1890s

Title

1890s

Subject

Sources and resources pertaining to the 1890s and literary works concerning this period.

Collection Items

NY Evening World, Feb. 22, 1894
The front page of the "6 o'clock extra" evening edition of the World shows a range of news, with the more scandalous, sensational news in the bottom half of the page ("below the fold"). News items include beatings, domestic disputes, trials, and…

Spaniards Search Women on American Steamers, 1898
This news illustration by Frederic Remington (artist who became known for his depictions of cowboys and horses in the American West) was published in William Randolph Hearst's newspaper, the New York Journal, in 1898, during the Spanish-American War…

Manhattan: 5th Avenue - 66th Street
This photograph portrays the style of housing in New York City in the late 19th century. The apartment buildings are narrow and tall, each reaching three or four stories high. The apartments are built of stone and brick and consist of drab colors.…

Waldorf Astoria, New York, Roof Garden
The "Waldorf Astoria, New York, Roof Garden" photomechanical print illustrates a unique feature of a luxury hotel in Manhattan in the early 1900s. The Waldorf Astoria was one of the first hotels to offer complete electricity, private bathrooms and…

Yard of Tenement, New York
The image chosen is titled Yard of tenement, New York, N.Y. between 1900 and 1910, and depicts a view from an apartment building in New York City overlooking other apartment buildings and clothes lines covered with clothing. In the background of the…

A brief yet informative web page on the history of public transportation in New York City. The transportation services covered range from omnibuses (present in many stories about the period including Henry James' Washington Square, and Steven…

Space between two typical 1890's buildings
The image I selected is of two apartment buildings right next to each other. The windows in this apartment building are tall and skinny, which does not let in a lot of light already and even more so since the window faces a wall. In Bartleby the…

The Orphan Trains
This image I have chosen shows boys ages 6-18 traveling on a train with their heads out the window. This train was known as the Orphan Train. In the 1850’s an estimated 30,000 children were homeless or neglected in New York City. The founder,…

Fifth Avenue in the 1890's
This picture shows the prominent and distinguishable mansions that covered 5th Avenue in the 1890’s. This photo specifically shows the glorious Vanderbilt mansions on Fifth Avenue. These mansions are symbols of prosperity as they are enormous and…

The Bowery
In Chapter 1, Stephen Crane is setting the scene of the Bowery for the novel. He writes, “A very little boy stood upon a heap of gravel for the honor of Rum Alley”. The book opens up with this fight in the Bowery making the setting as realistic as…

Our Lady of the Roses In NYC
Mary, mother of Jesus, is often seen with the image of roses. In NYC history, she is often pictured with roses and she is known as Our Lady of the Roses. She is often associated with the rosary which comes latin "Garland of Roses". Mary is also often…

Federal Jewish Art Project
This was an image created by a Federally funded project to teach the Ashkenazi Jews from Eastern Europe to speak English. This wave of Jewish Immigration took place from the 1880s to the 1920s. Many of the immigrants did not speak English, instead…

Immigrants at Ellis Island in 1908
This image of men, women, and children at Ellis Island in 1908 portrays the first-hand experience of newly arriving immigrants. Their clothing appears to be clean, in good condition, average, and not fancy. It seems the clothing is…

The item from The Ladies’ World titled “The Perfect Poise” is an advertisement about a corset from the brand Ferris Waist. The Ferris Waist corset enables a woman to ride either her bicycle, horse, or play a sport with “easy grace” because every…

"The Klondike Gold Fields" Collier's Weekly, December 1899
“The Klondike Gold Fields” by Tappan Adney presented information about gold exploration in the Yukon region of northwestern Canada near Alaska which appealed to national and international audiences. Adney was a renowned author and illustrator of…

Troops Entering Ponce
The Porto Rican Campaign is an article about the successes of the military campaign in Puerto Rico. The item I chose is a drawing of a photograph of U.S. troops entering Ponce. The photograph was taken by the author of the article. The article was…

Hood's Sarsaparilla Pills Ad
This item is an advertisement for Hood’s Sarsaparilla pills which treat “all liver ills”, jaundice, sick headache, biliousness, sour stomach, and nausea. In the advertisements a woman, Amanda Paisley, tells in depth, of her grotesque experience with…

The War in South Africa
On page three of Colliers Weekly, there is a war dispatch from the correspondent with the British army, Julian Ralph, the story also includes a large illustration. The correspondent tells of a large military city rising up and growing larger every…

"Cures Drunkenness Free" Collier’s Weekly. 23 Dec. 1899.
The item I chose is an advertisement that highlights a remedy used to cure alcoholism. Women are the main audience of the advertisement but are not the intended users of the drug. Instead, it is suggested that women sneak the drug into the drinks and…

"Give the Man a Chance," The Ladies' World, 1900.
This article, from the Household Topics section of the May 1900 issue of The Ladies' World, argues that the man of the household should contribute to making the house a happy home, as opposed to only expecting the wife to put on a happy face at all…
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