Browse Exhibits (32 total)
Nellie Bly: The Development of Feminine Perspective, Reform, and the Challenging of Traditional Gender and Class Ideals
Muckraking journalist Nellie Bly is among the most well known of the Progressive era, remembered for her acts of stunt reporting and her continuous reform efforts. Through her writing, Nellie Bly introduced a feminine perspective to a traditionally masculine industry, presenting her own thoughts and observations regarding the role of women within society. Nellie Bly provided women with a critical voice in challenging traditional ideas surrounding gender and class, and the need for large-scale reform in order to better serve the broader public. By engaging in muckraking reporting, such as her time at the Blackwell’s Island insane asylum, or covering the Suffragists, Nellie Bly established the development of feminine perspective within the front pages and headlines of newspapers across the country, challenging restrictive ideologies surrounding gender and class, and developing a new sphere for female involvement within society.
“Energy rightly applied and directed can accomplish anything.”1 - Nellie Bly
Footnotes
1. “Journalist Nellie Bly Her Determination Helped Her Break Barriers And Uncover Injustice.” Investor’s Business Daily, November 2, 2000. https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsinc&AN=edsinc.A106881166&site=eds-live.
The Life and Mind of a Presidential Assassin: Leon Czolgosz
Many often find that mysteries often catch their attention and this exhibit is a case of that. Researching the assassin of the 25th President of the United States leaves many questions to be answered, but there is no way to answer some of these due to the age and the speed of which this case was done. Ever since the day of the assassination, people have been wondering and can not agree on whether Leon F. Czolgosz was insane or not. This exhibit will attempt to confirm through evidence that he was insane at the time of the assassination and not just a product of a long oppressed social class and pressured by the anarchist movement to do something.
Credits
Andy Macy
The Father of Public Relations vs The Ludlow Massacre
The story of how the Father of PR Ivy Lee, turned a man revered for his violence against his own workers, Henry Rockefeller, into a man respected and loved by America. How the Ludlow massacre escalated and de-escalated due to Lee's grasp on how the public thinks and feels. What can be done ultimately about public opinion?
When the enemy of American labor rights meets the Father of Public Relations, what does that relationship do? What does it create in the foundation of PR practices to come?
Malinda Brunk
topic, blurb, splash page
Legislative impact of Muckraking
This exhibit will explore the ways in which muckraking influenced policy-making and legislative reforms in America during the early 19th century. There will be a specific emphasis on Upton Sinclair insofar as he was a prominent muckraker who produced many influential works during this time. I hypothesize through my exhibit that the legislative impact from muckraking was direct insofar as bringing horrendous conditions to light prompted public outrage, and our represented democracy has to reflect the will of the people and their desires. By raising social awareness, muckraking helped the public identify issues in order to clarify their preferences. This process of discovery and clarification is essential to our representative democracy. As a result, it can be proved that muckraking played a significant role in shaping the legislation of its era.
Child Labor Laws - Allison Berry
The activists and events that led to the creation of child labor laws
How the Purple Gang Influence the Development of the Greater Detroit Area and Gang Culture
This exhibit examines how the Purple Gang influence the development of the greater Detroit area and gang culture. It highlights The Purples Gangs Actictys from their humble begins in the slums of Detroit to their end at the hands of law enforcement and their own greed.
City Living Conditions During the 19th Century
The purpose of this webpage is to highlight the poor living conditions that were endured during the 1880s-1920s. Mostly with a focus on the living conditions of the lower and working class of society. Especially since most of them could only afford to live in tenement housing. The conditions that they went through back then are what we would consider inhumane or inhabitable in today's time, and I really would like to put that in perspective.
There are numerous things that contributed to the conditions of tenement housing and people having to live in tenement housing. Some things that contributed to the poor living conditions of tenement housing was the underdeveloped technologies, overpopulation, and under regulation of these spaces.
During this time period we had one of the largest influxes of immigrants that we have ever seen. Everyone wanted to come to America to make a life for themselves and their families with all the new jobs opening up over here. A huge majority of these immigrants were entering through New York and other east coast ports and stayed in that area to try and find jobs until they could afford to move more inland. This obviously led to an increased need of housing yet not a lot of places they could go. The library of congress reports that between 1870 and 1900 nearly 12 million immigrants came to the United States. With around 70 percent of them entering through the “Golden Door” otherwise known as New York City. 1 Unfortunately, all of these people were not able to find the ideal jobs they wanted, which forced them to get low wage jobs and become part of the working class. This led to an increase in tenement housing being built and built fast.
Footnotes
1 Library of Congress. “Immigration to the United States, 1851-1900 .” The Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/united-states-history-primary-source-timeline/rise-of-industrial-america-1876-1900/immigration-to-united-states-1851-1900/.
Entertainment from the 1890's to the 1920's
Between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, American culture drastically shifted from a Victorian style culture to becoming a more cultured and modernist society. With the new approaching shifts in American society, new outlets for entertainment became very dominant during this time as the American lifestyle started to become more laid back by balancing the life at work with leisure time and entertainment started to take many forms and would all of these different forms of entertainment would become topic of interest amongst the American people. From the introduction of National sports such as Baseball and Football to new technologies such as the radio for people to enjoy their free time listening to any kinds of content presented by these innovational machinery, the rise of advanced entertainment would become a huge factor in changing the lives of Americans on what they do on their free time but also would be one of the major influences on defining the American culture in the early 20th century and in modern American culture overall. These exhibits will display and explore some of the major forms of entertainment that was invented during the late 1800's and early 1900's and their overall effect they had on American culture and the new approaching lifestyle.