1850 1859 1860

Vanderbilt Family: American family who became socially prominent during the first half of the 19th century. There family fortune was established in the shipping and railroad industry, The Vanderbilt’s are the seventh wealthiest family in history.

George Pullman: An American industrialist and inventor who was known for the invention of the Pullman Sleeping Car. He was also known for violently suppressing strikers in the company town he created, Pullman, which later became part of Chicago Illinois.

Social Darwinism: This grew out of Charles Darwin’s theory of biological evolution. In 1859, he published, On the Origin of Species, where he described the process of natural selection.

1861

Urbanization: This was the growth of cities during the 19th century and beyond.

1864 1869 1869

Sand Creek Massacre: November 29, 1864 Colonel John Chivington and his troops descended on the Cheyenne and Arapaho Indian tribe which contained about 200 warriors and 500 women and children who camped at Sand Creek. The attack occurred at dawn on the 29th and killed over 150 inhabitants.

Transcontinental Railroad: This was the railroad system that connected the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the United States. This was completed in the year 1869.

Political Machine: This was an organized group that controlled the activities of a political party in a city.

1869

Kickback: This is an illegal payment for services. This is what political machines would use to get people to vote for that party or support them. They would “kickback” money to supporters.

1869 1869 1869

Tammany Hall: This was New York City’s most powerful Democratic political machine.

Tweed Ring: This was a group of corrupt politicians led by Boss Tweed in defrauding New York City between the years 1869 to 1871.

George Westinghouse: He was an American entrepreneur and engineer who invented the railway air break. Westinghouse was also a great pioneer of the electrical industry.

1871

Long Drive: The overland transport of animals where a trail boss and his crew would take their cattle on a “long drive” that usually lasted about three months. A typical drive consisted of one cowboy for every 200 to 300 head of cattle; a cook who also drove the chuck wagon and set up camp; and a wrangler who cared for the extra horses .

1871 1872 1872

Mark Twain: Samuel Langhorne Clemens was a novelist and humorist. Twain inspired a host of other young writers and authors when he declared his independence of “literature and all that bosh.”

Southern Alliance: This was a group that sympathized with many farmers. The Southern Alliance was the largest and they sent lecturers to towns to educate people about lower interest rates on loans and government control over railroads and banks.

Mail Order Catalog: This was a catalog that was companies would produce and send out via mail (postal service) for people to look at and place orders from. By the mid 1990’s more than 13 billion catalogs filled Americans mailboxes.

1873

John D. Rockefeller: He established the Standard Oil Co. The company joined with competing companies in trust agreements. Rockefeller used these trust agreements to gain total control of the oil industry in America. In 1870 his company only processed 2 or 3%of the Country’s oil, by 1880 it controlled 90% of the refining business. He kept most of his assets, but he still gave away over $500 million, establishing the Rockefeller Foundation, providing funds to found the University of Chicago, and creating a medical institute to find a cure for yellow fever.

1873 1873 1874

Segregation: Laws that separate white and black people in public and private places.

Patronage: The giving of government jobs to people who had helped that candidate get elected.

Trust: These were agreements where the participants turned their stock over to a group of trustees and in return the companies were entitled to dividends on profits earned by the trust.

1874

George Armstrong Custer: Colonel Custer reported that the Black Hills had gold. From that point on the Gold Rush had begun.

1876 1876 1876

Buffalo Soldiers: These men were originally members of the U.S. Calvary Regiment formed on Sept. 21, 1866 at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The nick name was given to the “Negro Cavalry” by the Native American Tribes the fought.

Battle of Little Big Horn: Also known as Custer’s last stand. This battle occurred on June 25th and 26th, 1876 near the Little Big Horn River in eastern Montana territory. It was an overwhelming victory for the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho inspired by the visions of Sitting Bull. The total casualty count was 268 dead and 55 injured.

Thomas A. Edison: He became a pioneer on the new industrial frontier when he established the world’s 1st research laboratory in Menio Park, NJ in 1876. There he preferred the incandescent light bulb which was patented in 1880 and later invented an entire system for producing and distributing power.

1876

Alexander Graham Bell: The inventor of the telephone in 1876.

1876 1876 1877

Telephone: Invented in 1876 by Alexander Graham Bell. This changed the speed of the world forever.

Ellis Island: This is where immigrants from mainly European countries entered the United States. About 20% of immigrants at Ellis Island were detained for a day or more before being inspected but only about 2% were denied entry. An estimated 17 million immigrants passed through the island.

Civil Service: Government Administration.

1877

Chief Joseph: The leader of the Nez Perce Indian Tribe, the Wallowa band. He and his tribe traveled 1170 miles across Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana while fighting against General Howard and his opposing cavalry. Finally after a 5 day battle during the freezing weather conditions with no food or blankets, Chief Joseph formally surrendered to General Nelson Appleton Miles on October 5th, 1877.

1877 1880 1880

Nez Perce: An Indian tribe that was forced off of their land in Wallowa County, Oregon in 1877 that returned 120 years later. In 1999 the number of Nez Perce in Oregon was at around 3,000. Chief Joseph was the best known Nez Perce.

Wild Bill Hickok: He was a legendary figure who served as a scout and spy during the Civil War then later a marshal in Abilene, Kansas. He was a violent man who shot a man who was holding a pair of aces and a pair of eights, this hand is still known as a “dead mans hand.”

Bessemer Process: This was developed independently by the British manufacturer Henry Bessemer and American iron maker William Kelly around 1850. This technique involved injecting air into molten iron to remove the carbon and other impurities. By 1880, most American manufacturers were using this new method to produce 90% of the nation’s steel. 1880

Ragtime: A blend of African American spirituals and European musical forms,. Ragtime originated in southern saloons and led later to jazz, rhythm and blues, and rock and roll.

1881 1881 1883

Sitting Bull: A member of the Sioux Indian Tribe he earned the name of sitting bull after a fight with the Crow. He led his people by the strength of his character and purpose. He was a warrior, spiritual leader, and medicine man. He was determined that whites should leave Sioux territory. His most famous fight was at the Little Big Horn River. After his surrender to the federal government in 1881, his dislike of whites did not change. He was killed by a Native American Police in Dec. of 1890.

Booker T. Washington: A prominent African American educator that believed that racism would end once blacks acquired useful labor skills and proved their economic value to the society. He graduated from Virginia’s Hampton Institute . By 1881 he headed the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial institute. The institute aimed to equip African Americans with teaching diplomas and useful skills.

Melting Pot: A mixture of people of different cultures and races who blended together by abandoning their native languages and customs.

1883

Joseph Pulitzer: A Hungarian immigrant who had bought the New York World in 1883, and pioneered popular innovations, such as a larger Sunday edition, comics, sports coverage, and women’s news.

1884 1886 1886

Mugwumps: A group of Republican activists who Supported Democratic Candidate Grover Cleveland in the US Presidential election of 1884.

Samuel Gompers: He led the Cigar Makers International Union to join with other craft unions in 1886.

Jane Addams: She very strongly believed in settlement houses. She cofounded Chicago’s Hull House in 1889. She was also an antiwar activist, a spokesperson for racial justice and an advocate for quality of life issues. In 1931 she was a co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

1887

Dawes Act: Congress passed this aiming to “Americanize” the Native Americans. The act broke up the reservations and gave some of the reservation land to individual Native Americans- 160 acres for every head of household and 80 acres to each unmarried adult.

1888 1888 1888

George Eastman: He sold the first roll-film camera. He called it the Kodak.

Literacy Test: These test the reading ability of African Americans to ensure that they couldn’t vote.

Grandfather Clause: This stated that even if a man failed the literacy test or could not afford poll tax, he was still entitled to vote if he, his father or his grandfather had been able to vote prior to January 1st, 1867.

1888

Poll Tax: An annual tax that had to be paid before qualifying to vote.

1888 1890 1890

Jim Crow Laws: This was the nickname for segregation laws because of an old minstrel song that ended in the words “Jump, Jim Crow.”

Ghost Dance: When the Sioux continued to suffer poverty and disease the turned to a Palute prophet who promised that if the Sioux performed a ritual called the Ghost Dance, Native American lands and way of life would be restored. This movement spread rapidly among the 25,000 Sioux on the Dakota Reservation. Military leaders saw this as a threat and order the arrest of Sitting Bull. In Dec of 1890 he was shot while police were trying to arrest him.

Wounded Knee: On Dec 28, 1890 the Seventh Cavalry (Custer’s old regiment) rounded up 350 starving and freezing Sioux and took them to a camp at Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota. The soldiers demanded that the Native Americans give up all of their weapons. A shot was fired, from which side was unknown, but the cavalry responded with a deadly cannon fire and within minutes they had slaughtered as many as 300 mostly unarmed Native Americans and left their dead bodies laying on the ground.

1890

Sherman Antitrust act: This made it illegal to form a trust that interfered with free trade between states and other countries.

1891 1891 1894

Collective Bargaining: This was negotiation between representatives of labor and management, to reach oral agreements on wages, hours and working conditions.

Jacob Riis: He was a social reformer, “Muckraking” journalist, and a social documentary photographer. He was known as one of the fathers of photography because of his discovery of the use of flash.

Eugene Debs: He attempted to form the American Railway Union. Most of the union’s members were unskilled or semiskilled laborers. In 1894 the Union won a strike for higher wages.

1895

W. E. B. Dubois: The first African American to earn a doctorate from Harvard. He founded the Niagara Movement which insisted that blacks should seek a liberal arts education so that the African American community would have well- educated leaders.

1895 1896 1896

Vaudeville: Performances that included song, dance, juggling, slapstick comedy, and sometimes chorus lines of female performers. Many black performers entertained here.

William Jennings Bryan: He may be considered a patron of loss causes. He was the nominee for the Democratic candidate for the presidential election of 1896.

Settlement House: Community centers in slum neighborhoods that provided assistance to people in the area, especially immigrants.

1899

Andrew Carnegie: He was one of the first industrial moguls to make his own fortune. By 1899 the Carnegie Steel Company manufactured more steel than all the factories in Great Britain. He sold his business in 1901 and his companies produced by far the largest portions of the nations steel.

1901 1902 1903

Monopoly: Complete control over its industry’s production, wages and prices.

Debt Peonage: A system that bound laborers into slavery.

The Wright Brothers: Created the first airplane in Kitty Hawk, NC

1910

Angel Island: Where Chinese immigrants came into the US in California.

• All of my images came from Google Images.