The 1950sBy Jade Borgeson

Educatio

n!

Suburbia

!

Fashion! Inventions!

Fashion Family Life

Inventions

The 1950’s The 1950’s Standard of Standard of

LivingLiving

1950’s Culture!

The time between 1950 and 1960 was an era of great advancement for the United States; a time where new inventions, ideas, and ways of living were introduced to the public. Many changes were made to family life, scientific discoveries made, and fashions established.

Family Life: EducationFamily Life: EducationEducation•During the 1950s a lot of developments were made in education

•In 1954 the Supreme court revolutionized education by determining the “equal but separate” educational services for Black and White Americans were not indeed equal in the 5 cases of Brown vs. the Board of Education, all of which challenged the constitutionality of racial segregation in public schools

•In 1957, Elizabeth Eckford was the first black teenager to enter a previously all white high school

Brown vs. The Board of Education

(Name assigned by the SupremeCourt referencing the 5 trials held

in the District of Columbia, Delaware, Virginia, South

Carolina and Kansas That challenged

segregation.)

Belton v. Gebhart Bolling v. Sharpe Brown vs. Board

of Education Briggs vs. Elliott

Davis vs. County School Board

Family Life: The Average Home

The Average Home• Ranch Style housing was introduced

•Suburbia was created (see Levittown, right)

•Single family dwellings were now made affordable to the average family, and that, in combination with the consumeristic beliefs also rising in the U.S at the time, helped create a huge real estate boom across the country.

Sub·urb (s b ûrb ) NOUN: A usually residential area or community outlying a city.

•The mass production of the automobile made it easier to develop suburbs

•American Advertisers portrayed Suburbs as small cultured societies living in heavenly settings, consisting of the latest technology and most courteous neighbors- making them extremely appealing to the American public

•Suburban houses were close together, had small yards, little privacy, and a small square footage.

FashionTimeline

•19511951•Dresses without waistlines were introduced to the public

•“Miss World” beauty competition begins

•19531953•Commercial production of Polyester begins in North Carolina

•19561956•Velcro introduced to the public

•19571957•Straighter waist dresses introduced

•19581958•Shorter skirts (above the knee) introduced

Inventions: For the Home

•The Microwave OVEN

•The Answering Machine

•Saran Wrap

•Super Glue

•“AA Batteries”

•The NONSTICK PAN

•Colored kitchen appliances

•Instant ice tea

THE FIRST MICROWAVE OVEN

Scientists originally invented the magnetrons that produce microwaves in order to try and detect Nazi war planes during World War II, but later accidentally found that they could be used to cook food as well. The first microwave oven was then developed by a company called Raytheon, and was 6 feet tall and weighed 750 pounds. When it was released as a commercial product 9 years later in 1954, they were first sold for 2-3 thousand dollars each.

Inventions: For HealthCare

•The first heart-lung machine

•The internal pacemaker

•Discovery of the double helix DNA

•The vaccine for poliomyelitis

•Oral contraceptives

THE DOUBLE HELIX DNA

Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase were the scientists who conducted the Hershey-Chase experiments that concluded DNA was indeed the genetic material that encoded all human traits. Shortly after them, the structure of DNA was discovered by Rosalind Franklin, James Watson, and Francis Crick when Watson and Crick reviewed X-ray images Rosalind had taken of DNA, and concluded that the bases were paired.

Inventions: For Fun•The Electric Guitar

•Sony Pocket Radio

•The first 3-D movie is shown

•The Hula Hoop

•The first commercial videotape recorder

•Mr. Potato Head

MR. POTATO HEAD

Mr. Potato Head was the first toy ever advertised on TV, and wasn’t like the Mr. Potato Heads we have around today. In the 1950s, Mr. Potato head didn’t come with a plastic body, and real potatoes were used instead.

The EndBibliography

Bradley, Becky. “American Cultural History” Kingswood College Library, http://kclibrary.nhmccd.edu/decade50.html (Accessed January 21, 2007)

Brown, Kevin. “Unraveling the Mystery”, Ellen Moody’s Teaching, http://mason.gmu.edu/~emoody/rfranklin.html (Accessed January 23,2007)

Chancey ,Jennie. “Patterns and Images from 1950-1959” Sense and Sensibility, http://www.sensibility.com/vintageimages/1950s/ (Accessed January 26, 2007)

Rich, Candace. “Inventions of the Fifties” The Fifties Web, http://www.fiftiesweb.com/pop/inventions.htm (Accessed January 21, 2007 )

Sites With No Listed Author:

“Brown v. Board of Education” National Park Service U.S Department of the Interior, http://www.nps.gov/brvb (Accessed January 24, 2007 )

“Suburb” Columbia Encyclopedia, http://education.yahoo.com/reference/encyclopedia/entry/suburb;_ylt=AmjC5z8F.YVcaaUeR6w8P4lVt8wF (Accessed January 26, 2007)