INDUSTRIALIZATION 1870 - 1900

These stories relate to the U.S. in the second half of the 19th century. This era includes massive immigration after 1870, and how the rise of corporations, heavy industry, and mechanized farming transformed the American people. During this period new social patterns, conflicts, and ideas of national unity developed amid growing cultural diversity. This era also encompassed the rise of the American labor movement, Federal Indian policy and United States foreign policy after the Civil War

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Birth Control Box

A Missouri resident recently inherited a number of items that had been in her family for over 130 years, including an unusual wooden box...More

Chicago Clock

What role did this clock play in keeping 19th century America running on time?...More

Connecticut Farmhouse

How is this Connecticut farmhouse connected to the assassination of a Russian tsar?...More

Copperhead Cane

How did this cane inspire a fiery political movement that threatened Lincoln's presidency?...More

Doc Holliday's Watch

Four years ago, a pawn store clerk in Tulsa, Oklahoma, met a customer claiming to be a descendant of John Henry "Doc" Holliday...More

Geronimo Photograph

One woman's heritage goes back to the 1870s, when her great-great-grandfather was Lieutenant Governor of the still-wild New Mexico territory...More

Jigsaw Puzzle

Were women playing contact sports in the late part of the 19th century?...More

Liberty Bell Pin

Was one of America’s most iconic symbols melted down into a mere memento?...More

Lost Gold Ship

Environmentalist Gabriel Scott was working in the Copper River Delta near Cordova, Alaska, when he came across the wreckage of an old ship...More

Lucy Parsons Book

Was the legendary anarchist the owner of this manifesto found in a library?...More

Mail Order Brides

In California, a photograph collector owns four small images of women taken in Chicago in the 1890s...More

Modoc Basket

What tales does this basket weave of the heroism of an American-Indian woman?...More

Red Cloud's Peace Pipe

Was this pipe given to a Californian woman's ancestor by the famous warrior Chief Red Cloud?...More

Sears Home

Might an Ohio couple's residence be a long-forgotten Sears home?...More

Transatlantic Cable

How did this twisted fragment of metal spark a communications revolution?...More

USS Olympia Glass

Could this farmhouse door have sailed into battle in one of the country's greatest naval victories? ...More