3Populism and Progressivism
Webquests
In this exercise you will be visiting different websites for the purpose of introducing you to some of the events and ideas of the Progressive Era. The questions below should be answered as you are visiting the websites. Please type your answers these directly to this document online, print it out and turn it in; you can also submit it to me through email by attaching it to an email after you have saved it to your document folder. Below are the instructions for these activities:
TASK 1
Several years ago the post office issued a series of stamps that celebrated events and people of the Twentieth Century. "The stamps celebrate things we pretty much take for granted today. They remind us that cars and planes are inventions from nearly a hundred years ago -- that we wouldn't want to live without." We will use the information that was provided with the stamps to explore the events of the first decade of the Twentieth Century
THE DAWN OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
The following text is from the 1900s Celebrate the Century stamp sheet.
"Sixty percent of Americans lived on farms or in small towns. Immigrants were arriving at an average of 100 an hour. Railroads dominated land travel, but 1900 saw the first U.S. auto show and 1908 the first family transcontinental car trip. In 1908, Henry Ford made automobiles more affordable with the Model T. The Wright brothers stunned the world with their first airplane flight in 1903, and the game of baseball grew up.
"President Theodore Roosevelt protected 148 million acres as national forests. The first daily comic strip, "Mutt and Jeff," appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle. The Ash Can School brought realism back to the art world.
"Muckrakers exposed corruption: Ida Tarbell attacked monopoly in the oil industry, and Upton Sinclair revealed shocking conditions in the meat industry. In 1909, the newly formed NAACP promoted equal rights for African Americans. New words crept into the American vocabulary in this decade -- words such as cheerleader, filmmaker, phony, and psychoanalysis. "
IMMIGRANTS ARRIVE
Ellis Island was the nation's principal immigration station between 1892 and 1954. During the peak decade, 1900 to 1909, an average of 100 immigrants arrived each hour.
Question 1: How many immigrants came into the United States through Ellis Island between 1892 and 1954? Go to the Ellis Island Immigration Museum to find the answer. You can type it in the text box here:
1904 ST. LOUIS WORLD'S FAIR
The Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904 was also known as the St. Louis World's Fair. Americans were already enjoying ice cream, but the ice-cream cone became popular at the fair.
Question 2: At the Word's Fair, Festival Hall was a large, gold-domed building that housed a 3,500-seat auditorium and the world's largest pipe organ. After the fair, that organ was dismantled and loaded into 13 railroad cars. Where is that organ today?
Go to the Meet Me at the Fair Web site; visit The Heart of the Fair to answer the question.
KITTY HAWK 1903
On December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, achieved the first controlled, powered flight in an airplane.
Question 3: The Wright brothers are most famous for their air exploits, but before they got involved in flying, they had a successful "ground" business. What kind of business did they own?
You can find that answer at the Wright Brothers National Memorial, a National Park Service Web page.
MODEL T FORD
The low-priced, 4-cylinder, 20-horsepower Model T Ford made the automobile more affordable for the average American. One of its nicknames was the "Tin Lizzie."
Question 4: The 1909 Model T came in four styles -- the touring car, the runabout, the coupe, and the town car. How much did a brand new Model T Touring car cost in 1909?
The answer to that question can be found on the Web site of The Model T Ford Club International. Look for the Prices link.
PRESIDENT THEODORE ROOSEVELT
The 26th president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, promoted conservation and earned the Nobel Peace Prize for helping to negotiate an end to the Russo-Japanese War.
Question 5: Teddy Roosevelt became president when President William McKinley was assassinated. Before he became president, Roosevelt was the governor of New York and a war hero. In which war did he lead a group called the Rough Rider Regiment to victory?
You can learn the name of that war on the White House History and Tours Web site. Go to Teddy Roosevelt on the Presidents of the United States page.
ROBIE HOUSE, CHICAGO
Frank Lloyd Wright is considered one of the nation's most innovative architects. The masterpiece of his early work, constructed in the Prairie House style, is the Robie House in Chicago.
Question 6: Robie House caused quite a stir when it was completed in 1910. Construction of the house had gone quickly. How many months did that construction take?
You can read about one of Frank Lloyd Wright's most famous projects on the Frederick C. Robie House Web page.
FIRST WORLD SERIES
The championship games of 1903 are considered baseball's first (modern-day) World Series. Boston, of the American League, beat Pittsburgh, of the National League, five games to three in a best-of-nine series.
Question 7: Most people didn't expect the Boston Red Sox to win the 1903 World Series, but the Sox did it by winning the last four games. What was the score of the final game of the series?
Find the answer to that question on the History of the World Series: 1903 Web page from The Sporting News.
W.E.B. DU BOIS, SOCIAL ACTIVIST
An educator and author, W.E.B. Du Bois promoted the cause of equality for all Americans. He helped found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
Question 8: As a young man, Du Bois left his Massachusetts home and moved to Tennessee. There he saw the horrible conditions in which many rural black people lived. The move to Tennessee changed his life! Why did Du Bois move to Tennessee in the first place?
To find the answer to that question, take a look at a biographical essay The Achievement of W.E.B. Du Bois.
CRAYOLA CRAYONS 1903
The first box of Crayola crayons was produced in 1903. It cost 5 cents and contained eight colors: black, brown, blue, red, violet, orange, yellow, and green.
Question 9: Binney & Smith, the company that makes Crayola products, got its start making pigments that were used in red paint (for painting barns) and that gave tires their black coloring. Soon the company also began making products for use in schools. What were the first two school products that Binney & Smith produced? Go to the Binney Smith Corp website to find out.
Question 10: Go to the Crayola web site to answer the following questions: When was the first box of crayons produced? How many colors were in a box? What were those colors?
THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY 1903
The Great Train Robbery, directed by Edwin S. Porter in 1903, was one of the most successful story films. This box-office hit became part of the Western genre.
Question 10: The first narrative film ever made, The Great Train Robbery, was based on a true event that happened in August 1900 near Table Rock, Wyoming. Where did director Edwin S. Potter film the movie version of this story?
To learn where the film was made, read the story behind The Great Train Robbery.
TASK 2
Directions for Evaluating the Memory Album
This task evolves looking at an album that a curator of a museum has found in the back of a drawer of an old chest that was donated to the museum. See if you can make any sense of the collection of pictures. Go to the Picture Album on the American Memory site. As you go through the album, determine the answers to the following questions about each picture.
1. View all pictures in the album, enlarging them so you can see the details; answer the following questions (you may summarize for all pictures if appropriate, some of the questions you need to address specifically for a particular picture):
a. What is happening?
b. Who is present?
c. Who is not present?
d. Where is the action taking place? (region of the country, physical location)
e. Why was the picture included in this album?
f. What point is the curator trying to make?
Once you have the answers to these questions, try to find a pattern. What do these pictures tell us about leisure time in the 20th Century in general? What do they tell us about card playing?
Write the description that would be with the display of this item when exhibited in the museum. (Be sure it is in the form of a thesis.)
TASK 3
For this task you will be exploring the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire that occurred in 1911 in New York City. View this website, Introduction to the Tragedy, clicking on the “Next” button to read additional information. Answer the following questions.
1. Wht was the significance of this event?
2. How were the conditions at the Triangle Shirtwaist factory typical of other factories?
Now read this primary source document, Pauline Newman's letter, to answer the following questions:
- Describe the working conditions that Pauline Newman encountered.
- What struck you as the most horrendous part of her job?
- Why didn’t she seek out employment somewhere else?
- Newman’s letter speaks of Child Labor Laws. How did the owners of the factory get around these laws?
- How would you have responded to someone that says that laws that protect workers are not effective?
- Describe the relations between workers and the supervisor at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory.
Read the account of the fire that appeared in the Chicago Tribune and answer the following question:
- From the investigation what appeared to be the cause of the fire?
After viewing the websites and answering the questions above, write a well-constructed paragraph about what you expect to learn about American society and the attempts of this society to correct the ills of industrialization. In this paragraph you should consider as well other problems that you could anticipate as a result of your study of the industrialization of America in the last unit.