Child labor

Noted urban photographer Lewis Hine captures the cramped working conditions and child labor in this late nineteenth-century canning factory. Women and children provided a cheap and efficient work force for labor-intensive industries. George Eastman House

Thomas Edison's lab Menlo Park, NJ

A humorous view of Thomas Edison’s laboratories in Menlo Park, New Jersey, around 1880. There was no joking, however, about the potential of Edison’s incandescent bulb and his other practical adaptations of electricity for everyday use. Electricity would soon transform life for millions of people. Edison’s methods set the precedent for corporate research and development that would accelerate the pace of new discoveries with practical applications.National Park Service, Edison National Historic Site

Working conditions in canning factory

Noted urban photographer Lewis Hine captures the cramped working conditions and child labor in this late nineteenth-century canning factory. Women and children provided a cheap and efficient work force for labor-intensive industries. George Eastman House

Uptown New York City 1900's

The new industrial age created great wealth and abject poverty, and the city became the stage upon which these hard economic lessons played out. Here, a modest" Fifth Avenue mansion in turn-of-the-century new York City.

Downtown New York City 1900's

Further downtown, Jacob Riis found this tenement courtyard.Getty Images Inc. Hutton Archive Photos Photograph by Jacob A. Riis, The Jacob A. Riis Collection, Museum of the City of New York

Religious service

African Americans gather for a religious service at night in the streets of New York City near the turn of the century. Brown Brothers

Baseball

Thomas Eakins created this painting of baseball players practicing in 1875. Originating as a sport of urban gentlemen, baseball eventually broadened its appeal, drawing fans from all spectrums of city life. Eakins, Thomas, Baseball Players Practicing, 1875. Watercolor; Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Jesse Metcalf and Walter H. Kimball Funds. Photography by Cathy Carver

A tenement room, 1900

By 1900, cities had begun early regulation of tenement housing. Here, two officials of the New York City Tenement House Department inspect a cluttered basement room that had been inhabited by shoemakers. (Note the ''cobbler's bench,'' the shoemaker's tools, and materials such as leather for soles and uppers on the floor.) Library of Congress

Baseball, 19th century

By the late 19th century, baseball had become entrenched as a popular sport all across America. Many believed it reinforced the nation's pastoral ideal even as the country became more industrialized and urbanized. Library of Congress

Cesar Chavez And The United Farm Workers

Cesar Chavez led the migrant farmers' union known as the United Farm Workers. To many Mexican Americans, Chavez was their Martin Luther King, Jr. Library of Congress

Easter Morning Traffic in New York, 1900

Urban traffic flows became even more congested on holidays. Here, New York City's Fifth Avenue is bustling with horse-drawn traffic and two motorcars on Easter Morning in 1900. Library of Congress.

Ellis Island

For most immigrants beginning in 1895, entrance into the United States meant processing at Ellis Island in New York Harbor.Library of Congress

Ellis Island Holding Pens

New arrivals on Ellis Island are shown into holding pens while they await processing.Library of Congress

Ellis Island Health Check Ellis Island inspectors checked newly arrived immigrants for diseases. Library of Congress

Immigrants Aboard Ship, 1902 During the decade from 1901-1910, immigrations in to the U. S. soared, approaching one million per year. Library of Congress

Immigrants To America

Crossing the Atlantic in the 1890s and early 1900s had been made faster and cheaper for millions of immigrants to America, but the journey could still be difficult. Library of Congress

Irish Immigrants in Boston, 1882

Immigration to the United States soared to new heights in the 1880s and 1890s. Most of this new immigration came to existing national communities in America's cities. Boston's Irish constituted one of the largest Irish communities in the United States. In 1882, some of Boston's Irish found work as clam-diggers. Library of Congress

Italian Immigrants in San Francisco, 1891

Southern and Eastern European immigration to the United States increased in the 1890s. Fortunately for some immigrants, they continued to practice the occupation they knew -- instead of joining the ranks of the industrial labor force, as did many of their compatriots. In 1891, these Italian fishermen mend nets on a wharf in San Francisco Harbor. Library of Congress

Molly Maguires

This lithograph shows a meeting of the secret organization of Irish coal miners known as the Molly Maguires. They waged guerilla war against the mine owners of the anthracite coal region of Pennsylvania in the 1870s. Library of Congress

The "Airshaft, 1900"

Immigration brought so many people into America's cities that they had to be ''stacked'' on top of each other in tenements. New apartment buildings were constructed with an airshaft, which supposedly provided interior apartments with fresh air. In reality, these often became filth-infested garbage pits. This image shows the airshaft of a dumbbell tenement, New York City, taken from the roof, around 1900. Library of Congress

The "Grocery Store" at the turn of the 20th Century

In the days before neighborhood ''superstores'' and household refrigeration, most urban residents shopped daily for perishable items. Here, shoppers pick and choose their food items from an outdoor market, located on 7th Street at Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. Library of Congress

The "old" and the "new": Philadelphia, 1897

By 1900, most major cities had begun attempting a reorganization of their clogged transportation systems. Here, in 1897 Philadelphia, horse-drawn wagons and carriages competed with an electric trolley system and pedestrians on a cobblestone street. Library of Congress

The New Fad, 1886

As workers made more money--and as more leisure time became available--Americans began to acquire non-essential items of material culture. This well-dressed couple is displaying for the photographer their 1886-model bicycle for two. Their choice of background is the South Portico of the White House, Washington, DC, and may indicate that this is a souvenir of a visit to the city. Library of Congress

Map 18-1  Patterns of Immigration, 1820-1914

The migration to the United States was part of a worldwide transfer of population that accelerated with the Industrial Revolution and the accompanying improvement in transportation.

Map 18-2  The Growth of American Cities, 1880-1900

Several significant trends stand out on this map. First is the development of an urban-industrial core, stretching from New England to the Midwest, where the largest cities were located. And second is the emergence of relatively new cities in the South and West, reflecting the national dimensions of innovations in industry and transportation.

Figure 18–1  Changes in the American Labor Force, 1870–1910

The transformation of the American economy in the late nineteenth century changed the nature and type of work. By 1910 the United States was an urban, industrial nation with a matching work force that toiled in factories and for commercial establishments (including railroads), and less frequently on farms.