Architecture

In a word … skyscraper. If one type of building can be associated with American architecture in the 20th century, this is it. The world’s tallest building in 1903 was the 16-story Ingalls Building in Chicago. When the century began, the tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower. Advances in steel technology and elevator design meant that Mr. Eiffel would not keep that title forever. Architects like Daniel Burnham, Stanford White, and Louis Sullivan were as well known as any celebrity. Can you name any nationally known architects working today? Well, it is time to stop admiring the view from the flatiron building and take the elevator to the lobby – you have blueprints to look over!

The Arts

Frederick Remington’s paintings and sculpture, the photography of Alfred Stieglitz, the New York opening of Babes in Toyland, the musical version of the Wizard of Oz, the dancing of Isadora Duncan, and so much more. Ruth St. Denis, Augustus Saint-Gardens, and, of course, Vaudeville. More than 500 New York shows went on the road in 1900. Your show opens on February 28. Break a leg.

Blount County, Tennessee

At the dawn of the 20th century, Maryville was still more a village than a city. Hogs sometimes roamed the unpaved streets. The town school moved to the present site of the Municipal Building in 1901 (and no, Dr. Ferguson and Mr. White were not teaching there!). MHS would not be established until 1917. A few phones existed in the county, but Maryville would not get a switchboard until 1905. You could not go to a movie yet, but lawn parties and ice cream socials provided entertainment. The extension of the Knoxville and Augusta Railroad to Walland made travel into the Smokies more practical and brought a few new industries to the area. On the whole, life in Maryville in the early 20th century still resembled life in Maryville in the 19th century. Find out how good “the good old days” really were.

Business and the Economy

In 1900 the U.S. led the world in productivity with a GNP of 116 billion. J.P. Morgan founded U.S. Steel in 1901, the world’s first billion-dollar corporation. John D. Rockefeller was the nation’s richest man. His fortune was worth 189 billion dollars in 1998 dollars. There was no income tax. This was a time when a million dollars really was a million dollars. Corporations, banks, and the stock market operated largely without regulation. The words trust, panic, and run symbolized dire economic consequences for Americans in 1900. There were voices crying out for reform, urging the government to reign in the “captains of industry,” whose excesses caused many to label them “robber barons” instead. The public was treated to a fascinating battle of wills between President Theodore Roosevelt and J.P. Morgan. Roosevelt had the attorney general sue one of Morgan’s companies as being an illegal monopoly. Morgan paid a call on the President and the attorney general where he complained that he wasn’t given a chance to “fix it up.” Morgan got this reply in return: “We don’t want to fix it up; we want to stop it.”

Education

In 1900 the tuition at the University of South Carolina was $40.00 (about $816.00 today). This was good news for some of us, especially since the illiteracy rate had been reduced that year to a whopping new low of 10.7% of the population. In 1902 the Education Act put elementary and secondary schools under local jurisdiction, and the first SAT’s were administered. Students in 1901 were taught the importance of truthfulness, temperance, public spirit, patriotism, respect for honest labor, obedience to parents, and due deference for old age. The NYC Board of Education wrestled with the idea of baths at school for some students (see lifestyles and social trends). The National Child Labor Committee pushed for new laws mandating compulsory school attendance. Sorry, kids, no more carefree hours in the coal mines and sweatshops. Pick up where this description leaves off and create a museum exhibit that makes us all lifelong learners. Let your slogan be,
“NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND.” And yes, this is for a grade.

Elections of 1900/1904 and 2000/2004

The Republican candidates won the first presidential elections of the 20th and 21st centuries. Much has been written about the divisive nature of our most recent election but the elections in 1900 and 1904 didn’t sound too harmonious either. Check out these slogans: “McKinley drinks soda water, Bryan drinks rum; McKinley is a gentleman, Bryan is a bum.” Democrats called McKinley “Wobbly Willie” (shades of flip flopper) and referred to Roosevelt (who succeeded to the Presidency after McKinley’s death) as “His Accidency.” Many of the issues would seem familiar too. American troops (once welcomed as liberators) were fighting a difficult war against insurgents in a far off land. An economic system that to many seemed to favor the wealthy and powerful and questions about the role America was to play in world affairs and the role its government should play in the social and economic life of its people were issues of the day. “Speak softly…but carry a big stick."

Fashion

Women’s fashions of the period 1900-1905 were, in a word, uncomfortable. The chief torture device of women’s wear was the corset, stiffened by whalebone and designed to create what was called the S-curve silhouette. Of course, skirts had risen to a daring height—to the top of a lady’s boot, and while the shirtwaist was gaining acceptance, the petticoat and the bustle still ruled. Petticoat, bustle, shirtwaist--sounds like something you go on a diet to prevent. Men still dressed formally in frock coats or morning suits with starched shirt collars that averaged 4 inches in height. The top hat had not yet passed into fashion limbo. Children were plagued by the many variations on the “sailor suit’ made popular after British Prince Edward was painted wearing one. Girls might also be sent off to school in the button-through coat-dress, cashmere stockings, and lace-up boots. Now there’s dress code worth violating.

Film/Movies

In 1903 Edwin S. Porter created a new film genre (the Western) when he released the Great Train Robbery. Porter’s 12-minute, 14-scene movie was a pioneering achievement in film editing. Audiences gasped and ducked when an actor fired his gun directly at them in the final scene- an early example of the mixture of reality and illusion known today as movie magic. Go back to a time before Hollywood (the Great Train Robbery was filmed in Patterson, NJ), when special effects weren’t so special (a 1902 film used an exploding beer barrel as a volcano) and when actors were known by the names of their film characters (Bronco Billy) or studios (the Biograph Girl) if they were known at all.
Key words: Edison Trust (MPPC), nickelodeons, moving pictures, shorts, and the vitascope.

Immigration

On a December morning in 1900, a newly enlarged Ellis Island (it now had three buildings) welcomed its first new arrivals: 654 Italian immigrants. By the close of the day, 2,251 people passed through its processing center. In its sixty-two year operation, an amazing 98% of the people who tried to enter the U.S. through the doors of Ellis Island were admitted. Then as now, a national debate over immigration was occurring. Although the term “illegal immigrant” was not common in 1900, recent accusations that immigrants place a burden on American social institutions, or lower wages for American workers, or refuse to assimilate would have sounded familiar to Americans then. So would the argument that it was hypocrisy for Americans, themselves immigrants or the descendants of immigrants, to shut the door in the face of a new wave, to quote George Washington, of “the oppressed of all nations and religions. How is the immigrant experience of today similar, and different, from that of 100 years ago? In 1903 Emma Lazarus’s poem “The New Colossus” was placed on the Statue of Liberty. Read its words in light of this debate.

Innovations and New Products

In 1900 Life Magazine called automobiles “playthings of the rich.” There was no need to “pimp your ride” either. Everyday Etiquette insisted that staring at or examining someone’s car was “the height of rudeness.” There were plenty of other exciting innovations that were more accessible to everyday folks: The “Brownie” Camera (1900), the electric washing machine (1901), the New York City Subway (begun in 1900, opened in 1904), and many more. Willis Carrier created air conditioning in 1902, and the Wright brothers flew in 1903. Here are a few more: the first two-sided records (1904), elastic rubber (1905), the telephone, Lifebuoy soap, Quaker Oats, and Heinz Ketchup.

Law and Justice - See Survey

A 1910 ad for the New Savage Automatic Pistol read, “ A woman, if attacked alone in a house, will often times fall in a faint…this gun will give her nerve.” Was America a more dangerous place then than it is today? It certainly seems so. There were more than 100 lynching in 1900 alone. Explore the legal issues of the day by reviewing Supreme Court decisions and the trials that captured the public’s imagination. Today everyone knows Johnny Cochran; in 1900 everyone knew Clarence Darrow. Find out why the 1904 trial of Nan Patterson was every bit as intriguing as the trial of Scott Peterson.

Lifestyles and Social Trends

The Automobile Club of American hosted the first auto show in the U.S. in 1900.
New York posted its first speed limits in 1904—10 mph in the city and 20 mph in the country. Bicycling was by far more popular though—most people could afford a bicycle. Smoking cigarettes was very popular, but chewing tobacco or pipe and cigar smoking are looked down upon. It seems a bit odd for a society in which only one in seven homes had a bathtub in it to be snooty about anything. Women washed their hair about once a month, and yet beauty contests were all the rage. Who knew? Mother’s Day and Father’s Day were not yet being celebrated, and the average life expectancy was 47.3 years. I feel dead already. The health conscious chewed each bite of food 32 times as per instructions in the ABC of Nutrition. Escape artist Harry Houdini and western legend “Wild” Bill Cody thrilled the audiences who came to their shows. Before Disneyland there was Coney Island, an amusement park, not a theme park. Better have fun soon—that life expectancy thing is ticking away!

Literature

Four words: The Wizard of Oz. In addition to L. Frank Baum’s classic 1900 story of Dorothy and Toto, readers could look forward to new works by Mark Twain, Joel Chandler Harris, Jack London, O. Henry, and Kate Douglas Wiggin. The doors to the library are open, and the shelves are brimming with popular works, classics, and children’s stories. Don’t ignore the “muckrakers,” but leave most of their story to the social issues’ folks. There’s plenty to read from both centuries. Which American writers working today will be the assigned readings for students in the next century?

Media

Yellow Journalism, William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer, muckraking and McClure’s Magazine, House and Garden, political cartoons, a new school of journalism at Columbia University, and the opening of the New York Times Building in Longacre Square in Manhattan, soon to be called Times Square. Focus on the top stories in news, entertainment, and society to see how the media in the 20th and 21st century gave us all the news that is fit to print or hear or watch or e-mail. If you chuckle every time you hear Fox (or any other media outlet for that matter) describe its news as “fair and balanced,” then you should check out William Randolph Hearst’s New York Journal.

Medicine and Health

In 1900 an outbreak of bubonic plague began in San Francisco that would last four years and kill over one hundred people. Antibiotics had not been discovered yet, and there was little or no regulation concerning the manufacture and sale of medicine. The five leading causes of death in the U.S. were influenza, tuberculosis, diarrhea, heart disease, and stroke. No wonder the average life expectancy was only 47. There was some good news on the health and medicine front though. Caffeine replaced cocaine as a stimulant in the formula for Coca-Cola. The mosquito that carried yellow fever was identified by the U.S. Army Yellow Fever Commission, the first caesarean section was performed, and pioneering work by Dr. Eugene Lindsay Opie helped reveal more about diabetes. John D. Rockefeller used his vast fortune to fund medical research and opened the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in 1904. There was (and is) plenty of research to do, so scrub up and get me 300 cc’s of decades project. Stat!

Music (Popular)

In 1902, Jelly Roll Morton announced, “I invented Jazz.” The fact is he really played ragtime. The term jazz would not come into popular usage for another 15 years. The 20th century has been called the “Pop Century,” and in its first five years, New Orleans led the way. Its jazz and blues rhythms would be heard alongside the music emanating from New York’s Tin Pan Alley and the show tunes wafting over Broadway. How could you resist toe-tappers like “Rosie, You Are My Rosie,” “Ain’t Dat a Shame,” “If Money Talks, It Ain’t on Speaking Terms With Me,” “Sweet Adeline,” or “Give My Regards to Broadway.” Even Ashley Simpson can lip-synch this stuff.

Presidents Roosevelt and Bush

American soldiers were fighting insurgents in a foreign nation they just recently liberated from an oppressor. American workers were concerned about dwindling paychecks and job security. Economic problems and foreign affairs were competing for the nation’s attention. Is it hard to tell which presidency I’m describing? Investigate the foreign and domestic policies of America’s first two term presidents of the 20th and 21st centuries. Find out whom Mark Hanna was describing when he said, “ Now look! That damned cowboy is President of the United States!”

Religion

Charles Darwin’s book The Origin of Species had only one sentence that mentioned man: “Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history.” It was the proverbial shot heard around the world for many Christians. His book was published in 1859, and the debate it sparked has only gotten more intense. By 1900, Social Darwinism had been added to the issue of creation – with profound implications for America’s wealthiest and poorest citizens. Other religious news of the day included stories about the largest congregation in the U.S. (Baptist Temple in Philadelphia), the Social Gospel, the first modern instance of glossolalia (speaking in tongues), the creation of the American federation of Catholic Societies, and the ordination of former pro-baseball player named Billy Sunday. He would go on to become one of the nation’s best-known revival preachers.

Science and Technology

Three words: Thomas Alva Edison. Of course you can also include Wilber and Orville Wright. The period 1900-1905 saw Congress establish a National Bureau of Standards, Andrew Carnegie donate $10 million to scientific research, Dupont establish a research laboratory, a wireless telegraph transmission from America to England (President Roosevelt sent greetings to King Edward VII), the start of construction on the Panama Canal, and the creation of the Mount Wilson Observatory in California. You will gasp at the Wright brother’s first flight, dance to Edison’s new phonograph records, cringe when you read about vivisection, and wonder at the universe revealed by George Hale’s sixty-inch telescope. She blinded me …with science!

Social Issues

Race, child labor, workplace safety, labor unions, and government corruption inspired social reformers known as progressives to work for a fairer economic and political system in the U.S. Investigative reporters (Roosevelt called them muckrakers) bombarded the nation with tales of unsafe working conditions, impure foods and adulterated medicines. The public began to demand government intervention. Long before the “culture wars” of the 21st century, the debate over the role of the U.S. government as an agent for social change had begun. It continues to this day.

Sports

The Boston Pilgrims (later called Red Sox) won the first World Series in 1903 by taking the best of nine games. Victorious players took home $1,316.00. Fans paid 50 cents to see it. During the regular season, starters like Cy Young and Honus Wagner put people in the stands. Professional basketball and professional football did not exist. College football was so violent that by 1905 President Theodore Roosevelt threatened to abolish it. The U.S. won the first Davis Cup (1900) and defended the America’s Cup successfully (1902). Golf’s first USGA Open was played in 1902. James Corbett lost the Heavyweight Boxing title to Jim Jeffries in1903, and in 1904 Henry Ford set an automobile world record speed of 91.37 mph. Hey, when it comes to sports, play one, or be one.

Women in America

In 1904 a woman was arrested for smoking in an open automobile on Fifth Avenue in New York City. Former President Grover Cleveland said that “sensible and responsible women” would not want to vote. America at the dawn of a new century was still a man’s world. It was a time before women could vote or sit on a jury--when women’s associations provided the best way for women to influence social and political issues. Women joined organizations like the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and the National American Women’s Suffrage Association. They fought for social reforms and entered the workforce in ever increasing numbers. Expose the truth with Ida Tarbell, bust up a saloon with Carry Nation, cook with Fanny Farmer, and make a fashion statement as a Gibson Girl. Find out what President Roosevelt meant when he said about his daughter, “I can do one of two things. I can be President of the United States, or I can control Alice. I cannot possibly do both.”