The Gilded Age

2. By the 1890s, 10% of pop. held 90% of U.S.
wealth.

3. The ‘Robber Barons’

4. The Protectors of Our
Industries

5. Hopelessly Bound to the Stake

6. What a funny little government!

7. Bosses of the Senate

8. One sees his finish unless
good government retakes the ship

9. Cornelius [“Commodore”]
Vanderbilt
Can’t I do what I want with my money?

10. William Vanderbilt
$ The public be
damned!
$ What do I care
about the law?
H’aint I got the
power?

18. Jacob
Riis:
How the Other
Half Lived
(1890)

19. Tenement Slum Living

20. Lodgers Huddled
Together

21. Struggling Immigrant
Families

22. Men’s Lodgings

23. Women’s Lodgings

24. Immigrant Family Lodgings

25. Blind Beggar, 1888

26. Italian Rag-Picker

27. 1890s “Morgue” – Basement
Saloon

28. “Black & Tan” Saloon

29. “Bandits’ Roost”

30. Mullen’s Alley “Gang”

31. “Dumbell “
Tenement

32. The Steel Industry
• Henry Bessemer
and Bessemer
process (1859):
oxygen into molten
iron to burn
impurities = steel

33. The Steel Industry
• Andrew Carnegie

34. John A. Roebling:
The Brooklyn Bridge, 1883

35. Louis
Sullivan:
Bayard
Bldg.,
NYC,
1897

36. Flatiron
Building
NYC –
1902
D. H.
Burnham

37. Singer
Building
NYC -
1902

38. D. H. Burnham:
Marshall Fields Dept. Store,
1902

39. DH Burnham:
Railway Exchange, Chicago,
1904

40. Woolworth
Bldg.
NYC - 1911

41. Railroads
• Eastern Lines: consolidated under Cornelius
Vanderbilt post-Civil War (NY Central RR,
1867)

42. Grand Central Station,
1913

43. Railroads
• Transcontinental RR: opened May 10, 1869
via Union Pacific and Central Pacific. Creates
national market for goods and provided many
jobs.

44. The Oil Industry
• Edwin Drake –
first oil strike (PA,
1859)

45. The Oil Industry
• John D.
Rockefeller

46. The Oil Industry
• John D.
Rockefeller

47. The Oil Industry
• John D.
Rockefeller

48. Other Inventions of the Time
• Thomas Edison - light bulb (1880)
• Christopher Sholes – typewriter (1867)
• Alexander Graham Bell – telephone (1876)
• G.M. Pullman - sleeper cars for passenger
trains (1880)
• George Eastman - Kodak camera (1888)
• King Gillette – disposable razor (1895)

49. The City Changes
1900: ~40% of Americans in cities = urbanization
African Americans from Southern farms to
Northern cities = Great Migration
Upper and middle classes moved to suburbs as
cities grew and became dirtier
Streetcars: replaced horse-drawn carriages and
pedestrians for commuters
Skyscrapers: 10 stories of steel structure; first in
Chicago

50. Urban Growth: 1870 -
1900

51. Immigration
• “Old” Immigrants: northern and western Europe;
mostly Protestant and Catholic
• “New” Immigrants: eastern and southern Europe
(Italy, Greece, Russia, and Austria-Hungary);
Catholic, Orthodox, and Jewish)
• Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)
• Angel Island, CA
• Ellis Island, NY/NJ
• Statue of Liberty

54. Gilded Age Business
Laissez-faire = unregulated free market
capitalism
Social Darwinism = survival of the fittest
Horatio Alger novels = rags-to-riches
American Dream

55. Gospel of Wealth
$ Andrew Carnegie
$ Wealth viewed as sign
of God’s approval;
Christian duty to
accumulate wealth.
$ Should not help the
poor directly; instead
philanthropy
Andrew Carnegie

56. Monopolies
Vertical integration = Carnegie Steel

57. Monopolies
Horizontal integration = John D. Rockefeller’s
Standard Oil Co.

58. Iron & Steel Production

59. Relative Share of World
Manufacturing

60. Changing Labor Force

61. Child Labor

62. Child Labor

63. Labor Unrest: 1870-1900

64. Management vs. Labor
Union
“Tools” of
Management
“Tools” of
Labor
Pinkertons
Lockout
Blacklisting
Yellow-dog contracts
“scabs”
P. R. campaign
Boycotts
Strikes

65. Great Railroad Strike of
1877
RR workers struck one
week over 50,000 miles of
track; Pres. Hayes used
military to end strike

66. Knights of Labor
Terence Powderly (1869) - 700K members by 1886-
87, Haymarket Riot damaged reputation

67. Goals of the Knights of
Labor
 8 hr workday
 Worker-owned factories
 Abolition of child and prison
labor
 Equal pay for men and women
 Workplace safety codes

68. Haymarket
Riot (1886)
Chicago, IL - protest
following killing of six
strikers at McCormick
Harvester plant;
7 police dead;
four protesters
executed, one
suicide, others rec’d
life in prison; bomber
never found;
devastated K of L
membership

69. American Federation
of Labor (AFL)
Samuel Gompers
(1886); craft union,
sought small goals;
membership at 1 m. by
1900

70. Homestead Steel Strike (1892)
The Amalgamated
Association of
Iron & Steel Workers
Homestead Steel
Works
near Pittsburg, PA; strike
against Carnegie US
Steel; battle against
Pinkertons; strike
unsuccessful; breaks
labor movement

71. Pullman Cars
A Pullman porter

72. Pullman Strike of 1894
Panic of 1893: wages and cut jobs but not rent on
company housing; American Railway Union (ARU)
striked. Federal troops sent in.

73. The Socialists
Eugene V. Debs

74. President Grover Cleveland
If it takes the entire army and navy to
deliver a postal card in Chicago, that card
will be delivered!

75. International Workers of
the World (“Wobblies”)
Mary “Mother” Jones and
William “Big Bill”
Haywood (1905) –global
socialist working class
revolution

76. The Rise & Decline of
Organized Labor