LIFE AT THE TURN
OF THE 20TH
CENTURY
THE EMERGENCE OF
MODERN AMERICA
SCIENCE AND URBAN LIFE
• By the turn of the 20th
century, four out of ten
Americans lived in cities
• In response to
urbanization,
technological advances
began to meet
communication,
transportation, and
space demands
Artist Annie Bandez
SKYSCRAPERS
• Skyscrapers emerged after two
critical inventions: elevators &
steel skeletons that bear weight
• Famous examples include; Daniel
Burnham’s Flatiron Building in
NYC, Louis Sullivan’s Wainwright
Building in St. Louis
• The skyscraper was America’s
greatest contribution to
architecture and solved the issue
of how to best use limited and
expensive space
Flatiron Building - 1902
Another view of Burnham’s Flatiron Building
ELECTRIC TRANSIT
• Changes in
transportation allowed
cities to spread outward
• By the turn of the
century, intricate
networks of electric
streetcars – also called
trolley cars –ran from
outlying neighborhoods
to downtown offices &
stores
“EL’S” AND SUBWAYS
• A few large cities moved
their streetcars far
above street level,
creating elevated or “el”
trains
• Other cities built
subways by moving
their rail lines
underground
BRIDGES & PARKS
• Steel-cable suspension
bridges, like the Brooklyn
Bridge, also brought cities’
sections closer
• Some urban planners
sought to include
landscaped areas & parks
• Frederick Law Olmsted was
instrumental in drawing up
plans for Central park, NYC
Central Park is an oasis among
Manhattan’s skyscrapers
CITY PLANNING: CHICAGO
• Daniel Burnham oversaw
the transformation of
Chicago’s lakefront from
swampy wasteland to
elegant parks strung
along Lake Michigan
• Today Chicago’s
lakefront is one of the
most beautiful shorelines
in North America
NEW TECHNOLOGIES
• New developments in
communication brought
the nation closer
• Advances in printing,
aviation, and
photography helped
speed the transfer of
information
A REVOLUTION IN PRINTING
• By 1890, the literacy rate in the
U.S. was nearly 90%
• American mills began to
produce huge quantities of
cheap paper from wood pulp
• Electrical web-perfecting
presses printed on both sides
of paper at the same time
• Faster production (electricity)
and lower costs made
newspapers and magazines
more affordable (most papers
sold for 1 cent)
AIRPLANES
•
•
•
•
•
In the early 20th century, brothers
Orville and Wilbur Wright,
experimented with engines and
aircrafts
They commissioned a fourcylinder internal combustion
engine, chose a propeller, and
built a biplane
On December 17, 1903 they flew
their plane for 12 seconds
covering 120 feet
Within two years the brothers
were making 30 minute flights
By 1920, the U.S. was using
airmail flights regularly
Actual photo of Wright Brother’s
first flight 12/17/03
PHOTOGRAPHY EXPLOSION
1888
Kodak
• Before 1880, photography was
a professional activity
• Subjects could not move and
the film had to be developed
immediately
• George Eastman invented
lighter weight equipment and
flexible film which could be
sent for processing. This
sparked the use of amateur
photography.
• In 1888, Eastman introduced
his Kodak Camera
• The $25 camera came with
100-picture roll of film
SECTION 2: EXPANDING
PUBLIC EDUCATION
• Between 1865 and 1895,
states passed laws requiring
12 to 16 weeks of annual
education for students ages 814, but the curriculum was
poor and the teachers were
usually not qualified
• Schools practiced corporal
punishment
• However, the number of
kindergartens expanded from
HIGH SCHOOL ENROLLMENT SOARS
• High schools
expanded their
curriculum to include
science, civics and
social studies
• By 1900 500,000 teenagers were enrolled
in high schools
• Industrialization
created a need for
education.
Elroy High School Photo 1906
RACIAL DISCRIMINATION
• African Americans
were mostly excluded
from secondary
education
• In 1890 less than 1%
attended high school
• By 1910 that figured
had reached only 3%
African American school in the
south about 1920
EDUCATION FOR IMMIGRANTS
• Unlike African
Americans, immigrants
were encouraged to go
to school
• Most immigrants sent
their children to public
schools
• Also, thousands of
adult immigrants
attended night schools
to learn English
EXPANDING HIGHER ED
• In 1900, less than 3% of
America’s youth
attended college
• Between 1880 and 1920
college enrollments
more than quadrupled
• Professional schools
were established for
law and medicine
AFRICAN AMERICAN
UNIVERSITIES FORMED
• After the Civil War,
thousands of African
Americans pursued higher
education despite being
excluded from white
institutions
• Blacks founded Howard,
Fisk, and Tuskegee
Universities (founded by
Booker T. Washington)
• W.E.B. Dubois founded the
Niagara Movement, which
sought liberal arts
educations for all blacks
W.E.B. Dubois
SECTION 3: SEGREGATION
AND DISCRIMINATION
• By the turn of the 20th
century, Southern States
had adopted a broad
system of legal
discrimination
• Blacks had to deal with
voting restrictions, Jim
Crow laws, Supreme
Court set-backs, and
physical violence
WHAT IS DISCRIMINATION?
• Discrimination involves:
• Beliefs : "This group of
people is inferior
because"
• Emotions : "I hate this
group of people."
• Actions : "I will deny
opportunity/hurt/kill
members of this group."
The Historical Development of
the Civil Rights Movement
• The Emancipation
Proclamation under Lincoln
freed slaves in the
Confederate states.
• The 13th amendment, ratified
in 1865, outlawed slavery in
the entire United States.
• This presented a challenge of
how to integrate nearly 4
million freed slaves into
American life.
The 14th Amendment (1868)
• President Johnson angered
congress when he vetoed the
Civil Rights Act of 1866.
• Congress responded by
drafting the 14th amendment,
which prevented states from
denying rights and privileges
to any U.S. citizen, which was
not defined as “all person
born or naturalized in the
United States.”
• This overruled the Dred Scott
case.
The 15th Amendment (1870)
The 15th amendment
states that no person
should be kept from
voting on the basis of
“race, color, or previous
condition of servitude.”
Early 20th Century African-American Leaders
• Booker T. Washington felt that
racism would end once blacks
gradually proved their economic
value to society. They could
accomplish this by acquiring
labor skills.
• Founded the Tuskegee Normal
and Industrial Institute, which
Taught useful skills in agriculture,
domestic, and mechanical work.
Early 20th Century African-American Leaders
• W.E.B. Du Bois was the first
African-American to receive a
doctorate from Harvard.
• Du Bois disagreed with
Washington’s gradual approach.
• He founded the Niagara
Movement, which insisted that
blacks should seek a liberal arts
education so that the AfricanAmerican community would have
well-educated leaders.
VOTING RESTRICTIONS
• Southern states imposed new voting
restrictions to prevent African
Americans from voting
• Some states limited the vote to those
who could read, other states had a
poll tax (an annual tax) which had to
be paid prior to voting
• African-Americans were poor and
could not pay, but the tax also
excluded poor white sharecroppers
• Southern states created the
grandfather clause, which stated that
any man was eligible to vote if he his
father, or his grandfather was eligible
to vote before January 1, 1867. This
date was key because prior to this
date, no freed slave had the right to
vote.
JIM CROW LAWS
• Southern states passed racial
segregation laws to separate
white and black people in
public and private facilities
• These laws came to be known
as “Jim Crow Laws”, named
after an old minstrel song
• Racial segregation was put
into effect in schools,
hospitals, parks, and
transportation systems
throughout the South
VIOLENCE
• African Americans who did
not follow the racial etiquette
could face serious injury or
death.
• Between 1882-1892, more
than 1,400 black men and
women were shot, burned, or
lynched without a trial.
• Lynching peaked in the
1880s and 90s but continued
well into the 20th century
• Ida B. Wells was a writer who
fought for racial justice. Her
legacy is as a crusader who
tried to end lynching.
African-Americans Moved North
• Many African-Americans
migrated to Northern
cities in hopes of better
jobs & social equality
• However, the North had
its own brand of racism
as blacks got low paying
jobs and lived in
segregated
neighborhoods
DISCRIMINATION IN THE WEST
• Discrimination in the west
was most often directed
against Mexican and Asian
immigrants
• Mexicans were often forced
into Debt Peonage – a system
of forced labor (essentially
slavery) due to debt
• White people’s fear of
Chinese people stealing their
jobs increasingly pushed
them into segregated schools
and neighborhoods
Anti-Asian Cartoon
PLESSY v. FERGUSON (1896)
• A Supreme Court which
tested the constitutionality
of segregation
• The Supreme Court ruled
that the segregation of
races was legal and did
not violate the 14th
Amendment, making
“separate but equal” the
law.
• Legalized discrimination
for almost 60 years.
RACE RELATIONS - 1900
• Blacks faced legal
discrimination as well as
informal rules and customs
• Meant to humiliate, these
“rules” included; whites
never shaking the hand of an
African America, blacks had
to yield the sidewalk to
whites, blacks also had to
remove their hats in the
presence of whites
MAJOR AREAS OF LYNCHING
SECTION 4: 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
AMUSEMENT PARKS
Coney Island was America’s most famous
amusement park in the late 19th century
• To meet the recreational
needs of city dwellers,
Chicago, NYC and other
cities began setting aside
land for parks
• Amusement parks were
constructed on the
outskirts of cities
• These parks had picnic
grounds and a variety of
rides
BICYCLING & TENNIS
• After the introduction of
the “safety bike” in
1885, Americans
increasingly enjoyed
biking
• By 1890, 312 companies
made over 10,000,000
bikes
• Tennis also was very
popular in the late 19th
century
On the right is the “safety bike” –
much easier and safer to ride
SPECTATOR SPORTS
1897 Baseball team picture
Kansas State University
• Americans not only
participated in new
sports, but became avid
fans of spectator sports
• Baseball and boxing
became profitable
businesses
• Mark Twain called
baseball, “the very
symbol of the booming
19th century”
NEWSPAPERS
• Mass-production printing
techniques led to the
publication of millions of
books, magazines, and
newspapers
• Joseph Pulitzer and
William Randolph Hearst
were two leading
publishers whose
competition led to more
and more sensational
newspaper reporting
Hearst (above) and
Pulitzer initiated
what was known as
“Yellow
Journalism”
Characteristics
of Yellow
Journalism
included huge,
sensational,
exaggerated
headlines
Some contend
that Hearst and
Pulitzer’s Yellow
Journalism was
responsible for
the SpanishAmerican War in
1898
PROMOTING FINE ARTS
This portrait was done by Robert
Henri, who led the Ashcan School
• By 1900, free circulating
Public libraries
numbered in the
thousands
• By 1900, most major
cities had art galleries
• In the early 20th century,
the Ashcan School of
American Art painted
urban life
POPULAR FICTION
• “Dime” novels were
popular & inexpensive
• Most of these focused
on adventure tales and
heroes of the west
• Some readers preferred
a more realistic
portrayal from authors
Mark Twain, Jack
London, and Willa
Cather
GROWING CONSUMERISM
• The turn of the
century witnessed
the beginnings of
the shopping
center, department
and chain stores,
and the birth of
modern advertising
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
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
ADVERTISING
• Expenditures for
advertising was under
$10 million a year in
1865, but increased to
$95 million by 1900
• Ads appeared in
newspapers, magazines
and on billboards
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