Metasites
Gilded Age and Progressive Era Resources:
www.tntech.edu/www/acad/hist/gilprog.html. This source links students to Gilded-Age sites through various universities, historical centers, museums, and libraries throughout the country. It categorizes its links into General Resources; Political Leaders; Transformation of the West; The Rise of Big Business and American Workers; Literary and Cultural Resources; The War with Spain; The New Immigration and Urban America; Progressive Reform, 1901-1917; and America and the Great War, 1914-1918. This site is an excellent starting point for research on the Gilded Age.
Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era:
www.h-net.msu.edu/~shgape/. The home page for the Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era (SHGAPE) provides links to dozens of web sites related to the Gilded Age. Of particular interest to teachers is the site's resources section. Here, visitors will find links to teaching materials, textbook reviews, and bibliographic essays, as well as information geared at scholars of this period.
Sites
After Reconstruction: Studying the Problems of African Americans in the South:
memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/lesson.html. Too often, the history of the Gilded Age includes only white Americans. With this online lesson plan, the Library of Congress attempts to bring African Americans back into the history of the late nineteenth century. Designed for grades 9-12, this lesson incorporates primary documents and small group work.
The American 1890s: A Chronology:
http://ernie.bgsu.edu/~wgrant/1890s/america.html [link unavailable as of 6/13/00]. Bowling Green State University's American Culture Studies Program takes you through the 1890s using an extensive time line, with various links to essays or major issues of that decade. The Jim Crow Laws and the lynchings that African Americans endured, the massacre at Wounded Knee, the Pullman Strike, the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, and other parts of U.S. culture in the Gilded Age are included on this timeline. Overall, the site provides a useful snapshot of the period.
Coal Mining in the Gilded Age:
www.cohums.ohiostate.edu/history/projects/
Lessons_US/Gilded_Age/. The history department at Ohio State University maintains this web site covering different aspects of coal mining in the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. Through text and pictures, the site discusses the skills needed for mining and argues that the process of coal mining did not come from professional engineers, but from practical experience. Contained in the site are Andrew Roy's account of an 1869 accident at Avondale mine, a view of coal mining in 1877, descriptions of various machines used, articles from contemporary magazines, and a story told by the National Child Labor Committee to persuade Americans to support the regulation and elimination of child labor.
Cartoons of the Gilded Age:
www.history.ohiostate.edu/projects/uscartoons/
GAPECartoons.htm. The Ohio State University Department of History brings us a web site that contains fascinating cartoons of key figures and issues of the Gilded Age. Most are taken from the Verdict, an independent Democratic magazine created to work against the reelection of William McKinley in 1900. Included in the collection are cartoons addressing the career of Theodore Roosevelt, the presidency of Grover Cleveland, the anti-trust movement, anti-imperialist movement, and the election of William McKinley.
The Gilded Page:
http://morton.wm.edu:80/~srnels/gilded.html [link unavailable as of 6/13/00]. Created by Scott Nelson, a history professor at the College of William and Mary, this web site contains a collection of electronic texts that were written during the Gilded Age or widely read by Americans of that era. Authors such as Horatio Alger, Louisa May Alcott, Frank L. Baum, Andrew Carnegie, Emily Dickinson, W. E. B. DuBois, Mark Twain, and Ralph Waldo Emerson are part of this extensive collection.
The Great Homes of America's Gilded Age:
www.emi.net/palm_beach/flagler/essay.html [link unavailable as of 6/13/00]. The Flagler Museum of Palm Beach, Florida, designed this site to convey the significance of architecture in the Gilded Age and its influence on future generations. The home page links to major estates completed during the Gilded Age, such as the Hearst Castle, Belmont Castle, Rosecliff, Marble House, and Whitehall, to name a few. These period homes serve as windows into a time of unprecedented change and creativity in American culture.
Mark Twain in His Times:
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/index2.html. This interpretive archive, drawn largely from the resources of the Barrett Collection of the University of Virginia, focuses on how Mark Twain and his works were created, defined, marketed, reviewed, and appreciated. Contained in this web site are dozens of texts, manuscripts, contemporary reviews and articles, hundreds of images, and various exhibits. One interactive exhibit allows the user to view different performances of Mark Twain's American lecture tours from either the audience's perspective or the entertainer's. The goal is to allow visitors to see what Mark Twain and his times said about each other, and the ways they can speak to us today.
Port of Entry: Immigration Teacher Material:
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/learn/activity/port/teacher.html. This lesson plan highlights the immigrant experience in American life. Students assume the role of historical detective and travel back in time to the turn of the century. Using images and primary source documents from the American Memory Collections, they search for clues to the past. While students learn about different immigrant neighborhoods, they also take an online trip to Ellis Island, learning about the different waves of immigrants that transformed America into a multicultural nation. Students are able to read personal interviews collected by the Federal Writer's Project in the 1930s. The lesson is aimed at students in grades 6-12.
Reservation Controversies, Then and Now:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/lesson97/
reservation/teacher.html. Part of the American Memory project, this lesson plan introduces students in grades 8-12 to the history of American Indian reservations. Using problem based learning, the lesson exposes students to two separate scenarios--one in the 1870s, one in the 1990s--through which they can analyze the changing issues surrounding America's reservation policy.
The Richest Man in the World: Andrew Carnegie:
www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/amex/carnegie/. This web site, created by the makers of the PBS series The American Experience, dedicates itself to the life and times of Andrew Carnegie. In addition to providing biographical information on Carnegie, the site uses him as a source through which to explore the Gilded Age. The site also offers a teacher's guide and bibliography.
William McKinley and the Spanish-American War:
www.history.ohio-state.edu/projects/mckinley/
SpanAmWar.htm. Another offering from the Ohio State University Department of History, this site deals specifically with the Spanish-American War. It contains a first-hand account of the Battle of Santiago, as told by a commander of one of the victorious vessels. A collection of contemporary cartoons offers an engaging perspective, and the site also offers vivid photographs associated with McKinley and the war. From this site users can also link with the William McKinley home page or the Ohio State University Department of History web projects' page.
The Worth Collection, 1860-1918:
www.netresource.com/mcny/worth.htm [link unavailble as og 6/13/00]. Charles Frederick Worth, the founder of haute couture, was a visionary fashion designer whose career flourished in the luxurious atmosphere of the Gilded Age. This online exhibit of his work contains photos of his dresses along with descriptions of Worth's career, the culture of the Gilded Age, and the fashion of the time. The dresses in the exhibit are drawn from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York.
