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American Life at The Turn of the Century

American Life at The Turn of the Century. 1900s America. Science and Urban Life. By the turn of the 20 th cent., 4 of 10 American lived in cities. Urbanization → Technological Advances (in response to communication, transportation, space demands). Skyscrapers.

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American Life at The Turn of the Century

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  1. American Life at The Turn of the Century 1900s America

  2. Science and Urban Life • By the turn of the 20th cent., 4 of 10 American lived in cities. • Urbanization → Technological Advances (in response to communication, transportation, space demands)

  3. Skyscrapers • Emerged after two critical inventions: • Weight-bearing steel skeletons • Elevators (invented by Elisha Otis – Otis Elevator Company) • America’s greatest contribution to architecture: how to best used limited/expensive space.

  4. Daniel Burnham’s Flatiron Building (NYC)

  5. Louis Sullivan’s Wainwright Building (STL)

  6. Electric Transit • Transportation changes allow cities to spread OUT • Electric streetcars (trolley cars) ran from outlying neighborhoods to downtown offices, stores

  7. Electric Transit • “EL’s” and “Subways” • Some large cities moved streetcars above street level, creating elevated “el” trains. • Others built subways (rail lines underground)

  8. Bridges & Parks • City sections brought closer by steel-cable suspension bridges (Brooklyn Bridge) • Urban planners began to include landscaped areas, parks (like NYC’s Central Park and Chicago’s lakefront)

  9. New Technology • Printing • 1890: U.S. literacy rate nearly 90% • Mills produced huge amounts of cheap paper (wood pulp) • Electric web-perfecting presses printed BOTH sides of paper (at the same time!) • Faster production + lower costs = affordable newspaper & magazines (most NPs sold for 1 cent)

  10. New Technology • Airplanes • Wright Bros. – Dec. 17th 1903: flew 12 sec over 120 feet • Within 2 yrs, making 30 min flights. • By 1920, U.S. regularly using airmail flights

  11. New Technology • Photography • A professional activity before 1880 (subjects couldn’t move, film developed immediately) • George Eastman invest lightweight equipment, versatile film • Introduces Kodak Camera in 1888 • 1888 Kodak: $25, came w/ 100-picture film roll

  12. Public Education • Between 1865 & 1895, states passed laws requiring 12-16 wks of annual education for students ages 8-14. (Curriculums poor, teachers usually not qualified) • Kindergartens expanded: • 200 in 1880 • 3,000 in 1990

  13. Public Education • High Schools expand curriculums to include: science, civics, social studies • By 1900: 500,000 teenagers enrolled

  14. Education Discrimination • African Americans mostly excluded from secondary edu. • By 1890 less than 1% attended HS • Only up to 3% by 1910

  15. Education for Immigrants • (Unlike African Americans) Immigrants encouraged to go to school • Most immigrants sent children to public schools • 1,000s of adults went to night schools to learn English

  16. Higher Education • 1900, less than 3% of Americans attended college • 1880 – 1920, enrollments quadrupled • Professional schools created for law, medicine

  17. Higher Education • Post-Civil War, 1000s of African Americans pursued higher ed. despite exclusion from white institutions. • Founded Howard, Fisk, and Tuskegee Universities (Booker T. Washington)

  18. Higher Education • W.E.B. Dubois founded the Niagara Movement (tired of Booker T. Washington’s conciliatory polices towards whites) • Wanted voting rights, desegregation of public transit, and liberal arts education for ALL black Americans.

  19. Segregation & Discrimination • By 1900, Southern States had broad system of legal discrimination: • Jim Crow Laws • Segregation of public & private facilities (hospitals, schools, parks, transportation systems) • Supreme-Court set-backs • PLESSY v. FERGUSON: 1896 – Ruling: Segregation is legal (separate but equal) and does NOT violate the 14th Amendment • Voting restrictions • Poll Taxes, Literacy Tests • Physical Violence • Not following “racial etiquette” could result in severe punishment or death • Between 1882-1892, 1,400+ black men and women were shot, burned, or lynched • Lynching peaked in the 1880s and 90s but continued well into the 20th century

  20. Segregation & Discrimination • Discrimination is three-fold: • BELIEF: “This group of people is inferior because…” • EMOTION: “I hate this group of people.” • ACTION: “I will deny opportunity/hurt/kill members of this group.”

  21. Segregation & Discrimination • Discrimination in the North: • Low-paying jobs • Segregated neighborhoods • Discrimination in the West: • Against Mexican and Asian immigrants • Mexicans often forced into Debt-Peonage (forced labor due to debt) • Asians increasingly excluded from mainstreamsociety.

  22. Mass Culture • Amusement parks, bicycling, tennis, spectators sports allowed Americans to escape industrial work and city congestion • Leisure develops into a multi-million dollar industry.

  23. Mass Culture • Chicago, NYC, others set aside land for parks • Amusement parks constructed on city outskirts • Coney Island was America’s most famous amusement park in the late 19th cent. • Parks had picnic grounds, rides

  24. Mass Culture • After introduction of “safety bike” in 1885, Americans enjoyed cycling. By 1890, 312 companies produced over 10,000,000 bikes. • Tennis was a very popular sport in the late 19th cent.

  25. Mass Culture • Spectator Sports (people not only played, but began watching sports) • Baseball, Boxing became profitable businesses • Mark Twain called baseball “the very symbol of the booming 19th cent.”

  26. Newspapers • Mass Production = millions of books, magazines, newspapers • Joseph Pulitzer & William Randolph Hearst (leading publishers) created “Yellow Journalism” (more sensational newspaper reporting)

  27. Some contend Yellow Journalism was responsible for the Spanish-American War in 1898.

  28. Promoting Fine Arts • By 1900 • 1,000s of free circulating public libraries • Most major cities had art galleries • Early 20thc. Ashcan School of American Art painted urban life

  29. George Bellows (1909) “Stag at Sharkey’s”

  30. George Bellows “Cliff Dwellers”

  31. Consumerism • Turn of the Century witnessed the beginnings of: • The shopping center • Department and Chain stores • Modern Advertising

  32. The Department Store • Marshall Field of Chicago brought the first department store to America. Motto: “Give the lady what she wants.” Also pioneered the “bargain basement” concept.

  33. Chain Stores • 1870s – F.W. Woolworth learned that offering an item at a low price often led customers to purchase it “spur of the moment.” • By 1911 – Woolworth chain had 596 stores, sold $1,000,000 of items per week.

  34. Advertising • Expenditures under $10 mil./yr in 1865 • Increased to $95 mil by 1900 • Ads appeared in newspapers, magazines,and on billboards

  35. Catalogs and RFD • Montgomery Ward and Sears were two pioneers in catalog sales. • By 1910, 10 million Americans shopped by mail. • 1896, USPS introduced a rural free delivery (RFD) system, brought packages direct to every home.

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