Life in the late 1800's

Life in the late 1800's

These are some facts about the late 1800's:

-laborers had a six day work week

-railroads were built between 1876-1915

-most people were farmers

-New York saw the nation's first "moving picture" in 1896

-the penny postcards were introduced in 1873 but they were supposed to be use as promotional devices for businesses but somehow became one of the era's crazes!

-it was called the "communications revolution" by historians

- there were linotype machines

- post offices tripled

- sales of postage stamps increased 8 times

- newspaper increased 7 fold

-Sameul F.B. Morse invented the telegraph in 1838 for the sole purpose for government communications

-one room elementary schools

-a single teacher taught children from ages 6-14

-the class was divided into three levels of students

-beginning, intermediate, and advance

- in the 1st phase the students worked on reading, writing, spelling and arithmetic

-in the 2nd phase geography and nature study were added to the schoolwork

-in the 3rd phase history and grammer were added to the schoolwork

-the school hours ran from 8 am to 4 pm in the winter months

-students learned the 4 R's in school

-reading, 'riting, 'rithmetic, and recitation

-McGuffey's Eclectic Readers was commonly the text book to be memorized and recited

-in 1836-1922 approx. 122 million copies of these readers were sold with the strongest sales from 1870-1890

-middle class mothers marked their daughters' eligibility for courtship with a change in coiffure and corset

- the rural poor only used corsets "as a holiday luxury"

-people who are courting call each other by "mister" and "miss"

-1880's couples were able to be seen out as opposed to staying in with the family

-the age eligibility for girls for courting was 14 and 16

-marriage in the twenties but before the thirties, the only exception was for people who worked or had a career to support their families

-many Victorian brides chose colored dresses instead of the now traditional white and the grooms wore their best dark suit

-one famous honeymoon spot was the Niagara Falls

Victorian America 1876-1915

Transformation in Everday Life

By: Thomas J. Schlereth

This is a timeline of the period when Stephen Crane was alive....

1870: Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified, giving blacks the right to vote (Feb. 3).

1871: Chicago fire kills 300 and leaves 90,000 people homeless (Oct. 8–9).

1872: Crédit Mobilier scandal beaks, involving several members of Congress (Sept.).

1873: Grant's second inauguration (March 4).

1876: Lt. Col. George A. Custer's regiment is wiped out by Sioux Indians under Sitting Bull at the Little Big Horn River, Mont. (June 25).

1877: Rutherford B. Hayes is inaugurated as the 19th president (March 5). The first telephone line is built from Boston to Somerville, Mass.; the following year, President Hayes has the first telephone installed in the White House.

1881: James A. Garfield is inaugurated as the 20th president (March 4). He is shot (July 2) by Charles Guiteau in Washington, DC, and later dies from complications of his wounds in Elberon, N.J. (Sept. 19). Garfield's vice president, Chester Alan Arthur, succeeds him in office.

1882: U.S. adopts standard time (Nov. 18).

1885: Grover Cleveland is inaugurated as the 22nd president (March 4).

1886: Statue of Liberty is dedicated (Oct. 28). American Federation of Labor is organized (Dec.).

1889: Benjamin Harrison is inaugurated as the 23rd president (March 4). Oklahoma is opened to settlers (April 22).

1890: National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) is founded, with Elizabeth Cady Stanton as president. Sherman Antitrust Act is signed into law, prohibiting commercial monopolies (July 2). Last major battle of the Indian Wars occurs at Wounded Knee in South Dakota (Dec. 29). In reporting the results of the 1890 census, the Census Bureau announces that the West has been settled and the frontier is closed.

1892: Ellis Island becomes chief immigration station of the U.S. (Jan. 1).

1893: Grover Cleveland is inaugurated a second time, as the 24th president (March 4). He is the only president to serve two nonconsecutive terms.

1896: Plessy v. Ferguson: Landmark Supreme Court decision holds that racial segregation is constitutional, paving the way for the repressive Jim Crow laws in the South (May 18).

1897: Spanish-American War: USS Maine is blown up in Havana harbor (Feb. 15), prompting U.S. to declare war on Spain (April 25). Treaty of Paris is signed, ending the Spanish-American War (Dec. 10); Spain gives up control of Cuba, which becomes an independent republic, and cedes Puerto Rico, Guam, and (for $20 million) the Philippines to the U.S.

1898: U.S. annexes Hawaii by an act of Congress (July 7).

1899: U.S. acquires American Samoa by treaty with Great Britain and Germany (Dec. 2).

1900: Galveston hurricane leaves an estimated 6,000 to 8,000 dead (Sept. 8). According to the census, the nation's population numbers nearly 76 million.

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0903596.html

Some info taken from a book at the Century College Library