1870-1900: Industrial Evolution

Afterwards the Civil War, the United States rapidly transformed into an industrial, urbanized nation. Technological innovation, economic growth, evolution of large-scale agronomics, 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 past workers, women, and minorities.

This group of objects highlights innovation and industrialization in the belatedly 1800s, and the benefits as well every bit detriments of becoming an economic and industrial power.

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 part due to the state'due south wealth of natural resource. Forests, minerals, waterways, and huge tracts of arable land for farming and ranching provided the raw materials that fueled growth and development, often at the expense of the environment.

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

Railroad Spike, 1869

Commemorative of the terminal spike that completed the transcontinental railroad

Railroads were the basis of the nation'southward industrial economic system in the tardily 1800s, creating new markets, conveying billions of tons of freight to every corner of the land, and opening up the West for development. Thanks in part to the railroad providing access to new land for farming, agricultural 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 Wedlock Telegraph Company

The U.S. economy grew rapidly after the Civil War, fueled by an astounding rise in wealth, wages, product, and corporate mergers, along with express government regulation. The volume of stocks traded rose sharply with corporations' need for investment capital letter and the development of new technologies. The 1867 invention of the stock ticker, transmitting up-to-the-minute share prices over telegraph lines, modernized the stock exchange.

Gift of Western Union Corporation

Incandescent Lamp, well-nigh 1891

Made by Edison General Electric Visitor

Many inventions in the late 1880s helped speed urban growth, allowing for taller buildings, more efficient factories, and amend transportation. I of the most dramatic improvements occurred in artificial lighting. Thomas Edison's development of an electric lamp that did not rely on open up flames fabricated lighting more applied for factories, offices, and homes, and transformed city life.

Gift of Full general Electric Lighting Company, through Terry G. 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 footing, Edison and his team of scientists, engineers, draftsmen, and laborers developed or improved over one,000 patents, from huge electric generators to this early phonograph.

Gift of American Telephone and Telegraph Company

Alexander Graham Bell'due south Big Box Telephone, 1876

One of the beginning commercially bachelor telephones

Telegraph lines could carry simply one coded message per wire at a fourth dimension, which became a hindrance as the volume of advice increased. To overcome this problem, Alexander Bell used his knowledge of acoustics to devise a method of sending multiple tonal letters 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 end of war with United mexican states, the population of the territory boomed, bringing together Catholics of Spanish descent, ethnic 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 Loving cup, virtually 1900

Presented to Susan B. Anthony on her eightieth altogether

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

Souvenir of National American Adult female Suffrage Clan

Print, 1870s

Black politicians during Reconstruction

With the end of the Civil State of war, hard-won constitutional amendments abolished slavery and established citizenship and voting rights for black Americans. But during and afterward Reconstruction, blacks were often treated as second-form citizens. Southern states connected to restrict blackness voting, and the rise of the Ku Klux Klan led to decades of violence.

From the Ralph East. Becker Collection of Political Americana

Statue, late 1800s

Made by the Union Porcelain Works, Greenpoint, New York

In the late 1800s, black Americans gained citizenship and the vote, while immigrants from Europe and Asia came to the land in record numbers. As these minorities strove for economic prosperity and social justice, some white Americans reacted to the rapidly irresolute social order with apprehension and hostility. The relationship of the 3 figures in this statue captures this tension.

Gift of Mrs. Franklin Chace

Singer Sewing Machine Patent Model, 1889

Manufactory machine for making buttonholes

American goods were increasingly made in factories as companies adopted big-calibration, standardized production methods in the belatedly 1800s. Specialized machines took the place of manual tasks—such as sewing buttonholes for ready-made clothing—speeding up the piece of work to see the growing demands of a nation of consumers. The advent of more simply synthetic women'southward apparel in the 1890s gave a farther heave to the habiliment industry.

Sholes & Glidden Typewriter, 1873

Made past Due east. Remington & Sons

The development of corporations after the Ceremonious State of war led to the creation of multiple layers of office management. The vast demand for professional managers and clerical staff encouraged education and the growth of the middle class. The introduction of the typewriter gave women the opportunity to enter the corporate workplace.

Gift of Wyckoff, Seamans & Bridegroom

John Brown Lennon'southward Delegate Badge, 1893

From the Journeymen Tailors' Union convention

Rapid industrial development in the late 1800s changed where and how Americans worked. Past 1900, U.S. factories employed four.5 million people, about working long hours for depression wages in often unhealthful conditions. Workers organized local and national unions in response, leading to an intense period of political activity, strikes, and sometimes violent clashes in the fight for labor rights.

Souvenir of D. Eastward. Lennon

Jeans, 1873-96

Made by Levi Strauss & Co., San Franscisco

Betwixt 1870 and 1900 over 430 1000000 acres were settled in the U.s., almost of them in the West. 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 wear—the first jeans, advertised at right in 1875.

Souvenir of Walter Haas Jr.

Winchester Rifle, 1881

Captured from Sioux when Main Low Canis familiaris surrendered in Montana Territory

Through most of the 1800s, Americans viewed the nation'southward w expansion as a symbol of its providence every bit a land of wealth and progress. Only Indian tribes resisted the inroad of settlers in their territories, setting off decades of violence. The federal regime gradually pushed the tribes to more isolated areas, offer U.S. citizenship, only few opportunities, to those who agreed to take allotments of land on reservations.

Man's Gown, about 1896

Ordered from 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 United States. Unwelcome in California, where it was feared they competed for low-paying jobs, many moved to the East Coast. Lee Lok emigrated from China to San Francisco in 1881 and so moved to New York City's Chinatown where he worked in a general store. Although he could not get a U.S. denizen, his children could, and did.

Gift of James Edgar Mead and Virginia Lee Mead

The objects below 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 piece of work in urban industrial jobs. Equally the cities grew, demand increased for agricultural goods in turn. Inventors looked for new means for farming to be more efficient and profitable, including making improvements to existing technology such equally the mechanical reaper first developed 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, as a natural stage in a baby'due south development rather than a bad habit.  Prior to this, generations of American children had been prevented from crawling on all fours, an activity then associated with animals and the insane.

Child'due south Wearing apparel, 1876

Made from cloth 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' conviction in the future, and revealed the country's potential to the rest of the earth. Amongst the crowds attention the centennial was Henry Fletcher, who purchased the patriotic fabric his married woman used to make this dress for their first child, built-in in 1876.