Living Images

1. Living Images Bringing INDUSTRIALIZATION to life!

2. Main Themes, Industrialization1860s-1900 • After the Civil War, the development of improved industrial methods and the arrival of masses of immigrants eager for factory jobs launched a new era of mass production in the United States.

3. Bessemer Steel Manufacture Context: Technological innovations transformed the production process during industrialization. Audience: Readers of Harper's Weekly. Purpose: To show how the Bessemer process increased production. Hist. Significance: The development of Henry Bessemer's converter aided the search for a more durable metal… The process is credited with launching the steel industry and cheapening the cost of production because it was no longer necessary to employ highly paid skilled workers.

4. Iron Chink at Work in P.A.F. Cannery Context: Technological innovations during industrialization sped up the processing of canned goods and contributed to unemployment. Audience: Unknown. Purpose: To show how the Iron Chink sped up the mass production of canned salmon and displaced workers. Hist. Significance: In 1903, the Iron Chink changed the production process for canned salmon. This machine, cut the fish open, separated the fins, and cleaned out the guts. The Iron Chink drastically cut the processing time, while simultaneously taking away the jobs of Chinese workers.

5. Main Themes, Industrialization1860s-1900 • Fleeing religious and political persecution and poor economic conditions, millions of people began to move about the globe, with a high concentration coming to the United States.

6. Group of Emigrants from Eastern Europe Context: Photographers chronicled the migration to the United States on board ships. Audience: Unknown. Purpose: To show the journey to the United States. Hist. Significance: Between 1870 and 1920, the United States witnessed migration on an unprecedented scale. New shipping lines, faster passage, and cheaper fares brought immigrants to the United States and other countries such as Argentina, Australia, and Canada. These photographs depict the large numbers of immigrants who made the journey, the travel conditions, and their arrival.

7. Wells Fargo & Company Express Directory of Chinese Business Houses Context: Anti-Chinese hostility occurred during the 1870s and 1880s, but some companies profited from doing business with Chinese immigrants. Audience: Chinese merchants in California, Nevada, and Oregon. Purpose: To further promote the economic viability of Chinese communities by facilitating commerce with Chinese businesses on the West Coast. Hist. Significance: Wells Fargo produced English-Chinese merchant directories during the 1870s and 1880s. Chinese communities in remote towns and mining camps relied on Wells Fargo's express service to communicate with Asian merchants and importers in cities of the West. The directories not only benefited Chinese communities, but also bridged the language barrier separating Chinese communities from English-speaking communities.

8. "Some Reasons for Chinese Exclusion. Meat vs. Rice. American Manhood Against Asiatic Coolieism. Which Shall Survive?" Context: Anti-Asian agitation during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Audience: United States Senate. Purpose: To promote a second extension of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. Hist. Significance: In 1901, Samuel Gompers, who was the leader of the AFL favored Chinese exclusion, arguing that Chinese immigrants lowered the standard of living for white workers. The pamphlet's aim was to persuade senators to renew the extension of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. With its subsequent extension in 1902, the Chinese Exclusion Act barred all Chinese from American citizenship through naturalization. Restrictions and exclusions on other immigrant groups followed.

9. Main Themes, Industrialization1860s-1900 • Industrial expansion and the influx of new populations brought about major changes, including the rise of a labor movement and the emergence of women's organizations as important agents of social and political reform.

10. Strikes, Ladies Tailors, Picket Girls on Duty, 1910 Context: Two women garment workers on picket line during the “Uprising of the 20,000”. Audience: People standing along St. Paul Street, New York City. Purpose: To show the striking garment workers. Hist. Significance: In 1913, garment workers in New York's largest clothing factory went on strike for better working conditions. Their demands included an eight-hour work day, increased overtime pay, holiday leave, and union recognition. The general public supported this strike largely because of publicity surrounding the report of the New York State Factory Investigating Commission, which had exposed the harsh and unsafe working conditions in many of the state's factories.