Transcript THE GILDED AGE

GILDED AGE culture
GILDED AGE culture
• Gilded Age: a phrase originally coined by
Shakespeare in King John (1595)
• "To gild refined gold, to paint the lily... is wasteful
and ridiculous excess."
• Mark Twain labeled the years 1877-1893-ish as
the Gilded Age
• The Gilded Age, like gilding the lily (which is
already beautiful and not in need of further
adornment), was excessive and wasteful
• Period characterized by showy displays of
wealth and excessive opulence
New Attitudes
• People become more loose
• Free love in 1871
• Economic Freedom encouraged sexual
freedom
• Marriages delayed
• Birth rates dropping
• National American Woman Suffrage
Association
LITERATURE
• gradual rise of realism
• realistic--and sometimes quite
critical--portrayal of life
• works significantly influenced the
development of literature in 20th
century
Poetry
• Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson
• introduced new, less structured,
psychological approach
• Whitman, especially, dealt with topics
previously considered inappropriate
• Leaves of Grass, first published in
1855, stands as a major work in world
literature.
Novels
• Towering novelist of era was
Mark Twain (Samuel L.
Clemens)
• Huckleberry Finn (1885)
– may be read at many levels:
nostalgic account of boyhood
adventures to profound social
satire
– reproduced everyday speech
of unschooled whites and
blacks
– poked fun at social
pretensions
– scorned Old South myth
– challenged prevailing, racially
biased attitudes toward
African-Americans
• Novels of William Dean Howells and Henry
James presented restrained, realistic portrayals
of upper-class men and women
• After 1890, Stephen Crane, Theodore Dreiser,
and Frank Norris sharpened critical edge of
fiction.
– Crane's Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (1893)
depicted how urban squalor could turn a young
woman to prostitution.
– Norris's The Octopus (1901) portrayed the abusive
power that a railroad could wield over people.
– Bellamy’s Looking Backward: 2000 to 1887 is the
story of a man who awakes in the year 2000 in a
socialist utopia
ART
Max Schmitt in a Single Scull (1871,
Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY)
• As literature moved
toward realism, most
American painting was
moving in the opposite
direction.
• Important exception was
Thomas Eakins, working
in U.S. in 1870s and
1880s
• His work is considered a
major contribution to the
development of realism
in painting.
Art
James
Whistler’s
best known
work
John
Singer
Sargent
Winslow Homer
Mary Cassatt
• Only American--and
only woman--to rank
among leaders of
impressionism
• The painting on right
provides good example
of her reputation for
painting mothers and
daughters.
"La Toilette" (1891, Art Institute of Chicago
Albert Pinkham Ryder
Ash Can School
"McSorley's Bar" by John Sloan, a member of
the Ash Can School (1912, Detroit Institute of
Art)
• Attention to city was
characteristic of work
• Robert Henri and
associates, called "the
Eight," in early 1900s
• Later labeled the Ash
Can School because
of preoccupation with
urban life and ordinary
people
MUSIC
• Black composer who drew directly
upon African American themes:
Scott Joplin
• Associated with ragtime, which
became popular during late 1890s
and early 20th century
• Born in Texarkana, Texas
• In 1899, he published The Maple
Leaf Rag, soared to fame as best
known ragtime composer in
country
• Though condemned by some as
vulgar, ragtime formed major
element in development of jazz
Scott Joplin
PHOTOGRAPHY
• Photography emerged
as an art form in late
19th and early 20th
centuries.
• Alfred Stieglitz became
one of first
photographers to
realize what one critic
called "the vast
photographic potential
of the energy and rapid
growth of a city."
• Stieglitz moved toward
gritty, hard realism in
his work.
ARCHITECTURE
• Architecture in late 19th and
early 20th century was
dominated by two major
influences:
– work of Henry H. Richardson
– Beaux-Arts classicism of
Columbian Exposition
• Richardson drew from Roman
and medieval designs to
create style all his own
• Richardsonian characterized
by use of textured stone,
massive arches, and dramatic
towers.
Trinity Church, Boston
(photo by Robert W. Cherny)
• Chicago's Columbian
Exposition of 1893
• classical style soon replaced
Richardsonian as most typical
in public buildings
• Chicago exposition designed
in the classical style taught at
the École des Beaux-Arts in
Paris
• emphasized buildings of
ancient Greece and Rome
• closely associated with the
New York firm of McKim,
Mead, and White
Skyscrapers
• most dramatic development
in architecture
• William LeBaron Jenney
receives credit for designing
first skyscraper--ten stories
high--built in Chicago in
1885.
• Chicago architects also took
the lead in designing even
taller buildings.
• possible through new
construction technology, in
which a metal frame carried
weight of walls
The Flatiron Building,
New York City
The First Skyscraper
•The Home Insurance building
•Built in 1885
•Located in Chicago
•10 stories tall
•Designed by Jenney
•First to use steel in its frame
•Chicago school of architecture
Louis Sullivan
• Among Chicago
architects Louis
Sullivan stands out
• emphasized height
• designed an
exterior that largely
reflected interior
function ("form
follows function“)
Louis Sullivan, detail of the Guaranty Building, Buffalo, New York
Frank Lloyd Wright
• worked with
Sullivan
• began to produce
works of his own
• laid basis for later
reputation as most
creative American
architect of 20th
century
Frank Lloyd Wright, William Martin House, Oak Park, IL, 1903
Education
A. Public education continued to gain strength
1. Tax-supported elementary schools adopted nationally
before Civil War.
-- Ideal that free gov’t cannot function successfully if
people were ignorant.
2. By 1870, more states made at least a grade-school
education compulsory.
-- Helped check abuses of child labor.
3. Public high schools spread significantly by 1880s and
1890s.
B. "Normal schools" (teachers-training schools) expanded
after Civil War
C. Kindergarten also saw wide support (earlier borrowed
from Germany)
1. Private Catholic parochial schools grew from New
Immigration, became a pillar of U.S. education system.
Education
D. Chautauqua movement began in 1874
in NY to educate adults through
nationwide lectures; often featured wellknown speakers e.g.
Mark Twain; often
held in tents
-- Chautauqua courses of home study
made available; 100,000 enrolled in 1892
E. Illiteracy rate dropped from 20% in 1870
to 10.7% in 1900.
-- Education in cities generally more
effective than in rural
America.
Higher Education
• Higher education
A. By 1900, 25% of college graduates were women.
B. Morrill Act of 1862 granted public lands to states for
support of education.
1. "Land-grant colleges" became state universities;
supplied military training.
C. Hatch Act of 1887 supplemented Morrill Act
1. Provided federal funds to create agricultural experiment
stations in connection with land grant colleges.
2. Research for breeding disease-resistant strains of
plants and animals, increased productivity, development
of new crops, and new uses for overabundant crops.
D. Philanthropy often funded higher education: Cornell,
Stanford, Univ. Chicago
MASS ENTERTAINMENT
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In Gilded Age booking
agencies managed to
schedule arts and
amusements into every
corner of country.
Traveling groups of actors,
singers, and other
performers brought
audiences everything from
Shakespeare to vaudeville,
and from opera to
melodrama.
Other traveling spectacles
also took advantage of
improved transportation and
communication to establish
regular circuits, including
circuses and Wild West
shows.
Professional Baseball
• Teams traveled by train from city to city
• Formation of National League in 1876 established
cartel, through which team owners tried to
monopolize industry by excluding rival clubs from
territories and controlling movement of players
from team to team.
• Separate black clubs and Negro Leagues
emerged.
• Not until 1901 did another league--the American
League--successfully organize.
• In 1903, two leagues merged into new, stronger
cartel, and staged first World Series.
Expositions
Columbian Exposition, Court of Honor
• Began with one
commemorating centennial
of nation in Philadelphia in
1876
• Concluded with one
celebrating opening of
Panama Canal in San
Francisco in 1915.
• Most important, impressive,
and influential was World's
Columbian Exposition, held
in Chicago in 1893 to mark
400th anniversary of
Columbus's voyage to New
World.
Typically featured
vast exhibition
halls:
– companies
displayed latest
technological
marvels
– artists exhibited
latest creations
– farmers presented
largest and most
impressive
products.
Columbian Exposition, Court of Honor
Learning
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Tax supported elementary schools
Elementary compulsory in most states
More high schools
Free textbooks
“Normal Schools”…teacher training
Chautauqua study at home
RISE OF THE CITIES
Rise of Cities
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Between 1830-1860 Urban population of
the US changed dramatically
1830- 1.1 million
1860 6.2 million
Cities grow because of:
1. Immigration
2. Rural to urban migration- people leave the farm
due to decreased opportunity- mechanization of
agriculture, more opportunity in cities
Cities
• African Americans
begin to move, not
large movement
North until after WWI.
• Move to the city in
response to limited
opportunities in rural
areas
• Mechanization of
Agriculture
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Problems
Overcrowding
Crime
Disease
Poverty
Exploitation
Life in the cities:
Both good….
And Bad
Dumbbell Tenement Plan
Tenement House Act of 1879, NYC
Inside of a tenement
Another Tenement
Tenement Bathroom- shared by 6-10 families
Typical Tenement
Another view of tenement
Inside square of Tenement
A row of tenements
New York City, March 1912.
Dead Man’s Curve- NYC
Jacob Riis- Rear Tenement
This little girl works here
Martin Lewis, "The Glow of the City," 1920s, etching. The artist suggests a
mood of loneliness amid the throng of urban dwellers.
"Bright Battle on the Bowery," 1895. The Bowery, once the center of New
York's theater district, had fallen on tough times.
Postcard, "Rush Hour on West Superior Street, Cleveland, Ohio." Trolley cars
dominate the street. Before the automobile, the streets belonged to the public.
assau St., New York, 1905. A
ision of a towered and canyoned
ity.
Blind Beggar, 1888
”Black & Tan” Saloon
1890s ”Morgue” – Basement Saloon
“Lure of the city” by Hugh Ferris
Flatiron Building
Upper-Middle Class neighborhood
Crowds at the bargain counter in Siegel Cooper's huge store on the east side of
Sixth Avenue between 18th and 19th Streets, New York City, 1897.
Photo of Childs', the most popular chain of low-priced restaurants in New York City, 1899. It was
a tile and marble establishment at 47 East Forty-Second St. Gaudy but inexpensive grandeur was
becoming available on a mass-produced basis.
C.S. Reinhart, "The Lunch
Counter," 1873.
Elegant elevator car, 1881. Lit
by gas through a flexible tube,
this elevator car was also
furnished with mirrors,
ventilators, a sofa bench for
ladies, and much carved and
gilded woodwork. The operator
pulled the rope up or down to
start the flow of water through
the valves below and move the
car. Often called a vertical
railway car, this first safety
elevator for human cargo was
installed in a Manhattan store in
1857 by Elisha Graves Otis.
The earliest elevators were
steam powered and lifted by
ropes that wound around steel
drums. After 1878 hydraulic
cylinders provided a more even
flow of power and extra safety.
"Housing conditions were miserable. 'Workers were forced to live in tenements
owned by the American Woolen Co. for which they paid high rents.”
Dumping Ground- NYC
Night school for child laborers
Gangs were common then
Another gang
"The American National Game of Baseball." The 1862 World Series. Notice that the
pitcher is pitching underhand and the fielders do not have gloves. The umpire is standing
way off to the right.
The New York Polo Grounds, from a stereoscopic photograph, 1906, of "World's Pennant Day" when New York
was playing Cincinnati.
New York boys playing baseball in an alley, 1910. Beginning in the 1890s there was increasing
agitation for small parks and playgrounds to get the city's children off the streets.
Wesleyan College students take advantage of relaxed dormitory rules, 1870s.
A 19th century Yale college student
enjoys his beer and hookah.
"A Prospect of Over-Education....$68,000,000 were given for colleges last year; if the
mania for college education continues we may soon expect the above state of affairs."
Automatic one cent Vaudeville on
14th street in New York City, 1900.
The interior of the one cent Automatic Vaudeville, New York City, c. 1900.
Kinetoscope
How to use a kinetoscope