Technology, Culture and Everyday Life

Technology: word created in 1829 to describe the application of science to

tasks of everyday life

Agricultural Advances

1837--John Deere invented a steel-tipped plow that cut in half the hours needed to clear an acre.

Farmers began using fertilizers when it was clear that “virgin” lands out west were producinghigher yields (plaster, guano)

Agricultural Advances• In 1834 Cyrus McCormick

patented the mechanical reaper

• It cut the wheat down, then separated the chaff (waste) from the grain

• It harvested grain seven times faster than previous methods

• McCormick marketed aggressively and sold 80,000 by 1860.

Other technological advances

Samuel MorseTelegraph Machine--1840

Singer Sewing Machine• Perfected by

Isaac Singer• Gave boost to

northern industry

• Became foundation for

ready-made clothing industry

• Led many women into factories

• Eli Whitney’s cotton gin revolutionized the cotton industry.

• He is also noted for the concept of mass production and interchangeable parts by

creating dyes for pistols and rifles. • Very important early pioneer in America’s

industrial revolution.

Cotton Production

The invention which changed

the South, cotton and slavery.

From left to right: Eli Whitney (cotton gin, interchangeable parts), Robert Fulton (steam boat), Thomas Edison (light bulb), Cyrus

McCormick (reaper), Richard Hoe (automatic printing press)

“Iron Horse” Wins!

• Early railcars were

Railroad Growth

• 183013 miles of track built by B & O Railroad

• By 1850 9000 miles of RR track

• By 1860 31,000 miles of RR track

• Northern tracks built by immigrant labor

• Southern tracks builty by slave labor

Effects of Technological Advances

• Products once only available to the wealthy become commonplace

• Purchasing power of average person rose 25% between 1840-1860

• Women and children had opportunities for paid work(in cities and towns,fueling migration)

Standard of living

• Defined: Level of material comfort available to an individual or group

• Changed much more for middle class than for poor

• Middle class people were able to live in ways only the wealthy could earlier

Architecture

Examples of row houses from the 1800s

Medical Advances• There was nothing in the area of medical

advance that rivaled the change in industry• People concentrated their energies on new

diets rather than procedures and medications• Discovery of ether as anesthesia in 1840 by

Crawford Long led to surgical advances

Public Health

• Lack of understanding of how diseases were spread and importance of disinfectants hindered progress in medicine

• Cholera epidemic in 1832 killed 3500 in NYC and more worldwide

Health Movements

• Sylvester Graham advocated good nutrition, whole grains, abstinence from alcohol and later sex, fruits, vegetables and very little meat

• Inspired by cholera outbreak

Pastimes• Entertainment became a

business• Plays and minstrel shows

became popular• Penny newspapers,

subsidized by politicians or businesses, became popular

• PT Barnum—newspapers could create as well as report news

Ms. Susan M. PojerHorace Greeley HS Chappaqua, NY

AntebellumAmerican

Art

TheHudson River

School:1820s-1870

► These artists captured the undiluted power of nature

► Paint the nation’s most spectacular and undeveloped areas [the new Garden of Eden].

► Nature was the best source of wisdom &fulfillment.

► They created visual embodiments of the ideals ofthe Transcendentalists. * Painting is the vehicle through which the universal mind could reach the mind of mankind. * Art is the agent of moral & spiritual transformation.

Background

1. Paint grand, scenic vistas.

2. Humans are an insignificant [even non-existent] part of the picture.

3. Experiment with effects of light on waterand sky.

4. Symbol of the school a broken tree stump

Characteristics of the Hudson River School

A new art for a new land.

► Transcendentalist thinking.► Westward expansion.► American nationalism --> What is

America? * Creation of a national mythology

► Racism and Native Americans.► Concern for political extremism.► The price paid for progress and the

advances of civilization.

Issues/Themes Addressed by the Antebellum Artists

In Nature’s WonderlandThomas Doughty, 1835

NiagaraFrederic Church, 1857

View of the Catskills, Early Autumn

Thomas Cole, 1837

View from Mt. Holyoke: The OxbowThomas Cole, 1836

The Course of Empire: The Savage State

Thomas Cole, 1834

The Course of Empire: The Arcadian or The Pastoral State - Thomas Cole, 1836

The Course of Empire: Consummation

Thomas Cole, 1836

The Course of Empire: DestructionThomas Cole, 1836

The Course of Empire: DesolationThomas Cole, 1836

Kindred Spirits – Asher Durand, 1849

Watercolors by John Audubon

Stanley Hawk Barred Owl

TheLuminists

Boston Harbor from Constitution Wharf

Robert Salmon, 1833

The Constitution in Boston Harbor

Fitz Hugh Lane, 1848-49

Fur Trappers Descending the Missouri

George Caleb Bingham, 1845

TheClassical Styles of Greece &

Rome

Neo-Classical Architecture: U. S. Customs House, 1836

Jefferson Rotunda(Univ. of VA), 1819-26

The Capitol Rotunda

PatrioticArt

The Landing of the PilgrimsUnknown Artist, 1830s

Washington Crossing the DelawareEmmanuel Gottlieb Leutze, 1851

George Washington Horatio Greenough, 1841

The “New Cincinnatus”?

Our Banner in the Sky - Frederic Church, 1861

The“Frontier”

Artists

Young Omahaw, War Eagle, Little Missouri, and Pawnees - Charles Bird

King, 1821

1. The “Noble Savage” Image

Buffalo Bull’s Back Fat, Head Chief,

Blood Tribe - George Caitlin, 1832

2. The “Stoic” Indian

Mato-Tope – Karl Bodmer, 1830s

3. The “Demonic” Indian

Osage Scalp Dance John Mix Stanley, 1845

Last of the Race – Tompkins Matteson, 1847

4. The “Doomed” Indian

Dying Indian Chief Contemplating the Progress of Civilization Thomas Crawford, 1857

A portend of the future??

Major Authors of 1800-1850

e

   

Herman Melville

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Edgar Allen Poe

Emily Dickenson

Henry David Thoreau

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Walt Whitman

Two Main Literary Movements

• Romanticism • Transcendentalism

Romantic Writers of 1800s

Washington IrvingJames Fenimore Cooper

William Cullen BryantEdgar Allan Poe

American Romanticism• Time Period: 1800-1860• Characterized by:

oRomantics considered the city to be a place of moral ambiguity, corruption, and death.  American Romanticism can best be described as a journey away from the corruption of civilization and the limits of rational thought and toward the integrity of nature and the freedom of the imagination.

 

• Romantics value feeling and intuition over reason.  They believe imagination, spontaneity, individual feelings, and wild nature have a greater value than reason, logic, planning, and cultivation. 

Two different types of American romantic novels:

Gothic novels – exploring supernatural realms, haunted landscapes, and mysterious castles.

Nature novels – westward expansion developed this and the author’s need to find transcendence through nature.

Washington Irving

• Romantic tales of folklore adapted from European legends

• set in American landscape • characterized by American stereotypes that

reveals general truths about human nature– Nagging wife– Battered husband

• Old truths (stereotypes) about human nature and possibilities of American landscape (mixes history with fantasy through use of hearsay)

• Uses humorous tone (satirical at times) but conveys serious message about human values

Notable Works

• “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”• “Rip Van Winkle”• The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.• A History of New York…by Diedrich

Knickerbocker

Pictured: John Quidor, 1801–81, The Headless Horseman Pursuing Ichabod Crane, 1858, oil

Rip Van Winkle, oil on canvas by John Quidor, 1829; in the Art Institute of Chicago.

James Fenimore Cooper

• 1st major American novelist• Uses actual events in American history as

settings for his novels • his characters define their personal values by

their experiences in the lawless wilderness• Natural view of life is simple and profound

Notable Works

• Leatherstocking Tales---collection of 5 novels that chronicle life of Natty Bumppo– The Pioneers– The Last of the Mohicans– The Prairie– The Pathfinder– The Deerslayer

• Natty Bumppo is literary hero

William Cullen Bryant• Poetry reflects Romantic approach to life• through imagination and intuition one can learn

from Nature great moral and spiritual truths• “religion of nature”---natural world is

inexhaustible source of moral and spiritual lessons

• Observations of nature evoke feelings of self in oneself.

• Father of American Poetry

By living in harmony with nature,

• man will understand transience (temporary state) on earth

• accept death• rejoice in immortality of nature

Notable Poetry

• “To A Waterfowl”• “Thanatopsis” Romantics poets were often

concerned about:– Death– Individualism

• Since death is the final restriction upon the self and its powers, individualism (the power of the self) became an important theme in poetry.

Emphasis of the poetry

• Romantics emphasized the organic process of constant changes in nature: Every living thing fulfills its appointed life cycle of birth, growth, decay, and death.

Poe

• Romantic view of Nature and the inner self by depicting irrational characters in a grotesque reality

• Nature’s greater truth = madness

Accomplishments• Most important American poet before Walt

Whitman– Unreal atmosphere and musical effects influenced

French symbolist poets and on all modern poetry• Literary critic• Credited along with Hawthorne for giving short

story it modern form– Poe thought a short story should be short enough to be

read in one sitting so as to achieve and sustain a single emotional effect

• Inventor of the detective story

Gothic Elements of Literature

• Language– Everyday language that focuses on nature– Repetition

• Imagery• Mystery, horror, violence, grotesque,

supernatural

Famous Poe Works

Fall of the House of UsherAnnabel LeeThe Murders of the Rue MorgueThe RavenThe Black CatThe Cask of AmontilladoThe Masque of the Red DeathThe Pit and the PendulumThe Telltale Heart

Basic Tenets of Transcendentalists

• A belief that God is present in every aspect of Nature, including every human being

• The conviction that everyone is capable of apprehending God through the use of intuition

• The belief that all of Nature is symbolic of the spirit.

Major Authors: • Henry David Thoreau—Civil Disobedience,

Walden• Ralph Waldo Emerson—Essays, Self-Reliance• Herman Melville—Moby Dick• Nathaniel Hawthorne—The Scarlet Letter, The

House of the Seven Gables• Walt Whitman—Poetry: Leaves of Grass• Emily Dickinson—Poetry published

posthumously

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Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803-1882• Ralph Waldo Emerson was at the center of the American

transcendental movement– The major American philosopher of the nineteenth century

• In September 1835, Emerson founded the Transcendental Club with notables like Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, Elizabeth Hoar and Margaret Fuller

• In 1840, Emerson, Bronson Alcott, and George Ripley founded the magazine, The Dial, with Margaret Fuller editing– The Dial became the leading mouthpiece for the transcendental movement– Emerson, its editor for two years, began publishing his poems and essays in the magazine

• By the 1840s, Emerson became recognized as the leader of the Transcendental movement• In addition to his writings, Emerson made a living as a popular lecturer in New England

– Audiences were captivated by his speaking style– Emphasized self-reliance and nonconformity, he championed authentic American literature,

and insisted that each individual find their own relation to God

• “. . . man as a reformer. . . our life . . . is common and mean . . . yet . . . each person . . . has felt his own call to cast aside all evil customs . . . and to be in his place a free and helpful man, a reformer, a benefactor, not content to slip along through the world like a footman or a spy . . . but a brave and upright man, who must find or cut a straight road to everything excellent in the earth, and not only go honorably himself, but make it easier for all who follow him, to go in honor and with benefit”

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Henry David Thoreau 1817-1862

• Henry David Thoreau was one of the best known transcendentalist thinkers of his age

• He met Ralph Waldo Emerson, who became a patron and advisor to him and who introduced him to the leading Although he could never make a living from his writings, Thoreau’s work now comprises over 20 volumes

• His writing is rich and complex and intended to nudge readers to reconsider the beliefs that make up their lives

• Politically, Thoreau was a lifelong abolitionist

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Henry David Thoreau: Walden (1854) From 1845-1847, Thoreau embarked on a two-year experiment in simple living

by living in an isolated log cabin on land owned by Emerson While at Walden, Thoreau did an incredible amount of reading and writing, yet

he also spent much time "sauntering" in nature Thoreau lived a life of simplicity at Walden In 1854, Thoreau published an account of this period entitled “Walden,” which

became one of the great classics of American literature; indeed of world literature It offers a social critique of the West with its emphasis on consumerism and

its widespread destruction of the natural environment The book invites one to the examine one’s life and to the realization of one's

potential

Walden Pond A Modern Replica of Thoreau’s Walden Cabin

Henry David Thoreau