Golden Age or new Gilded Age, the Statue of Liberty, a historian’s family history, pedestrianism and politics, documenting Black dance history, the Teddy Bear’s failed possum rival, and much more.
Minding the GAPE – February 2025
The life of Black feminist activist Dr. Anna Julia Cooper, a covert government agency in the Progressive Era, coercive tariffs under McKinley, marriage records of the Freedmen’s Bureau, the origins of Black financial institutions, and much more.
Wobbly Justice: Guilt by Association in Progressive-Era Seattle
On June 22, 1918, an organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) named Walker Smith was arrested at his home in Seattle. Two Scottish sisters, Janet and Margaret Roy, were arrested with him, and unlike Smith and the many others he consorted with, they were not American citizens. As foreigners, the sisters’ experience in the American legal system, the newspaper coverage devoted to them, and their attempts to thwart the immigration laws that targeted them provide an example of how American immigration law and practice sought to ideologically sort and control new arrivals to the United States.
A Progressive Statesman Confronts Modern Art
The Progressive Era (ca. 1900-1920) was a time of great change in American life. Urbanization and industrialization increased, immigration grew, progressive reformers introduced new forms of government regulation, and new types of literature and art entered the scene. The changes delighted some Americans but confounded and upset others. Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) was a change-maker but also someone who struggled to understand and accept some of the changes of the era. Modern art, which debuted in the new century, was one of those changes.
2025 Prize and Grant Winners
The Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era is pleased to announce our 2025 prize and grant winners, including the Vincent P. DeSantis Prize and the H. Wayne Morgan Prize.
Minding the GAPE – January 2025
The Panama Canal, Grant’s Ku Klux Klan pardons, birthright citizenship and U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark, Greenland and Arctic imperialism, the origins of the anti-vaccine movement, teaching resources for Black History Month, and much more.
“Faces of the First Red Scare”: Documenting Red Scare Deportees
Below is an interview with Dr. Kenyon Zimmer, a historian of transnational radicalism. Recently, as I was editing a piece for our blog, I stumbled across his personal website where he has published a comprehensive digital archive of Red Scare deportees. I thought our readers could benefit from this resource, both for their own research and for the classroom. It is also a wonderful example of a digital history project, and Zimmer gives us insight into the surprising responses he’s had to it.
Minding the GAPE – December 2024
Rereleasing an 1891 country song recording, evolving depictions of Santa Claus, historical holiday drinks and the history of punch, Black self-publishers, acrimonious elections of the past, investigating deaths at Indian boarding schools, and much more
Minding the GAPE – November 2024
The fight for Native American voting rights, witches in the Wizard of Oz, “catvertising,” Thanksgiving memories from the 1800s, and much more.
Minding the GAPE – October 2024
Preserving LGBTQ+ history, Teddy Roosevelt pillow covers, mining history in Colorado and Michigan, the Pinkerton detective agency, Detroit’s Mexicantown, and much more.
High Cost of Living? Blame the President.
The federal government’s regulatory involvement in the economy has grown greatly since the 1910s. The incongruities of fiscal politics, though, resembled those of today. A Democratic administration tolerated massive borrowing—to meet wartime needs then and a pandemic emergency recently—while Republicans condemned as inflationary actions they might well have taken themselves (and did during Trump’s administration). Unlike in Wilson’s era, today’s Federal Reserve Board bears much of the responsibility for curbing inflation. Yet politically, the president’s administration still faces most of the criticism when consumer prices have risen sharply. Then and now, the budgetary pressures of competing policy needs and the sheer difficulty of lowering prices virtually guarantee voter discontent.
Understanding Comstock Through Primary Sources
In addition to reading and assigning the posts in this blog series, instructors may want to bring a discussion of Anthony Comstock and the Comstock Laws into their classes through primary sources. This piece introduces a few readily accessible and rich options.