Write two well prepared sentences

explaining how the late 19th Century was a Gilded Age.

Be sure to explain what Gilded means and how this description applies to America during the time period.

Opening Assignment

As the industrialization of America brought more

people into the urban working classes and the working day was regulated at around 8 hours by 1900 Americans began searching for leisure activities.

Amusement parks like Cooney Island in southern Brooklyn drew daredevils to the rollercoaster.

The worlds first Ferris Wheel in Chicago at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition also drew huge crowds.

Chapter 8 Sect. 4: The Dawn of Mass

Culture

Early bicycles had a huge front wheel and were

very difficult to maneuver.

In 1885 the new “safety bicycle” with a low frame and air filled tires made riding enjoyable and common.

The bicycle also helped move women out of the home more regularly and required new attire to cycle.

The women’s rights leader Susan B. Anthony said; “the bicycle has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world”.

The Bicycle becomes popular in the late 19th century

Two types of Bicycles

How did the bicycle allow

women more freedom?

Question

How did the bicycle allow women more

freedom?

Change to women’s attire. Allowed easier movement outside of

the home. Created self reliance. Offered more freedom and an

opportunity to escape the old custom of chaperones.

Question

Baseball became the US pass time

during the late 1800’s and by the 1890’s had standard diamond size, official rules, and published schedules.

Mark Twain called baseball “the very symbol… and visible expression of the drive and push and rush and struggle of the raging, tearing, booming 19th century”.

Spectator Sports

In addition to baseball, boxing was

extremely popular.

Boxing results would be transmitted over the telegraph prior to the radio becoming popular and crowds would gather in hotel lobbies to listen to the results read.

A popular collegiate sport by the name of football was gathering large followings in college towns.

Spectator Sports

Increasing numbers of Americans attended school

and learned to read allowing the spread of mass circulating newspapers for as cheap as one cent.

Joseph Pulitzer, a Hungarian immigrant, bought the New York World newspaper and helped bring about the large Sunday edition paper. He included comics, sports coverage and women’s news in the Sunday edition.

Pulitzer’s paper emphasized “sin, sex and sensation” in an effort to sell as many papers as possible regardless of whether it was the truth or not.

Mass Culture

As literacy rates rose in the US fiction

writing and the popularity of cheap fiction novels also increased.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens or as you know him

MARK TWAIN inspired a host of young writers especially when he declared his independence from “literature and all that bosh”.

Popular Fiction

Along with new leisure activities Americans

began to change the way they shopped.

The US’s first shopping center opened in 1890 in Cleveland, Ohio.

Marshall Field first introduced the Department Store to the US in 1865 with specialized departments.

Field’s motto was “give the lady what she wants”.

Consumer Culture

Marshall Field’s Department Store, Chicago Illinois

Chain stores, or retail stores

offering the same merchandise under one owner, offered goods for less by buying large quantities and limiting personal service.

Along with stores mail order catalogs became popular as the US Postal Service began to offer Rural Free Delivery of packages delivered directly to homes.

Consumer Culture

One year the Sears

Roebuck Company was reported to have sold more than 100,000 bicycles to the American consumer.  Building a retail empire on the motto "The Customer is always right!" and the 100% Guaranteed Satisfaction return policy, Sears Roebuck developed uncompromising trust with the public.

Sears Roebuck & Co.

The Sears Crosstown Building, Midtown Memphis

Sears Crosstown Building circa 1927

Along with more print media and higher literacy

rate the US also experienced an explosion of advertising.

Expenditures for advertising in 1865 were under $10 million, but by 1900 had increased to $95 million.

Advertisers came up with ingenious methods to push their products, like signs for products on the sides of barns, houses, billboards or rocks along railroad tracks.

Consumer Culture

Answer the following questions on a piece of

paper. Write at least 3 complete sentences.

1. Which of the topics from today’s lesson have taken root in American culture and are still common today?

2. Which topics are still around but have taken on a different forms?

3. What aspects of our culture today in 2015 do you predict will be around in 100 years?

Ticket out the door