Gilder Lehrman Summer Seminars: New York in the Gilded Age

Each summer the Gilder Lehrman Institute holds seminars for public, parochial and independent school teachers "designed to strengthen educators' commitment to high quality history teaching." More than 6,000 teachers have participated in the program through the years. In the summer of 2006 600 participants from 49 states and 6 foreign countries took part. HNN asked participants to write up their reflections, which we will be publishing over the coming months.

How many of us who delight in learning and teaching American History think of the period between the end of the Civil War and the beginning of World War One as an empty landscape?  Oh, of course there were some useful inventions, lots of immigrants, corrupt politicians, and a “splendid little war” with Spain.  But the details seem to be obscured by the explosive developments which were to come in the twentieth century.  And how relevant is anything in this forgotten era to us today?

The answer is that America’s evolution during the Gilded Age is the foundation of our own social, political and economic experience.  It was the age of urbanization, industrialization, immigration, professonalization, and concentration of wealth on a scale never before known.  All of these trends were evident across the nation, but nowhere else were they as fully developed as in New York City:  the metropolis of the American Empire.

The Gilder Lehrman Institute summer seminar discovery of “New York in the Gilded Age” was led by Professors Kenneth Jackson and Karen Markoe, two gifted and experienced guides to this unfamiliar landscape.  Professor Jackson is well known for his invaluable Encyclopedia of New York City and Empire City: New York through the Centuries, as well as for his television appearances as an expert on the city’s history.  Columbia University students vie for a place in his classes, and join his famous midnight bicycle tours of the city.  Professor Markoe, Distinguished Service Professor of History at SUNY Maritime, provided insights into dissent in the Gilded Age and women who were influential in reform and welfare movements.  Anthony Napoli, Education Coordinator for the Gilder Lehrman Institute, put in long hours keeping everything running smoothly.  He also contributed a practical dimension to the seminar with a valuable presentation on teaching strategies.

The thirty-two seminar participants came from Maine to Hawaii, and included teachers in various high school environments, as well as a couple of National Park Service rangers.  Everyone was energized by the excitement in the classroom at Columbia University, and equally by the experience of New York City itself.

The seminar began with a sumptuous get-acquainted dinner at the ornate Italian Academy. Early the next morning Professor Jackson got right down to business, describing some of the ways New York is different:  It is big, and was growing rapidly in the Gilded Age, with a population expanding from one million in 1860 to four million in 1900.  It is diverse, and has always welcomed immigrants since the Dutch came to trade. It is fairly old, as American cities go, but economic development has erased much of its past. There is a great, and growing, disparity here between rich and poor. Although “inner city” often implies poverty, race, and crime, that is not so in New York.  There are so many wealthy and upper middle class residents that per capita New York County is the richest in the United States.

Wealth and diversity, or heterogeneity, encourage the arts, and New York became the cultural capital of the United States during the Gilded Age.

Above all, New York is a place of rapid change. In what had once been the nation’s largest industrial city, de-industrialization started here earlier than in other cities.  What had become the busiest port in the world between 1865 and 1950 lost its maritime prominence due to containerization of cargoes. Still, without industry or the maritime trades for employment, immigrants continue to come here and more than replace those who leave.

Of the twenty million immigrants arriving in New York between 1855 and 1920, many chose to remain in the city. And many of those who stayed lived in tenements on the Lower East Side in conditions crowded beyond belief. Indeed, with a population of one thousand people per acre, this became the most overcrowded community in the world. Operating on the belief that it is best to go see the real thing, the seminar was conducted to the Lower East Side Tenement Museum on Orchard Street. Here, in a tenement built in 1863, the life of immigrant families is interpreted by costumed staff creating a “first person” impression. Lacking indoor plumbing, light, and ventilation these early tenements became such an open scandal that a series of reform laws were enacted. Although there were never enough inspectors to thoroughly enforce the Tenement Laws, it became an established principle that the City had an interest in, and some control over, housing.

At the opposite end of the economic ladder from the immigrant was the “robber baron,” personified perhaps by J. P. Morgan. Jean Strouse, author of Morgan: American Financier, provided a fascinating glimpse of this reticent man whose motto was “think much, say little, write nothing.” Nonetheless, the man who created trusts such as U. S. Steel, General Electric, International Harvester, AT&T, and who organized the loan of millions to stem the “Panic of 1907” when the U. S. government was helpless could not remain unknown. Another expedition to view the reality of history led the seminar to the Morgan Library at Madison Avenue and 35th Street. Here, in a 1906 building designed by the famed architects McKim, Mead and White, is Morgan’s own collection of artistic treasures from around the world. Not one, but three Gutenberg Bibles compete for attention with illuminated medieval manuscripts, and masterpieces of eastern and western art. The new Gilder Lehrman Hall on the Morgan’s lower level houses a state of the art auditorium suited to the wide variety of musical performances, lectures, readings, and video presentations offered.

As the seminar unfolded, a host of topics such as literature, the press, transportation, sports, entertainment, department stores, and restaurants were briefly discussed by subject-matter authorities. Participants developed an understanding of the origin during the Gilded Age of many institutions and commonplaces of 20th century experience.

The final contribution to understanding the Gilded Age was provided by the participants themselves, however. Based on primary source documentation, such as a photograph, letter, song, newspaper article, etc. each educator prepared a set of questions which would stimulate exploration and interpretation of the primary material. Additional questions encouraged students to draw inferences, generalize, and compare in order to place the source within a broader context and test their hypotheses.

The combined efforts of the Gilder Lehrman Institute, the leading scholars, the seminar participants, Columbia University and the tumultuous presence of New York City itself resulted in a unique and memorable educational experience. We learned about the city by living it.