History 346  The Gilded Age
Roger Williams University
CAS 228
MWF 10:00 - 10:50
Spring Semester, 2014
Michael R. H. Swanson, Ph. D.
Office:  GHH 215
Hours:  M, W, F,  11:00 - 1:00
Phone:  254-3230
E-mail:  mswanson@rwu.edu
Index
Read, in Schlereth,

Chapter 8, Living and Dying. pp. 271 - 293
The Life Stages of Man and Woman.  You will note some conventional iconography here.  For example, consider the weeping willow tree at the right in each print
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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?
This concludes our work in Schlereth. 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.
For Monday, April 21                      Life's Stages
Internet Assignment:
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 Thursday'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 this 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.  
Download and read:

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


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.
Should Women go to College?
For Wednesday, April 23      Sampling the Stages:  College
























For Friday, April 25      Sampling the Stages:  Mortality
Download and Read, from the Internet.
Many  pamphlets relating to the Asiatic Cholera are availabe at the online exhibit from the
The National Government and the Public Health I: John H. Girdner, MD pp. 733-741  II  Alvah H. Doty, M.D., pp. 741-748,  III C. M. Drake, M.D., pp. 748-753  from the North American Review,  Plus the other two following.  December 1897.

The illustration represents the boy's ward at the hospital at Tuskegee Institute.  Not hospitals were this immaculate:  not all children this fortunate.  The image is from a National Institutes of Health History of Medicine Exhibit, Cholera Online.  Finds some time to view the parts of the exhibit.  Note that not everythying is from the United States nor is everything from the Gilded Age


The last of this day'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.