The period after the Civil War in America became known as the Gilded Age, coined by Mark Twain in his seminal novel The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today, playing on the failure of the expected 'golden era' of Reconstruction. This resource aims to showcase the transformation of America into a modern, urban, industrial global power through business, legal and personal papers. Technological progress and extreme wealth for the few, contrasted with stark inequality and endemic poverty for much of America's population. The social problems caused by this rapid urbanization led to a widespread reform movement from the 1890s to the 1920s; the period now known as the Progressive Era. These reforms aimed to eliminate political corruption, regulate monopolies, and establish systems of social support. It was also during this period that some of the key Gilded Age captains of industry started donating their profits on a huge scale. They funded scientific research and founded countless public education and arts institutions, creating many of the major museums, libraries and universities in the United States today. Material has been sourced from institutions across the United States. The bulk of the material ranges from 1870-1920, which most historians agree as the time span of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, with some personal collections continuing later into the twentieth century. Collections range from papers of key industrial corporations, charities, influential families and cultural institutions, to rich visual content in the form of political cartoons, photographs and ephemera.
Gilded Age and the Progressive Era