Writer and humorist, Mark Twain, wrote the novel The Gilded Age ridiculing Washington D.C. and many of the leading figures of the day
The growth of industry and a wave of immigrants marked this period in American history. The production of iron and steel rose dramatically and western resources like lumber, gold, and silver increased the demand for improved transportation. Railroad development boomed as trains moved goods from the resource-rich West to the East. Steel and oil were in great demand. All this industry produced a lot of wealth for a number of businessmen like John D. Rockefeller [in oil] and Andrew Carnegie [in steel], known as robber barons [people who got rich through ruthless business deals]. The Gilded Age gets its name from the many great fortunes created during this period and the way of life this wealth supported.
The 2022 Met Gala asks its attendees to abide by the specific dress code of “gilded glamour, white tie”—or, in more explanatory terms, their own interpretation of formal Gilded Age fashions from 1870 to 1899.
Mark Twain coined the term “The Gilded Age” in 1873 to describe the dichotomous time in this country’s history. There was explosive economic and industrial growth, yet along with it, great political corruption. Families like the Vanderbilts and Carnegies amassed outrageous fortunes, while millions of immigrant ones arrived at Ellis Island in search of a better, more prosperous future. All the while, the city of New York emerged as a financial and cultural epicenter of this country.
Fashion, too, reflected this wildly changing time of society and its norms. Clothing became grander and more over-the-top, a reflection of the time’s prosperity as well as technological advances in textile production, which led to an influx of silk, tulle, and lace. The 1880s, for example, saw men embrace the tuxedo from England, and women adorn themselves in highly formal fashions like bustles and extravagant hats. Yet, as Americans became more interested in leisure sports like tennis and bicycling in the 1890s, sportswear, for the first time, also became a necessity in both men’s and women’s wardrobes.
So perhaps it makes all the sense in the world that, in 1892, Vogue was founded to chronicle and critique the ever-evolving aesthetics on what-to-wear when. A November 1897 issue, for example, heralded broadcloth and velvet jackets, while the next month portrayed the ideal aesthetic for “December belles” during debutante season. In April 1898, an ode to feather hats were in order, whereas a fantastical “princesse ball gown” was illustrated on the cover in 1899. That’s not to say that Vogue took itself too seriously: more often than not, the editors couldn’t resist adding witty captions to accompany their stylish suggestions. In a November 1893 issue, an artist depicted a well-heeled man and women, dressed to the nines for the horse show—although it wasn’t a couple as one would expect. “Get a divorce? Why, it has taken me five years to get accustomed to my present husband and life is too short to get accustomed to another,” she cheekily says to her male admirer. The price for this society and fashion bible? Ten cents an issue, four dollars a year.
As the first Monday of May approaches, Vogue unearthed the best Gilded Age-era covers and fashion from our archives to show the distinct style of this era in America history.
Jack and the Wall Street giants, 1904. Illustration shows a diminutive President Theodore Roosevelt standing on Wall Street, holding a large sword labeled “Public Service” before giant capitalist ogres labeled “J.J. Hill” holding a club labeled “Merger”, “Morgan” holding a club labeled “High Finance”, and “Rockefeller, Oxnard, [and] Gould” Udo J. Keppler, artist.
Given its underlying business themes, The Gilded Age, which premiered on HBO in January 2022, quickly caught my attention. The show’s first season, which is set in 1882 in the rapidly changing New York City landscape, revolves around the clash between the mores of old New York society and the emerging world of newly rich industrialists and financiers.The show’s title, Gilded Age, references the period in American history from approximately 1870-1900, but where did the phrase itself come from, and what is so special about this time in American history?
The term, which wasn’t widely used to describe the period until the 20th century, was taken from the title of an 1873 novel, The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner. The novel – which has two major story lines: one revolving around a poor rural family looking to become affluent by selling land and the other focusing on two young upper-class men seeking their fortunes in land speculation – satirizes the greed and corruption of politicians and the social pretensions of the newly rich.
This book’s two plotlines reflected broader social trends of the time including rapid economic growth in the United States fueled by the growth of capital, an increase in manufacturing capacity, wall street panics, and the spread of railroads. In addition to being a time when many of the men running companies amassed previously unimaginable amounts of wealth, the period was also marked by the increasing strength of the labor movement, as reflected in such events as the Haymarket riot and the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire.
Official railroad map of the United States with portions of the Dominion of Canada, the Republic of Mexico, and the West Indies., c1893 Rand, Mc.Nally & Co..
You are likely to recognize many of the people associated with this period, some of whom have been the subjects of This Month in Business History entries or Inside Adams posts, including Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, J. P. Morgan, George Westinghouse, Jay Gould, James Fisk Jr., Hetty Green, and others - as well as those involved in the labor movement such as Mother Jones.
Print shows, from left, Cyrus W. Field, Russell Sage, Rufus Hatch, Jay Gould, Sidney Dillon, Darius Ogden Mills, William H. Vanderbilt, August Belmont, George W. Ballou, and James R. Keene, with a portrait of Cornelius Vanderbilt hanging on the wall in the background, 1882. Buek & Lindner, lithographer.
This seminal period of American history is one that people are still interested in studying. For those who would like to learn more about the period, there is no shortage of books. Below we have listed a few.
- American Colossus: The Triumph of Capitalism, 1865–1900 [2010]
- Rebirth of a Nation: The Making of Modern America, 1877-1920 [2009]
- Encyclopedia of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era [2005]
- New Spirits: Americans in the Gilded Age, 1865–1905 [2nd ed, 2011]
- The Republic for Which It Stands: The United States during Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, 1865–1896 [2017]
- The Gilded Age and Progressive Era: A Documentary Reader [2012]
- America in the Gilded Age : from the death of Lincoln to the rise of Theodore Roosevelt [3rd ed, 1993]
The Central Bank, 1910. Frank A. Nankivell, artist.
For anyone interested in an economic picture of the period, the FRASER project from the St. Louis Federal Reserve has many digitized materials. It includes titles like the Statistical Abstract [also available through the Census] and other publications focused on the economy and banking. There are some great publications like the Commercial and Financial Chronicle and material from the Bureau of Labor Statistics like the Bulletin of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The Library also has a variety of online resources for anyone studying this period.
- If your project needs images of people and places, the Library has many great photographs as well as drawings and prints that you can find on our website. I particularly like the chromolithographs by Udo J. Keppler, and included one in this post.
- News coverage can offer interesting perspectives on events as well as on people both big and small. Chronicling America has many digitized newspapers from throughout the country and a number of guides have already been created as part of Topics in Chronicling America. These include guides on the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, presidential administrations, Samuel Gompers, and Mother Jones to name just a few.
- Business Reference has also created two guides which describe many resources that may be useful for anyone wanting to understand Wall Street during this period: Business Booms, Busts, & Bubbles: A Resource Guide on Economic Manias & Crashes and Wall Street and the Stock Exchanges: Historical Resources.
- For a political perspective, the Library has the digitized presidential papers for Ulysses S. Grant, James A. Garfield, Chester A. Arthur, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison, and William McKinley.
- If you want to look at Labor history, the records for the American Federation of Labor for the years 1883-1925 were digitized and are on the Library website.
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