Week of May 4 2010

Michael R. H. Swanson, Ph. D.

Office: GHH 215

Hours: MWF, 1:00-2:00 T, 9:00 - 10:00

Phone: 254-3230

E-mail: hist346gildedage@gmail.com

The Life States of Man and Woman. You will note some conventional iconography here. For example, consider the weeping willow tree at the right in each print

Note, too, the woman's costume changes at the top of the arch, and from that point she wears wears various shades of black. What happened, do you think?

As you read this material, try to apply its observations to your character and his/her experiences. The life cycle would have been something experienced in a much more immediate way in that day than in our own. Birth, illness, and death were far more likely to occur within the confines of the house than in institutions like hospitals.

This concludes our work in Schlereth. (Well, nearly: there is still a short epilogue). It is appropriate that this chapter reviews the life cycle as experienced by Americans at the turn of the century. Note that some of the "stages" of life are as much cultural and psychological as they are biological. Adolescence, for example is an invention of the late nineteenth century. Be aware, too, that changes in medicine, nutrition, and public health are changing American's sense of what the expectations and limitations of any given age were.

While it would be useful to pursue additional insights into all the stages of life represented in the concluding chapter of Schlereth, it would hardly be practical. Following up on Monday's assignment, I'd like you to download and look at these as representative samples, recognizing that the experiences represented are quite distant from the direct experiences of many Americans of our era. Obviously I've chosen the the stage for today partly because of the stage of life which preoccupies you now. The number of Americans who experience this stage in the Gilded Age directly was minuscule. However, then, as now, Americans experienced many things vicariously.

Festivals at American Colleges for Women . (various authors, 1895, New Century Magazine)

NOTE: There is an error in the bookmark for this essay. It actually begins on page 429, not page 424.

His College Life , (William De Witt Hyde, Scribner's magazine, 1895)

These two together will give you some idea about the differences between college life and college expectations for men and women. In both instances the emphasis is a bit more on the “lighter side” of college life, and you may want to compare the experiences of these students of about one hundred years ago with experiences of your own.

The National Government and the Public Health (John H. Girdner, MD) from the North American Review, Plus the other two following. December 1897.

The first of these looks at the recurrent problems of epidemics and a beginning consciousness of the role in government in fighting them.

The illustration represents the boy's ward at the hospital at Tuskegee Institute. Not hospitals were this immaculate: not all children this fortunate.

Photographs of Death in 19th Century America

The last of this week's readings provides

a brief overview of 19th century attitudes

toward death and dying. Give yourself some

time with the last of these. Nineteenth Century

attitudes toward death were very different

from our own, and mourning practices were

far more ritualized.