1870-1900: Industrial Development

Later the Civil State of war, the The states apace transformed into an industrial, urbanized nation. Technological innovation, economic growth, development of large-scale agriculture, and the expansion of the federal government characterized the era, as did the social tensions brought about by immigration, financial turmoil, federal Indian policy, and increasing demands for rights by workers, women, and minorities.

This group of objects highlights innovation and industrialization in the belatedly 1800s, and the benefits likewise every bit detriments of becoming an economical and industrial ability.

Century Vase, 1876

Fabricated by Union Porcelain Works, Greenpoint, New York

The American Industrial Revolution transformed the nation from a scattering of isolated communities into an economic and industrial giant, in function due to the country's wealth of natural resources. Forests, minerals, waterways, and huge tracts of arable land for farming and ranching provided the raw materials that fueled growth and development, ofttimes at the expense of the environment.

This vase celebrates 100 years of American progress and depicts now-vanished icons of the American mural such as bison, a wooden reaper, and a steamship.

Railroad Spike, 1869

Commemorative of the final spike that completed the transcontinental railroad

Railroads were the basis of the nation'due south industrial economy in the tardily 1800s, creating new markets, carrying billions of tons of freight to every corner of the state, and opening up the West for development. Cheers in part to the railroad providing access to new land for farming, farm production doubled in the 1870s, which in plough increased railroad traffic.

Gift of Union Pacific Railroad, Mr. A. E. Stoddard, President

Stock Ticker, about 1900

Made by the Western Union Telegraph Company

The U.Due south. economy grew speedily after the Ceremonious War, fueled by an astounding ascension in wealth, wages, production, and corporate mergers, along with express government regulation. The volume of stocks traded rose sharply with corporations' need for investment upper-case letter and the development of new technologies. The 1867 invention of the stock ticker, transmitting up-to-the-infinitesimal share prices over telegraph lines, modernized the stock exchange.

Gift of Western Matrimony Corporation

Incandescent Lamp, well-nigh 1891

Made past Edison General Electric Company

Many inventions in the late 1880s helped speed urban growth, assuasive for taller buildings, more efficient factories, and better transportation. One of the most dramatic improvements occurred in artificial lighting. Thomas Edison'south evolution of an electrical lamp that did not rely on open flames made lighting more than practical for factories, offices, and homes, and transformed city life.

Gift of General Electric Lighting Company, through Terry K. McGowan

Tinfoil Phonograph, 1878

Invented by Thomas Alva Edison

Thomas Edison helped usher in an age of organized inquiry in support of commerce and industry that reshaped American life. Vowing to turn out inventions on a regular basis, Edison and his team of scientists, engineers, draftsmen, and laborers developed or improved over i,000 patents, from huge electric generators to this early on phonograph.

Gift of American Phone and Telegraph Visitor

Alexander Graham Bell's Big Box Telephone, 1876

1 of the start commercially available telephones

Telegraph lines could deport just 1 coded bulletin per wire at a time, which became a hindrance as the book of advice increased. To overcome this problem, Alexander Bell used his knowledge of acoustics to devise a method of sending multiple tonal messages over a wire. This led to the telephone, and a communication revolution that transformed business and daily life.

Gift of American Telephone and Telegraph Company

Cross, 1875–99

Made by a Hispanic Catholic in New Mexico

New Mexico has experienced many cultural encounters since the arrival of the Spanish in the early 1500s. Following the United states' 1848 annexation of the area at the cease of war with Mexico, the population of the territory boomed, bringing together Catholics of Castilian descent, indigenous tribes, Protestant missionaries, and Anglo American settlers. Though often in conflict, these communities forged a distinctive regional identity that survives to the present.

Argent Presentation Cup, about 1900

Presented to Susan B. Anthony on her eightieth birthday

Although American women fought for black suffrage, they were unable to vote in federal elections themselves until 1920. Equally suffragists moved out of the parlor and into the streets, they challenged the notion that a woman'southward place was solely in the home. Susan B. Anthony shocked the nation when she was jailed in 1872 for illegally trying to vote.

Gift of National American Woman Suffrage Association

Impress, 1870s

Black politicians during Reconstruction

With the end of the Civil War, hard-won constitutional amendments abolished slavery and established citizenship and voting rights for black Americans. But during and after Reconstruction, blacks were often treated as second-course citizens. Southern states continued to restrict blackness voting, and the ascension of the Ku Klux Klan led to decades of violence.

From the Ralph E. Becker Collection of Political Americana

Statue, late 1800s

Made by the Union Porcelain Works, Greenpoint, New York

In the late 1800s, blackness Americans gained citizenship and the vote, while immigrants from Europe and Asia came to the state in tape numbers. Equally these minorities strove for economic prosperity and social justice, some white Americans reacted to the quickly changing social order with apprehension and hostility. The relationship of the three figures in this statue captures this tension.

Gift of Mrs. Franklin Chace

Vocalizer Sewing Car Patent Model, 1889

Factory machine for making buttonholes

American appurtenances were increasingly made in factories as companies adopted large-scale, standardized product methods in the late 1800s. Specialized machines took the place of manual tasks—such as sewing buttonholes for set-made habiliment—speeding up the work to meet the growing demands of a nation of consumers. The advent of more only constructed women's apparel in the 1890s gave a further boost to the clothing manufacture.

Sholes & Glidden Typewriter, 1873

Fabricated by E. Remington & Sons

The development of corporations afterwards the Civil War led to the creation of multiple layers of office management. The vast demand for professional managers and clerical staff encouraged didactics and the growth of the center class. The introduction of the typewriter gave women the opportunity to enter the corporate workplace.

Gift of Wyckoff, Seamans & Benedict

John Chocolate-brown Lennon'south Consul Bluecoat, 1893

From the Journeymen Tailors' Union convention

Rapid industrial development in the tardily 1800s changed where and how Americans worked. By 1900, U.Southward. factories employed four.five 1000000 people, well-nigh working long hours for low wages in oftentimes unhealthful weather. Workers organized local and national unions in response, leading to an intense period of political activeness, strikes, and sometimes fierce clashes in the fight for labor rights.

Gift of D. E. Lennon

Jeans, 1873-96

Made by Levi Strauss & Co., San Franscisco

Betwixt 1870 and 1900 over 430 million acres were settled in the United states, well-nigh of them in the Westward. Mining, ranching, and farming drew waves of settlers, and cities and commerce followed. In 1873 San Francisco merchant LeviStrauss and tailor Jacob Davis patented a designfor rugged workers' pants for western wearable—the showtime jeans, advertised at right in 1875.

Souvenir of Walter Haas Jr.

Winchester Rifle, 1881

Captured from Sioux when Principal Low Dog surrendered in Montana Territory

Through about of the 1800s, Americans viewed the nation's westward expansion as a symbol of its providence as a state of wealth and progress. But Indian tribes resisted the encroachment of settlers in their territories, setting off decades of violence. The federal government gradually pushed the tribes to more isolated areas, offering U.S. citizenship, but few opportunities, to those who agreed to accept allotments of land on reservations.

Human's Gown, about 1896

Ordered from Mainland china by Lee B. Lok in 1896

With the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869, thousands of Chinese laborers were left jobless in the western U.s.a.. Unwelcome in California, where it was feared they competed for depression-paying jobs, many moved to the Due east Coast. Lee Lok emigrated from China to San Francisco in 1881 and and so moved to New York City'south Chinatown where he worked in a general shop. Although he could not go a U.Southward. citizen, his children could, and did.

Gift of James Edgar Mead and Virginia Lee Mead

The objects beneath are no longer on view

Harvester and Self-Raking Reaper Patent Model, 1877

Patented by William Whiteley

Increasingly mechanized farming meant fewer laborers were needed on farms, releasing them to work in urban industrial jobs. As the cities grew, demand increased for agricultural goods in turn. Inventors looked for new ways for farming to exist more than efficient and profitable, including making improvements to existing technology such every bit the mechanical reaper first adult by Cyrus McCormick in 1834.

Creeping Infant Doll, 1870s

Patented by Robert J. Clay

In the 1870s, changing notions of childhood meant that Anglo American parents had but recently accepted crawling, or creeping, equally a natural phase in a baby's development rather than a bad addiction.  Prior to this, generations of American children had been prevented from crawling on all fours, an activity and so associated with animals and the insane.

Child's Dress, 1876

Made from fabric purchased at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition

Celebrating innovations in industry and the arts, the international Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition commemorated the hundredth anniversary of the American Revolution, embodied Americans' confidence in the futurity, and revealed the country's potential to the remainder of the world. Among the crowds attention the centennial was Henry Fletcher, who purchased the patriotic fabric his married woman used to make this dress for their showtime child, born in 1876.