Family Stucture in Victorian Architecture

By Stevie J. and Kathy C.



The structure of a house is representative of the structure of the family within it. If you were to look at the history of American houses you would see vast changes in the way we live. Many of these changes can be associated to changes in how we build houses, but the actual layout of a house is representative of the social values of that time period. The Victorian age in the late 1800’s brought about a change to the home. The architecture of the classic Victorian home reveals a formally structured family hierarchy, maintained and upheld by the use of public and private space in the home.

The Hierarchy of House and Home

The layout of the Victorian home is not only important in its use of public and private space but also in its creation of a hierarchy. There was a desire in the late 1800s to determine and maintain a place for everything, as George Augustus Sala, a journalist in the Victorian era, put it “subdivision, classification, and elaboration are certainly distinguishing characteristics of the present area of civilisation (Flanders, p. 10).” What this means for the home is that everything and everyone had a place, and this is visible in the structure. In comparison to older housing styles where rooms were multifunctional and most of the space was communal, in the Victorian home there is a rigid separation of every room.

Upon entering a Victorian house you would step into a hallway where you could immediately find the parlor, a place for the public, and near there you would find the dining room. The kitchen was most often placed in the rear of the house but no matter where it was, it was not attached to any of the common spaces such as the parlor or dining room. Since there was no desire for there to be common sleeping areas, you would find any number of small individual bedrooms in the house; this often required most houses to have a second floor. Essentially the Victorian style changed the structure of the house, altering the hallway, kitchen, and parlor most specifically.



The layout of the Victorian house was designed with a clear intention of creating a hierarchy. Those areas that were considered public areas were always considered the most important, while areas that were private were of lesser importance. It was also important those areas remain separate from the private areas. One place this can be seen is the necessity of a parlor over a bedroom. Just about everybody, no matter their station, had a parlor, even in some of the lower income homes were people would sleep in the parlor, often the beds would be moved out of the room during the day (Schlereth p. 120). As for the bedrooms, those created another kind of hierarchy. Not only did the parents’ room become separate from the children’s room but there was a desire to separate the children. First it was important that the boys and girls were separated, then, if possible, the older children should be separated from the younger.

The way the Victorian house was arranged was in response the views and beliefs of that era. In a time of biological classification and social Darwinism, people were trying to find absolute truths about the world around them. Science was the answer to our problems, that if we incorporated scientific ideas and principals into our everyday lives, things would improve. This can be seen in many aspects of society in the late 1800’s, but its appearance in the structure of the house tells us just how much the family was affected by these changes.

Public v. Private Space

One of the most distinctive aspects of the Victorian home, as mentioned earlier, is the fact that it was one of the earliest styles of home architeture that gave the family members separate spaces from each other and from the public. The hall and the parlor, in particular, were very public parts of the home and were kept very separate from private living spaces.

The floor plans of a traditional Victorian house suggest that when a guest entered the house, they would be met visually with only the hall and the stairs. All other parts of the home were off to the sides or upstairs, behind closed doors. If a guest was lucky, they would be invited from the hall into the parlor, but never would they see the bedrooms or the kitchen. For this reason, most families kept the finest of their belongings in the hall and the parlor, along with photographs and needlework that they thought best represented the home’s inhabitants to the outside world. In fact, urban parlors tended to be a tribute to the spending habits of the people (Schlereth p. 123). In other words, a large part of their purpose was to impress guests.



Such a blatantly public space implies that there must have been an equally limited private side to a Victorian household. Again, everything and everyone had its place, and the rigid structure of the home made sure that each member of the family was confined to his or her private area, unless formally presentable to the public. There was no sense of family intimacy beyond the parlor space, which was still very formal. This means that any individual chore or responsibility could not have been shared among the family members. Each individual’s personal burden remained private and separate, just like the rooms of the house. In this way, the strict family hierarchy was maintained. Limited sharing of responsibility meant limited mobility in “family rank.”

It would be very difficult to tell for sure whether the the rigitidy of the Victorian era family influenced the construction of their homes or whether the home architeture nurtured a certain type of family relationship. Either way, the Victorian style house gives us a tangible look at family living in the 1890s (as well as the rest of the era). Like life itself at the time, Victorian houses are formal and orderly, displaying their assets proudly while shielding their inner workings from the world. It was this cooperation between public and private that allowed such a decorous and structured lifestyle to function.


Bibliography

Carley, Rachel. The Visual Dictionary of American Domestic Architecture. Henry Holt & Company; New York, NY. 1994

Flanders, Judith. Inside the Victorian Home. W.W. Norton & Company; New York, NY. 2004

Schlereth, Thomas J. Victorian America: Transformations in Everyday Life. HarperPerennial; New York, NY. 1992

“Victoriana” Online. Accessed April 30, 2006.

Eugenics: America’s First Genetic Engineering

by Aaron McK.

The closing decades of the nineteenth century were ones when American Society grew to respect the changing realities of daily life due to rapid technological advancement. The Eugenics movement in America followed this trend. The Term “Eugenics” as defined by the principal proponent of the movement, Sir Francis Galton, “is the science which deals with all influences that improve the inborn qualities of a race; also with these that develop them with the utmost advantage.” (1) This definition of the eugenics movement describes it as a movement that is beneficial to all who prescribe to its philosophy. The eugenics movement was not however a single idea nor was it carried out with a single action. Incorporating anti-immigration fears, misunderstanding of mental and physical handicaps, and a faith that scientific progress will lead to an improved society, the eugenics movement was the cutting edge of genetic engineering during the gilded age.

The leaders of the eugenics movement in this period were men and women of science who felt they knew of a way to ensure the success of society by selecting those who would be able to successfully contribute to it. At immigration points such as Ellis Island, immigrants attempting to enter the United States were denied access because of failing health, physical handicap, or unsavory physical appearance. The nations first mental institutions were established to provide locations to properly manage the mentally retarded members of American society. These institutions quickly fell under the belief that it was in the best interests of society to limit the reproductive capabilities of these patients. (2)

Francis Galton, as the leader of the American Eugenics movement, attempted to ensure the genetic prosperity of America by created a Eugenic ranking of people, attaching a value to the genetic qualities of their individual lineage, economic prosperity, and physical vitality. (3) The American Association for the Advancement of Sciences stated in 1883 that Eugenics “shall teach the human race how to breed so that its best stock shall be preserved and improved, and its worst shall be eliminated.” (4) By referring to desirable qualities in people as those that shall be retained and unsavory ones as ones to be “eliminated,” proponents of the eugenics movement are bringing social Darwinism directly into the logic behind this American Eugenics movement. The eugenic rank earned by a person directly correlated to ones “inherited wealth of valuable properties,” correlating economic success with a high eugenic ranking.

The scientific benefits of this philosophy seemed, to the supporters of Eugenics, to be boundless. The concept of eugenic ranking appeared to people to be more legitimate than psychological testing of the period. The new study of a human’s mind was less trusted than the adaptation of common agricultural breeding techniques. (5)

The Eugenics movement of this period was not primarily about the creation of a utopian society through limiting the reproductive abilities of unsavory members of society; such as the Nazi party did in the 1930’s. What the progressive era eugenics movement hoped to achieve was to bring the strongest traits of those who were breeding together to create a stronger society. Galton, in his support for marriage law reform states, “when (eugenics) lofty objects shall become generally appreciated, they will meet with some recognition both from the religious sense of the people and its laws.” (6) This optimistic view of societies willingness to accept certain levels of genetic intervention in daily life clearly reflects the changing attitudes that common Americans had towards science and it’s day-to-day applicability. For the first time in the history of civilization, medical doctors were trained specifically to treat the ailments of people; education and technology had taken such leaps forward that people were living longer and healthier lives. It was not irrational therefore at this major turning point in human-technological relations to believe wholeheartedly that the possibility for acceptance of limited human genetic engineering was attainable.

The eugenics movement in the late nineteenth century was born from the ideas espoused by Charles Darwin and his theories on the origins of species. The period saw business leaders amass incredible wealth based upon the principal of Social Darwinism along with the emergence of scientific advances unseen before this time. The connection of these two principals into a philosophy that promised a stronger future was extremely tempting to many Americans. The eugenics movement in America represented the changing attitudes of American society in relation to science and its application in day-to-day life.

1. Johnson, Roswell H. Eugenics and so-called Eugenics. American Journal of Sociology 1914, University of Chicago Press

2. Keeping America Sane: Pshyciatry and Eugenics in the US and Canada 1880-1940. American Review of Canadian Studies, 1992

3. Galtons Human Faculty. American Association for the Advancement of Sciences 1883

4. Ibid.

5. Galton, Francis. Eugenics: Its defenition, scope, and Aims. American Journal of Sociology 1909, University of Chicago Press

6. Galtons Human Faculty. American Association for the Advancement of Sciences 1883

Separate but [Un]Equal

By Madeline O.

The Plessy v Ferguson Supreme Court decision in 1896 was an incredibly significant moment in American History. It not only set the precedent for legal racial segregation in the United States for over fifty years but also became a justifiable reason for discrimination and mistreatment of blacks.

The abolition of slavery after the Civil War in 1865 brought freedom to blacks across the United States. With this freedom also came a complex new dynamic of race relations. Many whites considered blacks an inferior race that lacked intelligence, skill and the ability to be contributing members of society. To ensure white supremacy, Southern states adopted Black Codes in 1865. These were a set of strict laws intended to maintain control over newly freed slaves on a social, political and civil level. They were incredibly restrictive and served the intention of keeping race dynamics as they were prior to the Civil War. In 1866 these were outlawed by federal officials.

Soon whites wanted other means to maintain racial superiority and southern legislatures began to “enact criminal statutes that invariably prescribed harsher penalties for blacks than for whites convicted of the same crime.” In 1892 Louisiana passed a Separate Car Act which implemented segregation in railway carriages. If one did not abide by this law they were fined $25 or placed in jail for twenty days.

On June 7, 1982 Homer Plessy refused to abide by the Louisiana law and instead sat in a white passenger car. He was a southern shoemaker who was actually 7/8ths white but still legally considered black. Plessy was imprisoned and his case eventually went to the Supreme Court in 1896.

His lawyers argued that segregation violated the recently passed 13th and 14th amendments which both abolished slavery and “prohibit[ed] certain restrictive legislation on the part of the states.” Judge John Marshall Harlan resided over the case and eventually upheld the Louisiana law. In response to Plessy’s arguments, he stated that the fourteenth amendment “could not have been intended to abolish distinctions based upon color, or to enforce social, as distinguished from political equality, or a commingling of the two races upon unsatisfactory terms to either” instead “if the two races are to meet upon terms of social equality, it must be the result of natural affinities, a mutual appreciation of each other’s merits and a voluntary consent of individuals.” Since there was such racial strife and tension Marshall felt segregation was the best solution. He ruled that as long as facilities were “equal” then separation of the races was considered legal.

The notion of “separate but equal” legally justified racial segregation and soon included restaurants, movie theatres, drinking fountains, schools and all areas of public life. An unfortunate aspect about this was that black spaces were nearly always inferior. The black schools were given little supplies and outdated books. Blacks were forced to sit at the back of public busses and trains which were usually hot and uncomfortable. This decision also had a profound impact on nation’s views of racial equality. Generations were socialized to believe that blacks did not deserve to live in the same conditions as whites. The legality of segregation gave people a reason to believe in racial inferiority and justify discrimination. The case was overturned a half century later in the Brown v Board of Education case (1954), yet it took the civil rights movement of the sixties, and years of fighting for equality to truly reverse the impact of the decision.



Works Cited:
1. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/jimcrow/stories_events_plessy.html
2. http://americanhistory.si.edu/brown/history/5-decision/challengers.html
3. http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/ifousa/facts/democrac/33.htm
4. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/may18.html
5. http://americanhistory.si.edu/brown/exhibition/photos6.html

Week 4 reading questions

1. In DuBois’s essay, what is “the Veil?”

2. What is DuBois’s argument?

3. On whom does DuBois lay the blame for African Americans’ difficulties?

4. In Washington’s view, what is the best method for improving the quality of life for African Americans?

5. What does Washington mean when he refers to “the ordinary process of education” (first sentence of second paragraph, pg. 132)?

6. On whom does Washington lay the blame for African Americans’ difficulties?

7. In Douglass’s essay, what is “the peculiar crime so often imputed to [African-American men]” (225)?

8. On whom does Douglass lay the blame for the continuance of lynch law in the South?

9. Do any of the three essays for today suggest solutions to problems cited in the others?



BONUS! Practice for the final exam:

Assess the validity of this statement:
In the 1890s, the South was the most American part of America.

1. Formulate a tentative thesis.

2. Look over documents to identify evidence. Revise thesis according to this evidence.

3. Outline an essay in response to this prompt.

Plessy v. Ferguson: Identity and Disappearance

by Carolyn T.

According to Janette Thomas Greenwood in The Gilded Age: A History of Documents, Homer Plessy boarded the train in New Orleans and sat in the “whites only” first-class section and was asked by the conductor to move to the “colored only” car; when Plessy refused, he was arrested (Greenwood, 101). This discussion of the events suggests that Homer Plessy was easily identifiable as African American and her discussion of Louisiana suggests that this state’s ideas about racial identity were like the rest of the South at that time. Both suggestions conflict with what is known about the case and Louisiana’s social and state understandings of race. This omitted information is crucial to understanding the complexities of Plessy v. Ferguson and the decision’s historical and current relevance.

Most people tend to associate Plessy v. Ferguson with the upholding of Jim Crow laws in the South or the phrase “separate but equal.” (1) However, Plessy v. Ferguson also dealt with identity politics or, more specifically, the question of color. In 1892, Homer Plessy bought a first-class ticket on the East Louisiana Railway to travel from New Orleans to Covington, Louisiana. At that time, Louisiana’s statutes mandated racial segregation. When Mr. Plessy sat down in the whites only car, his presence there was not disputed because he “looked” white. According to the court’s documents, Plessy was not visually discernible as being of African descent (Plessy, 1896:538 [headnote]). According to Mr. Plessy's legal argument, because he considered himself white, he took a seat in the car reserved for white passengers.

This legal argument contradicted his actions somewhat in both that he was working with the Committee to change the law (although not necessarily as Greenwood contends) but also when he stood up in the whites only car and announced to the conductor that he had African ancestry. This declaration provided the opportunity for conductor to “identify” Plessy as being of African descent. In other words, if Mr. Plessy had not said anything about his ancestry his “whiteness” would have been assumed.

The assumption of “whiteness” within Louisiana, however, was a precarious thing to do at the time. As Mark Golub states in “Plessy as ‘Passing’: Judicial Responses to Ambiguously Raced Bodies in Plessy v. Ferguson,” “To appreciate the complexity of issues of racial classification in the case, one must consider the location and context of the legal dispute, in New Orleans, a city thoroughly marked by its strong Creole tradition” (2005:568). Louisiana was originally a Spanish colony. It later was colonized Bourbon France, Great Britain, the Republic of West Florida, Napoleon and, finally, the United States. The cultural factors of this particular type of colonization (as opposed to strictly British colonization) contributed to high rates of interracial sexual contact (Spear, 1999:37). A combination of French and Spanish laws also contributed to a large free African American and mulatto communities (2) in possession of legal, social, and economic rights that were not seen within the British colonies (Sterkx, 1972:26-34). The difference in the colonization of Louisiana led to a different view of and among what would be considered today the African American population within Louisiana.
So, while Homer Plessy took his case to the United States Supreme Court to question the constitutionality of racial segregation in Louisiana and elsewhere by arguing that the state law went against the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the US Constitution, it also attempted to call into question the arbitrariness of legal racial definitions (Davis, 1991:8-9, 52-53, 68). However, given Louisiana’s racial caste system and that Plessy and the members of the "Citizens' Committee to Test the Constitutionality of the Separate Car Law" were mulatto caste (rather than Negro caste), is it safe to assume the Committee or Plessy were fighting for the equality of all African Americans under the law or merely attempting to claim whiteness for themselves while leaving Jim Crow firmly in place?

Complicating this reading, the court discussed the lack of visual discernment of Plessy’s racial identity within their decision. Yet, three paragraphs after this remark, the court states, “A statute which implies merely a legal distinction between the white and colored races — a distinction which is founded in the color of the two races, and which must always exist so long as white men are distinguished from the other race by color [italics mine] — has no tendency to destroy the legal equality of the two races, or re-establish a state of involuntary servitude” (Plessy, 1896:538). It appears that the more the court attempts to defend its position the more it has to disappear Homer Plessy from the case and the text. This disappearing of Plessy is duplicated by those teaching Plessy in the classroom through the use of books like Greenwood’s; how and/or does this color (all puns intended) society’s collective understanding of “race,” “blackness,” “whiteness,” etc. in this country?

NOTES:

(1) A Jim Crow law is “a law enacted or purposely interpreted to discriminate against blacks, such as requiring separate restrooms for blacks and whites,” according to Black’s law dictionary, 7th ed., ed. Bryan A. Garner (St. Paul, MN: West Group, 1999), 840. For an in-depth discussion of Jim Crow laws and analysis of legal racial definitions in the United States, see F. James Davis, Who is black? One nation’s definition (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1991).

(2) While not separate and necessarily distinct, the African American (or Negro) community and the mulatto community had different social structures and networks that reflected the racial hierarchy of Louisiana.


REFERENCE LIST:

Davis, F. James. Who Is Black: One Nation’s Definition. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1991.

Golub, Mark. "Plessy As "Passing": Judicial Responses to Ambiguously Raced Bodies in Plessy V. Ferguson." Law & Society Review 39, no. 3 (2005): 563-600.

Louisiana, State of. "Louisiana History." Accessed 20 Apr. 2006.

Plessy V. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 US Supreme Court (1896).

Spear, Jennifer M. "They Need Wives': Mestissage and the Regulation of Sexuality in French Louisiana, 1699-1730." In Sex, Love, Race: Crossing Boundaries in North American History, edited by Marth Elizabeth Hodes, 35-59. New York: New York University Press, 1999.

Sterkx, H.E. The Free Negro in Ant-Bellum Louisiana. Madison, NJ: Associated University Press, 1972.

Booker T. Washington

by Edgar S.

Booker T. Washington was born in 1856 in Virginia. Due to the economic hardships his family faced during the reconstruction era, Washington worked in salt mines until the age 16 where he left to be educated at Hampton Institute, Norfolk Virginia. To pay for his schooling, Booker T. Washington worked as a janitor and quickly realized that education could provide a means to better one self and his race as a whole. (Gale).

Post the civil war era, race relations flared between African Americans and Whites. Not only did the New South directly humiliate African Americans through Jim Crow laws, but some Southern states took matters into their own hands to ensure that the African American population was kept in placed (Greenwood, 105-107). According to Greenwood, between the years of 1889 and 1899, nearly 1,200 reported lynching of African Americans occurred in the South. The South also implemented legislation, without the use of racial language, which prevented African Americans from voting. Such laws like the “grandfather clause,” poll tax, and literacy tests left African Americans with little means of advancing themselves. But Booker T. Washington had a plan.

As a strong advocate for education, Washington began to teach after his education. In 1881, Washington was named the head of the Tuskegee Institute and was able to build it into a center of learning, industrial, and agricultural training (The Progress of a People). Perpetuating the idea of ‘pulling oneself up by one’s own bootstraps’ in the institute, Washington was able to gain popularity in the African American and White Northern population including Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller who donated handsomely to Washington’s Tuskegee Institute (Greenwood 110).

Washington believed that African Americans could regain their rights in the South only by accepting the political status quo and working gradually to change it by proving that they were productive members of society by economic advancement. Washington’s speech known as the “Atlanta Compromise” at the Atlanta Exposition in 1895, emphasizes these points as he captured the eyes of the nation:

Our greatest danger is that in the great leap from slavery to freedom we may overlook the fact that the masses of us are to live by the productions of our hands, and fail to keep in mind that we shall prosper in proportion as we learn to dignify and glorify common labour and put brains and skills into the common occupations of life; shall prosper in proportion as we learn to draw the line between the superficial and the substantial, the ornamental gewgaw of life and the useful. No race can proper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem. It is at the bottom of life we must begin, and not at the top.

Booker T. Washington was able to appeal to white people within his speech by ensuring them that his people will continue to be hardworking and obedient:

Casting down your bucket among my people, helping and encouraging them as you are doing on these grounds, and to education of head, hand, and heart, you will find that they will your surplus land, make blossom the waste places in you fields, and run your factories. While doing this, you can be sure in the future, as in the past, that you and your families will be surrounded by the most patient, faithful, law abiding, and unresentful people that the world has seen…(Washington)

Much of the appeal, as W.E.B. Du Bois in his paper, “Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others,” states, is due to the fact that Mr. Washington asks African American people to accept the status quo and give up their political power, their insistence on civil rights, and the higher education of the population. By giving up civil rights, how can a race progress to be seen as equals? Instead of educating institutes, Booker T. Washington emphasized the preparation of blacks to be industrially capable to work in factories such as the Tuskegee, hence donations from Carnegie and Rockefeller as they seeked cheap workers. But even more importantly, Washington’s conservative means of obtaining civil rights shifted the burden from whites to African Americans:

It is equally true to assert that on the whole the distinct impression left by Mr. Washington’s propaganda is first, that the South is justified in its present attitude toward the Negro because of the Negro’s degradation…His doctrine has tended to make the whites, North and South, shift the burden of the Negro to the Negro’s shoulders and stand aside as critical and rather pessimistic spectators; when in fact the burden belongs to the nation, and hands of none of us are clean if we bend not our energies to righting these great success (Du Bois).

Although Booker T. Washington’s conservative means of obtaining civil rights was criticized during the later part of the Gilded Age Era, his political innovations and investment into the Tuskegee Institute during the Gilded Age provided at least some means self-improvement of the African American. According to Andrews, many blacks in the South saw Booker T. Washington as their champion and adopted his autobiography as their guidebook for a better life (vii). Within his bibliography, Washington proclaimed that the South will gradually accept blacks if they proved that they were valuable, productive members of society who deserved rare and equal treatment for the law and deserved citizenship rights (Andrews, viii).

Link to All of Booker T. Washington’s Papers (may require offline library connection)


Works Cited

Andrews, William L. Introduction. Up from Slavery. By Booker T. Washington. New York: Oxford UP, 2000. vii-x.

“Booker Taliafero Washington.” Black History. Thompson Gale. Accessed April 18, 2006.

Du Bois, W.E.B. “Of Mr. Washington and Others.” Online Document. Access April 20, 2006. <>

Greenwood, Janette Thomas. The Gilded Age: A History in Documents. ‘New York: Oxford UP, 2003.

“Progress of a People: Booker T. Washington.” Online. Accessed on April 22, 2006.

Week 3 reading questions

What does Frederick Jackson Turner mean when he (or rather Mr. Bryce) says that “the West is the most American part of America” (397)? What is “the problem of the West” (396)?

Why does Turner take issue with Professor Boutmy’s statement that “American society. . .is not so much a democracy as a huge commercial company for the discovery, cultivation, and capitalization of its enormous territory” (400)?

What is Simon Pokagon’s argument?

What does Pokagon believe about the education of Native Americans? Why? Do you think, with hindsight, he would still agree with this practice? Why or why not?

What is at the heart of Zitkala-Sa’s conflict with her mother? Explain.

What is Zitkala-Sa’s argument?

Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show

by Rahsaan A.

Buffalo’s Bill’s Wild West Show was a theatrical performance showcasing the origins of the original West. Led by William Frederick Cody (1846-1917), more commonly known as “Buffalo Bill” for his marksmanship, the performance was a re-enactment of various Indian-American battles. Founded In 1883, the four- hour show featured real Native Americans and Cowboys such as Sitting Bull, William ‘Wild Bill’ Hickock, and ‘Calamity Jane’ [respectively]. Furthermore, those who participated in the play were able to draw on real life experiences in their roles. As Cody stated, “the men… with us are those who have actually taken part in the scenes they represent”(42) Originating in Omaha, Nebraska, the show achieved great success and enjoyed a thirty-year term touring the majority of the United States and parts of England, including Chicago’s World Fair and London’s Jubilee event.

Buffalo Bill’s tour carried an astonishing cast of 1200 performers. The sequence of the show commonly “began with a parade on horseback, with participants from horse-culture groups that included US and other military, American Indians, and performers from all over the world in their best attire”. Following the parade, the characters, groups, and bands, were all introduced before the race of the Indian, Cowboy, and Mexican, into the Pony Express. While the performance mainly consisted of Cowboys and Native Americans, ethnic groups such as the Mongols, Cossacks, Arabs, Turks, and Gauchos were represented as well. According to the original program [in 1883], the show continues from the Pony Express with Indians attacking wagon trains, and the several stagecoach robberies. The final scene is a family’s homecoming to a rural place visited early in the show before a series of battles that occurred in the midst of the Indian-American wars. “This, the show seemed to be saying, was where (and how) the Pony Express trail and the Deadwood stage line and, indeed, the history of the West should—would—end”(253)

What made Cody’s show incredibly unique were the elite measures he took to give the performance a realistic appeal. The show was exceptional in incorporating various elements of the West including real live cattle [mules, horses, elk, sheep, deer], on stage Indian villages, and virtually every ethnic group involved represented in the play. Cody even went as far as to hire acts from various foreign countries to maintain the show’s credibility and novelty. Attendants of the play not only included the general public, but also a substantial amount of real-life frontiersmen, generals, and writers. Of the many writers in attendance, Mark Twain, a rather prominent icon in literature, had the following to say about “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show”:

Down to its smallest details, the show is genuine—cowboys, vaqueros, Indians, stage coach, costumes and all; it is wholly free from sham and insincerity and the effects it produced upon me by its spectacles were identical with those wrought upon me a long time ago by the same spectacles on the frontier. Your pony expressman was as tremendous an interest to me as he was twenty-three years ago when he used to come whizzing by from over the desert with his war news; your bucking horses were even painfully real to me as I rode one of those outrages for nearly a quarter of a minute. It is often said on the other side of the water that none of the exhibitions which we send to England are purely and distinctly American. If you will take the Wild West Show over there you can remove that reproach

It’s been said that “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West” was inspired by the recent invasion of the industrial revolution in the American West. As immigrants from China, blacks from the South, and Whites from the East, engaged the West in search of greater opportunity, and a better standard of living, the culture of the original West soon faded. “Buffalo herds, which had once numbered in the millions, were now threatened with extinction. Railroads crossed the plains, barbed wire and other types of fences now divided the land….” With the brink of big business, and the surge of gold mining, the West began to undergo an economic and cultural makeover at the expense of the West’s native culture. Indians were confined to reservations while Mexicans continued to witness their land being saturated with foreigners despite signed government treaties in efforts to ‘protect’ their native-born land. It was then that William Frederick Cody decided to bring back the true origins of the west in his play. “Cody’s show brought for the Western and American Indian cultures”.
While “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show” has been dormant for almost a century, the name itself, “Buffalo Bill” has stood the test of time through various media outlets. In the 90’s popular film, “Silence of the Lambs” the character of Thomas Harris takes on this alias of Buffalo Bill. The name was also parodied in David Spade’s “Joe Dirt” under the title, “Buffalo Bob”. From here, the name would go on to be represented in forty-three other films ranging from the late 1800’s till just last year in “Frank Conniff as ‘Buffalo Bill!’”. With a sense of humor, the name continued to re-invent itself from its original origins by landing its own NFL football team, “The Buffalo Bills”, and finally becoming the official title of a barbershop-quartet [The Buffalo Bills], mainly performing in Broadway musicals such as “The Music Man” (1957). It’s safe to say the man may have passed, but his imprint on American culture remains.

Works Cited

Warren, Louis S. William Cody and the Wild West Show. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005

Sorg, Eric. Buffalo Bill: Myth & Reality. Sante Fe, New Mexico: Ancient City Press, 1998

“Buffalo Bill”. Wikipedia.12th April, 2006.Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Accessed April 18th, 2006. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Bill%27s_Wild_West_Show]

“Chief Sitting Bull- Tatanka Iyotaka”. Chief Sitting Bull. 2000. Evisum Inc. Accessed April 18th, 2006. [http://www.sittingbull.org/]

Image-based research paper assignment

For this paper, you will select one or two images created between 1885 and 1905 and make an argument, based on their content and context, about what they reveal about American beliefs and values in the 1890s.

You may choose a single image if one interests you, or you may place two images in conversation. For example, you might put a photo of Arnold Genthe into dialogue with one by Jacob Riis. You may not make two separate arguments about two images.

Please note:

This is an essay. You will need to have an introduction, a thesis, several well-organized paragraphs, and a conclusion.

This is a research paper. You will be expected to use at least seven library sources and to cite them appropriately. You may use reliable Internet sources, but they do not contribute toward your source count; neither do your photos. Reliable sources are written by experts or appear on websites of research institutions such as the Library of Congress or the Smithsonian Institution.

Your research should not be entirely about the creation of the photo itself. For example, if you select a photo by Jacob Riis, you should not be making an argument about why Riis took the photo. Instead, you should be making an argument about what the content (and in some cases the context) of the photo reveals about the beliefs and values of Americans in the 1890s. (I’ll explain this more in class.)

You have a lot of freedom with this project, and thus an opportunity to make this paper a truly excellent piece of your own critical and creative work. If done well, it could function as a writing sample for graduate school or for job applications. Accordingly, select your image(s) carefully—pick visuals that are interesting to you and about which you believe you can make a compelling argument.

If you need assistance, I’m here to help. I will not read entire paper drafts, but I am happy to discuss your paper’s argument, an outline, or a particularly troublesome paragraph or two.

Other requirements:

7-10 pages, double-spaced
12-point Times New Roman
include clear print of image(s) with your paper

Due date: Wednesday, May 17, at the beginning of class.

Jane Addams and Hull House

by Kit L.

Throughout history, people who have migrate from one place to another as a result of a grater force or desire that drives them abroad. During the mid 1890s, the Hull House was an establishment to answer to some of the social problems that the influxes of immigrants from Eastern Europe that society has left behind. The Hull House was established by Jane Addams, also known as Laura Jane Addams. She was born into an upper middle class family, where she had the connection and access to financial assistance from wealthy friends who were willing to donate to help her make the Hull House successful. In her late twenties, she was able to traveling to Europe where she visited the Toynebee Hall, one of the world’s first settlement houses. After witnessing it in all its glory, she became inspired by what an institution like that, can do for the poor and the economically disadvantaged. Social reform became her interest almost instantaneously.

The Hull House was originally a mansion built in 1856 by Charles Hull who was a wealthy landlord. After his death, with the help of Ellen Gates Starr, another progressive feminist reformer, she and Jane leased the Hull House and turned it into a fully functional settlement house for European immigrants, where they were able to turn it into a multipurpose institution that would resemble our modern day community shelters. With education, medical care, child care and legal aid, it was one of the most successfully ran public institution through private funding. This is a landmark for as one of the most successful settlement homes established in the U.S, and made Jane Addams a heroine of her time for her pioneering work during the 1890s.

The first thing that Jane Addams set up in the Hull House was a kindergarten, as a result of her attitude towards the importance of educating young children, as well as maintaining their health and overall wellbeing. Because of the economic situation, a lot of children especially those who come from migrant families, are often neglected and abandoned due to large family size, and the incapacity of the parents to care for their children. Jane Addams believed that in order to help dissolve economic and social problems, she must start from roots; and in this case, start caring for them while they’re still young, so when they are older they won’t become victims of degeneration. The role to care for children consequently became one of her main focuses in her journey to social reforms.

Throughout the period of twenty years where the Hull House had operated, it cycled through hundreds and thousands of people each month that would arrive at the settlement house seeking help mostly from Eastern Europe. The house also served as a community center for intellectuals for get-togethers to discuss social and economic problems and reform solutions. She gave lectures and taught many classes. As a result, she brought inspiration to many people of the time for what she believed in, and fought for.

However, Hull House itself, was not only famous for its good deeds of community service and its pioneering work, it was also known for its haunted stories. The most famous one was the Devil Baby. According to this urban legend, a mother who was a regular at the Hull House, gave birth to a child who looked like a monster. The mother was a good catholic woman, but the father of the child was an atheist. It was rumored that the baby had the resemblance of the Devil. Speculations varied from horns to scaly skin, Jane had to lock the baby away and he eventually died. Although the Devil Baby never caused any casualties, it created widespread rumor that the Hull House had to deal with all throughout the years as visitors poured in to speculate the baby. In her autobiography, Twenty Years at Hull-House, she also made remarks about the ghost of Mrs. Charles Hull who haunted the second floor. Nevertheless, as time goes by, these speculations died out and Hull House continues to be a historic landmark.

Ever since she was a child she had always have bad health; nevertheless, it didn’t stop her from striving for social reform up until the last days of her life. Jane Addams is also the first women to receive a Nobel Peace Prize in 1931. She worked on numerous social reforms: from establishing juvenile courts to participating in the movement for women suffrage and right to vote, she continued her legacy as an activist even after the operation of Hull House. She was one of the greatest women that ever lived during her time. Today, the Hull House has become a historic landmark that is part of the College of Architecture and the Arts at the University of Illinois at Chicago.


Work Cited:

Ghosts of the Prairie: The Hull House: http://www.prairieghosts.com/hull.html

History’s Women: http://www.historyswomen.com/socialreformer/JaneAddams.html

Just the Arti-Facts: Women History, Jane Addams: http://www.chicagohs.org/aotm/Mar98/mar98artifact.html

The Hull House Museum, University of Illinois at Chicago: http://wall.aa.uic.edu:62730/artifact/HullHouse.asp

Women in History: Jane Addams: http://www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/adda-jan.htm
University of Oregon, Department of Political Science: U.S. Political Thoughts: http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~jboland/addams_h.html

The Tradition of Muckraking

by Michelle S.

Muckraking as many of us know it refers to the body of literature, during the Gilded Age, to attack government corruption and social injustice and rally the underclass into action. The term was popularized by Teddy Roosevelt who after the publishing of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, vowed to "clean house‚" Sinclair's widely dispersed work in a way forced the President to "acknowledge the prevalent filth of corruption in business and public life." (Tichi, pg.2) Also implying that the industrialists, that Carnegie in his essay had applauded as the most talented men most charged with efficiently manging affairs to better "serve‚ his poorer brethern, were not in fact working towards any public good" (ed. Smith, Dawson, pg. 25-35). To the public, it seemed as though these companies ran took advantage of thousands of people. Some other famous names in this genre include, Jacob Riis (a founder of sorts for this era in journalism), Ida Tarbell (for her work on the Standard Oil Co.) and Susan B. Anthony. In this respect muckraking won a huge victory for social change.

Because this type of journalism has been strongly associated with progressivism, itsperspectives have become as polarized as their respective political parties (ed. Stein, Harrison, pg. 12). Its advocates, usually liberals try to place it in a somewhat precarious position of being absolutely based on fact while trying to
incite the passions of its readers by naming names and pointing fingers (ed. Stein, Harrison, pg.14-16). It‚s opponents, usually conservatives, see it as rabblerousing or "attacking the accepted values of Middle America" (ed. Stein, Harrison, pg.19). Even Roosevelt himself while praising the practice at the same time warned that writers who consistently muckrake will do more harm than good, that, "relentlessly [plying] that rake threatened social order and [is] evil." (Tichi, pg3) One could imagine he was thinking about the people rising up, beating the captains of industry in the streets and tearing down all social institutions, reducing modern civilization to savage anarchy. Although from the description Jacob Riis gives of tenement living conditions, I don't see how those conditions would be better than imaging the conseqences of a broken social order (Serrin pg.3). The fact is that muckraking is a farcry from yellow journalism in that it is truthful and observant of both big seemingly lofty things and common everyday behavior. (ed. Stein, Harrison, pg.14-16) However it is not above picking sides and highlighting or downplaying facts to get their point across (ed. Stein, Harrison, pg.14-16). Some may even use "human interest stories" like its distant journalistic cousin to tug at the readers heartstrings (ed. Stein, Harrison, pg.14-16). Using this tactic no doubt was damaging especially when critics already thought that thought the literature too sentimental and overdramatic (Tichi, pg.14-16). Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel about the cruelties of slavery although read was dismissed as meant for the emotions and not as high a virtue as reason (Tichi, pg. 8). Some of the earlier writers had sacrificed some degree of accuracy for the sake of "emotional appeal" (unfairly I believe) stereotyped the genre as a kind of propoganda even though most of the muckrakers were newspaper reporters (Tichi, pg. 14-16, 64)

Muckraking did climb its way up the levels of public interest eventually, because the public was extremely unhappy with the way things were being handled. Muckraking became an outlet in which to speak out but also proved a progressive tool for change because it spread information to the everyday person, information before only privy to businessmen, government officials and other professionals. It was also much easier to mass produce the magazines and books that published them (Tichi, pg 70).

But like any sponsored venture, muckraking and its rakers were under economic pressures that influenced the kind of work produced. On one side were the companies and political persons who had a vested interest to use it as advertising, on another the picky public and from their editors who tried to satisfy the demands of their readers (ed. Stein, Harrison, pg.21). Writers were encouraged to write about things the public cared about and from the literature produced, it appears the issue of the rights of women and children were not as high on a list of priorities as they are now (ed. Stein, Harrison, pg.31). Some editors who followed the trends were more likely to publish "safe topics, guaranteed to arouse indignation, such as trusts, organized crime or pollution" without any real solutions (ed. Stein, Harrison, pg.21). Authors Stein and Harrison described this as "inside dopesterism", shocking the reader but it doesn't result in any public reaction so it remains just a piece of entertaining news (pg.21).

It seems like all three of these problems affects modern day muckrakers, especially since it has come fashionable again (One only has to look at the bookshelves in the MU Bookstore to see how popular the genre is.) Tracking the long history of muckraking, Stein and Harrison finds it "falls out of favor" with the public when people are feeling better about the nature of things but returns with a zeal when they become dissatisfied again (pg.16-17). But almost every current muckracking book (that I can think of) from poverty, to conservation, to the international political arena, will dedicate a small section to the fact that though there are small grassroots organizations working and getting their opinions out their, but progressive movements on the whole are losing steam in part because of the public's lack of interest. I agrre there is evidence of this but I would like to think that given muckracking's resurging interest and recent protests to immigration legislation, that it is not true that we, the public, are not dragging our feet when it comes to responding to changes in society.


1. (Editors) Harrison, John M. , Stein, Harry E. "Muckraking; Past Present and Future" Penn State University Press. University Park, 1973

2. Serrin, Judith and William, "Muckracking! The Journalism that Changed America", New York Press, New York. 2002

3. (Editors) Smith, Susan Harris, Dawson, Melanie. "American 1890's; a Cultural Reader" Duke University Press 2000

4. Tichi, Cecelia, " Exposes and Excess" Unicersity of Pennsylvannia Press, Philadelphia, 2004

Ghost Dance and the Massacre at Wounded Knee

by Lauren K.

To fully understand the reason the Ghost Dance gained its popularity among the Lakota Sioux, it is necessary to first be familiar with the context in which it originated. The survival of the Sioux bands, living among the present-day states of Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota, was being threatened by the increased population of others who were migrating onto the land which the Sioux and their ancestors had occupied for over one hundred years. Because of this problem, inevitable tensions were brewing between the Anglo and Indian populations.

The 1862 Homestead Act created one of the first problems between these two groups. (2) It offered free land to any Anglo who lived upon it for five years. Many decided to move onto the lands because of the financial advantage awarded to them. With expansion of railroads beginning in 1869, the land became more easily attainable to others coming from farther distances (2). The territory was also appealing to black populations wishing to escape the injustice of the South (2). In 1848 even more migration was encouraged to Hispanics because of the U.S. annexation of half of Mexico as a result of the Mexican-American War (2). All of these events led to further frustrations and threatened the existence of the Sioux bands.

In 1790, the Lakota Sioux bands survived by means of hunting and gathering (6). Their survival, like that of their ancestors, heavily depended upon the buffalo (1). This creature provided the Sioux bands with essential necessities, as they made use of the animal in its entirety. Buffalos were increasingly becoming a commodity amongst the rapidly growing Anglo communities. Although they were quickly decreasing in number, the Lakota band continued to rely on the animal throughout the next century.

The decline in the population of American Indians was already well underway by the nineteenth century. One article estimates that as early as 1492, there were “more than five million Indians living on the continent.” However, “by 1900, their numbers had dwindled to less than 250,000” (6). With the decline in the numbers of buffalo, the future existence of the Sioux bands was gravely threatened. In the 1880’s, there were approximately sixty million buffalo in the United States. However, by 1890, the number of buffalo had declined to 750 (1). The Sioux bands couldn’t survive and were forced by government policy onto reservations.

During the period of the declining buffalo population, Wovoka, a crying infant Paiute, was calmed by his mothers dancing (7). When old enough to speak, Wovoka explained that, in a dream, Indians, and the buffalos had been rescued by thunderbirds and taken above the earth, while a flood cleared the earth of all of its inhabitants (1). When the flood waters were cleared, the Indians, their ancestors, and the buffalo would be returned to earth in its natural state.

One problem with Wovoka’s vision was its variable interpretations amongst different racial groups. According to Paul Saffo, a writer for the California Alumni Association at UC Berkeley, many of the Sioux interpreted Wovoka’s vision as a means to “accelerate the imminent destruction of the white man” (5). Government officials also took away this distorted impression of the vision and this led to further anger and increased need to eradicate the movement. However, Wovoka’s message was explained differently by Porcupine, a Cheyenne whose account is explored in the Journal of Political Ecology. Porcupine, who supported the Sioux during Wavoka’s teachings, explained that “Wavoka stated that fighting was bad, and that “we must all be friends with one another”” (3). According to Porcupine, Wovoka said that “the youth of all good people would be renewed,” white and Indian alike, and he encouraged the Indians “not to quarrel or fight or strike each other, or shoot one another; that whites and Indians were to be all one people” (3). Therefore, Wovoka didn’t wish to bring harm upon the whites exclusively, but only upon those who caused destruction to the earth and to its inhabitants. This finding was verified by Bill Wilson, Wavoka’s adopted white brother who assisted in Wovoka’s movement (3).

Wovoka’s vision revived an older form of prayer called the round dance which involved men holding hands in a circle while slowly stepping toward the left during song (7). While dancing, ghost dance shirts were worn with the belief that they would protect Indians from bullets of white men. Shirts were decorated with depictions of the eagle, buffalo, and morning-star as well as with symbols of personal medicines (4). It was believed that the medicine would “come through them when it was needed” (1).

Paul Saffo believes that the ghost dance has not been used exclusively by Native American groups. Rather, he believes that it functions more as a metaphorical concept that continues to exist today. Saffo explains the ghost dance as “a painful and contradictory accommodation that at once reaches back to grasp disappearing cultural norms while simultaneously rejecting and embracing disruptive alien novelties” (5). He compares the motives of the Sioux with those of other groups such as Islamic, Jewish, and Christian fundamentalists. Saffo also argues that ghost dance is embraced by those who wish to forget the past and move into the future. He states that “the Ghost Dance often exhibits itself as an utter rejection of the old in favor of leaping into appealing but unknown new worlds” (5). One example provided was the techno-theoretical “extropians” who desire a faster moving advancement in technology.

The resurrected use of this prayer form among the Sioux led to a spiritual movement in 1888 (7). Originally, the dance was simply called “round dance,” but “because of the belief that it enabled contact with spirits in the next life, it quickly became known as the ghost dance” (7). The dance lasted five days and four continual nights and concluded with river bathing on the morning of the fifth day. The dance was to take place once every six weeks and be accompanied by feasts and the absence of alcohol. The central idea of the round-dance was that its continual performance would result in transforming Wovoka’s dream into a reality. During a total eclipse of the sun in 1889, Wovoka claimed that the vision had repeated.

The increased popularity of the ghost dance frightened the U.S. government. Increased friction among the U.S. government and the Sioux bands had been underway, especially after the Indian’s victory against General George Cluster at the Battle of Little Bignhorn in 1876 (6). The battle resulted with the slaughter of the entire Anglo force. Because of previous conflicts between the United States government and the Indians, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) was naturally threatened by the ghost-dance movement and its use among the Lakota Group (7). The threat also stemmed from misinterpretation of Wovoka’s vision.

On December 29, 1890, the U.S. 7th Calvary sent the tribal police to the Standing Rock Reservation with orders to arrest the chief, Sitting Bull, and deliver him to Omaha, Nebraska (7). The police frightened the Lakota ghost dancers who were outside of Sitting Bull’s house, begging for his safety and continued presence. Bull Head, a police officer, was shot by Catch the Bear, a Lakota. Shots broke out and Sitting Bull was killed as a result. The U.S. government then ordered for the arrest of chief Big Foot (4).

In response to the death of Sitting Bull, Big Foot led his followers to the Pine Ridge Reservation (4). They were discovered by 500 troops of the Seventh Calvary who were sent by the U.S. to disarm the Lakota. They were brought to Wounded Knee Creek. Big Foot met with army officers to discuss the last days’ happenings, but peaceful efforts quickly resulted in firing. Of the 350 Lakota, 153 were killed (including chief Big Foot), fifty were injured and 150 were reported missing (7). It is assumed by many that the missing Lakota had attempted to escape to a nearby ravine and later died from exposure. The only known surviving Lakota were the fifty who had been injured. This event became known as the Wounded Knee Massacre, due to the unwarranted attack of the Indians. There is conflicting evidence as to whether any of the Lakota were armed.

The Sioux’s performance of the ghost dance was quickly abandoned, especially when the Lakota found that Wovoka’s vision failed to become a reality and that their ghost dance shirts weren’t an effective means of protection against the whites (7).

Works Cited

1) “Ghost Dance Movement.” The Ghost Dance Movement.” 9 April 2006.

2) Greenwood, Janette, Thompson. he Gilded Age: A History in Documents. New York: Oxford UP, 2000.

3) Greymorning, Stephen. "Spirit Wars." 2001. Journal of Political Ecology. 14 April 2006.

4) "Massacre At Wounded Knee, 1890." Eye witness to history 1998. 9 April 2006.

5) Saffo, Paul. "Ghost Dance." 2006. California Alumno Association at UC Berkely. 14 April 2006.

6) “The Wounded Knee Massacre; December 29, 1890.”, Great Sioux Nation. 1998. 9 April 2006.

7) "Wounded Knee Massacre." Wikipedia 9 April. 2006.

Week 2 questions: Riis, Davidge, Grant, Adams, Wharton

What do the readings for today tell us about the attitude of people in the 1890s toward children?

What does Jacob Riis mean when he recommends trading “the policeman’s club for a boys’ club”? Why does he believe this to be a useful swap?

Are the boys’ clubs admired by Riis and the young women’s clubs of the Davidge article working toward the same ends? Explain.

What is the role of “women of leisure” in girls’ clubs? What is expected of the working girls in the club? Why?

Throughout the readings for today, is there a prevailing attitude toward women of leisure? Explain any commonalities or inconsistencies among the authors’ views.

Again and again, Davidge uses the word “systematic.” Why is this concept so important to her (and others of her era)? Do we see this concept at play in the other readings? Explain.

What does Adams most admire in the White City? Why?

What extremes does Adams fear? Are they related to the extremes feared by Grant?

Compare Adams’s analysis of the White City with Grant’s claims about New York. Do the men reach similar or divergent conclusions? Explain.

Imagine a conversation between Davidge and Grant. Would they find common ground when they talk about city dwellers? Explain.

Whom does Grant see as the ideal American, and why?

What argument is Grant making about the place of materialism in American culture and life?

The editor of The American 1890s: a Cultural Reader notes that Wharton’s short story “The Pelican” provides “insights into the complicated relations among social standing, perceived economic necessity, and cultural authority.” What does this mean?

How do the roles of Mrs. Amyot and the women to whom she lectures differ from those of the women of leisure in Davidge’s article?

What is the attitude of the writers towards people who wish to make a profit?

Grant makes pretty explicit whom he believes to be the ideal American and what he believes about the average American. How do you think Adams, Davidge, and Riis would describe an ideal American? How would they describe or identify an average American? What role do cities play in shaping these visions?

Reading Questions from April 5

Based on today's readings, what most interests you about women and work? Children and work? Men and work?

When Susan B. Anthony talks about work, whose work outside the home is she overlooking? Do you think she is unaware of these women's plight? Why the omission?

As journalist Stephen Crane tours the mine, he notes again and again moments of levity and moments of terror. Who experiences which emotions, and why?

Do you think Crane sees himself as having a better perspective on the mine than do the miners? Explain.

In the end, what argument do you think Crane was trying to make about mining or the miners?

How did workers subvert or try to undermine the strict rules of their workplaces? What did they gain through such subversion? What did they lose?

What role could and did consumers play in influencing the workplaces where their products were created?

What is the argument of Carnegie's essay?

How does Carnegie justify philanthropy and Social Darwinism?

Did Carnegie's philanthropy support or subvert the norms of capitalism and industrial life?

What else does Carnegie's essay reveal about the U.S. and its values in the Gilded Age?

San Francisco at the Turn of the Century

by Nicole N.

Turn of the century San Francisco was a busy and ever evolving place. The population of California at the time of the 1900 census was 1.5 million (1). At that time, California was the nation’s 21st most populous state. In 1900, the City of San Francisco was populated by a majority of Whites (325,378) followed by 13594 Chinese, 1781 Japanese, 1654 African Americans and 15 Indians. The majority of these whites were Irish, German and Italian. In 1900, the percentage of San Francisco’s foreign-born population was 34%. This population totaled 116,885, about 35,000 were from Germany. There were 53323 dwellings in San Francisco at the time. In 1900, the number of farms in San Francisco was 304. These farms were spread across 8,219 acres. There were 4,002 manufacturing establishments existed in San Francisco in 1900. (2)

As a result of this large unskilled labor force, labor issues were at the forefront of the large numbers of working class citizens of San Francisco as they were with most other places in the country. However, in San Francisco, unlike in other places, the labor issues plagued the growth and progress of the city. The eight-hour working day had been established in San Francisco in 1865 and at that point many unions supporting the 8-hour workday sprung up around the city. In addition, to the 8-hour unions, many others also came to be including the workingmen’s union, office workers union and longshoremen union. In February of 1901, a new union formed, known as the City Front Federation, and united the Sailor's Union of the Pacific, the longshoremen's unions, and the Teamsters' Local 85. Many companies locked out their workers. Soon hundreds of locked out workers found themselves among others who had already been on strike: restaurant cooks and waiters, bakers and bakery wagon drivers, metal polishers, and all fourteen unions of the Iron Trades Council, who were part of a national strike. City Front Federation voted to stage a waterfront strike, which began on July 30 and lasted until October 2, 1901. Father Peter York, an Irish Catholic priest in the Mission at St. Peter's, made a name for himself with many strongly pro-labor speeches and editorials which appealed to the large Roman Catholic population of the City.

An Employers' Association was founded two months after the City Front Federation began. Association rules restricted any member from settling with a union without permission from the executive committee. “The Employers' Association was the real power, and ignored attempts to mediate and enlisted Mayor Phelan and his police force in their efforts” (3). Their goal was to eliminate the unions completely. Strikebreakers were brought in and city police rode with them. The police beat people but made no arrests. After two months on strike the Governor intervened and within an hour an agreement was reached. The Union Labor Party came to power in the city of San Francisco. The strike toll left 5 dead and 300 injured. (3)

Another noteworthy event in San Francisco’s turn of the century history was the development of the Presidio in the 1890’s. After the Presidio had been built, there were many moves to keep the area natural and forested with the native Eucalyptus trees. However, in the early 20th century, the Army realized that it needed to develop a systematic and permanent plan of improvement for the Presidio landscape rather than the haphazard approach that had characterized previous efforts. The Army asked for expert advice from the U.S. Forest Service. They thought that the acres of plantings were too crowded. The Army agreed that plantings had been carried out without a plan in the past and made the decision to manage the forest more intensively. “Although there were numerous initiatives and plans by various Army officers, the Presidio forest developed haphazardly and without a concrete plan for this development” (3). Various agencies and officials recommended the removal of thousands of trees, but only a small portion had been thinned. However it developed, the Presidio forest had become a dominant feature of the Presidio landscape. To many San Franciscans, the mature tree plantings had considerable aesthetic and scenic value.(3)

It is evident that the Northern Californians of San Francisco had already established themselves as people who stood up for what they believed in and voiced their opinions as protesters, ecologists and environmentalists. These stereotypes, to some extent, remain today of people in San Francisco, people who are willing to challenge the status quo.


Works Cited
1. http://www.census.gov/prod/cen1990/cph2/cph-2-1-1.pdf

2.http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/006580.html

3. http://www.shapingsf.org/tour.html

Good Vibes of the 1890's

by Angela S.

In the late nineteenth century female sexuality was limited to an andocentric model, defining healthy normal sex as heterosexual vaginal penetration within marriage that resulted in male ejaculation. (1) The andocentric Victorian definition of normal sex (which applied to white middle/upper class women) restricted female sexuality and greatly misunderstood female anatomy. Although female orgasms were accepted, and indeed, encouraged within marriage; vaginal orgasms were viewed as superior to clitoral orgasms. Healthy couples were expected to produce vaginal orgasm and women who were unable to rise to the occasion were deemed ill. Masturbation was understood as a sin and women or men who engaged in personal or partner masturbation were referred to as "self abusers". (2) Freud argued that clitoral orgasms were unhealthy and immature, while vaginal orgasms marked full development of women. The popular belief in the hierarchy of orgasms contradicted the fact that three fourths of women claimed to have never reached a vaginal orgasm. (3)

Female sexuality became medicalized and physicians put all hands on deck, literally, to cure the troubling illness. Physicians diagnosed the lack of vaginal orgasm as a disease named 'hysteria' and associated hysteria with frigidity. The symptoms included anxiety, sleeplessness, irritability, erotic fantasy, temperamentality, and not surprisingly, aversion of heterosexual intercourse. (4) Hysteria was considered a psychological illness found only in women and cured with "hysterical paroxysm". (2) The prescription, hysterical paroxysm, was a therapeutic clitoral message performed by physicians. In simpler words, physicians used their fingers to message the clitoris until the female patient reached an orgasm. Although the idea of a physician essentially getting a women off (excuse my crudeness) seems bizarre and illegal, the Victorian andocentric sexual model did not consider hysterical paroxysm as sexual act. The medically prescribed relief of hysterical symptoms was not viewed as sexual because it did not include vaginal penetration, male ejaculation, or the 'superior' vaginal orgasm.

Hysteria was one of the most commonly diagnosed diseases and the prescription, hysterical paroxysm was, in demand. Women made regular visits to be relieved of their symptoms, bringing steady income to physicians but also demanding hours of laborious work. Relief, as we'll call it, could take up to an hour to reach and required skilled finger work that became tiresome to physicians with steady cliental. Consumer and commercial demands were met quickly during the 1880's and1890's. In the 1880's, Joseph Mortimer Granville invented the first electric vibrator as a medical devise. (3) The electric vibrator eased the labor of doctors and 'cured' patients by providing clitoral stimulation, no penetration was involved. Competing models quickly emerged including hand held devices, machines mounted to tables, and vibrators that hung from the ceiling (to view images click here). Prescribed relief was carried out in rooms called "operating theaters". Operating theaters appealed to female aesthetic, provided privacy, and created a comfortable atmosphere, including a bed, that allowed women to relax and reach climax (as we would call it today).

During the 1890's the vibrator eventually became a home appliance. Home catalogs marketed the electric vibrator towards women as another home necessity. The vibrator was the fifth home appliance to be electrified, the sewing machine, toaster, tea kettle, and fan came first. The vibrator appeared in the Sears Roebuck catalog on the same page with the items listed above, and pitched as "'aids that every woman appreciates,' with the delicious promise that 'all the pleasures of youth...will throb within you.'"(3) The home version of the electric vibrator gave women the opportunity to relieve their hysteria symptoms and was believed to encourage health, youth, and vitality. Many advertisements praised the health benefits of "release" included repair, rejuvenation, and rest. The healing rhetoric coupled with the home 'appliance' was a stark contrast to the condemning and inferior illness that was used to describe clitoral orgasm and hysteria. Despite the healing properties that were attached to the clitoral orgasm, myths of rigidity and hysteria plagued women well into the 1950's, and perhaps even beyond in some cases. Hysteria remained a diagnosed female disease until the American Psychiatric Association abolished it in 1952; in fact, hysteria was the number one diagnosed disease in the 1930's. (2) Male sexual inadequacy or anatomical ignorance was not fully addressed until the feminist movement in the 1960's and 1970's, the same era when vilification of female masturbation was denounced as sexiest

When thinking about the history of the electric vibrator it is crucial to consider sexual regulation, social construction, sexism, and patriarchy during the late nineteenth century. The history of hysteria and the vibrator is exciting and interesting, but more importantly, this history reveals the constraints of female sexuality. This includes the medicalization of the female orgasm, the power physicians held over women's bodies, and the hierarchical elements that plagued all facets of Victorian women's lives, even their orgasm. For more concise information on this topic visit www.goodvibes.com, the website includes pictures, a brief history, and books; also, the San Francisco store is home to a vibrator museum. The movie, "The Road to Wellville", as a historically accurate and entertaining representation of this topic, if nothing else, the movie is hilarious and entertaining to watch. Rachel Maines literally wrote the book on this topic: The Technology of Orgasms: Hysteria, the Vibrator, and Women's Sexual Satisfaction. The Body Electric by Carolyn Thomas de la Pena, is also helpful and I highly recommend The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls by Joan Jacobs Brumberg (especially for women).

1. Maines, Rachel P., The Technology of Orgasm: Hysteria, the Vibrator, and Women's Sexual Satisfaction. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999). (This source will be used throughout this essay)

2. The American Historical Review: "Comparative/World". Vol. 106, Issue 2.

3. Angier, Natalie, "In the History of Gynecology, a Surprising Chapter." (New York Times: February 23, 1999).

4. Review of Rachel P. Maines. JAMA.


Sources:
Angier, Natalie, "In the History of Gynecology, a Surprising Chapter." (New York Times: February 23, 1999).

Brown, Elspeth, "Technology, Culture, and the Body in Modern America." American Quarterly: Vol. 56. No 2 (June 2004).

"Comparative/World." The American Historical Review: Vol. 106, Issue 2.

Cott, Nancy F., "Passionlessness: An Interpretation of Victorian Sexual Ideology, 1790-1850." Journal of Women in Culture and Society (Winter, 1978).

Maines, Rachel P., The Technology of Orgasm: Hysteria, the Vibrator, and Women's Sexual Satisfaction. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999).
(This source will be used throughout this essay)

Review of Rachel P. Maines. JAMA.

The Social Gospel Movement and Washington Gladden

by Christopher F.

The current Christian influence in American politics would suggest that Christianity is necessarily linked to conservative politics. Most churches in American are overwhelmingly aligned with the Republican Party and therefore its politics. However, this alignment has not always been the case. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the progressive movement in America had a significant religious wing that promoted what it dubbed the Social Gospel. This movement applied Christian principles to solve social problems of the day; “especially poverty, liquor, drugs, crime, racial tensions, slums, bad hygiene, poor schools, and the danger of war.” A significant leader of the Social Gospel Movement was Washington Gladden, who became involved in the movement while he was a pastor at the First Congregational Church of Columbus, Ohio. Gladden provides a stark contrast to politically active Christians of the 21st century. His ideas about race, war, unionization, women’s suffrage, corporations, and evolution were very liberal for his time, and certainly disparate from prominent conservative, Christian leaders of today.

Gladden’s ideas about racial equality arose early in his progressive life. In 1880 he wrote, “If the color of the waiter who leans over your shoulder at dinner does not trouble you, you have no right to object to the color of someone who sits on the other side of the table.” () At this period in history, such a level of equality was unheard of. Blacks were much more concerned with much smaller issues such as getting paid fairly as the waiter in Gladden’s vignette, for example. Being able to sit down to dinner together as equals was progressive even fifty years after Gladden’s death in 1918.

In a far greater display of his desire for racial equality, in 1912, Gladden wrote a letter to Booker T. Washington inquiring his opinion concerning women’s suffrage. He writes, “Dear Dr. Washington: Some of your friends here are anxious to know your attitude on woman suffrage I do not know that I have ever read anything you have written about it: and I make bold to write to ask you how it looks to you.” Gladden goes on to say that although he is not entirely confident that women should be granted suffrage he thought that he would vote in favor of the amendment. Here Gladden shows that he both values the opinion of a prominent black leader, uncommon for his time, and is in favor of women’s suffrage (even though he has his reservations). Both of these facts show that Gladden was quite progressive.

Gladden’s ideas about war were also quite different from prominent Christian leaders of the twenty-first century. He said, “I am unable to see that war is or can be anything other than a curse. I could be willing many times over to give my life for my native land, but to kill my brother man – no.” This is in stark contrast to the religious right of today’s political arena, most of whom supported the war in Iraq, and many of whom view it as a sort of holy war between Christianity and Islam. Gladden believed that Christianity could not support war in any fashion because it involved killing his fellow man, whom he believed it was his responsibility to save.

Perhaps Gladden’s most famous opinion concerned wealth and the economic practices of the wealthy. In a letter to The Outlook in April 1905, Gladden proposed that the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions turn down a $100,000 donation from John D. Rockefeller. He writes, “[Mr. Rockefeller] is the representative of a great system that has become a public enemy. The organization which he represents has been and now is a gigantic oppressor of the people… it Is abundantly clear that this great fortune has been built up by the transgression and the evasion of the law and by methods which are at war with the first principles of morality.” (Greenwood, 26). Gladden was clearly not interested in building up a massive ministerial empire, which is so often the case with today’s religious leaders.

Ultimately, if the Social Gospel Movement were more active in today’s society, and if more leaders like Washington Gladden were around, the church would have a much different perception on the political stage. Christianity has not always been aligned with right-wing, conservative politics and therefore it is not necessarily so. It has the ability to cover a broad range of political views and social ideas. However, due to prominent Christian leaders such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, Christianity has been stereotyped to fit their personas. Gladden shows us that the spectrum is much broader than that, and that faith does not have to mean ignorance and conservative politics.

The Temperance Movement

by Keren B.

In 1918 Congress passed the 18th Amendment to the Constitution that banned alcohol, the transportation, sale, and manufacturing of all alcohol products became illegal. (2) Although the 18th Amendment did not last past the 1930’s, the decision to fully ban products that had been consumed for all of America’s history was a colossal occurrence. Ironically, years before “as the Puritans loaded provisions onto the Mayflower before casting off to the New World, they brought on board more beer than water,” as beer was a safer bet for their health in comparison to the possibility of drinking contaminated water. (3) So from its earliest days, America had been a land of substantial alcohol consumption almost more important than water itself!

Although the Puritans might have deemed alcohol more significant than water in their voyage to the Americas, alcohol consumption was not always a favored beverage, and the first “temperance association” was formed by 200 Connecticut farmers who banned together after hearing information that said alcohol was associated to a deterioration of health in 1784. By 1826, the American Temperance Society had been founded which was closely related to the Christian religion and those people who considered themselves ”religious and moral.” (3) After the Civil War was the notable period for when women began fully throwing themselves into a variety of reform movements, many issues were fought for at the same time, and some of these reform issues included women’s suffrage, fighting against child abuse, women prison reform, welfare, fighting against prostitution, unemployment, clean water, and of course the prohibition of alcohol. (4)

One of the largest women’s associations ever was the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, which had the most women members during the 1890’s. (4) In many ways they full heartedly fought the consumption of alcohol, but most interesting to me was in the ways that they targeted politics, as non-voting members of society, and the way they targeted the teaching curriculums in schools. The Women’s Christian Temperance Union consisted of women who typically were expected to exist only within the home as the “creators of comfortable and nurturing environment for their husbands and children.” (5 pg 80) In the political arena middle-class women used their images as keepers of their homes to fight against alcohol, as they termed their fight for the prohibition of alcohol as a form of “home protection.” (4) They said that alcohol was “the root cause of many social and urban ills as well as the source of domestic violence and unstable homes.” (5 pg 80) Thus, they took the roles they were assigned by society and used them to enter the political world, otherwise dominated by white males. Although women did not have the right to vote, many reached out into their communities and encouraged those who could vote to ban alcohol.

Another way that the women who fought for the Temperance Movement waged war against alcohol was by targeting what children were being taught in schools. The “mandatory temperance education” taught that “alcohol ruins the character, prevents men from obtaining good positions” and that those who drink are “careless, dull, and irresponsible.” Also “the nature of alcohol is that of a poison” and other things that seem extreme and unproven like alcohol “slowly change the muscles of the heart into fat.” (4) The ways in which these women educated others about alcohol do seem a bit extreme, as today we understand the difference between heavy drinking, which can be dangerous, compared to moderate drinking, which would not typically cause ones heart muscle to turn into fat. The long lasting effect that this had was that today in schools kids have to go through “formal drug education” (3) and organizations like MADD, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, is a legacy of Frances Willard, once the President of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union. (4)

Other interesting facts I found about the Temperance Movement was that propaganda went beyond simply the political arena and the school curriculum and reached into Americans daily lives, exemplified through art work and songs that I found when doing the research. In a song from 1869 called “Who’ll Buy?” alcohol was described as an evil that caused many problems prevalent in society like murder, larceny, theft, empty pockets, and tangled brains, also implying that those who drank had no conscious, and a black soul. (6) In a picture found from the time, a man with alcohol bottles under him appeared to be in the midst of fires, murders, and other negative activities. () Beyond trying to separate what is straight propaganda from the truth, the women who spoke out against the evils of alcohol and their effects on their husbands everyday lives seemed to be successful and the Women’s Christians Temperance Union was very triumphant in being heard, which is incredible considering that women’s place at the time was in the home, and yet so many were stepping out of their normal roles and fighting for a variety of causes that concerned them.

Resources:
1) Murray, James. “Who’ll Buy” Pacific Glee Book Cincinnati 1869
2) The Library of Congress. “Progressive Era to New Era, 1900-1929”
3) Hanson, David J. “National Prohibition of Alcohol in the U.S.”
4) Griffith, Elisabeth. “Do Everything” She Said (www.nytimes.com) written Dec. 14th, 1986
5) Greenwood, Janette Thomas. The Gilded Age pg 80-81. Oxford University Press, 2000
6) Ardent Spirits, The Origins of the American Temperance Movement- A Virtual Exhibition

Los Angeles at the Turn of the Century

by Nina B.

At the turn of the century, Los Angeles was a busy, booming urban city quickly growing into major world metropolis. Growing later than many cities in the United States, Los Angeles grew and spread out quickly in order to accommodate the rapid increase of population. Between 1890 and 1900, the population of the City of Los Angeles grew from 50,395 to 102,479, while the population of the county grew from 101,454 to 170,298. With such a large growth in the city‚s population, the city also needed to expand its cultural sites/centers, traditions, businesses, and public services. These new establishments in Los Angeles served the new city‚s residents, with many of them continuing to serve residents for decades.

The 1890s saw the establishment and creation of many of Los Angeles's famous traditions and public services. In 1890, the first Tournament of Roses Parade was held in Pasadena, with that tradition continuing today as on New Year's Day 2006 we celebrated the 106th Parade. Also in 1892, the Angeles National Forest was established, making it the first National Forest within California. For the residents of downtown, or the City of Los Angeles, 1896 saw the creation of the largest urban park in the nation, Griffith Park, created for free use by the public. Also, in 1898 Los Angeles formed only the fifth symphony orchestra in all the United States. The creation of these public services and cultural traditions allowed Los Angeles to become more than just a network of cities and grow into a major world city with a rich public cultural center.

The huge increase in population during the 1890s in Los Angeles had a reciprocal relationship with the business boom during this time. In 1892 the first oil discovery within Los Angeles was made by Edward Doheny, which drew many businesses and investors to the growing city. 1897 saw one of the largest creations of jobs for Los Angelinos during this time when Congress appropriated $3.9 million dollars to create an artificial harbor in San Pedro. Workers were not only needed to build this new harbor, but also to run it upon completion. Also, 1899 saw the creation of the Los Angeles Stock Exchange, making Los Angeles a major player in the country's financial system.

Of all the major cultural and social creations in Los Angeles at the turn of the century, the one that had the most effect on the urban population of the city was the creation of the public transit system. At the turn of the century, and still today, Los Angeles was a vast city made up of many areas, neighborhoods, and sub-cities that span a much greater distance than other cities major cities such as New York. Because of the massive area Los Angeles was spread out onto, in order to get workers and freight across the city, a large public transit system was greatly needed. The turn of the century saw the establishment of a large public transportation system, dependent mostly on The Red Cars. In 1894 Moses Sherman and Eli Clark established the Los Angeles Consolidated Electric Railway. In 1895, the Los Angeles Consolidated Electric Railway created the first intercity line in Los Angeles; an electric rail line that connected Pasadena and Los Angeles. The first rail line was such a success, that it spawned the creation of other tracks, and by 1896 rail lines connected Los Angeles
and the future Beverly Hills, Hollywood and through to Santa Monica. The creation of these rail lines was of vital importance to the people and growth of Los Angeles. This public transportation system now allowed workers to who lived on one side of the city to work on another.

Life in Los Angeles at the turn of the century was one of major expansion and growth in all aspects of city life. Though developing later than most other major cities in the United States, Los Angeles grew quickly in the 1890s to catch up. It can be seen through all the cultural developments, business establishments, and public services created at the turn of the century, that Los Angeles was aiming to be a major city but was still concerned about taking care of its citizens. Life in Los Angeles at the
turn of the century was about growth, development, and urban sprawl, with the citizens of Los Angeles working and living in an area greater than most cities of the time.

Yellow Journalism

by Ashley B.

When “yellow” is used as an adjective it usually implies something is bright in color or something is festive and cheerful in spirits. In the case of yellow journalism neither implication is correct. The term “yellow” stemmed from a popular comic strip in the mid-1890s called “Yellow Kid.” This strip was featured in both, William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer’s, competing newspapers. John Baker, a writer for the San Mateo times, goes into more detail about this topic here. It would be safe to call Hearst the father of “yellow journalism.” According to dictionary.com, yellow journalism is defined as “journalism that exploits, distorts or exaggerates the news to create sensations and attract readers.” It is usually full of bias and low on credibility. Yellow journalism conception was after the dawn of the industrial revolution. The industrial revolution made mass production possible, making paper sales limitless. This rapid growth led to greed, and in the end made ethical obligations fall below their desire for high sales. Editors stopped being journalists and started being business men. Their main goal was no longer to deliver truthful news, it was to sell papers. Over 100 years ago there was a very controversial topic circulating the news waves. It was thought that Hearst sent a telegram promising to “furnish the war,” meaning he would exaggerate stories and publish them in his newspaper about the brewing Spanish-American war. Professor W. Joseph Campbell, author of the book, Yellow Journalism: Puncturing the Myths, Defining the Legacies, goes into detail about the absurdity of this claim when he is para-phrased saying,

Campbell debunks as highly improbable one of the most famous anecdotes in American journalism--the purported exchange of telegrams between Hearst and the artist Frederic Remington, in which Hearst supposedly vowed to "furnish the war" with Spain. Campbell's research demonstrates that the exchange almost certainly never took place.

Hearst’s alleged motives were for his New York Journal to outsell Pulitzer’s New York World. If Hearst intensified the drama between the Spaniards and the Americans then his paper would have the more interesting articles, in the end making him more money. This particular action may not have happened, but Hearst did exaggerate current events to makes headlines flashy and appealing. Regardless if the allegations are true or not, the mid-1890s gave birth to a scandalous side of journalism. Unfortunately, this unethical practice did not stop with Hearst. It has continued on today. America is engaged in a war on terrorism and along with that war comes daily articles with shocking headlines. Do not be naïve and think that Americans have outgrown the fad of yellow journalism. One current example took place shortly before the 2004 elections and was reported by The Washington Times. Barrett Kalellis, a writer for the Times, shows how prevalent yellow journalism is now when he says, “Ironically, the current furor about the goings on in Baghdad's Abu Ghraib Prison is cut from the same cloth as Hearst's yellow journalism. All the elements are there: shrill, near-hysterical headlines demanding immediate action; publication of inflammatory photos documenting mistreatment of prisoners; and editorial condemnation.” Kalellis shows the motives in this were to show weakness in the current Republican administration, giving more faith to Kerry, strengthening Kerry’s chances of winning the presidential election and handing the power back over to the Democrats. The events in Baghdad surrounding the Ghraib prison affair were unfortunate, but had they not had such a strong link to national feelings towards the current administration, the event would not have been so highly publicized. Another publication, Knight Ridder Tribune, writes about how difficult it is to find an honest article. The author describes current day publications as, “This Ping-Pong sense of truth that permeates American media (and increasingly, consciousness), we believe, unnecessarily limits the range of intelligence available to the American public. In media these days, you are expected to be either one or the other; and more and more commentators line up with one side against the other, rather than look for more comprehensive approaches” In this day and age, where technology is at our fingertips, it is a tragedy that we have to filter through publications and question each one, is it yellow journalism propaganda or fact? Readers must be defensive, check and double check sources, and consider each authors motivations. On the surface it seemed as gossip columns and grocery store tabloids were the only publications filled with yellow journalism; the above examples have shown that even our highly reputable national newspapers are dipped in yellow journalism.

Works Cited:

"Yellow" Journalism. Accessed 6 April 2006.

Yellow Journalism. Accessed 5 April 2006.

Debunking Yellow Journalism. Accessed 6 April 2006.

The Return of Yellow Journalism. Accessed 6 April 2006.

Rampant Yellow Journalism extends beyond Iraq War Coverage. Accessed 7 April 2006.