| Late 19th Century Entertainment and Intellectual/Cultural Movements (1862-1902) |
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Sections:- Conspicuous Consumption
- Women's Suffrage
- The Morrill Act of 1862
- The Gilded Age
- American Impressionism
- Patrons of the Arts
- Vaudeville
- Ragtime
- Circuses
- Public Spaces
- Baseball
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| Historical Context
In his book “The Theory of the Leisure Class,” American economist Thorstein Veblen described what he referred to as conspicuous consumption. Conspicuous consumption is essentially consumption for the overt purpose of showing off one’s wealth and status.
Attached Documents
In this excerpt, Veblen explains the phenomena that arose at the end of the 19th century.
Questions to Consider
1. What reason does Veblen give for the greater presence of conspicuous consumption in urban areas?
2. What is the purpose of conspicuous consumption; is it entirely wasteful or does it have some function, many functions?
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| Historical Context
Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony met in 1851; three years after Stanton organized the first woman's rights convention in Seneca Falls, New York. They were the spearheads of the Women’s Suffrage Movement. They believed that voting rights should be based upon citizenship rather than sex. Although the American women would not receive the vote until 1920, the suffragists persevered throughout the 19th century. In 1878, a Women’s Suffrage amendment was introduced and was debated over for years.
Attached Documents
In 1892, Elizabeth Cady Stanton addressed the Congress to help sway the vote. In this excerpt, she reasserts that citizenship is the root of enfranchisement.
Questions to Consider
1. Stanton claims that women's various roles are seen as independent of one another and she is seen as one thing or another. How does she make here argument persuasive for the audience she is addressing?
2. How did changes in urban society in the 19th century give weight to Stanton’s contentions? What were these changes? |
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Signed by Abraham Lincoln on July 2, 1862, the Morrill Act made higher education accessible to a broader spectrum of Americans by starting state universities across the country. It provided each state with 30,000 acres of public land for each Senator and Representative, the land was then to be sold and the proceeds put in an endowment fund to provide support for the state colleges. The increase in educational opportunities contributed to and was enjoyed by the growing middle class in the late 19th century.
Questions to Consider
1. How did the establishment of state colleges effect education? Does it allow access for more Americans?
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| Historical Context
The Gilded Age is a term, coined by Mark Twain, applied to late 19th Century America that refers to the superficial exhibition and adoration of wealth that was characteristic of the period. The wealthy were almost painted in gold as the name implies, displaying their fortunes at every possible opportunity.
Attached Documents
Written by Twain and Charles Dudley Warner and published in 1873, "The Gilded Age" is a satirical novel about materialism and corruption in the 1870’s. This excerpt describes the extravagance seen in Washington, from the people to the architecture and everything in between.
Questions to Consider
1. How do Twain and Warner incorporate monetary value into their description of Washington? Why do you think they found it necessary to price the structures in this context?
2. How can this account of the nation’s capital be seen as an allegory for the situation across the country? Would it have made the same impact if the city being described were Pittsburgh or Des Moines? |
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| Historical Context
American artists adopted the Impressionist style of painting from the likes of Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, and Cézanne, to name a few. The Impressionist style of painting is characterized by loose brushwork and vivid colors and became a widely used style in late 19th century America.
Attached Documents
Mary Cassatt left the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts for Paris to study the masters on her own. Her contemporaries and critics acknowledged her talent in her own time.
The first and second paintings below, "Child in a Straw Hat" and "The Boating Party," are examples of her work.
Maurice Brazil Prendergast, in addition to being quite skilled with the impressionist style of light and color, incorporated structure as integral into his sketches and watercolors. The third painting is called "Docks, East Boston". The fourth painting is called "The Mall, Central Park".
Questions to Consider
1. Although the two artists have very dissimilar subject matter how can the recent changes in urban culture and lifestyle be seen in the different pieces?
2. How do the four pieces represent the leisure class? Does anyone seem to actually be working in any of the paintings? |
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| Historical Context
In the late 19th century the upper classes lived lavish lifestyles, not only pouring their money into vacation and country homes, jewelry, furs, fashion, and extravagance at every turn, but also into European art and funding symphony, opera, and ballet companies.
Attached Documents
These sketches show the Metropolitan Museum of Art, founded in 1870, located for one year on 5th Avenue and then seven years on West 14th Street, at its 1880 location in Central Park.
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| Historical Context
Vaudeville, as it was popularized, grew out of Burlesque to create a more family friendly entertainment venue. It was the most popular form of commercial entertainment primarily because it bridged the gap between middle and working class tastes. To show the diversity in Vaudeville three clips are presented.
Attached Documents
The first is a Turkish Dance presented by Ella Lola (:50) that emphasizes the origins of Vaudeville and although it is somewhat risqué it was appropriate for a family in 1880 to see.
The second, a recording of the New York Blues (3:22), is done on accordion and provides an overview of the musical style of the era.
Lastly is a recording of dialect comedy, where the actor is portraying an Eastern European Jewish immigrant (2:02); racially based comedy was also extremely popular in Vaudeville where actors in blackface were the most prevalent stereotypes seen on stage.
The photograph below is of Joe Weber and Lew Fields, one of the most popular vaudeville comic teams.
Questions to Consider
1. What mentality would Vaudeville patrons have had to have in order for Ella Lola’s dancing to be accepted? Would her dancing have been deemed appropriate prior to the civil war?
2. How does the New York Blues exemplify the phase of musical evolution America was in at the end of the 19th century? It has been said it is neither blues nor ragtime (the most popular form of music at this time) yet, what elements of style does the selection share with these two styles?
3. How is the acceptance of the type of humor displayed in the Hebrew Vaudeville selection explained by the perception and status of immigrants in America at the end of the 19th century? How were people “racially” delineated at this time? |
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| Historical Context
In the late 19th Century, African Americans living in the north began to play a new style of music called Ragtime. By the turn of the century, it was popular throughout the country and enjoyed by many different groups of people. The 1800’s was the era when Ragtime became distinguished in its own right alongside the Cakewalk and Jazz, which would surpass it in popularity by the 1920’s.
Attached Documents
The first, familiar selection is "The Entertainer" (3:35).
Ragtime Annie, is a traditional early rag (3:00).
The Maple Leaf Rag (3:31) was published in 1899 and is viewed as the turning point after which, Ragtime exhibited more depth and sophistication than it previously had. Pay special attention to the differences in the styles aside from instrumentation.
Questions to Consider
1. Brainstorm and discuss the role of popular music in contemporary society (intended audience, differing tastes, generational differences, etc.). How does this compare and contrast to that of the turn of the century? |
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| Historical Context
The American circus was revolutionized by P. T. Barnum and William Cameron Coup, who launched P. T. Barnum's Museum, Menagerie & Circus, a traveling combination animal and human oddities, the exhibition of humans as a freakshow or sideshow was thus an American invention. Coup was also the first circus entrepreneur to use circus trains to transport the circus from town to town; a practice that continues today and introduced the first multiple ringed circuses. It was this quality of the traveling circus that allowed Americans across the nation, not just in the big cities, to enjoy its entertainment.
Attached Documents
The 1871 article, "Circuses and Circus People" from the New York Times provides a colorful and detailed description of the traveling spectacle.
Questions to Consider
1. After reading the article, "Circuses and Circus People," brainstorm a list of attractions and other aspects of the circus that might have been novel and exciting to 19th century patrons. |
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Construction on Central Park began in 1857 on 840 acres in the center of Manhattan. The terrain was wholly unsuitable for commercial building due to its combination of swampy and rocky areas. City planners and the park’s designer Frederick Law Olmsted envisioned an area with the feel of unspoiled countryside where the elite could relax and socialize, transformed from its previous state. It was obvious from the outset that the park was intended for the upper classes; it was too far for the working classes to access and park rules favored sedate behavior. By the end of the 19th century however, activities were allowed on Sundays and people were allowed to walk in the expansive grassy areas.
Not long after the conception of Central Park, Coney Island began to come into its own. As soon as the streetcar lines reached the island in 1860’s businesses sprang up primarily associated with leisure activities. Major hotels, beaches, and amusement parks populated the island originally designed for the wealthy inhabitants of New York City. By the end of the century, however, Coney Island had become less of a resort and more of a day trip location for the working classes of the city.
Questions to Consider
1. What does the style of dress represented in the pictures of people engaged in activities in public spaces suggest about who they were designed for?
2. What does the emergence of public space suggest about the changing attitudes toward acceptable male and female spheres and activities? |
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| Historical Context
Baseball quickly became a national sport as local ball clubs began to tour and play regular games. The National League was formed in 1876 to cater to middle class mentality when they banned the sale of alcohol, raised ticket prices, and did not play on Sundays. The American Association on the other hand, kept ticket prices down, sold liquor, and played on Sundays, catering to the working class immigrants who saw it as a form of recreation and relaxation. By the early 1870’s club managers learned how to make it a profitable business. Baseball was promoted and quickly became more popular when cigarette companies, among others, began to baseball cards as advertisement.
Attached Documents
Casey at the Bat is a well known poem written in 1888 and further emphasises the national consensus about the sport.
Baseball was widely discussed in popular media; the article shown below emphasises the national love and respect for the game, along with many other editorial comments on the game from the late 19th century.
The early baseball cards shown below were issued by Ligget & Meyers at the turn of the century.
Questions to Consider
1. After reading the article, "Baseball," below, discuss the differences and similarities of American attitudes towards sport then and now.
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