The author describes the changes in the United States that would have affected what life would have been like for our ancestors between 1876 and 1915. This book is part of a series – “The Everyday Life in America Series”, which consists of six books, by as many authors, which start in “Early America” and go through 1945. This book is the fourth in the series, and the subtitle is Transformations in Everyday Life. One of the things that were features of this era were several Expositions, which took place in 1876 in Philadelphia, 1893 in Chicago, and 1915 in San Francisco. These Expositions showcased both new inventions and cultural norms of the time. The author uses these as touchstones in his descriptions of the changes occurring during this time frame. This era encompasses the period known variously as “The Gay Nineties” or “The Gilded Age”.
The first three chapters deal with how mobile Americans were in this time frame, how their places and manners of work changed, and what types of housing they could have been living in. Settlers were still migrating to the West in the early part of this era, with Oklahoma opening to white settlers in 1889, and of course the frontier was declared conquered by Frederick Jackson Turner in 1893. Many people were moving from rural settings to the cities. Immigration, mostly from Europe, had ebbed during the Civil War, but picked up in the years before WWI. Housing styles changed, but what changed the most were the fixtures and amenities. By the end of this period, it was more common, especially in cities, to live in a house with electric lighting and indoor plumbing, both of which were basically unheard of in the mid-1800’s. Work also became more automated and mechanized. “Office work” came into being.
Other aspects of our ancestors’ lives changed as well. A plethora of new consumer products became available, many of which are still familiar to us today, and department stores came into existence. Buying just about anything through a catalog, and having it delivered, became possible. Photography existed before the Civil War, but the precursors to the film industry were starting to be more common. People became interested in physical fitness, and the Chautauqua Movement, which encouraged reading and life-long learning, spread across the country. By the end of the era, babies were more likely to be born in a hospital (at least in urban areas) than at home, and medicine was becoming more professional. The Victorians “discovered” adolescence, poverty, and at least two new “diseases”. Social clubs based on a variety of interests, for men and women, were very popular.
If this was your family, how would you research them? Other things that changed or became more common in this era include the prevalence of newspapers and city directories. Both are excellent sources for the years between the censuses, especially when people are moving from place to place. There are several subscription websites for searching for newspapers, but you might check https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/ or see if your local library system has a link for one of the other ones that you can use. Family Search is a good resource for directories. This is the era in which you are going to start finding more photos of your ancestors, and possibly their surroundings.