• Increase in the number of cities and the people living in them

Urbanization

Advantages of CitiesJob opportunities? Opportunities for women? Money? Education?

Entertainment? What is rural-to-urban migration?• JOBS: Factories & service industries

• WOMEN: Women’s opportunities increased– Domestic servants, teachers, secretaries

• MONEY: Saving money – Why?

• EDUCATION: Education for children

• ENTERTAINMENT: Theaters, social clubs, museums

• RURAL-to-URBAN MIGRATION: Farmers/Rural Americans move to cities

Cities grew rapidly

¨ near raw materials¨ industrial areas

¨ transportation routes. ¨ Opportunities in the job market.

Terrible Conditions¨ Poor sanitary and living conditions

¨ Tenement apartments¨ Sweathouses

Migration from Country to Cities

Farm technology decreases need for laborers; people move to cities

Many African Americans in South lose their livelihood 1890–1910, move to cities in North,

West to escape racial violence Find segregation, discrimination in

North too Competition for jobs between blacks,

white immigrants causes tension The move to factory work was hard on

farmers because they now had to face a boss’s restrictions and rules and be confined to a factory and not be outdoors.

Urban Technological ImprovementsKey inventions? Inventors? What problems did they solve?

• Skyscrapers (overcrowding)

• Safety Elevator (Elisha Otis)

• Electric streetcars (cleaner, quieter)

• Subways (overcrowding)

Engineers Build Skyward

• Skyscrapers = 10 story and taller buildings that had steel frames.

• Provided office space for cities that had no more room left on the ground.

• Elisha Otis = Developed safety elevator that would not fall if the lifting rope broke.

• The American Institute of Architecture-1857– Required education and licensing to become

and architect.– Built schools, libraries, train stations, residents

and office buildings.

Electricity and Mass Transit

• Electric street cars were reliable and could carry more people than horse carts.

• Electric cable cars did have problems:• The cables used to run the cars could block fire trucks, and

traffic congestion blocked them from running on schedule.

• Boston = first subway system in 1897. NYC followed in 1904.

• Growth of suburbs for those who could afford transit fares away from the city.

Issues of Urban LivingMajor problems? What are tenements? What were the living conditions?

• MAJOR PROBLEMS: Overcrowding, poverty, poor sanitation

• TENEMENTS: Low-cost, multi-family housing

• LIVING CONDITIONS: Poor water quality, potential for fire, overcrowding

• OTHER PROBLEMS: Dangerous streets, crime, tension between urban groups (gangs)

THE EXPANDING CITY AND ITS PROBLEMS

• Urban problems– Housing– Public health– Crime– Immorality

• Expansion of industry was main cause of urban growth– 1890: one person in three lived in a city– 1910: nearly one in two– Increasing proportion of urban population was

immigrants

Housing Conditions• Tenements = Low cost multifamily housing

designed to fit in as many families as possible.

• Tenements were not clean, had little windows, poor ventilation, and were dangerous.

TEEMING TENEMENTS• As cities grew, sewer and

water facilities could not keep up

• Fire protection became increasingly inadequate

• Garbage piled up in streets• Streets crumbled under

increased traffic• Housing was inadequate and

encouraged disease and disintegration of family life

FAMILY IN ATTIC WITH DRYING LAUNDRY, 1900-1910

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Detroit Publishing Company Collection

Water and SanitationWater 1860s cities have inadequate or no piped

water, indoor plumbing rare Filtration introduced 1870s, chlorination in

1908

Sanitation Streets: manure, open gutters, factory smoke,

poor trash collection Contractors hired to sweep streets, collect

garbage, clean outhouses-------often do not do job properly

By 1900, cities develop sewer lines, create sanitation departments

Fire and CrimeCrime As population grows, thieves flourish Early police forces too small to be effective

Fire Fire hazards: limited water, wood houses, candles,

kerosene heaters Most firefighters volunteers, not always available 1900, most cities have full-time, professional fire

departments Fire sprinklers, non-flammable building materials make

cities safer

City Planners start to control growth

• As cities grew, architectural firms expanded to offer city planning services to make cities more functional and beautiful.

• Cities were zoned for different uses. (residential, industrial and financial)

• Parks, boulevards, buildings and electric street lights were a few of the new developments.

• Frederick Law Olmstead = Designed Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park, NYC’s Central Park, and similar parks in Detroit, Washington D.C., and California.

These characteristics and issues of urbanization caused…

… These cultural trends in America during the Gilded Age…

Conspicuous ConsumerismHow did lifestyles change? How available did goods become?

What new amenities emerged?

• People buying more goods than ever (increase in consumerism)– Purchasing goods for the purpose of impressing

others

• People are able to buy more than they ever have in the past– People now working for wages (instead of on

farms)• NEW AMENITIES: Department stores, advertising,

mail-order catalogs

Mass Culture BoomWhat is it? How was it spread? Who were some key people in it?

• WHAT?: Similar cultural patterns in a society

• SPREAD by transportation, communication, & advertising

• WHO?: Literature criticized society – Mark Twain & Horatio Alger

• Compulsory schools, increased literacy rate• College for women and African Americans

Advertising

• Rowland H. Macy = opened one of the first department stores in N.Y. in 1858 and it became the largest in America.

• Methods used = advertising, goods organized into departments, and high quality goods for fair prices.

• New concepts at other stores = money back guarantee, newspaper advertisements, lower shipping rates, distinctive logos, and long distance shipping.

Newspapers• Helped create mass

culture.

• Between 1870-1900 newspapers increased from 600 to more than 1600.

• Joseph Pulitzer- The World and the Evening World.

• Believed it was his job to inform people and stir up controversy.

• Included comics, exposure of political corruption, sports and illustrations.

• William Randolph Hearst- Morning Journal. Competitor to Joseph Pulitzer.

• Special interest newspapers soon began to spring up in ethnic neighborhoods as well.

Education

• Literacy rate rose to about 90% in 1900.

• More schools being built for children.– Science, woodworking, drafting, civics, business

training, English. – John Dewey- new methods of teaching that allowed

students to answer their own questions.

• Higher education institutions became specialized to train in urban careers.– Teaching, social work, and nursing were some of the

new careers. – Led to an advancement in women’s colleges.

New EntertainmentWhat were the new types of entertainment? What event, shows, and

spectator sports emerged?

• Amusement parks, performances, events

• Theatres, shows, motion pictures (Nickelodeons)

• Spectator sports – baseball, horse racing, boxing, football, basketball

Amusement Parks• 1884= First Roller

Coaster (Lamarcus Thompson)

• First ride to open at Coney Island.

• Parks offered a new getaway for people who would otherwise go on a picnic for a daily adventure.