Life at the Turn of the 20 th Century Chapter 8

Objectives: To analyze significant turn-of-the century trends in such areas as technology, education, and mass culture.

Urban Planning Skyscrapers – built because of limited space Daniel Burnham, Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright – leading architects

Louis Sullivan’s Wainwright Bldg. St. Louis, Missouri

Burnham’s Flatiron Building New York City First slender tower

Frederick Law Olmsted – landscape designer - led movement for planned urban parks. He designed Boston’s Emerald Necklace parks. Central Park in New York was a haven from busy city life.

Bow Bridge in Central Park

New Technologies: 1. Printing revolution – used wood pulp to make cheaper paper led to more newspapers and higher literacy rates

2. Orville and Wilbur Wright – first successful air flight lasted for 12 seconds. Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

Turn of the Century Public Education: School weeks per year Ages 8-14 Strict discipline, physical punishment By late 1880’s, kindergartens began to be popular

By early 1900’s, high schools offered variety in courses, including sciences, social studies, & vocational courses.

A-Am. mostly attended private high schools with no help from the gov’t. Not until late 1940’s did education become available to majority of A-Am. Even immigrants were more encouraged to go to school.

Only a small number of students attended colleges and universities, but between , numbers quadrupled.

Education affected culture: As education improved, people’s culture improved. Art galleries, libraries, and museums opened. At least one art gallery in every major city.

Important Am. artists: Thomas Eakins and Robert Henri emphasized social realism. The Ashcan School of art portrayed urban poverty and everyday life.

Public libraries called “poor man’s universities” opened. Realism also affected literature.

Writers: Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) Theodore Dreiser Willa Cather Stephen Crane Jack London

Mark Twain

“Dime novels” were popular novels that glorified the West. Many people didn’t want to read realism.

African-Ams were excluded from libraries and art museums, and basically all other cultural events.

Rise of Mass Culture: Middle class Americans shared cultural activities by the late 1800’s – called mass culture.

Amusement parks opened = Coney Island in NYC. Bicycling and tennis became popular sports, even for women. New snacks became common such as Coca Cola and Hershey’s chocolate bars.

Spectator sports rose in popularity. (boxing and baseball) Baseball – 1869 – first professional team called Cincinnati Red Stockings 1876 – National Baseball League and 1900 –American Baseball League 1903 – first World Series Negro National League was formed in 1920 There were also many other new forms of entertainment.

Vaudeville theatre formed. These were performances including songs, dancing, juggling, slapstick comedy, chorus lines, etc. became popular. The circus of Barnum and Bailey hosted the “Greatest Show on Earth”, 1871.

The first one-reel movie, An 8 minute silent feature called “The Great Train Robbery” debuted in 5 cent theatres called nickelodeons.

Ragtime music blended A-Am. spirituals and European music forms, originated in the south. Scott Joplin’s ragtime compositions made him famous in the early 1900’s.

Ragtime paved the way for jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll. Joplin

Mass production and circulation of newspapers rose. U.S. newspapers used sensational headlines to sell papers

Joseph Pulitzer started the first Sunday newspaper edition, first comics, first sports coverage, and first women’s news page. His newspaper was the New York World.

Randolph Hearst Joseph Pulitzer

William Randolph Hearst – Pulitzer’s biggest competitor, published scandals and exaggerated stories of sensational events that became known as sensationalism or “yellow journalism”.

Newspapers also advertised new kinds of shopping. Marshall Field’s in Chicago was the first department store. Chain stores such as Woolworth’s opened. Sold cheap goods…nickel and dime store.

Montgomery Ward and Sears Roebuck brought retail to small towns through catalogs. By 1896, the Post Office developed RFD – rural free delivery to every home.

Despite this new prosperity, social reform was needed...