Eastman developed a paper based film as an
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alternative to the heavy glass plates previously used
Photographer could now send their film to a studio for
processing
Advertised his product to the masses not just professionals
Eastman invented his Kodak camera in 1888
Was small & easy to operate which prompted millions of
Americans to become amateur photographers
Also helped create the field of photo-journalism –
reporters could now photograph events as they
occurred
George Eastman Inventions
Kodak Point & Shoot
 1st Kodak with a flash
Exit Ticket
 Please answer the following question and turn in:
Which development in science and technology
described in this section had the greatest impact on
American culture? Use details from your notes to
justify and support your opinion.
Section 2: Education & Culture
Objectives
 To trace the expansion of public education at the turn
of the century
 To summarize the educational opportunities open for
immigrants
 To describe the expansion of higher education
 To show how expanding education enhanced
American culture
Warm Up
 How does an educational system help a nation meet
its social needs?
Expanding Public Education
 Most states had public school systems by the Civil War
 Many school-aged children received no formal
education at all
 The students who went to school left within four
years, and few went to high school
 Education reformers wanted to change this:
worked to extend school to more children,
increase the number of years for mandatory
school/attendance, lengthen the school year
Schools for Children
 Between 1865-1895, 31 states passed laws requiring 12-16
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weeks a year of school attendance for children ages 8-14
By 1900 75% of American children attended school –
mostly in the cities
Studied a curriculum that emphasized reading, writing, &
arithmetic
Rote memorization & the quality of teachers drew criticism
Kindergarten was created – it was outside the public school
– for unemployed mothers
62% of white kids attended school compared to 34% of
black children
The Growth of High School
 Due to the industrial age, the economy demanded
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advanced technical & managerial skills
In 1878: 800 high schools In 1898: 5,500 high schools
1880: 72,000 students attended high school
In 1900: 500,000 attended high school
H.S curriculum expanded to include science, civics, history,
literature & home economics
Vocational courses became available in drafting, carpentry,
& mechanics
Courses for females: secretarial & bookkeeping
Racial Discrimination
 African Americans were excluded from receiving a
secondary education
 In 1890 1% of black teenagers attended high school
 In 1910 3% of black teenagers attended high school –
most went to private schools
Education for Immigrants
 Unlike African Americans, immigrants were encouraged
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to go to school
Most immigrants sent their children to free public
schools where they quickly became “Americanized”
Catholics were concerned because Bible verses were read
from the King James version – Protestant
Catholics started up their own parochial schools in
their communities to give their children a catholic
education
Adult immigrants went to night school & employers
offered daytime programs to their immigrant workers
Expanding Higher Education
 Only 2.3% attended college
 Usually students came from middle class or wealthy
families
 College prepared well to do young men for successful
careers
 Between 1880 – 1920 college enrollment quadrupled
 Colleges started to change their admission policies
Changes in Universities
 The industrial movement changed the nation’s
educational needs at the college level
 The Research university emerged to meet these needs
 Offered courses in modern languages, engineering,
economics, physical science, psychology & sociology
 Some Research universities were established by
wealthy capitalists (Rockefeller: Univ. Chicago)
 Medical schools were changing as well due to what was
learned in the Civil War
Higher Education for African
Americans
 After the Civil War freed slaves pursued an education
 Excluded from white colleges, they opened up all black
schools to educate ministers, dentists, teachers,
physicians
 African Americans founded: Howard, Atlanta & Fisk
universities
 However, charitable organizations could not
financially support or educate a sufficient number of
black college graduates to provide enough doctors,
lawyers & teachers to meet the needs of the segregated
community
Higher Education for African
Americans cont…
 Out of 9.2 million blacks, only 3,880 had graduated from
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college
Only 1% of African Americans attended college
W.E.B. Dubois became the first African American to receive
a Ph.D. from Harvard in 1895
He said the most educated blacks or the “talented tenth”
attempt to achieve immediate inclusion into mainstream
American life
Booker T. Washington believed racism would end when
blacks acquired useful labor skills & proved their economic
value to society
He graduated from the Hampton Institute & opened his
own school
Education Influences Culture
 More schools, universities & colleges became a source
of education
 Art galleries, libraries and museums make culture
available to more people.
 Many turn of the century artist & writers
embraced social realism, attempting to portray
life as it is really lived
 Increased literacy boosts sales of “dime novels”
and other light fiction.
Life at the Turn of the Century
Sec. 3: Segregation &
Discrimination - Objectives
 To trace the development of legal discrimination
against African Americans in the South and their
struggle against it
 To summarize turn of the century race relations in the
North as well as in the South
African Americans Fight Legal
Discrimination
 After the North lifted military authority over the
South, white Southern Democrats reclaimed control
and instituted laws to subject African Americans to
second class citizenship
Voter Restrictions
 For about 10 years after Reconstructions, African
Americans voted & even held office.
 Bt the end of the 1800s that had changed & Southern
states adopted a broad system of legal policies of
racial discrimination & devised methods to weaken
African American political power
 New laws denied African American legal equality
Voter Restrictions: New Laws
 Literacy tests: registrars asked blacks more
difficult questions than they asked whites
 Sometimes the test was given in a foreign language
to blacks
 The officials administering the test could pass or
fail applicants as they wished
Voter Restrictions: Poll Tax
 Poll tax: an annual tax that had to be paid to gain
access to the voting booth
 Blacks & white sharecroppers lacked cash to pay this &
were frequently unable to vote
 Whites who lacked money were grandfathered in
 Grandfather clause: stated that even if a white man
failed the literacy test or could not afford the poll tax,
he was still entitled to vote if he, his father or
grandfather had been eligible to vote before Jan. 1, 1867
Jim Crow Laws
 State and local governments passed laws to
separate white and black people in public and
private facilities
 The origin of the phrase "Jim Crow" has often been
attributed to “Jump, Jim Crow", a song-and-dance
caricature of blacks performed by white actor Thomas
D. Rice in blackface
 Segregation: system of separating people on the
basis of race
 Racial segregation developed in schools, hospitals,
parks, transportation systems, restaurants, etc.
Plessy v. Ferguson
 Homer Plessy: 7/8th white, 1/8th black was classified as
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a black man
Denied a seat in a railroad car & challenged the
segregation law
Said it denied him his rights under the Louisiana
constitution
Railroad said it just separate, but equal
Supreme Court sided with the railroad
Established the term: “separate but equal”
Allowed states to maintain separate facilities
Turn of the Century Race Relations
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Written & unwritten laws that led to discrimination
Blacks were belittled and humiliated
Blacks & whites never shook hands
Blacks had to take off the hats to whites
Blacks had to yield the sidewalk to whites
If accused of showing too little respect to whites, blacks
would be lynched - 2,500 between 1885 & 1900
 Discrimination & segregation just as bad in the North
 Blacks couldn’t live in white neighborhoods, labor
unions denied them membership, hired as a last
resort
Discussion Questions
 What types of legal discrimination did African
Americans face?
 What were Jim Crow laws? How do you think these
laws could have been fought?
 How did Plessy v. Ferguson affect the civil rights of
African Americans?
Sec. 4 Dawn of a Mass Culture
 Although race discrimination was prevalent among
non-whites & caused legal problems across the U.S. –
it was a different story for whites
 Due to rapid industrialization & improvements
that made daily life easier more people (especially
whites) found they had leisure time & money to spend
 New recreational activities, new consumer
products & trends caught the interest of people at
the turn of the century.
 A mass culture was born
Sec. 4: Dawn of a Mass Culture:
Objectives
 To give examples of turn of the century popular
sports and other leisure activities
 To describe turn of the century trends in music
and the performing arts
 To summarize the growing circulation of
newspapers
 To describe turn of the century innovations in
marketing and advertising
American Leisure
 Relief from city congestion & dull factories
 Amusement parks
 Built on green spaces
 Often built by trolley car companies
 Picnic grounds & rides
 Coney Island, NY
 1894- Roller Coaster!
 World Columbian Expo- Chicago 1893
More Leisure
 Male only till 1885: Safety bicycle
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Smaller wheels, air filled tires
 Women discard corsets
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Shirtwaists & split skirts, to ride
Gave women a sense of freedom
 Tennis
 First seen in Wales, 1873
New snacks:
 Potato Chips - 1853
 Chewing Gum - 1870
 Coca Cola - 1886
 Designed by pharmacist to cure headaches
 Cracker Jacks – 1893
 Hershey Bars - 1900
 Ice Cream cone - 1904
 Popsicle - 1905
Sports
 Spectator Sports
 Boxing
 Baseball
 Telegraphed transmissions of contests at hotel lobbies & barber
shops
 Based on Rounders, English sport
 By 1860s, many clubs across US
 National League 1876
 American League 1900
 1st World Series: 1903
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Negro Leagues founded
Spread of Mass Culture
 Live Performances
-Vaudeville – performances including song, dance & slapstick
comedy
-Barnum & Bailey’s Greatest Show on Earth
 Motion Pictures
 1st film was a one reel in 10 minute sequences
 Mostly vaudeville skits
 The Great Train Robbery
 The Birth of a Nation (used fade outs, close ups, but glorified the KKK)
 Art
 Realism
 Thomas Eakins
 Ashcan school
 Gritty urban life scenes
 Abstract (Europe)
 Libraries spread (poor man’s university)
 Fiction
 Crime, Westerns
 Realism- Jack London, Stephen Crane- show lower classes
 Humor- Mark Twain
Mass Circulation of Newspapers
 Coverage of daily sports, shows & news in newspapers
 Started using Sensational Headlines
 Used promotional stunts, large Sunday edition,
comics, & women’s news to sell newspapers &
attract readers
 Personal scandals, cruelty & outrageous stories
were used to out do the competition
 Two large scale papers at the time: Morning Journal
ran by Joseph Pulitzer & Journal ran by William
Randolph Hearst
Shopping: A New Way To Sell
Goods
 Malls (Arcades)
 Cleveland, 1890
 Jewelry, leather goods, stationery
 Bands play on Sundays
 Department Stores
 Marshall Field, Chicago
 Geared to women shoppers
 Bargain basement
 Chains
 Woolworth’s
 Five & Dime stores
 Advertising
 Mostly patent medicines
 Soaps, baking powders
 Newspapers, magazines, billboards, barns, rocks
 Catalogs & RFD
 Montgomery Ward (1872) Sears (1886)
 Rural Free Delivery- packages to your home!
Homework
 Complete questions 2-5 on page 488 of your textbook
 Complete questions on handout (on table)