Ch. 16 Life at the Turn of the Century Section 1 Science and Urban Life

Ch. 16 Life at the Turn of the Century
SECTION 1 Science and Urban Life
Overview

Objectives
SECTION 1 Science and Urban Life
Describe the impact of technological advances on turn-of-the-20th-century urban planning.
Summarize turn of the century communication innovations.


American Life at the Turn of the Century
Starting With the Student
A hundred years ago, how did Americans work and pay?
What new inventions were changing people’s ways of life?
Do you agree with the quotation of James Weldon Johnson?
If you applied the quotation to America today, what would you offer as the best or worst?

Previewing the Chapter
Examine the time line and list the things that look familiar.
Many aspects of the modern world in which you live emerged at this time in history.

More About. . .
James Weldon Johnson
The first African American to be accepted to the Florida bar, Johnson later served a U.S. consul in Venezuela. He had a varied career in the arts, composing and performing for a song-and-dance act with his brother John, editing anthologies of African-American verse and spirituals, and penning fine prose and poetry of his own.

Living History
Cataloging Mass Culture
Create your own version of a catalog displaying objects, places, and events that contribute do the formation of American mass culture.

Cataloguing Mass Culture Chart

Item Reason why important to include










Focus & Motivate
Starting With the Student
What changes could be made in modern American cities to make them more livable?
What did Americans one hundred years ago feel about city life?

Objective 1 Instruct
Technology and City Life
Starting With the Student
What is life like in your city? What problems do the cities have that new technologies might solve?

Discussing Key Ideas
Technology helps cities grow both upward and outward.
The growth of cities prompts the new science of urban planning.

More About. . . .
Louis Sullivan
Often called the father of modern American architecture, Sullivan produced most of his finest work in partnership with Dankmar Adler, a skillful businessman and expert in acoustics. Their landmark works include the Auditorium Building in Chicago and the Wainwright Building in St. Louis.

History From Visuals
The Flatiron Building
Reading the Art
What urban improvements are visible in this picture?
Possible Responses: A skyscraper with steel construction, streetcars, and sidewalks.

Extension
Why does the Flatiron building have a triangular shape?
Possible Responses: To make the best use of space between two streets that meet in a “V;” to win fame and tenants; to be different; to create an exotic tapered-corner offices for higher rent.

More About. . . .
The Brooklyn Bridge
Like most of the workers who built the bridge, John Roebling immigrated to American, arriving from Prussia (roughly modern eastern Germany today) in 1831. A few weeks after his bridge plans won approval, he died of tetanus, which he contracted when his toes were crushed by a boat docking near the bridge site. His son Washington supervised the actual construction but was eventually bedridden from repeated bouts of “caisson disease,” or the bends.

On the World Stage
The Garden City
Critical Thinking:
Comparing
Why is nature and wildlife important to city life? Identify a city, town, or neighborhood that you feel displays aspects of Howard’s plan.

More About. . . .
Central Park
The call to preserve a piece of park land on the island of Manhattan was made as early as 1844 by poet and editor William Cullen Bryant and echoed by eminent landscape designer Andrew Jackson Downing. The campaign took twelve years, but in 1856 the city purchased most of the park’s 840 acres with $5 million in state funds. The unappetizing land had a garbage dump, a bone-boiling works, and many shacks and squatters’ farms.

History From Visuals
Daniel Burnham’s Chicago Plan
Reading the Art
What is the pattern of the streets in Burnham’s plan? Why would someone plan streets set on a grid bisected by diagonals?
The grid makes the city easy to navigate. Streets running into the city center help create a unified city.

Extension
What aspects of urban planning can you identify in your neighborhood, city, or town?

More About. . . .
The Columbian Exposition
Celebrating the 400th anniversary of Columbus’s landing in America, the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition was held in Chicago after cities across the nation competed to be the site. The White City sported the latest in electric lighting. President Grover Cleveland opened the fair by flicking a switch in Washington, D.C., to turn on the lights in Chicago.

Objective 2 Instruct
New Technologies Transform Communications
Discussing Key Ideas
Pioneering by the Wright brothers, airplanes revolutionize communications as well as transportation.
Advances in paper and printing spur the publications of newspapers, books, and magazines, while better photography greatly enhances journalism.

Key Player
George Eastman
Critical Thinking:
Evaluating
Why were Eastman’s slogan and other sales techniques so effective with consumers?
Possible Responses: He sold good products to begin with; a slogan stressed ease of use, made company seem helpful; simple operating instructions received good word of mouth advertising; sending new film back made people feel that they were getting value for their money.

Close
Turn-of-the-century technological advances spurred the growth of America’s cities and improved both transportation and communications.

Technological Development Chart

Technological Improvements
Uses
electricity
Streetcars, elevated trains and subways
Steel construction
Suspension bridges, skycrapers
Internal combustion engines
Automobiles, airplanes

Section 1
Recognizing Effects
Answer
The invention of the elevator made it practical to build taller buildings; new building technology allowed iron or steel frames to bear the weight of a building’s walls.

Summarizing
Answer
Possible Answers: Skyscrapers conserved space by allowing cities to grow upwards; new transportation systems and bridges drew neighborhoods, closer together; urban planning put parks into cities.

Clarifying
Answer
Mail planes made it faster and easier for people in different regions to communicate.

Synthesizing
Answer
New printing methods sped production and lowered costs for newspapers. New techniques in photography made it possible for reporters to photograph events as they happened.

Section 1 Assessment

Terms & Names
Louis Sullivan, p. 463
Frederick Law Olmsted, p. 464
Central Park, p. 464
Daniel Burnham, p. 465
Orville and Wilbur Wright, p. 465
Web-perfecting press, p. 465
Linotype machine, p. 466
George Eastman, p. 466

Summarizing
Diagrams might include the following:
City design: Suspension bridges; skyscrapers; urban planning; parks.

Urban transportation: Street cars; commuter trains; el trains; subways.

Communications: Web-perfecting press; Linotype machine; photography; airplanes.

Forming Opinions
Possible Answer:
Students should cite reasons, such as the long-term effect impact of air travel or the widespread influence of low-cost printing, to support their opinions.

Synthesizing
Possible Response: Student plans might mention recreational facilities or increased numbers of parks or other personal preferences.