Transcript Late 19c Urbanization & Architecture

By: Susan M. Pojer
Horace Greeley HS Chappaqua, NY
Characteristics of Urbanization
During the Gilded Age
1. Megalopolis.
2. Mass Transit.
3. Magnet for economic and social
opportunities.
4. Pronounced class distinctions.
- Inner & outer core
5. New frontier of opportunity for women.
6. Squalid living conditions for many.
7. Political machines.
8. Ethnic neighborhoods.
New
Architectural
Style
New
Symbols of
Change &
Progress
Make
a New
Start
New
Use of
Space
New
Class
Diversity
New Energy
The City as a
New “Frontier?”
New Levels
of Crime,
Violence, &
Corruption
New Culture
(“Melting Pot”)
New Form of
Classic “Rugged
Individualism”
Population Shift:
Urbanization
• By 1900, the population of the United States was
80 million people. It was 40 million in 1870. So
it doubled.
• However, the population in the cities tripled
during this same time period. 40% of all
Americans lived in cities, a stark difference from
the beginning of the 19th century, when less than
10% of the population lived in cities.
• Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia all boasted
more than a million people and New York, with
3.5 million people, was the second largest city in
the world (behind London)
William Le Baron
Jenney



1832 – 1907
“Father of
the Modern
Skyscraper”
First Skyscraper was 10
stories and once
elevators were
perfected, cities such as
New york and Chicago
built to the sky.
W. Le
Baron
Jenney:
Central
Y.M.C.A.,
Chicago,
1891
Louis Sullivan



1856 – 1924
The Chicago
School of
Architecture
Form follows
function!
Louis
Sullivan:
Bayard
Bldg.,
NYC,
1897
Louis Sullivan: Carson, Pirie, Scott
Dept. Store, Chicago, 1899
D. H. Burnham


1846 – 1912
Use of steel
as a super
structure.
D. H. Burnham:
Marshall Fields Dept. Store,
1902
A City of Commuters
• As cities grew, the need for good mass transit
became apparent:
– Electric Trolley
– Elevated trains
– Subway systems
• As a result, cities also grew outward at the same
time they grew upward.
• Cities became a megalopolis, carved into
different districts for business, industry, an
residential neighborhoods-which were
segregated by race, class, and ethnicity
Big City Lights
• Industrial jobs drew people to the city, but cities
and the lifestyle also drew people in:
– Late night glitter of social life
– Modern amenities such as the telephone, plumbing,
and electricity.
– Engineering marvels such as the skyscrapers of New
York and Chicago were awe-inspiring, as well as the
Brooklyn Bridge.
– Department stores such as Macy’s and Marshall
Fields provided jobs for women and also was
characteristic of the consumer economy.
Waste Management
• However, cities also came with new problems. In rural
America, many things were recycled and most homes
produced minimal waste.
• However, big cities were bastions of waste and garbage.
Mass consumption of food and cloths meant increased
waste.
• Also, cities grew up too fast and poor urban planning
meant that many lived in very unsanitary conditions:
– Sanitary facilities were lacking and could not keep up with the
pace of population
– Impure water
– Uncollected garbage
– Unwashed bodies
– Droppings from draft animals
– Slums increased and were the embodiment of unsanitary
conditions (dumbbell tenements and flophouses)
New Immigration
• Old Immigration
– Ireland, Germany, Britain, Scandinavia
(mostly Western Europe and the British Isles)
– Many shared similar values that were easily
integrated into American life. Major difference
was the roman Catholic Irish and Germans
– High rates of literacy and also some forms of
representative democracy from their
homelands.
New Immigration
• New Immigration starting in 1880 was much
different.
• New Immigrants were:
– Poles, Lithuanians, Croats, Slovaks, Greeks, Jews,
and Italians
– Came from countries with little history of
representative government
– Many were orthodox Christians and Jewish
– Largely illiterate and poor
– Sought industrial jobs and packed into the cities.
– In 1880, they were 19% of all immigrants, by the first
decade of the 20th century, they were 66%
– Cities such New York and Chicago grew in size as
these new immigrants came to America
New Immigration
• Why did they come?
– Europe had become overcrowded as population
exploded due to plentiful supply of food from their
own farms and also America.
– Industrialization and urbanization in Europe created a
vast pool of unemployed people
– Europeans flooded their cities, but some moved on
and abandoned the Old World to make life elsewhere.
In total, some 30 million Europeans moved to the
United States.
– So, in reality, American urbanization and immigration
was in many ways a by-product of European
urbanization.
New Immigration
• Why America?
– Land of opportunity and abundance.
– Plenty of food, comforts, and a perception that anyone can make
it in America.
– Also, American businesses need more people to maximize
profits:
•
•
•
•
Industrialists wanted low- wage labor
Railroads needed buyers of their land
States wanted more population
Steamships needed human cargo to make a profit.
– Some also came due to prosecution and programs against them
in their own country. Such as Russian-Jews
• Jewish Pogrom was instituted and many were chased from their
homes and made their way to Atlantic seaboard, especially New
York
– However, many returned home. Some 25% returned after
making a living in America.
Transition to America
• Generally speaking, the government did little to
aid or help the new arrivals or to assist them in
assimilating to American culture.
• Consequently, the political machines in large
cities, such as Boss Tweed’s Tammany Hall,
helped these new immigrants, in exchange for
votes of course.:
–
–
–
–
–
Gave jobs or services
Found housing
Helped poor with gifts of clothing and food
Helped when in trouble with the law
Helped get schools, parks, and hospitals built in
immigrant neighbor hoods
Jane Addams
• Social Gospel
– Championed by preachers such as Walter
Rauschenbusch and Washington Gladden
– They preached that socialism was the logical
outcome of Christianity and were part of the
movement known as Christian socialists, which had
some appeal amongst the middle Class
• Jane Addams– Born into a wealthy family and part of the first
generation of college-educated women, she
purchased in Chicago, the Hull House.
Jane Addams
• Located in immigrant
neighborhood of poor Greeks,
Italians, Russians, and
Germans, Hull House offered:
– Instruction in English
– Help in adjusting to American
big-city life
– Child-care services for
mothers
– And cultural activities
• Jane Addams was a wide
range reformer and received
the Nobel Peace Prize in 1831.
In particularly, condemned war
and poverty.
Other reformers
• Other settlement houses were
established in other big cities
and became centers for social
reform and activism.
– Hull House lobbied for antsweatshop law that protected
women and prohibited child
labor (led in this case by
Florence Kelly, an advocate
for the welfare of women,
children, blacks, and
consumers)
– Lillian Wald established Henry
Street Settlement in New York.
• Work of Addams, Wald, and
Kelly helped create the idea of
the profession of Social Work.
Women and Jobs
• More than one million joined work force in
1890’s
• Mostly single, because it was considered taboo
for wives and mothers to work.
• Jobs depended on race, class, and ethnicity:
– Black women- domestic jobs
– Native born white women- social workers, secretaries,
department store clerks, and telephone operators
– Immigrant women- tended to cluster into certain
industries, such as garment making for Jewish
women.
Anti-foreignism
• As the nativism was popular in the 40’s and 50’s with the
arrival of Germans and Irish, the same thing happened
beginning in the 1880’s with the New Immigrants
• Eastern and southern Europeans were looked upon as
an exotic horde who were invading the United States
and would eventually, with their large families,
outnumber the Anglo-Saxons.
• Other fears and worries:
– Blamed new immigrants for the degradation of city governments
in big cities
– Trade unions despised them because they were often strike
breakers and also worked for starvation wages
– Feared them for their political views on socialism , communism,
and anarchism.
Anti-foreignism
• APA
– American Protective
Association
– Similar to the Know-Nothing
Party
– Urged voting against Roman
Catholic candidates
– In 1887, had million members
• Restrictive laws:
– 1882- banned criminals and
convicts
– 1885- banned importation of
immigrants already under
contract
– 1917-literacy test
– Later laws prohibited insane,
polygamists, prostitutes,
alcoholics, anarchists, and
diseased people
Statue of Liberty, a gift from France,
was erected in 1886.
-Give me your tired, your poor
Your huddled masses yearning to
Breathe free
The wretched refuse of your teeming
shore
Church Reform
• In some large cities, the Church and its
members became more concerned with
materialism than religion. Churches became a
symbol of ones wealth and with the gospel of
wealth preaching that God caused the righteous
to prosper, many looked to make reforms in the
Protestant church
• Hence, liberal Protestants, called for modest
moral reforms:
– Rejected biblical literalism and rejected idea of
original sin
– Active in the social gospel movement
– Sought to mediate between labor and capital, science
and faith, religious and secular values.
– Helped protestants reconcile their religious faith with
the modern, cosmopolitan way of thinking
New religions
• First, Roman Catholics by 1900 had 9 million
adherents and was the largest denomination
• By 1890, Americans could choose between 150
different denominations, and two new ones:
– Salvation Army
– Church of Christian Science
• Led by Mary Eddy Baker
• Taught relief from discords and diseases through prayer.
• Wrote Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (1875)
– YMCA and YWCA also became popluar at this time
Darwin and the Church
• Darwin’s theory of evolution, and in particular,
the idea of natural selection challenged the
church.
– Especially the idea of “dogma of special creations”
was challenged. Darwin’s theory greatly questioned
God’s role in making humans special.
• Church’s response
– At first, simply rejected idea
– But later, split into two camps (conservative and
accomadationists)
– Conservatives frankly dismissed Darwin
– Accomadationists reconciled science and religion by
stating evolution was simply a higher revelation of the
ways of God
School Reform
• Many started to understand that without free education,
the government would suffer under people’s ignorance.
Thus, it was a public good and beneficial for society to
have compulsory schooling.
• During 1880’s and 1890’s, not only elementary schools
grew, but the High School became more important
• Also, teacher training schools grew in size and
importance and the idea of kindergarten took root in
America
• Success of schools can be seen in falling illiterate rates:
– 1870: 20 percent
– 1900: 10.7 percent
Black Activists
• Booker T. Washington
– Champion of black education in 1900, 44 percent of
non-whites were illiterate
– Headed the Tuskegee institute in Alabama
– Known as an accomadationist, he did not directly
challenge white supremacy, he avoided the issue of
social equality
– He accepted segregation as long as the right to
develop and improve existed the economic and
educational resources of the black community
– Believed that economic independence would be the
ticket to black political and civil rights
– George Washington Carver taught at Tuskegee,
known for his achievements in creating new uses for
the peanut, soy bean, and sweet potato.
Black Activists
• W.E.B. Dubois
– Challenged Booker T. Washington and his view on
segregation. Believed that Booker’s approach would
result in blacks never finding jobs more than manual
labor and in a state of perpetual inferiority
– Earned P.H.D at Harvard
– Demanded complete equality for blacks, both
economic and political and founded the NAACP
(National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People)
– Rejecting Washington’s approach of gradual
integration, he demanded the most talented 10th
percent of the black community be given immediate
equality
– Self-exiled to Africa, he died there in 1963.
Land-Grant Universities and
Research Colleges
• As public schools increased, so did colleges
– More opportunities for women and blacks
• By 1880, a third of all college graduates were women
• Black universities set up during Reconstruction were
flourishing, such as Howard University (D.C.), Hampton
Institute (Virginia), and Atlanta University
• Growth of colleges attributed to the Morrill Act of
1862
– Provided a grant of public lands to states to support
higher education
– Many state universities formed out of these grants
– Hatch Act of 1887 extended Morrill Act, but also
provided federal funds for the establishment of
agricultural schools in connection with land-grants
– Both acts helped create hundreds of universites
Private Universities
• In addition to the state public universities, many
of the new millionaires supported the creation of
private universities
– From 1878-1898, philanthropists gave away 150
million towards private schools
– Cornell University, Stanford and University of Chicago
(Rockefeller) all started at this time
– Also, research/graduate schools opened up, which
Johns Hopkins was the most noteworthy. This meant
that Americans no longer had to go abroad to receive
graduate or doctorate degrees.
Libraries
• By 1900, there were
9,000 libraries in the U.S.
• In 1897, the Library of
Congress opened its
doors. It provided 13
acres of floor space and
was the costliest building
• Andrew Carnegie
contributed 60 million
dollars to open libraries
across America
The Press
• Newspapers, being more commercialized, often
toned down their scathing editorials to prevent
antagonizing the advertisers
• Also, their was a rise in sensationalism.
– Stories of sex, scandal, and human-interest stories
became more common and many complained that the
press became presstitutes.
• Two tycoons emerged:
– Joseph Pulitzer- New York World
– William Randolph Hearst- San Francisco Examiner
– Both considered not 100% wholesome, what sold is
what was printed. Had a flair for scandal and
sensational rumor.
– Yellow Journalism
Reform Writers
• Henry George
– Wrote Progress and Poverty
– He argued that property values grew due to
the increase in demand from growing
populations.
– He rationalized that a 100% tax on profits
from these lands could solve the issue of
income distribution and poverty
– Propertied class rejected idea, but George
sold 3 million copies and lectured in U.S. and
Britain on his idea
Reform Writers
• Edward Bellamy
– Published socialistic novel Looking Backward
in 1888
– Hero falls asleep and awakens in the year
2000.
– America is a socialistic paradise in which big
business is nationalized to serve the public
interest
– Bellamy sold over a million copies and some
Bellamy Clubs sprang up across America
Literature
• As literacy increased, so did book reading.
– Dime novels- usually about the West
– King of dime novels was Harlan Halsey, who
wrote 650 novels, sometimes one in a day
• General Lewis Wallace
– Wrote Ben Hur- sold more 2 million copies. It
was written to combat wave of skepticism due
to Darwin’s theory
Writers
• Horatio Alger- sold 100 million copies of
juvenile fiction in which he gave moral
lessons
• Walt Whitman- poet who wrote Leaves of
Grass. Famous American poet
• Emily Dickinson- became known after her
death in 1886. Lived as a recluse and
wrote thousand of short lyrics on paper.
Realism
• Wiring style that reflected the materialism of the
industrial age. People turned to the world
around them to find their muse and wrote of the
human struggle and comedy.
• Famous realism writers:
– Kate Chopin-The Awakening- Spoke of feminist
yearnings during the Gilded Age
– Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens)- gave us the term
Gilded Age. Noted for his novels Tom Sawyer and
Huck Finn. Noted for his gift of writing exclusively
American novels in American dialect and describing
frontier realism
Realism
• William Dean Howells- editor in chief of Atlantic
Monthly. Wrote about everyday people and
controversial social themes. Rise of Silas
Lapham and A Hazard of New Fortunes
• Stephen Crane- wrote about the dark underside
of life in American urban and industrial cities.
Maggie: a girl of the Streets. Famous for Red
Badge of Courage, story of a Civil war recruit.
• Henry James- novel Bostonians was one of the
first to cover the burgeoning feminist movement.
Wrote about women often and became known
for his style called psychological realism
Realism
• Jack London– Call of the Wild. Nature writer, but later moved to
other genres.
• Frank Norris– Wrote about the railroads and their stranglehold on
California ranchers in The Octopus. Later wrote The
Pit, describing the making and breaking of
speculators in the Chicago wheat exchange.
• Two black authors, Paul Laurence Dunbar and
Charles Chestnutt– brought a black realism to the literary scene. Using
black dialect and folklore in their writings, they
described the richness of southern black culture.
• Theodore Dreiser
– Wrote Sister Carrie, story of a poor working girl in
Chicago and New York
New Morality
• Victoria Woodhull and her sister advocated for
free love (not what you think) and feminism.
They represented a shock to “respectable”
society with their periodical Woodhull and
Claflin’s Weekly.
• Anthony Comstock represented the pure-minded
Americans and he spoke out against the
immoral activities in society. He was a selfappointed defender of sexual purity- opposite of
Woodhull
• New role of women threatened traditionalists,
and Woodhull’s ideas of divorce and more
freedom for women was scary to many and seen
as immoral.
Feminism
• Charlotte Perkins Gilman
– Wrote Women and Economics in 1898
– Considered an important feminist book
– Called on women to abandon their dependent status and contribute to
the community and society by more active role in the economy
– Rejected also the idea that women were physically inferior
• Feminists also continued to demand the right to vote. In 1890, the
National American Woman Suffrage Association was formed. Two
of the founders were legendary feminists Elisabeth Cady Stanton
and Susan B. Anthony
• New feminists reformers also come to the forefront near the turn of
the century. Amongst them, Carrie Chapman Catt played a
significant role. In suffrage movement, she de-emphasized the
moral right and stressed the benefit of giving mothers and wives the
right to vote in the ever changing urban environment. Women
needed to be advocates for their families and could do so by voting.
Feminism
• New feminists reformers also come to the forefront near
the turn of the century. Amongst them, Carrie Chapman
Catt played a significant role. In suffrage movement, she
de-emphasized the moral right and stressed the benefit
of giving mothers and wives the right to vote in the ever
changing urban environment. Women needed to be
advocates for their families and could do so by voting.
• By attaching suffrage to traditional women’s roles, their
was much gain in the suiffrage movement.
• Wyoming was first state to give right to vote in 1869 and
other states granted some rights to property ownership
and to vote by 1890
American Artists
• James Whistler
– Portrait painter
• John Singer Sergeant
– Portrait painter self-exiled in England.
American Artists
• Mary Cassatt
– Exiled in Paris, was part of French
impressionism movement.
• George Inness
– Landscape artist
American Artists
• Winslow Homer
– Known as one of America’s greatest painters.
– Known for his paintings of the ocean
Frank Lloyd Wright




1869 – 1959
“Prairie House”
School of
Architecture
“Organic
Architecture”
Function
follows form!
Frank Lloyd Wright:
Allen-Lamb House, 1915
Frank Lloyd Wright:
Hollyhock House [Los Angeles],
1917
Frank Lloyd Wright:
“Falling Waters”, 1936
Interior of “Falling Waters”
F. L. Wright Furniture
F. L. Wright Glass Screens
Prairie wheat patterns.
Frank Lloyd Wright:
Susan Lawrence Dana House,
Springfield, IL - 1902
Frank Lloyd Wright:
Johnson Wax Bldg. – Racine,
WI, 1936
Frank Lloyd Wright:
Guggenheim Museum, NYC 1959
New York City Architectural
Style:
1870s-1910s
1. The style was less innovative than
in Chicago.
2. NYC was the source of the capital for
Chicago.
3. Most major business firms had their
headquarters in NYC  their bldgs.
became “logos” for their companies.
4. NYC buildings and skyscrapers were
taller than in Chicago.
Western
Union
Bldg,.
NYC 1875
Manhatt
an
Life
Insuranc
e
Bldg.
Singer
Building
NYC 1902
Woolwor
th
Bldg.
NYC 1911
Flatiron
Building
NYC –
1902
D. H.
Burnham
Grand Central Station,
1913
John A. Roebling:
The Brooklyn Bridge, 1883
John A. Roebling:
The Brooklyn Bridge, 1913
Statue of Liberty, 1876
(Frederic Auguste Bartholdi)
“Dumbell “
Tenement
“Dumbell “ Tenement,
NYC
Jacob
Riis:
How the Other
Half Lived
(1890)
Tenement Slum Living
Lodgers Huddled
Together
Tenement Slum Living
Struggling Immigrant
Families
Mulberry Street – “Little
Italy”
St. Patrick’s
Cathedral
Hester Street – Jewish
Section
1900
Rosh
Hashanah
Greeting
Card
Pell St. - Chinatown, NYC
Urban Growth: 1870 1900