The Gilded Age: A New American Society and Economy

Prof. Dani Vaughn-TuckerHistory 104: American History from 1865 to the PresentSpring 2009

The Gilded Age

• 1873• Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner

Six Sources of Industrial Growth

• Abundant raw materials• Large and growing labor supply• Surge in technological innovations• Emergence of a talented and often ruthless

group of entrepreneurs• Federal government eager to assist the growth of

business• Expanding domestic market for the products of

manufacturing

Transcontinental Railroad

• Homestead Act of 1862• Pacific Railway Act of 1862• Supported by Congress through subsidies and

land grants• Extension of Manifest Destiny

Emergence of EntrepreneursGeneral Characteristics• Talented• Often ruthless• Self-made menKey People• J. Pierpont Morgan• Andrew Carnegie• Gustavus Swift• Isaac Singer• John D. Rockefeller

Cornelius Vanderbilt• Shipping and railroad magnate• 1810 - Purchased first ship • 1846 – Self-made millionaire• 1849 – Vanderbilt Accessory Transit

Company• 1869 – Consolidated the Hudson

River Railroad and New York Central Railroad

• 1873 – Was able to offer rail service between New York and Chicago

• Constructed Grand Central Terminal• Donated money to Central University

in Nashville, TN

Collis P. Huntington• Railroad magnate• Became wealthy as a merchant• 1861 – Joined with the “Big

Four” to incorporate the Central Pacific Railroad

• Became a financial and political lobbyist for the railroads

• 1865 – Constructed lines from southern California to New Orleans

• 1890 – President of the Southern Pacific-Central Pacific rail system

Surge in Technological AdvancesGeneral Characteristics• Yankee Know-How• Often improved upon European designs• Improved communications and safetyKey People• Alexander Graham Bell• Thomas Edison• James Ritty• Guglielmo Marconi• William S. Burroughs

Cyrus W. Field• Financier• 1854 – Founded the New

York, Newfoundland and London Telegraph Company

• 1856 – Helped to organize the Atlantic Telegraph Company

• 1866 – Successfully laid the first transatlantic telegraph cable

Christopher L. Sholes• Inventor• 1864 – Granted a

patent for a page-numbering machine with friend, Samuel Soulé

• June 23, 1868 – Granted a patent with Soulé and Glidden for the typewriter

Revolutions in TransportationCharles and Frank Duryea• Automobile• Built upon the works of

European automobile designers

Wilbur and Orville Wright• Flight• Revolutionized the field of

aeronautics

Technological Advances

William Kelly• Ironmaster• Invented the pneumatic process of steelmakingGeneral Electric• Established industrial research laboratory in

1900

Changes in Business Organization

Henry Ford• Assembly-line MethodManagement Techniques • American System• Middle management• Scientific Management

Sources• America’s Story from America’s Library: The Gilded Age• History of the Transcontinental Railroad• Cornelius Vanderbilt• Collis P. Huntington• Cyrus W. Field• Christopher L. Sholes• Charles and Frank Duryea• Wilbur and Orville Wright• General Electric• Henry Ford