The era of the Industrial Revolution had a lighter side, social history. Social History is the study of ordinary people, recreation, fashion, popular culture, music, dance and other topics that we all know in our own lives. I love social history because it's about real people. It's about us.
What we find in the late 19th century was a definite a faster pace of life developing. This offered new options. For example, more women were working outside the home. By 1900, 1/6 of the workforce was female. Life was getting more complicated and we see this in the music and dance of the day. After the "dead period" described on the 1877 page, musical creativity began to grow.
You can find examples of the music and dance at the top of the main page at 19th Century under Youtube. So you may have to go back and forth from this page to the main page. To get back here, click on the Social History Lecture notes at the top.
One popular form of music was "cowboy music." Hispanics who did much of the ranching during this time were a major influence in what will become "country music" today. The use of the guitar was especially significant. Go to the 19th century page and listen to "Yo Soy un Pobre Vaquero" (I Am a Poor Cowboy).
Minstrel music was also still popular but it had changed dramatically since the Civil War. Minstrel music was performed by whites in blackface before the Civil War. After the Civil War, African-American took over. The song "Carve That Possum" is a perfect example of an African-American minstrel song. Go to the main 19th century page and listen to that song.
Probably the most famous musician of the era was Scott Joplin who became very popular during the period of the turn of the century. Scott Joplin was an African-American from Texas who created Ragtime music. He said he was inspired by Germans in Texas and the way they played piano. Go to the main 19th century page and listen to "Maple Leaf Rag" and "The Entertainer." There was a dance that went with ragtime called the "Cake Dance." It reminds me a break dancing. A group of dancers would get in a circle and one would get in the middle and show his/her best moves. Women included the "can-can dance" that includes throwing their dresses to expose their back side... The winner of the dance contest got a cake.
Another popular songwriter of the day was John Philip Sousa who compose brass band music. If you were in a marching band in school, you know Sousa. I feel like marching, how about you? Go to the main 19th century page and March around the room to John Philip Sousa's "Stars and Stripes Forever" and "Washington Post." There's also a dance you might want to do. It's the easiest one for the semester. It was call the Two-Step. Now, most dances comes out of minority communities in the U.S. but this is an exception. This was created by middle-class whites. To do the dance, it's just like it sounds. Embracing your partner, take two steps to the side. Then take two steps back and repeat the other direction. Then two step forward and two steps back. Repeat. It should be done in a bouncy style keep up with Sousa's rhythm. Try that with one of his songs.
Barbershop quartets were also very popular. The most famous was "Sweet Adeline." There are several examples on the main page. My student love the "I Love Lucy" version.
Popular dances included the Galop, Polka, and in Texas, the Mexican Polka. Join the dancers on the links on the main page and have fun!
Folk music was also popular so let's sing a popular song of the time "Clementine." This was actually a British song making fun of Americans. But, Americans liked it so it became part of our folk music history. Here's the song with lyrics and chords: Clementine.
While music and dance changed, fashions also changed especially for women. For men, the changes were more subtle. Their big development was to turn down their collars. Before this time, collars were up and starched stiff. I bet that was comfortable. Anyway, in the late 19th century, the collars were folded down. Men also began wearing jeans mostly on farms. But most men still wore long underwear. Short hair for men became more popular after the Civil War but they kept their facial hair including sideburns, beards, and mustaches as you saw on the Presidents' pictures.
Perhaps the oddest change in fashion was for little boys. The Little Lord Fauntleroy became the thing. Little Lord Fauntleroy was the first children's novel written by English playwright and author Frances Hodgson Burnett. It was originally published as a serial in the St. Nicholas Magazine between November 1885 and October 1886, then as a book by Scribner's in 1886. The fashions became a fad in the U.S. Here are some pictures of little boys dressed as Little Lord Fauntleroy. Just think what it would be like to send little boys to school dressed like this today.
Women's fashions also went through some major changes. This resulted from new woman's magazines, catalogs, development of home patterns, advertisements, and the first department stores. The changes were also necessary as women were becoming more active such as riding bicycles. The main fashion for women during the Civil War era included a huge hoop skirt. Think of Scarlett O'Hara in "Gone With the Wind." Women could hardly sit down. By the 1880, the hoop was gone and the bustle was in. A bustle is basically a pillow on a woman's backside. By 1900. women lost the bustle. (Can anyone explain the bustle? Does it look silly to you like me?)
The new look was called the "Gibson Girl." The name came from an artist. The Gibson Girl began appearing in the 1890s and was the personification of the feminine ideal of beauty portrayed by the satirical pen-and-ink illustrations of illustrator Charles Dana Gibson during a 20-year period that spanned the late nineteenth and early twentieth century in the United States. The artist saw his creation as representing the composite of "thousands of American girls." Here are some pictures that show the evolution in women's fashions and women, too.
I would like to remind you that there are Fashion Analysis Worksheets for Project points. If fashion is your thing, you might want to try some of those. You may do as many as you want to get your 100 points (or 115 with bonus points).
Despite the changes in fashion, women kept their corsets and hats. Here are photos. While I love hats, I would die if I had to wear a corset.
It is also important to point out that "respectable women" did not wear make-up or cut their hair.
Fashion was not the biggest change for women in the late 19th century, though. It was not what they wore but what was going on in their minds. American education began opening its doors to women. Help came from compulsory attendance laws, the spread of public schools, and opportunities to attend colleges. In the 1830s, there were no colleges that accepted women. By 1900, however, 1/4 of college graduates were women. One category of colleges open to women were called (to me ironically) "Normal Schools." These colleges prepared women to be teachers.
This does not mean that obstacles for women disappeared. Professional careers were very hard to get for women. Teaching became an option but they were paid less than working in a factory. In addition, employers refused to hired married women. In the late 1800s, many Americans believed that education for women left them physically and mentally damaged. One "study" allegedly proved that college education for women caused headaches, psychic disorders, depression, feelings of inferiority, and nervous exhaustion. Well, that pretty much describes my college experience, but I thought men went through the same issues. What do you think?
A symbol of the attitude toward women was the Comstock Law passed in 1873. This was the result of the work of Anthony Comstock. He organized an anti-obscenity movement. You might want to read about him. Anthony Comstock At any rate he eventually succeeded in getting passage of the Comstock Law, an anti-obscenity law. As a special agent of the U.S. Postal Service he was given police powers to enforce the law. He wanted to eradicate obscenity in the mail and everywhere else. There was one problem.
Define obscenity.
As one Supreme Court justice once said, I can't define it but I know it when I see it. The same relates to all of us. In this class we probably have 29 different definitions of obscenity. At any rate, the Comstock Law was defined to mean contraceptive (birth control) was obscene and, therefore, illegal. So as of 1873, women had no legal access to contraceptives. In 1873, that was not much of an issue since contraceptive were rare. They usually used condoms made of interesting materials and douches for women. Here's a brief history of contraceptives: A History of Birth Control
After 1873 it was all illegal anyway. What do you think about that? What did it say about women's rights?
This effort to eliminate obscenity also had an impact on the lesbian/gay community. In this period of history, most Americans found their behavior obscene so discrimination increased. At the same time, however, there were changes in philosophies about being a lesbian or gay person. I think we need a little historical background on this topic.
In Renaissance Europe (the period that included world exploration), being gay was not that big of a deal. They lived relatively openly. That changed in the Americas. Many of the settlers in North America brought discrimination. Among American Indians, attitudes varied. Among the Plains Indians, gays were believed to have special powers and often became shaman or spiritual leaders. The Berdaches on the East Coast also received acceptance. They were male Indians who dress as women and performed the usual duties of women.
When the Puritans arrived in New England, attitudes were quite different and established the tendency to discriminate against the lesbian/gay population. They enacted stiff criminal penalties for sodomy that was used as an umbrella term that encompassed a wide variety of sexual acts that were nonprocreative (not to produce children) that included lesbian/gays. This law also referred to sexual acts outside of marriage even between men and women including the prohibiting of sex with women on top during the act. Other statutes often included wording such as "wickedness not to be named." In some places, lesbian/gay acts were punishable by death.
Within the medical and psychiatric areas, there were some changes in the 19th century. On the one hand, some describe being gay as a pathology and degenerative sickness. But along came Sigmund Freud and Havelock Ellis by the end of the 19th century and both promoted a more accepting attitude. Ellis argued that being gay was inborn and therefore not immoral. He said it was not a disease and pointed out the contribution by gay Americans. Sigmund Freud had a different idea. He believed all human beings were innately bisexual and that they became heterosexual or homosexual as result of their experiences with parent and others. Freud agreed with Ellis that being gay should not be viewed as a form of pathology.
While obscenity was being restricted, Americans were avid readers of legal materials. The reasons for this included declining illiteracy. In the 1870s 70% of non-whites were illiterate and 20% among whites. By 1900 illiteracy rates for non-whites had dropped to 30% and whites to 11%. So the demand for reading materials increased. Even the Bible became more available with the formation of the Gideons. The Gideons tried to make sure everyone had a Bible. They still do. They place Bibles in hotels and motels. They distribute them to prisoners. They placed the first one in a hotel room in 1899.
Americans were lucky to have great authors during this period also. Mark Twain was still around along with Emily Dickenson and many others. But, the favorite book of this period was called the "Dime Novel." These were inevitably about the Old West with gun fights and glorification of the war against Indians. On the other hand, comics appear for the first time along with women's magazines such as "The Ladies Home Journal." But the most popular reading material was "Yellow Journalism." This was the sensationalism in the print media (which was all they had). American loved any story that was violent, tragic, or scandalous. Do Americans still read "Yellow Journalism?" I do not mean to read it but when you are waiting in line at the store what else is there to do. The tabloids of today are examples of "Yellow Journalism." When you read about who is dating whom, who is getting fat, who did something weird, or who murdered whom, it's "Yellow Journalism." Do you believe the stories about aliens from outer space impregnating women from Earth? I always like those stories...not.
The big crime story of the late 19th century involved Lizzie Borden. In 1892 she was accused of killing her father and step-mother with an ax. Children jumped rope to the poem about her:
Eventually, Lizzie Borden was acquitted of the crime. There just was not enough evidence against her. This was before DNA testing, of course. The main evidence against her was a dress she had tried to burn that had blood stains on it. Lizzie said it was chicken blood from cutting the head off a live chicken for dinner. There was no way to determine what kind of blood it was. Amateur investigators still try to figure out who killed the Bordens. Some have concluded Lizzie was guilty. Others suggest the maid did it or it was a conspiracy between Lizzie and the maid. Lizzie accused her sister. Nonetheless, after her acquittal she lived the rest of her life as a recluse avoiding the public as much as possible. Most Americans believed she was guilty. I call it the O. J. Simpson case of the 19th century.
There were other criminals that would make the true crime shows today. The worst was probably Herman Mudgett. It is not clear how many people he murdered but some estimate as many as 200 women by 1895. This article gives you the gory details: Herman Mudgett. He was sentence to death.
Fortunately, there were ways to escape the stress of the late 19th century. Popular recreation included the circus (Barnum and Bailey), Wild West Shows in big arenas that were recreations of famous battles such as the Battle of Little Bighorn, and world fairs were common featuring the new Ferris Wheel and Roller Coasters. How would you like being the first person on a Ferris Wheel or Roller Coaster?
There were also steroscopic viewers or what you know as 3D Viewfinders. They are the toys that you look in and see slides of Mickey Mouse and others. Another form of entertainment was Thomas Edison's "peep shows." For a nickle people could view moving pictures. They were short films of horse races, trains passing by, or people riding horses, etc. There was no plot. They were just moving pictures but astounding to the public. By 1895, the first movie houses were built with big screens. Movies, however, were considered the entertainment of poor people so the first movies were in low-income areas. The middle-class scoffed at this form of entertainment. One of the most popular forms of entertainment was Vaudeville. These were live shows that included singers, dancers, jugglers, and other entertainers. Here's an informative link: American Variety Stage Here's a video showing Vaudeville's history with pictures and videos (Part 1): Vaudeville
Sports became more available as people moved to the cities. The most popular sport was baseball that had become professional. The first professional team was the Cincinnati Red Stockings (1869). Football made its appearance in the 1860s and basketball in the 1890s. Boxing became more popular with the introduction of padded gloves in 1892. Also, the Modern Olympics began in 1896 in Athens. The U.S. won 9 of the 12 gold medals available.
While Americans were having fun, foreign policy brought about even more changes including wars and imperialism that was not so much fun. Go to Foreign Policy.
