Read, in Schlereth:

Chapter 1: Moving pp. 7-31

in Fink:

5.1 Population Growth in Selected U. S. Cities, 1870-1920 118-119
5.2 Immigrant Distribution in Six Cities, 1870-1920 122
Technology and the Treadmill of Urban Progress (Klein & Kantor) 132-141

As Schlereth will demonstrate, all sorts of mobility dominated American culture at the turn of the century. It may help to organize thinking about this as a matter of scale of distance, as much as anything else. At the top of the scale would be immigration. At the bottom, the commute from domicile to workplace. In between would be the movement between regions of this country, and from the farms, villages and market towns to the emerging industrial centers. All of these happened more or less simultaneously and more or less continuously, and at an ever accelerating pace.

Highlight the middle decades on the chart in Fink 5.1 (1880-1910), and analyze the relative rates of growth of places in different regions. If you haven't given your character a locale yet, you might want to choose one of the cities mentioned and consider how the changes experienced would have effected him/her. Think, too, that persons and families who do not move around much are still affected by the mobility swirling around them.

Klein & Kantor will shed light on the way that technology both stimulated mobility and made it possible. They will also direct your attention to certain aspects of technological change which ameliorated problems created by previous technological solutions. (see p. 134)

Visit one of the following websites which present aspects of the transportation revolution:

http://www.cmhpf.org/kids/TopicalEssays/TrolleyGuide.html (Streetcars of Charlotte, NC)
http://www.citybus.org/history1.html (Williamsport, Pennsylvania)
http://detnews.com/history/trolley/trolley.htm (Detroit, Michigan)

Note that electrified transit boomed in quite small places. Your persona may have had occasion to encounter on, or would certainly have dreamed of encountering one.

PLEASE SEND ME AN E-MAIL BY MONDAY, FEBRUARY 4.  MAKE THE SUBJECT LINE OF THE E-MAIL THE COURSE NAME (CRITICAL PERIODS, 1890S)  IN THE BODY OF THE E-MAIL, INCLUDE

• YOUR REAL NAME
• YOUR ALTER EGO's NAME
• YOUR ALTER EGO'S VITAL STATISTICS AS OF 1885
• AGE
• GENDER
• NATIONALITY
• COUNTRY OF ORIGIN (IN BORN IN U.S.A., WHERE DID THE IMMIGRANT GENERATION COME FROM?)
• RELIGION
• LOCATION IN 1885 (HE/SHE MAY MOVE AROUND A BIT)

Read, in Fink:

Families Enter America (Bodnar) pp. 141-150
5.5 Congress Takes Aim and the "Chinese Menace" pp. 123-124
5.5 Huang Zunxian Expresses the Chinese Perspective in Poetry pp. 124-128
5.8 Advice Column for Jewish Immigrants pp. 128-131

This period we focus on immigrants and the immigrant experience. Bodnar will show us why it is perhaps better to think of the immigrant family than of the immigrant individual. Pay special attention to the section of "family economy".

The three primary sources highlight some of the friction which arose as diverse groups made America home. The first of these, please note, is an official document of the United States Congress. Its tone may surprise you. The second looks at anti-Chinese racism from the perspective of the victim: in this case a victim who happens to be a sensitive poet. The third suggests some of the acculturation issues which new immigrants faced.

Another interesting kind of moving is "touring," and visiting exotic places (like Cleveland, or Indianapolis) was a favorite activity, and it led to the invention of a new communications genre, the picture postcard. The Library of Congress has a very large collection of turn of the century postcards available at http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/detroit/dethome.html. I'd like to have you browse in the collection a bit. Of course sedentary people toured, too. After all, someone received those postcards from exotic places (like Buffalo). So have your character either get or send a few.

Read, in Schlereth:

Chapter 2: Working, to sub-head Office Work and Service Jobs pp. 33-66

Most mobility was not related to recreational touring, however. People moved in relation to work. We begin a study of working in the 1890s by taking a closer look at the factory at the turn of the century, especially the newer heavy industries organized on mammoth scales. Factories like these gave reason for the development of trolley systems to move laborers from home to worksite.

The new industrialism also meant the creation of new towns. Workers need shelter and institutions through which to raise, nurture, and educate their children. Local History of the type fostered by organizations such as the American Association for State and Local History recounts the stories of places like Farrell, Pennsylvania in minute detail. The coming of the modern industrial plant to South Sharon (later, Farrell) is recounted at http://www.nauticom.net/www/planet/files/Archives-HistoryFarrell-3.htm. Visit it, and investigate the years prior to World War I.