Attachment 3 - Culminating Project
Gilded Age
Directions: Choose one project from the options below. This project must be completed
and turned in on the unit test day. Each option is worth 50 pts.
Option 1 - Urbanization:
Find, using the internet or a book, information or a chart depicting the various monthly
rental charges for tenants charged according to location, floor, and race of the occupant
during the Gilded Age.
Answer the following questions:
1) What role did one’s floor of residence play in rent charges? Explain.
2) What role did location (i.e., front, rear) play in the cost of rent? Explain.
3) What role did race play in monthly rental charges? Explain how landlords attempted to justify this.
4) If you were living in one of these tenements during this period, what would you have done to protest these discriminatory rent schedules?
Research what rental charges for a similar apartment would be for today (i.e., using New
York City tenement rates from the Gilded Age, you must use New York City rental rates
from today in order to compare). Create a chart or graph depicting the changes from then
to now. You must either print off or cite the charts or information you used to answer
the questions and create your own comparison chart.
Option 2 - Rise of Jim Crow:
Read two poems by Paul Laurence Dunbar - Keep A-Pluggin’ Away and Lyrics of Lowly
Life.
Answer the following questions:
1) What message was Dunbar attempting to convey?
2) Who was his target audience? What would your reaction have been if you were a member of his target audience?
3) What do you believe was Dunbar’s rationale for promulgating this perspective?
4) How do you think the white community viewed Dunbar’s position? Explain.
5) What were some alternative African-American perspectives on Jim Crow laws and civil rights?
Create your own poem that illustrates a similar sentiment to Jim Crow laws as shown in
Dunbar’s poetry.
Option 3 - Populism:
During the Gilded Age, there were many who felt the wrath of the cartoonists’ pen; from
politicians to tycoons, no one was safe. Research at least 3 political cartoons from this
era. You must print off or cite each cartoon you use.
Answer the following questions:
1) What are the various symbols and characters depicted in the cartoon supposed to represent?
2) What message is the cartoonist attempting to convey?
3) Who is the cartoonists’ target audience?
4) What could you have done, were you moved to action by this political cartoon, to address or remedy this problem?
Develop your own political cartoon depicting another conflict or problem that plagued
Gilded Age society.
Option 4 - Politics:
One of the most effective instruments at the disposal of politicians has always been the
campaign song. The Populists, perhaps more than any other political party or movement
in the late nineteenth century, were prolific songwriters. The Populists were often quite
critical of monopolies, railroads, and old party bosses in their songs. The 1890s
campaign song My Party Led Me, by S.T. Johnson, provided voters with a rationale for
leaving their old political party and joining the Populist cause. Locate the song or its
lyrics on the internet.
Answer the following questions:
1) Who are the Populists targeting in their critique of society?
2) What are the problems they identify or associate with these groups?
3) Is this a fair evaluation of Gilded-Age society? Explain.
4) Choose a modern campaign song from the 2008 presidential campaign (you may choose a song used by a candidate who did not receive the nomination, such as Hillary Clinton or Mike Huckabee), and compare it to the message of the Johnson song. Are there any similarities? What are the differences?
Create your own campaign song. Be sure to address at least two problems with modern
society.
Option 5 - Immigration:
In his 1890 landmark book, How the Other Half Lives, Jacob Riis discussed the dismal
conditions in which thousands of New York immigrants lived. Most of the residential
tenements were “unventilated, fever-breeding structures” that housed multiple families.
Locate a floor plan of a late nineteenth century tenement using either the internet or a
book. Be sure to make a copy of the diagram or cite your source.
Answer the following questions:
1) Based on this diagram, how would you characterize the living arrangement found in this tenement?
2) What problems might have developed as a result of the floor plans of these structures?
3) How could the tenements have been architecturally altered to better serve the occupants?
Create an improved model of a tenement. You may draw a diagram, draft a diagram on
the computer, or create a physical scale-model.
Option 6 - Industrialization:
During the Gilded Age, technological innovations provided an impetus for unprecedented
industrial growth and urbanization. While laborers fueled this growth, they certainly did
not reap the rewards. Instead, they found themselves economic victims of
industrialization and urbanization. In an 1884 study, the Illinois Bureau of Labor
Statistics detailed the economic status and living environment of numerous laborers in
Chicago, Illinois. Locate a copy of the 1884 Illinois study.
Identify your family’s current situation with at least two other families. Be sure to list the
occupation, ethnicity, family composition, income, expenses, and living conditions of
each family. You do not have to use real names for this information (for example,
identify the families as A, B, & C if you do not wish others to know this information).
Compare your family’s status with that of other families. Write a short report that
describes the primary determinants of economic success and which of these determinants
played the greatest role in the economic hardships families faced.