1 / 42

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.

kuniko
Download Presentation

American Life at The Turn of the Century

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  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.

More Related