What would life had been like for Hettie and her siblings growing up in the Victorian and Edwardian eras? This article examines 13 aspects of everyday life.
Families in the 19th and early 20th centuries often were large. During the 19th century, most families had seven children, but by 1900, the average had dropped to 3.5, according to the CDC. Artificial forms of birth control were available, and natural methods were well known, but the sale of birth-control devices and birth-control education were illegal in the U.S. and Canada. So how did couples control family size if birth control was illegal? Couples had to obtain things like condoms and diaphragms illegally, often importing them from overseas.
Some people decided that women’s health was more important than following the law. One of these pioneers was nurse Margaret Sanger and her sister, nurse Ethel Byrne, who opened a family planning clinic in 1916. Sanger was tired of seeing women’s health suffer because of miscarriages, multiple births and both botched and self-induced abortions. Her own mother died as a consequence of 18 pregnancies, 11 of which resulted in live births.
Sanger wrote articles on limiting family size in 1914. This illegal act caused her to temporarily flee the U.S. for Britain, but she returned after one of her children died.
“Woman must have her freedom, the fundamental freedom of choosing whether or not she will be a mother and how many children she will have,” Sanger said. “Regardless of what man’s attitude may be, that problem is hers — and before it can be his, it is hers alone.”
Byrne, as well as Sanger’s husband, were arrested for educating others on sex and birth control.
Life Expectancy in 1910
Life expectancy for men was 49 years and 52 years for women. By 1919, this increased to 54 for men and 66 for women. Life expectancy for blacks was as much as 20 years less than for whites.
However, life expectancy is misleading, because it factors in infant mortality rates. When infant morality rates are high, life expectancy drops. In reality, if a person lived into adulthood, he or she had a reasonable expectation of living to be 60 years old or older.
“In 1900, life expectancy for someone who made it to her 20th birthday was about 63,” Priceonomics explains. “In 1998, this number rose to 78. So while life expectancy from birth increased 28 years from 1900 to 1998, life expectancy from age 20 only increased 15 years.”
In 1900, infant mortality was 100 babies per 1,000 births. In some U.S. cities, mortality rates were 30 percent. Mothers died at the rate of 6-9 per 1,000 births with most deaths associated with infection, blood poisoning or blood loss. Starting in 1900, infant mortality rates began to decline, decreasing 13 percent in the 1910s alone, thanks to improved sanitation, germ theory, medical innovations that treated common illnesses and greater access to medical care.
“… the death rate for all age groups under 55 decreased between 1900 and 1911,” an American Statistical Association journal article said in 1915. “The greatest decrease was for the age group 1 to 4 years, the per cent [sic], of decrease falling off with each succeeding age group until the period from 55 to 64 years was reached, this and the next group showing a small increase. The death rate above 75 years was practically the same in each period.”
Baby Names Common in the 1890s
The most popular names for girls in 2014, according to the Social Security Administration, were Emma, Olivia, Sophia, Isabella, Ava, Mia, Emily, Abigail, Madison and Charlotte. For boys, it was Noah, Liam, Mason, Jacob, William, Ethan, Michael, Alexander, James and Daniel.
There was no Social Security Administration in 1890, but the SSA does have a record of the 200 most popular names of the 1890s, based on Social Security applications made in the 1930s. During the 1890s, the top girls names were Mary, Anne, Margaret, Helen, Elizabeth, Ruth, Florence, Ethel, Emma and Marie. For boys, it was John, William, James, George, Charles, Joseph, Frank, Robert, Edward and Henry.
Madison, Taylor, Avery, Kennedy, Peyton, Reagan and Delaney were surnames in 1890, not girls names. Mackenzie, Addison, Kimberly, Shelby, and Kelsey were male names in the 1890s.
You might be surprised to know that Bertha was the 12th most popular name for girls. The name was forever ruined by the Big Bertha gun of World War I. Other girls’ names you rarely hear bestowed on newborns today include Minnie (probably because of Minnie Mouse), Edna, Mabel, Ida, Hazel, Gertrude, Pearl, Myrtle, Edith, Nellie, Elsie, Mildred, Gladys, Alma, Stella, Beulah, Eunice and Fern.
Names you never hear given to boys anymore include Fred, Clarence, Earl, Elmer, Floyd, Claude, Clifford, Lester, Leroy, Dewey, Archie, Horace, Milton, Percy, Marion, Grover, Rufus, Wilbur, Sylvester, Adolph, Elbert, Alonzo, Cornelius, Reuben and Moses.
Some names would cause controversy today such as Mamie, Fannie and Selma.
And some names popular in the 1890s you might not have realized even existed: Effie, Lottie, Orna, Eula, Essie, Flossie, Alta, Ola, and Ina.
Parenting Styles in the 1910s
For much of history, children lived hard lives, without much of a childhood. Childhood as we know it is a Victorian invention. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, there were no books by Dr. Spock or What to Expect When You’re Expecting. Parents relied on religious and cultural traditions to teach them parenting skills.
By the 1910s, decreased family size had allowed parents time to focus on individual children. Science confirmed that a child’s mind and emotions go through several changes while maturing. Still, parents were warned not to indulge their children with much affection because it would make them grow up spoiled and soft. Parents were told not to hug their children or have them sit on their laps. Instead, they were to shake hands.
Before the late Victorian era, children were believed to be empty vessels needing filled with the appropriate skills and knowledge. So instead of an abundance of affection, children lived structured lives. They were taught to work hard and to obey their parents without question. If they misbehaved, either at home and at school, children were disciplined.
Views changed and children were no longer thought of as miniature adults who needed their moral character shaped. They were unique individuals with unique issues. Starting in the mid-19th century, novels and short stories were written specifically for children, and schooling became compulsory. Toys and games became more commonplace. But children were still expected to do chores, and many worked outside the home.
Double Standard
Victorians didn’t openly talk about sex, but it governed their lives. Sexual attitudes dictated clothing and decorating styles. Attitudes also necessitated the formation of societal rules aimed at ensuring women remained pure and men discreet.
The double standard started early. Females were thought to be morally superior to males, and mothers were viewed as a saintly figure. Girls were born, predetermined by nature, to be generous as well as pure in both thought and feeling. Boys, on the other hand, were born animals and less morally inclined.
This double standard led to a variety of opinions and behaviors that today we find ridiculous, including:
- Giving women suffrage would destroy their moral character.
- Allowing girls to read certain books and newspapers would negatively influence their character.
- Women of high breeding should not work because it was morally beneath them.
- Women, even when married, did not enjoy sex and merely tolerated it for the sake of procreation.
- Education was segregated. There were male and female subjects, as too much reading or education would make women ill.
- Women were too delicate for athletics.
And while men could live happily as bachelors, unmarried women were ridiculed and faced a life of destitution.
Adultery
Women were expected to be virgins upon marriage; men were expected to be experienced. Women were expected to remain faithful to their spouses; men could cheat so long as they were discreet. A husband could divorce a wife for adultery, but a wife could not divorce a husband for the same reason.
For much of the Victorian era, women’s property and wealth become their husbands’ upon marriage. In addition, women could be legally beaten and sexually abused, could be legally kidnapped if they tried to leave, and lost custody of their children in a divorce.
Some women were so poor they turned to prostitution to survive. A woman willingly engaging in sexual activity was deemed unnatural, and a popular euphemism at the time was to call prostitutes “fallen women.” Presumably they had fallen from the high moral standard God gave them.
Many of these societal rules and double standards were intended to protect society in a time when technology and science was replacing religion and superstition. People were protecting themselves from the scary, unfamiliar modern world. By the end of the 19th century, attitudes relaxed and the “new woman” was born. The new woman was dedicated to women’s education, to suffrage, and to liberation from society’s sexual standards.
Violence in the Home
Domestic violence has been with us since the beginning of human history. The term, however, is a 20th century invention. For most of history, domestic violence and spousal rape were part of everyday life.
Why was this violence accepted? Because it was the natural order of things. A man was supposed to display his authority over his family. Therefore, it was legal for a husband to force himself on his wife and to beat his wife and children. Things, however, slowly began to change during the mid-Victorian era.
In England and the United States, domestic violence was tolerated by law so long as the victim’s wounds could not be seen in public. Women could leave an abusive partner, but abuse was not legal grounds for divorce. In 1882, Maryland became the first state to pass laws criminalizing domestic abuse. An offender could be sentenced to time in prison or whipped with 40 lashes. Reforms in Britain began around the same time and included, among other things, the right to divorce after a life-threatening beating.
Violence in the home caused many women to join the Temperance Movement and campaign for Prohibition. Alcoholism was the root cause of much of the abuse, and they felt that if drinking was eliminated, homes would become more peaceful.
It wasn’t until the 1970s that men faced harsher penalties for abuse, women could divorce because of abuse, and abuse could be considered in custody battles.
Violence Against Children
The saying, “Wait until your father gets home” must have been terrifying for many children. From antiquity, using violence as a means of correction was an accepted child-rearing technique. Many believed these beatings taught discipline and saved the soul from the Devil.
Children, especially boys, also experienced violence at school. Corporal punishment included paddling, caning, whipping, hitting knuckles with a ruler and spankings.
Some corporal punishment resulted in death. The most famous case is the Eastbourne Manslaughter case of 1860. Fifteen-year-old Reginald Cancellor, who suffered from water on the brain and was unable to learn, according to contemporary accounts, was beaten so severely by his teacher Thomas Hopley that he died. Hopley tried to cover up the crime, but evidence was discovered during an autopsy. Hopley was convicted of manslaughter. He could not legally be charged with murder because he was an educator and thus served an authoritative role similar to a parent.
Spousal Rape
Spousal rape originated with the belief that husbands could have sex with their wives whenever they wanted. It played off the notion that a wife is a husband’s property, and this was strengthen by Biblical passages.
Rape outside of marriage was a violation of a father or husband’s property, not a violation of a woman’s legal rights.
Spousal rape remained legal worldwide until the 1970s. Marital rape became illegal in all the U.S. states in 1981. It wasn’t until 1993 that United Nations declared spousal rape a violation of human rights.
It’s not a far stretch of the imagination to realize we all have victims of spousal rape in our family trees. As late as our grandmothers and great-grandmothers’ lifetimes, women married men they were not attracted to and did not love. These women sacrificed their happiness and their bodies to marry to maintain their families’ fortunes, escape poverty, secure family alliances or because they were widowed and had no income source.
Victorian and Edwardian Orphans
In the 19th and parts of the 20th centuries, orphans, abandoned children, runaways and children whose parents were too poor to take care of them ended up in orphanages.
Orphanages were funded by public charities and provided orphans with a home, education, food and clothing. Many of these institutions, however, were overcrowded and underfunded, exposing children inadvertently to malnutrition and disease. They also were subjected to corporal punishment. In addition, children had to be admitted to orphanages. If there wasn’t an opening, the child was turned away. Often these children became homeless criminals or were forced into child labor.
Orphans have a been a popular subject in literature for the past two centuries. In Victorian and Edwardian literature, orphans were always depicted as brave heroes and heroines.
“The orphan is … an essentially novelistic character, set loose from established conventions to face a world of endless possibilities (and dangers),” professor John Mullan says of the popularity of orphans in literature. “The orphan leads the reader through a maze of experiences, encountering life’s threats and grasping its opportunities. Being the focus of the story’s interest, he or she is a naïve mirror to the qualities of others. In children’s fiction, of course, the orphan will eventually find the happiness to compensate for being deprived of parents.”
The orphanages themselves were beautiful structures, often with a fence surrounding the property. Sometimes orphanages were segregated into all-boys or all-girls facilities.
Adoption
Birth control was illegal in the 1910s, leaving unmarried mothers with three options: abortion (which also was illegal), adoption or foster care. Unwed mothers were desperate. Most were poor, and the fathers either didn’t know about their children or wanted nothing to do with them.
No legal rules regarding adoption, however, existed during this era, so any adoptions were informal agreements. Women placed advertisements in publications hoping to find their children good homes. Families seeking to adopt also placed ads.
If orphans were lucky, they were adopted by relatives or friends of their parents. Perhaps a childless couple would adopt them. Some agencies accepted requests from parents seeking children, but not all.
Adoption did not always equal a happy ending. If they were lucky, they would be treated respectfully. Children, especially those from a lower socio-economic class than their adoptive parents, were never fully accepted as members of the family. They were treated coldly or like servants.
In 19th century America, orphan trains took children west from New York and Boston to be adopted. Children were forced to stand in a public building while they were inspected by their potential parents. Siblings usually were separated. Authorities visited the orphan-train-children’s homes, and if abuse was evident, the child was removed and adopted by another family.
If a child was not adopted, upon adulthood, he or she was forced to leave the institution and became homeless.
For mothers who decided to keep their babies, foster care was generally the only option. Women paid a fee to the foster parent and were permitted visitation rights. Although laws were in place to protect foster children, babies were fed sugar water or cow’s milk and often did not receive the proper nutrition.
Illegitimate Children
In World War I-era Britain, unplanned pregnancies had become a big problem, giving rise to a new phrase, the war baby. War baby had two meanings: babies who were born when their fathers were at the front, and babies who were fathered illegitimately.
Women were told to “give the boys on leave a good time,” but it was never explained what exactly “a good time” was supposed to mean. For many, this meant sex. “Carpe diem” (seize the day) was a motto they took to heart. There must have been a sense of living in the moment because there might not be a tomorrow.
Agony Aunt Fanny Deane
Many of these mothers sought the advice of Fanny Deane, the persona of Mary Ann Brown. Fanny Deane was an agony aunt columnist for a magazine called The Weekly Companion that launched just seven months before the war started. An agony aunt is a person who gives others advice on their personal problems. Brown’s persona was that of a middle class, married mother of two with a husband off fighting in the army. In reality, Brown was neither married nor a mother and she was barely middle class, but she resolved to respond to every letter within three days of receiving it.
Deane received letters from women frustrated with their workplace or social situation, unwed mothers who needed to give their babies away and grieving mothers. One of these grieving mothers was Lucy Allen who had a son with a man who left to join the military at the beginning of the war. They had no contact after that, and Allen gave birth in October 1914. She was forced to put her son, Wilfred, into foster care while she worked. Allen had no relatives to help her and had little choice, although she would have preferred to stay home with him. While in foster care, Wilfred lost two pounds and was very ill, but had recovered by the time he was five months old.
In April 1915, however:
“Dear friend I am grieved to tell you that my darling baby passed away 10 o’clock last night (Friday). I had been very busy making him a little dress and with your present too, I was going to have his photo taken on Monday. He was quite well Friday morning laughing and trying to talk in his little way but at about 3 in the afternoon he had a fit and never was out of it, he was dead by 10 o’clock at night. It was so terrible as the last time I saw him was the week after Easter he was such a lovely boy and oh so pretty … it really makes me feel there is no God as everything is so hard. I felt that I had at last one thing that really did belong to me.” (Source: Newsweek)
Full of grief, Allen continued to write Deane until November 1916 when Allen asked if she could take care of Deane’s daughter, not knowing the daughter was fictional. Not long after, Brown married and the Fanny Deane column was never published again. Brown went on to live a long life. Allen’s fate is a mystery, although baby Wilfred can be found in Streatham Park Cemetery in the UK in unmarked pauper’s grave number 8974. Both mother and son would be unknown to history if it weren’t for Brown’s box of letters.
Treatment of Illegitimate Children
Children who were born out of wedlock faced a lifetime of shame. As did their mothers. Although some were in stable, long-term relationships, others took desperate measures.
“Look at the assize records for the 19th century and you’ll find that half the murder victims were little babies,” author Ruth Paley says. “We don’t think twice about illegitimacy now; it’s really hard to get your mind around the idea that the shame was once so awful that women were prepared to kill their babies.”
Stories like Allen’s sadly were all too common as well. During the war, the death rate among illegitimate children was double that of legitimate births. In addition to the shame, “bastard” children also were unable to inherit money or property, and often lived in poverty.
Education
If you were a boy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, you would have been given a classical education. Students of a classic education studied numerous subjects and often went on to a college or university where they studied medicine or law. The subjects were: reading, writing, classic literature, Latin, Greek, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, music, astronomy, architecture and history.
Girls were taught more feminine subjects such as music, needlework and home management, but increasingly they, too, were becoming educated.
Starting around the turn of the 20th century, a progressive education replaced a classical education. It differed in that the goal was not to prepare wealthy students for university, but to level the playing field for all students.
Other differences included:
- School was thought of as a form of community, preparing children to take their place in society
- The belief that children learned by identifying and solving problems
- Learning was more hands-on
- Students could work to attain individual goals
- Teachers instructed not just concepts but world experiences
Education Requirements in 1910
In 1900, the U.S. high school graduation rate was 6 percent. During the 1910s in Canada, the highest level of education the average person completed was grade six.
The majority of teachers were women. While this is probably still the case today, women were expected to quit working once they married. In some districts, teachers had to abide by curfews and rules about who they could and, more importantly, could not associate. There were other rules as well, including dress codes. School did not have custodial staffs, and teachers cleaned their classrooms according to a set schedule.
Eighth graders needed a minimum score of 80 percent in both math and grammar to pass the exit exam and move onto high school. The minimum for other subjects was 60 percent. Penmanship also was graded.
The number of hours a student must attend class in order to receive credit was established in 1905. The system is still in use today. Then it was called “seat time”.
A few years later, the first junior high school opened. It was intended to increase graduation rates by better preparing students for high school.
The forerunner of the standard test was established in 1918. It was created as a way to determine intelligence among U.S. Army soldiers enlisting for World War I.
Could You Pass the Test?
These are examples of questions eighth grade students were asked in 1910 in an Olympia, Washington, school district. Keep in mind, they needed to pass this exam to move on to high school.
- Name three different ways in which a noun may be used in the nominative case, and three ways in which a noun may be used in the objective case.
- Mark diacritically the vowels in the following: banana, admire, golden, ticket, lunch.
- Spell 30 words including emblematic, declension, pernicious, laudanum and soliloquy.
- What has made the names of each of the following historical? Alexander Hamilton, U.S. Grant, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Cyrus W. Field, Clara Barton.
- How do you distinguish between the terms Puritans, Pilgrims, and Separatists?
- (a) State briefly the causes of the War of 1812. (b) Name two engagements. (c) Two prominent American Commanders.
- Name five important cities and five products of Canada.
- What and where are the following? Liverpool, Panama, Suez, Ural, Liberia, Quebec, Pikes Peak, Yosemite, Danube, San Diego.
- Divide 304,487 by 931.
- Find the square root of 95.6484.
- Find the sum of 5/9, 5/6, 3/4, 11/36.
- What number diminished by 33 1/3 percent of itself equals 38?
- Quote two stanzas of “America.”
- Name five American poets, and give a quotation from each.
- Trace a drop of blood from the time it enters the left ventricle, until it returns to its starting point, and name the different valves and principal arteries and veins through which it passes.
- Explain why health depends largely upon habit.
- Locate the thoracic duct.
- Give some good reasons why boys should not smoke cigarettes.
- What do you understand about the germ theory of disease?
Victorian and Edwardian Penmanship
Instruction books were written on proper penmanship. The two most popular ones were the Spencerian Method and the Palmer Method.
The Spencerian Method was taught beginning in the mid-19th century. It was characterized by a fancy script that resembled calligraphy. Words were written rhythmically. The Coca-Cola logo is an example of Spencerian script.
The Palmer Method used a simpler, faster script. The method was used from the late 19th century until well into the 20th century. It was intended to make writing automatic. It also was intended to masculinize handwriting, even if the writer was a woman.
Other methods also were devised. The goal was to ensure handwriting was clear and could easily been read by others.
Letter Writing
During the Victorian era, letter writing became commonplace. More people could read, mail delivery had become more reliable.
“While most [letter] examples are terribly verbose or overly effusive by today’s standards one should always take such things in the context of the time,” blogger Dons says on The Lothians. “It was a source of great pride to be able to write a good letter and indeed such was expected of all well educated people.”
Written communication came with its own set of long, complicated rules. Here are some examples:
- Men used plain paper.
- Women spritzed their paper with perfume.
- The type and color of paper used depended on the fashion of the day. Sometimes the paper was intricately decorated, but it should never be lined. Those in mourning used paper bordered with black lines.
- In the days before lick-and-stick envelopes, correspondence had to be sealed with wax. Men used red wax, but women could use any color. Black wax was used while in mourning.
- No colors other than black and blue ink were to be used. Some letter-writing guides even claimed blue was unacceptable.
- People were cautioned to be honest without giving away too much of their true feelings. Love letters were rarely signed “love,” but instead with “ever your friend”.
- Postcards were considered lowly compared to letters.
- Nothing could be crossed out. The writer had to start over when a mistake was made.
- Letter writing was considered a talent and a sign of good breeding.
The letter was an extension of polite society; therefore, if one wanted to express certain feelings, such as love, symbolism and figures of speech were used. Sometimes the opposite of what was meant was said.
In informal letters, people were told to write in the same manner they spoke. Here is an example of an informal letter written on Dec. 30, 1897. It is part of a collection that appears on Victorian Love Letters and originally appeared on a BBC radio program about the history of the post office.
My dear Jinnie,
Many thanks for your dear letter. I hope you are keeping well and enjoying yourself, no doubt you are though. I have nothing much to do here and no where to go to so shall be very pleased when they come home. I don’t quite see what you have done to our Nance. I hear they went to Lees for Xmas day. I am glad he is better though. Mother was not very well the last time I heard from her; I hope she is better now.
That letter you forwarded to me was from Poll. She must have forgotten I have left Cowpers.
Our People don’t come back here until next Saturday. Please tell Ted that I shan’t want him on the 10th – not so many coming. They are hunting from Brocklesby this year again, so perhaps I may get a few days off then.
So my own, I must wish you a very happy new year. With fondest love from your own Bob.
If all the rules and symbolism aren’t foreign enough to modern writers, there were other social aspects related to letter writing that seem odd today.
- The placement of a stamp as well as whether it was right-side-up, upside-down or sideways gave clues to a person’s true feelings and could even answer a yes-no question.
- A shy man could propose to his beloved via letter.
- Books were written on the art of letter writing. Two popular ones were The Lover’s Casket and The Lovers Letter Writer.
- Abbreviations and underlining were considered in bad taste.
- Typewritten letters were considered in bad taste as well.
Victorian Swimming Lessons
During the Victorian era, people were taught how to swim on land. They believed those who learned swimming techniques before hitting the water would be better prepared. This method was thought to instill confidence in individuals who were frightened of the water. Convenience was another reason for the popularity of this method, as few schools had pools. The dry method could be taught anywhere, and the lessons were an ideal form of exercise during the winter.
Students were suspended by wires, laid stomach down on stools, or used swimming machines for their lessons.
Lessons also included how to rescue a drowning person.
Competitive swimming began in the 19th century, but the sport was male dominated. There were female swimming championships in the 1800s, but when the modern Olympics began in 1896, all the competitors were men. Women weren’t allowed to compete until the 1912 games.
The first swimsuits were wool and mimicked everyday clothing. They were dangerous, as they often became waterlogged. Suits remained this way for decades.
“Pants and shorts were worked into bulky one-pieces, which allowed women a modicum of function in the water, but the outfits were still absurdly layered,” The Week explains. “Knee-length bloomers were worn under one-pieces that were covered by an apron-like piece of fabric wrapped around the waist. The more prudent women added black tights to the ensemble.”
It wasn’t until 1905 that competitive swimmer Annette Kellerman simplified women’s suits to match men’s. The style was commonplace by the 1920s.
The Toronto Normal School
Hettie Steward, from Angel of Mercy, is not the only woman in her family to have a profession. Her mother, Lucretia, blazed the trail, becoming a professional teacher after attending the Toronto Normal School in the 1880s.
What is a “normal school”? It is what today we call a teaching college. The purpose of these schools was to teach norms, standardized teaching practices.
Several normal schools were established in Canada and the United States in the 19th century and continued to operate until the mid-20th century. In Canada, teaching colleges were absorbed into universities while in the United States they became independent universities. Many state universities have their roots as normal schools.
When Lucretia attended the Toronto Normal School, it was about 35 years old. Its campus, St. James Square, was its second location, and occupied eight acres bordered by Gerrard, Church, Gould and Victoria Streets. The school went through several name changes, before becoming the Toronto Normal School in 1875. It was the oldest school in the province of Ontario.
By the 1880s, the campus had others purposes as well. The property held a natural history and art museum, a botanical garden, the headquarters for the Ontario Department of Education and an art school. By 1900, the museum contained collections from the Canadian Institute. The building grew and changed with each addition.
Ontario established kindergartens in 1882, and the Toronto Normal School was known for its excellent kindergarten program.
To be accepted into the school, students needed one year of teaching experience, a session at a model school and an academic second-class certificate. Entrance requirements changed over time, and in the 20th century, students could be admitted who had completed high school or had attended university.
The school year ran from September to June. Students were sent to schools throughout the city and surrounding areas for practice. This was especially important since the school increasingly admitted students with no prior teaching experience. Students were expected to be disciplined and kept busy in order to stay out of mischief.
Initially, lectures were held in front of large classes. By World War I, students attended classes based on their year of study. The emphasis changed from teaching procedures to teaching principles and how to apply them.
The teaching program was moved to a university in the mid-20th century, and the campus at St. James Square was razed.
Early 20th Century Homes
Technological advances accelerated in the 19th century and continued in the 20th century at an astonishing rate. So much so that, as ThoughtCo. puts it, “We began the 20th century with the infancy of airplanes, automobiles, and radio, when those inventions dazzled us with their novelty and wonder. We end the 20th century with spaceships, computers, cell phones, and the wireless Internet all being technologies we can take for granted.”
Urban streets and homes began to be electrified in the 1870s, not long after the invention of the incandescent light bulb, but the technology didn’t became available to the masses until power stations generating alternating-current electricity opened in the 1890s. During World War I, power generation was especially important for wartime factory production. Many rural areas remained without electric power until the 1930s.
Electricity led to many other inventions such as the electric door bell, refrigeration and air conditioning, which appeared in commercial use by 1903, electric stoves, dishwashers and toasters.
Indoor plumbing was available in many homes by 1910. This improved sanitation, made meal preparation easier, created a convenient way to bathe or shower, and meant toilets could flush. The water heater was invented after indoor plumbing. Earlier devices sold to heat water in the bathtub were dangerous and caused burns and even explosions.
Early 20th century homes also had central heating by 1910. At the turn of the century, many homes were heated with hot water running through radiators. Others were heated with a coal furnace. Furnace manufacturers often guaranteed they could keep a home heated to 70 degrees in the dead of winter.
Millions of telephones were in use by the 1910s, including international lines. Many of these phones had a rotary dial.
Architectural Styles
The architecture most commonly associated with the Victorian age is Gothic Revival. Italianate also was common at the time. Both styles are very distinctive, making it easy to tell the age of a building.
Gothic Revival gets its name from Gothic architecture popular during the Middle Ages. The revival started as early as the 18th century, but is associated with the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Architectural characteristics:
- Arches, gables and towers
- Pitched roofs
- Pointed windows
- Lacy trim
- Homes had porches and two floors
- Asymmetrical floorplans
- Decorative ornamentation
Famous Gothic Revival buildings include Canada’s Parliament Hill, United Kingdom’s Houses of Parliament, New York City’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and the buildings of Boston College.
Another popular architectural style was Italianate, a re-creation of Italian Renaissance architecture. It began in the early 19th century and reached its peak in the 1890s.
Architectural characteristics:
- Low, almost flat roofs
- Tall windows
- Balconies
- Eaves supported by corbels
- A tower might protrude from the roof
- Two or three stories
Famous Italianate buildings include the government buildings in Wellington, New Zealand.
Floor Plans
In 1910, a St. Louis architect named Herbert Chivers compiled his floor plans into a book called Artistic Homes. Throughout the book are testimonials as well as statements by Chivers stating the virtues of working with an architect.
Floor plans did not include square footage and sold for $5 to $15, and the homes cost from $500 to around $3,500 to build.
Many features we think of as being modern were already in present in these homes including:
- Walk-in pantries
- Nine or 10 foot ceilings
- Walk-in closets or large closets
- Water closets, although by 1900 these were falling out of disfavor for a toilet located in the rest of the bathroom
- Playrooms
- An office, den or library
- Laundry rooms
- Pocket doors, although they were called sliding doors
Differing features include:
- The kitchen was closed off from the rest of the house.
- Servant quarters
- Music rooms
- Sewing rooms
- Storage rooms
- Trunk rooms
- Access to the basement from both inside and outside the home
- More than one staircase
Features that are similar:
- Having one to eight bedrooms, most were labeled “chambers” although a few were called “bedrooms”
- While many homes today have a family room and a living room, these houses had a parlor and a sitting room.
- Foyers were called “reception rooms”
The Modern Home: Sears, Roebuck Home Builder’s Catalogue
The Sears, Roebuck Home Builder’s Catalogue from 1910 contains no photographs, but is full of detailed illustrations, many of which, at first glance, do look like photos. Sears & Roebuck claims throughout the catalogue that its prices are much lower than “other concerns.” A “concern” is a word commonly used in the early 20th century to mean a “business.”
The retailer also was honest to a fault. One door, the catalogue says, is perfect for people who are not particular about appearance, several products the company does not recommend because of inferior quality, and one stairwell railing’s sales pitch is that it’s easy for housewives to dust.
Many new products in early 20th century homes are commonplace in homes today. Some examples:
- Double-strength glass
- Plate rails
- Medicine cabinets
- Built-in kitchen cabinets
- Furnaces that heat homes to 70 degrees in the winter
- Toilet seats with lids
- Toilets with china tanks (the rest were wooden)
- Sink handles (called cocks) marked hot and cold
- Fly screens for windows, because doctors say ventilation is hygienic but flies are not
Meanwhile, other features would appear downright odd to our eyes including:
- Lighting features that are combination of electric and gas
- Built-in sideboards
- Grilles and colonnades
- Summer fronts for fireplaces
- Brass and copper metal furnishings
- Products contained asbestos
- Blinds have the appearance of what we today call shutters
Gutters were called eavestroughs (they still are called that today in Canada) and the plunger was called a “force pump with value.”
So how much did it cost to build and furnish a home in 1910?
- A front door with a fancy, etched glass window: $8
- Solid oak fireplace mantel: $6.99
- Bathroom wall tile: 22.5 cents per square foot
- Furnaces: starting at $27.79
- A new bathroom including tub, closet (toilet) and lavatory (sink): $39.10
- Water heaters: starting at $4.20
- Cabinet and drawer pulls: starting at nine cents
- A garage: $83
- A nine-room ranch-style home plus labor: $1,960
Bathroom Tech
After bathing and toilet facilities earned a permanent place in the home, the toilet was segregated to its own room – the water closet. Victorians worried about sewer gases coming up through the toilet and thought these gases caused illness.
The first pressurized flush toilet was invented in 1906, a couple decades after the first toilet paper on a roll in 1883. The first disposable feminine hygiene products also made their debut in the 1880s, but were initially very expensive. The 1894 Montgomery Ward catalogue sold a dozen “health napkins” for 50 cents. They were burned after use.
Sinks were referred to as lavatories and were generally small with no cabinetry underneath.
The first tubs were made of cast iron or had copper bottoms. These posed problems. Iron rusted and copper discolored. In 1903, the famous claw foot tub, made of porcelain, was developed. They were expensive. In 1911, new homes would include a built-in tub.
Before electric or gas water heaters were developed, water either had to be heated on the stove and carried to the tub or it had be heated while in the tub. Under-the-tub water heaters caused many accidents. They often scalded the bather by making the bottom of the tub dangerously hot, or they exploded.
Modern showers were developed in the 1860s.
Kitchen Tech
Kitchens were separated from the rest of the home and generally contained a walk-in pantry and/or a china closet. Before the 20th century, built-in cabinetry was uncommon. Kitchens had workbenches for food prep. The first counters were butcher block, and floors were tile.
The first kitchen sinks had indoor pumps that brought water into the house directly from the well. These later were replaced with plumbing.
In the early 20th century homes, most stoves were powered by gas. Electric stoves did exist, but did not become popular for several more decades. Before this, stoves were heated by wood, charcoal or coal.
Many homes today have washers and dryers located near the kitchen. The first electric washing machine went on sale in 1911.
Sewing Rooms
Many homes came equipped with sewing rooms. They were used by the lady of house or by a wealthy woman’s personal seamstress. Wealthy women also could afford to purchased fashions overseas.
Sewing rooms stored needles, thread, fabric and other supplies. They also stored a machine that made women’s lives easier: the sewing machine. The devices came into practical use in the 1850s. The machines soon became popular with wives who could produce an article of clothing for a family member in a fraction of the time it took to make it by hand. The first machines were powered by pumping a foot pedal, with the first electric machine, introduced by Singer, debuting in 1889.
Sewing machines were sold by department stores and other retailers. They averaged between $10 and $20.
New models were constantly introduced in order to persuade customers to upgrade to the latest model. So many machines were manufactured that models from late 19th/early 20th century are still commonplace. Some sell at auction for as much as $4,000, but most models are so common they sell for their original purchase price.
Dress patterns appeared in magazines.
Music Rooms
Every family that could afford a piano owned one. Some homes even had dedicated music rooms. Before the advent of radio and television, playing music and singing was one way families could entertain themselves. Retailers sold inexpensive sheet music that allowed all but the poorest families to build a music library.
Placement of the piano was the most important aspect of the room. Pianos were placed in a way that would produce the best sound while also hiding the instrument’s inner components. Great care was taken to protect the piano’s finish.
A music cabinet was used for storing sheet music. It looked similar to a modern day jewelry armoire, except instead of drawers for jewelry it contained pull-out trays for music. The purpose of the cabinet was to keep the sheets dust free.
Lighting was important. When natural lighting wasn’t available or plentiful enough, artificial lighting was used to illuminate the piano so the player could read the notes.
But the piano wasn’t the only important instrument. Harps and organs also were common.
Like most Victorian and Edwardian rooms, music rooms were decorated in rich colors and contained numerous knickknacks and comfortable seating.
Music rooms were used whenever there was a party. Guests with musical talent would be persuaded to perform.
Leisure Activities
Think our ancestors were stodgy and never did anything fun? You’re not alone. The stereotype is fueled by the serious expressions people had in photographs and the stories of families working from dawn to dusk. In reality, our ancestors did work harder than we do, but they also participated in a variety of leisure activities.
Modern inventions and shorter work days in the late 19th and early 20th centuries gave people increasingly more free time. People decided to spend that time participating in leisure activities, although what kind depended upon social class.
Sports
Team sports and sports exhibitions were popular attractions. These included:
- Hockey
- Tennis
- Soccer
- Boxing
- Horse racing
- Croquet
- Archery
- Bicycling
- Billiards
- Ice skating
- Swimming
- Roller skating
Men also participated in outdoor activities such as hunting and fishing.
Doctors once believed women were too fragile for sports. Attitudes, however, were changing as doctors were becoming aware of the value of exercise. Women competed at Wimbledon for the first time in 1884 and in the 1900 Olympics in Paris in three events — tennis, golf and croquet.
Fairs and Amusement Parks
Circuses and traveling fairs provided an evening’s diversion. Zoos also became popular among families. For most people, it would be their only opportunity to see exotic animals.
The classic age of amusement parks was during the first decade of the 20th century. These parks included such novelties as:
- Roller coasters
- Ferris wheels
- Steeplechases
- Carousels
- Games of chance
- Arcades
- Shoot the Chutes
The most famous classic amusement park, Coney Island, opened in 1886.
“Passengers had to climb a fifty-foot high loading platform to board a train, which was propelled along a wooden track by gravity at the break-neck speed of six miles an hour,” The Ultimate History Project says of the park’s first roller coaster. “It came to a stop at the crest of a hill at the other end of the track, where passengers than re-boarded the train (after it has been switched to the opposing track) for the return ride.”
Hobbies
Popular hobbies and ways to pass time included:
- Going to the park
- Reading
- Boating
- Playing instruments
- Picnics
- Dancing
- Singing
- Playing cards
People of all social classes attended balls. The affluent held private affairs while the other classes enjoyed balls held by social clubs, civic organizations and other organizations that were opened to the public. Public balls charged an admission fee. Refreshments served at balls are surprising by 21st century standards.
“Substantial fare, such as fowls, ham, tongue, etc., was absolutely necessary,” Victoriana Magazine explains. “Jellies, blanc-mange, trifle, tipsy cake, etc., would be added at discretion. Nothing upon the table would require carving; the fowls would be cut up beforehand, and held together by ribbons. Whatever could be iced would be served in that way.”
Entertainment
Pop culture of the time also provided much entertainment including:
- Music halls
- Pantomimes
- Concerts, both classical and popular music
- Motion pictures
- Magic shows
- Freak shows
High society attended the opera and theatre shows.
“A typical music hall bill would feature a chairman keeping order with a gavel,” the Daily Mail explains, “a comedian or two, dancers in daring costume, novelty acts like a juggler, contortionists, trapeze artists or trick cyclists, a drag act, and a magician…. The centrepiece of music hall, however, was music – and the star was always the singer.”
Vacation Time
In addition to leisure activities, vacations became normal for the first time in history.
The word vacation originated in the Middle Ages. It was related to the word “vacate” and meant freedom from something. It wasn’t until modern times that it came to mean freedom from work. Prior to the mid-19th century, few people took vacations. The idea of taking time off if you lived on a farm, for example, was unthinkable because it was impractical. Religious leaders and society frowned on leisure as being frivolous and unnecessary. Paid time off was not something offered by employers either, so the notion of taking time off to travel for fun wouldn’t have crossed most people’s minds.
In the early 20th century, the wealthy abandoned their homes in the city and took up residence in summer homes. In places like Newport, Rhode Island, the wealthy built what they called cottages. Today, we would call them mansions. They contained dozens of rooms and were run by large staffs of servants. The wealthy also traveled to resorts in the wilderness where they pretended to rough it.
The middle class couldn’t afford to leave the city all summer, but they could afford to get away for a week. The construction of railroad lines made access to faraway spots possible during a short time frame. Popular destinations included mountain hotels, islands, beach resorts, and national parks.
The working class, if they were lucky, could afford to take a day off. Usually they saved all year for this break. Popular day trips included amusement parks and beaches.
How the Bicycle, and Bloomers, Changed the 1890s
The bicycle is a simple invention, but for woman, it became a symbol of freedom, mobility and athleticism. For society, it became a symbol of change and upsetting the status quo.
The bicycle craze of the 1890s began with the introduction of the “safety bicycle.” Although bicycles had been produced before, these newer versions had pneumatic tires and, before the century was over, brakes, bells, mirrors and other safety equipment.
Many feminists believed cycling would lead to equality. Why? Because the first bicycles were male dominated contraptions. The safety bicycle could be ridden by a woman and, moreover, ridden just as well as a man. In addition, a woman could travel on her own and didn’t need to rely on anyone for transportation.
Women also felt empowered by the sheer act of learning to ride a bicycle, and learning wasn’t impacted by privilege or social class.
”I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world,’’ suffragist Susan B. Anthony said in 1896.
A New Fashion
The craze created a new fashion statement – bloomers. Bloomers were invented in the 1840s, but female cyclists adopted them and made the garment commonplace.
In style, bloomers resembled a baggier version of boys’ knickerbockers. They were practical for cycling because they were comfortable and were safer than long skirts.
The garment was not without controversy. While practical, bloomers were considered indecent. Women in bloomers were commonly treated with scorn and even criminally fined.
Hattie Strange of Chicago was one such woman. She was fined $25 for disorderly conduct for wearing flesh colored tights with her bloomers.
Not all women riders adopted bloomers. Some wore the less radical divided-skirt, which was more modest but still allowed for a safe ride. Others opted for a tricycle, which could be ridden with a full skirt.
Cycling fashions for women became big business. One dressmaker made $5,000 selling her patented cycling skirt to a New York firm.
The Oversexed Woman
Bicycling was dangerous to morality and health, critics warned.
The activity alarmed some physicians who claimed riding could produce orgasms and, thus, oversexed women. The positioning of a bicycle’s seat would encourage women to masturbate, they said.
Other physicians worried that riding would cause damage to a woman’s internal organs.
Ministers and the older generations declared cycling dangerous and said it would lead to the ruination of women’s reputations as their morals corrupted. Women were able to travel unchaperoned, making single women especially vulnerable. Worse, women sat astride the bicycle because riding sidesaddle was impossible.
The fuss was short lived. By World War I, it was an ordinary occurrence to see women riding bicycles, and it ceased to be a worrisome activity.
The Beginnings of Food Safety Regulations
The Jungle might very well be the most influential novel you probably don’t know. Written by Upton Sinclair in 1906, the novel was intended to show the horrible conditions in America’s slums. Instead, Sinclair exposed the unsanitary conditions in meatpacking plants.
The novel first appeared as a serial (a common occurrence in the 19th century) in a socialist newspaper before being published.
Publishing houses rejected the work, deeming it too shocking for audiences, so Sinclair paid to have the first edition published. After that, Doubleday picked up the novel, and it has never gone out of print.
Chicago was King of the Slaughter House
Meatpacking plants became a necessity as the population grew and became increasingly urban. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Chicago was the home to the United States’ meatpacking industry.
Cows were slaughtered year round while hogs were killed during the winter. Pig fat from the slaughter was used to make lard.
Any part of the animal that wasn’t used, like blood and entrails, was flushed into the water supply.
The stockyards just outside Chicago received, housed and slaughtered 12 million animals in 1890.
By 1900, meatpacking plants were big business. Mechanized and refrigerated rooms and railroad cars meant meat could be kept fresher longer. Unused animal parts were used in other products including gelatin, glue and oleomargarine.
By World War I, Chicago was called Hog Butcher for the World. The meatpacking plants were sprawling complexes, slaughtering animals raised on feedlots.
You may recognize one of the companies that was in business when Sinclair wrote The Jungle – Armour and Co.
Conditions in Meatpacking Plants
In the early 20th century, most cooking was done from scratch. Fresh meat was purchased at a butcher’s, and customers trusted the food was fresh.
While working as a journalist, Sinclair spent seven weeks investigating Chicago’s meatpacking plants. He noted that work conditions were unsafe and unsanitary.
His exposé exposed consumers to the reality of what was on their dinner plate. They were eating sausage that contained rats, rat poison and rat droppings. Spoiled ham could not be sold as is, because it was moldy and full of maggots, and it, too, was ground up and added to the sausage. In addition, in the early 20th century, Borax often was added to meat to prevent spoilage.
Employees used the toilets in meatpacking plants and did not wash their hands before returning to work.
“There was never the least attention paid to what was cut up for sausage; there would come all the way back from Europe old sausage that had been rejected, and that was moldy and white–it would be dosed with borax and glycerine, and dumped into the hoppers, and made over again for home consumption,” Sinclair says in The Jungle. “There would be meat that had tumbled out on the floor, in the dirt and sawdust, where the workers had tramped and spit uncounted billions of consumption germs. There would be meat stored in great piles in rooms; and the water from leaky roofs would drip over it, and thousands of rats would race about on it. It was too dark in these storage places to see well, but a man could run his hand over these piles of meat and sweep off handfuls of the dried dung of rats. These rats were nuisances, and the packers would put poisoned bread out for them; they would die, and then rats, bread, and meat would go into the hoppers together.”
The industry, of course, claimed its products were safe.
Government Steps In
Public reaction was strong. People sent letters in droves to President Theodore Roosevelt, who really had no interest, but helped nonetheless.
Roosevelt sent U.S. government representatives to inspect the plants. However, the plants were cleaned prior to the inspectors’ visits. Nevertheless, the inspectors saw enough to conclude The Jungle had been based on truth.
The government’s findings led to the creation of the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act as well as the forerunner of the Food and Drug Administration.
The Pure Food and Drug Act made it illegal to sell adulterated food and drugs, and all foods were required to have ingredient labels.
The Meat Inspection Act placed federal inspectors in all meatpacking plants that entered into interstate or international business.
In the 21st century, the number of food inspectors employed by the FDA has decreased, and food safety has become a political issue. Perhaps before long we will find ourselves again in a situation like those presented in The Jungle.
The Divide Between Rich and Poor Deepens
Once upon a time in America, a large number of people lived in abject poverty, out of sight and out of mind. Photojournalist Jacob Riis’s 1890 book How the Other Half Lives: Studies among the Tenements of New York revealed this hidden community to the affluent and middle class.
His book was an expose on tenement living, child labor and sweatshops. Just like Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle nearly two decades later, the book opened Americans’ eyes to corrupt practices and sparked change.
Riis was a Dutch immigrant who began his career as a police reporter. He became convinced that the only way to help people out of their squalid conditions was to educate the richer classes.
Armed with a camera with a powder flash, Riis documented life in tenements. He also made sketches. His work was published in an 1889 Scribner’s Magazine article. The article was a success, and his work was turned into a book.
In the late 19th century, New York City was the most densely populated place on the globe. Two-thirds of New York’s 3 million people lived in 80,000 lower Manhattan tenements.
Tenement buildings were 25 feet wide by 100 feet deep, and five to seven stories tall. Often other tenements or rear houses were built behind existing buildings.
Rooms in tenements were 10 square feet, usually without windows, and entire families lived in one room. There were no indoor toilets or bathing facilities. The law required only one outhouse per 20 people.
Disease was rampant, and infant mortality was higher than in the rest of the population.
“Listen! That short hacking cough, that tiny, helpless wail — what do they mean?” Riis said in How the Other Half Lives. “They mean that the soiled bow of white you saw on the door downstairs will have another story to tell — Oh! a sadly familiar story — before the day is at an end. The child is dying with measles. With half a chance it might have lived; but it had none. The dark bedroom killed it….”
The deplorable conditions were the result of greedy landlords who did no maintenance on their buildings and were only interested in collecting rent. Rent, for many families, was half of their salaries.
“Riis organized his most famous book, which was a best-seller and launched his career as a reformer — How the Other Half Lives — as a kind of a slum tour, going neighborhood by neighborhood, describing ethnic group by ethnic group,” Bonnie Yochelson, a curator at the Museum of the City of New York, told NPR. “That was a pre-established literary genre, which he was borrowing. It had a lot of entertainment value. ‘Come see the colorful Italians and the mystifying Chinese.’”
Entertainment value or not, How the Other Half Lives opened people’s eyes, though slowly.
Very few housing laws were in effect in 1890. One, established in 1867, did lay out construction regulations, but was rarely enforced.
Riis proposed the tenements could be fixed. He asserted that humans have the right to running water, to windows in their bedrooms, to heat, to ventilation and to safe buildings.
The city finally took action in 1901 and passed a law that it enforced. The new regulation outlawed the building of new tenements and stipulated that existing tenements must be improved to allow access to light and sanitation and to add fire escapes. Many tenements were torn down and replaced with apartment buildings.
The Age of the New Woman
Around the turn of the 20th century, a curious, new creature emerged in the world. This creature was called “the new woman” or an “independently minded female.” She was the sign of things to come, a woman who relied on herself, not a man.
The term “new woman” was coined in the mid-1890s and popularized by novelist Henry James and others who created heroines that embodied new woman ideals. The Gibson Girl also was said to embody these qualities.
New women exhibited the following traits:
- Politically involved, a suffragist
- Worked outside the house
- Highly educated
- Sexually aware and, in some cases, sexually liberated
- A sense of identity outside of daughter, wife and mother
- A social life
- A member of the upper classes
The new woman was scary to many people. She challenged the status quo and the image of the demure lady whose brain was taxed by learning, who didn’t understand politics and who never thought of sex.
The Workforce
Technology has been changing workforce since the Industrial Revolution. Technology created new employment opportunities while making other occupations obsolete. This is a short list of occupations that were once quite common and now either no longer exist or are very rare:
Men’s Occupations
- Watchman: The precursor to the security guard.
- Carter: A person who drives a cart. Similar jobs include coachman, drayman, hackman and teamster.
- Streetcar conductor
- Railroad jobs including hostler and lineman
- Livery workers: Liveries were places horses were lodged and fed in exchange for compensation.
- Porter: The precursor of the doorman and hotel valet.
- Stationer: Someone who sells stationary.
- Blacksmith
- Chimney sweep
- Whitewasher: Someone employed to whitewash objects.
- Cooper: Someone who makes barrels.
- Currier: Someone who dresses leather after it has been tanned.
- Mason: A constructor worker who builds using stone or brick.
- Miller: Someone who works at a flour or grist mill.
- Plasterer: Someone who works with plaster.
- Puddler: Someone who makes wrought iron.
- Tailor
- Tinner: Someone who works with tin.
- Wheelwright: Someone who manufactures and repairs wheels for wagons.
- Cesspool and sewerman
- Rat catchers
- Street sweepers
Women’s Occupations
- Copyist: Someone who makes copies of documents.
- Bleacher: Someone who bleaches fabric.
- Dressmaker
- Dyer: Someone who dies cloth.
- Milliner: Someone who makes and decorates women’s hats.
- Seamstress
- Tallowmaker: Someone who makes soap or candles from tallow.
- Warper: Someone who forms yarn for looms into warps.
- Washerwoman
- Governess
Women in the Workforce
For centuries, women worked in the home and on the family farm for no pay. It only has been in the past 200 years that women have been allowed to enter what was considered a man’s domain: the workforce.
The idea of a woman working for an employer was shocking. Most considered the business world beneath women’s dignity and against societal conventions. Many even thought it would make women want to abandon marriage entirely.
“The evolution of American women in the workforce is often overlooked when studying the progression of American society,” blogger Dhara Shah says, although the statement could apply to women worldwide. “Since the beginning of time, American women have gone through a series of struggles, battles, and tests to prove their capability of being an active part of the American labor force.”
Here are some positions your ancestors may have held:
Mines and Factories: Women were employed in mechanized factories producing goods. These factories are what today we would call sweatshops. Workers toiled for long hours with little pay. Often, there were no windows in the factory and employees were not permitted breaks. These conditions sometimes led to tragedies, the worst of which was the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. Women worked in mines, hauling coal carts, a position also often filled by child laborers.
Teachers: Teaching opened to women of all classes beginning in the 19th century. For most of the century, teachers needed very little, if any, formal education. By the close of the century, most teachers were women, and they were educated in formal teaching colleges. Positions like school administrators and principals, however, were largely still held by men.
Office Workers: Industrialization created several clerical positions. The positions usually didn’t pay more than factory jobs, but they were safer and came with job security. Clerical jobs were aimed at young women and were viewed as temporary positions that prepared women to be better wives. These jobs were repetitive and considered beneath male clerical positions. These positions included stenographer, typewriter and telephone exchange operator.
Servants: Having a family member “in service” or being in service yourself was common. Domestic servants were needed to run the expansive homes of the upper middle class and wealthy prior to the invention of many electric conveniences. Working in service was a respectable career path for the lower class. Maids, cooks and other domestic servants lived in their employers’ homes and worked long hours. There was a strict hierarchy of servants, and one could move up after several years of service.
Rules for Domestic Servants
Domestic servants followed a number of rules during their employment. These rules were laid out in several household management books, including the famous Mrs. Beeton’s.
Rules include:
- Upper servants should respect lower servants by treating them well.
- Lower servants should respect upper servants by cheerfully following orders.
- Servants should never speak of the family’s business to others.
- Servants should not steal from their employers.
- Employers should treat servants like people with responsibilities and should forgive human shortcomings.
- Employers should know how much time it takes to complete household tasks.
- Employers should not be afraid to give praise, reminders or disapproval.
- Servants have the right to the tools necessary to perform their duties
- Servants are to give proper notice before leaving a position, unless in the case of illness or injury.
- Employers are not obligated to give references.
- Employers must trust members of their management staff.
- Employers and management must take steps to ensure staff does not take advantage of coworkers with kind personalities.
A Hierarchy Among Servants
While we may think of servitude as drudgery, there was a hierarchy among servants that affected how they were treated by employers and coworkers and how much they were paid.
My source listed the hierarchy of British servants in 1890. However, many great homes in the United States and Canada would have employed this same hierarchy. The number of servants, on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as their responsibilities, was determined by the size of the estate. The larger the estate, the more specialized the work.
Professional employees:
- Land steward: paid $11,000-$33,000 annually
- House steward: paid $5,500-$11,000 annually
- Governess: paid $2,700 annually
Upper house staff:
- Butler: paid $4,300-$6,400 annually
- Housekeeper: paid $3,700-$5,400 annually
- Cook or chef: paid $3,200 to $32,000 annually
- Valet: paid $2,100-$3,200 annually
- Ladies maid: paid $2,100-$3,200 annually
Upper land staff:
- Head groom/stable master: paid $3,100- $5,300 annually
- Head gardener: paid $12,800 annually
Lower house staff:
- First footman: paid $3,200 annually plus tips
- Second footman: paid $2,700 annually
- Head nurse: paid $2,700 annually
- Footman: paid $2,100 annually
- Chamber maid: paid $2,100 annually
- Parlor maid: paid $2,100 annually
- House maid: paid $1,700 annually
- Between maid: paid $1,600 annually
- Nurse: paid $1,100-$1,600 annually
- Under cook: paid $1,600 annually
- Kitchen maid: paid $1,600 annually
- Scullery maid: paid $1,300 annually
- Laundry maid: paid $1,300 annually
- Page or tea boy: paid $860-$1,700 annually
Lower land staff:
- Groom: paid $1,600 annually
- Stable boy: paid $640-$1,300 annually
- Game keeper: paid $3,100-$5,400 annually
- Groundkeeper: paid $850-$1,700 annually
- Gate keeper: paid $1,100 annually
Workplace Disaster: The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
It’s hard to imagine a time when government regulations didn’t protect workers’ safety. But a century ago, there were no regulations. No one had any reason to question why not. However, that all changed on the day of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire.
What is a shirtwaist? It’s a type of blouse. It became popular when women, especially working women, began wearing skirts and blouses as an alternative to dresses. They were mass produced and sold in stores. Because they weren’t custom-made garments, they were sold at very low prices.
Low prices meant low wages for workers, and the owners forbade their employees to join a trade union. Working conditions were uncomfortable. The sewing machines were so close together, there was barely room between aisles.
To make matters worse, the shirtwaist was beginning to lose its popularity, and companies were finding it increasingly difficult to compete.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Co.’s factory was located in the upper floors of a Manhattan high-rise located at Washington Place and Greene Street. Its employees were mainly immigrant girls, some as young as 14, who spoke little or no English.
The door to the outside was locked to prevent employee theft while another door only opened in one direction. The building’s fire escape was inside the building, and the only elevator in working order was located down a narrow hallway.
The Fire
On March 25, 1911, minutes before the end of the workday, a fire broke out in the factory. It was a small fire that easily could have been put out, but the fire hose was in poor condition and didn’t work. Practically everything in the factory was flammable and the fire spread quickly.
A few dozen employees escaped using the elevator, but eventually the elevator stopped working. Others escaped to the roof and were able to move to neighboring buildings.
People stuck on the 8th, 9th and 10th floors needed to find a way out. Those who made it down the stairwell could not open the locked door. Thirty employees jumped down the elevator shaft and approximately 100 employees jumped out the windows, a 100 foot drop.
The fire department responded quickly but was no help. Its ladders were too short and its nets tore. Bodies on the sidewalk also prevented the firemen from getting as close to the building as they wanted.
“A heap of corpses lay on the sidewalk for more than an hour,” the New York Times said. “The firemen were too busy dealing with the fire to pay any attention to people whom they supposed beyond their aid.
“Thousands of people, who had crushed in from Broadway and Washington Square and were screaming with horror at what they saw…,” the Times said.
The Aftermath
The fire lasted a mere 18 minutes but killed 146.
Bodies were so chard or mangled that they were identified by their teeth or shoes. Six bodies remained unidentified for 100 years.
The factory’s owners had problems with fires twice before. In both cases, it was arson to collect insurance money. They refused to install sprinklers.
“The building had experienced four recent fires,” the Times said, “and had been reported by the Fire Department to the Building Department as unsafe, on account of the insufficiency of exits.”
The building was classed as fireproof and survived March 25 intact. The shirtwaists and fabric, on the other hand, burned quickly.
Triangle Shirtwaist’s owners were charged with manslaughter, but a grand jury did not indict them. A civil trial later found them guilty of wrongful death.
New Safety Regulations
If anything good could come from such a tragedy, it’s the fire prevention law New York City passed later that year.
Other good came of the fire including:
- The formation of public safety committees.
- The formation of the American Society of Safety Engineers.
- States, starting with New York, began enacting fire-prevention laws requiring employers to equip their buildings with alarms, sprinklers, fire extinguishers and fire exits.
- Laws were enacted to improve work conditions and to limit work hours for women and children.
“[Fire] Chief Croker said it was an outrage,” the Times said. “He spoke bitterly about the way in which the Manufacturers’ Association had called a meeting in Wall Street to take measures against his proposal for enforcing better methods of protection for employees in case of fire.”
“‘Look around everywhere,’ he said, ‘nowhere will you find fire escapes. They say they don’t look slightly…. I have been advocating and agitating that more fire escapes be put on factory buildings similar to this. The large loss of life is due to this neglect.’”
Slang
Here are some examples of 1910s slang that died with the decade.
- Blotto (a drunk)
- Dilly (excellent)
- Duck soup (something easy)
- Goldbrick (a lazy person, someone who doesn’t do a fair share of work)
- Hoosegow (jail or prison)
- Meathook (a hand)
- On the make (being flirtatious with the opposite sex)
- Short (a streetcar)
- Simp (foolish, stupid person)
- Steam up (build up, agitate)
- Vigorish (high interest on a loan)
Here are some 1910s slang terms we still use:
- Beat it (to leave)
- Bimbo (although in the 1910s it meant a tough guy)
- Boner (although it meant a great mistake)
- Cabin fever
- Crackpot
- Cushy
- Dingbat
- Earful
- Get on your nerves
- Goof
- Jinx
- Joint (a questionable business)
- Lay off
- Nickle and dime
- Posh
- Rinky-dink
- Wino
We still use a few slang words that originated even earlier in the 20th century. Here are some examples:
- Bonehead
- Butterflies in the stomach
- Called out on the carpet
- Double cross
- Fall for
- Frog in the throat
- Lollapalooza
- Movie
- Read the riot act
- Screw (to harm or cheat)
- Sidekick
- Stir crazy
- Stood me up
- Yeah
Finally, here are 15 words that were new to the lexicon in 1912:
- Airbrushing
- Ambivalence
- Autism
- Blues (a form of music and to feel depressed)
- Cellophane
- Churchillian (referring to Winston Churchill)
- Histamine
- Immunologist
- Jazz (first to mean excitement and in 1915 a form of music)
- Nosedive
- Oreo cookie
- Quantum theory
- Rumba
- Schizophrenia
- Vitamin
Victorian Mourning Rituals
Victorian mourning rituals have their own article. Click here to read it.
This article is part of the reader's guide for The WWI Trilogy by Melina Druga. The trio of historical fiction books follow nurse Hettie and her family as they deal with the challenges and heartbreak the Great War brings.