Visit the Roadside Marker Site for the Homestead Strike, making sure you browse the site thoroughly. All the photographs can be enlarged, and the links take one to other significant sources of Information.
The Chicago Public Library's Site: 1894: The Pullman Strikewhere you'll want to browse the primary sources and read the first hand accounts. Note that the pictures all enlarge.
Chapter 2: Working, from "Office Work and Service Jobs" to end. 67 - 85
Switchboard Operators at a telephone exchange. Women were preferred for this position because they were smaller and had more agile fingers. Men supervised. Click for a brief history of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (ATT).
Machines revolutionized work outside of factories, as well. In the case of office work, the typewriter and telephone made the modern office possible, and offered new opportunities for women in the job market. In the home, a revolution was around the corner, but not quite there as yet. New mechanical devices (like the carpet sweeper) were making housework easier, but the electrification of housework was yet to come. This had a far different effect on opportunities for women, as appliances made it easier for persons to do their own work.
The typewriter, as well as the telephone revolutionized office work. Like telephones, nimbleness rather than strength was the qualification for a successful operative. Click to learn the typewriter's history.
We've seen some of this from the point of view of those working as we've read Schlereth. Here, we'll look at the big picture, and how the modern corporation, born during this period, concentrated economic power in the hands of the new industrialist class. We'll look at the way companies on a new scale "rationalized" entire industries: Steel and Oil, to name just two. We'll also think a little about the emerging field of "scientific" management, and how the new science of business changed the relationship of employee to employer.. (Remember "Taylorization").
Alexander Graham Bell inaugurates long distance service between New York and Chicago, 1892. The telephone originally was considered a business machine. Later, it changed domestic life, as well. Click on the picture for access to the Alexander Graham Bell papers at the Library of Congress.
As businesses set their sights beyond their localities, communications becomes vital and more complex. Click on the image above to read about the invention of the modern office.
For Wednesday, September 26
Read, in Chambers,
Chapter 3, The Corporate Revolution pp. 54 - 79
We've seen some of this from the point of view of those working as we've read Schlereth. Here, we'll look at the big picture, and how the modern corporation, born during this period, concentrated economic power in the hands of the new industrialist class. We'll look at the way companies on a new scale "rationalized" entire industries: Steel and Oil, to name just two. We'll also think a little about the emerging field of "scientific" management, and how the new science of business changed the relationship of employee to employer
The modern corporation required a new building type...the skyscraper. The skyscraper was made possible by new inventions. Click the man for the invention, and the building for more about skyscrapers.
For Friday, September 28
Changes on this scale could not occur without serious disruptions, among them economic cycles of boom and bust and ongoing conflicts between management and labor, which found itself at considerable disadvantage in this new industrial reality. We'll look at two instances of labor conflicts, the Homestead Strike and the Pullman Strike, each of which turned remarkably violent, each of which saw government intervening on the side of the corporation, and each of which raised serious questions about the survival of equalitarian principles in this new industrial age.
NOTE: The strikes at Homestead, Pennsylvania and Pullman, Illinois, were made particularly vivid by the rapidly improving photographic techniques which made a real "photo-journalism" possible. As you consider what you read, think about how pictures of militia encampments in the middle of towns would make your particular character react. You'll see some of these at linked websites above.
e-history at Ohio State University provides a useful timeline for events surrounding labor unrest at Pullman. Click on the picture below.
Danielle Ray had a great idea (my humble opinion). Why not have your alter-egos encounter each other and discuss some of these materials? I can't think of a single good reason why not, and lots of good reasons why. So I i'm proposing that we organizse into groups of 4 or so for this purpose. I'm not particularly concerned how we get organized. I think I'll leave that up to you, unless you need a matchmaker to operate on this. There are tools available for electronic meetings as well as meetings in the flesh, and you can make this as "real" as you wish...i.e., find reasons for your characters to meet or just discuss the different reactions of your characters as yourselves. Think about it, and thanks, Danielle.
7.1 John W. Holway, a Pinkerton Guard, Views the Battle 
