Themes in American History

2) Read this movie review of Gangs of New York.

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During the 1840’s, New York City and Cincinnati experienced a major exponential increase in their population growth due to the migration of Germans and Irish.  German culture continued throughout the decade influencing churches, newspapers, and many other institutions.  Cincinnati’s economic growth and development was made possible by-thousands of immigrants to the area.  The addition of the Erie Canal lead greater economic growth as merchants sought out new investments in the Western expansion.

During the 1830’s, Cincinnati became an important city for the national debate of slavery.  Ohio utilized the city to promote anti-slave movements due to it’s position; west from the Ohio River from Kentucky.  Many who opposed against the end of slavery were the Irish because they feared the growing competition between freed African Americans.   Similar to New York City during the 1830’s, as the Irish and African Americans competed for land and jobs.

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As more immigrants started coming Philadelphia and New York, the population of African Americans started decreasing. Before coming to US, Irish immigrants were unaware of racial discrimination against African Americans.  After learning that fact Irish people refused to work with African Americans. As a result African Americans started losing their jobs and employment rate of Irish people increased. More European immigrants started moving in these cities due to development and job opportunities population of African American decreased. “African Americans had constituted over 10 percent of the population in New York City in 1810; by 1860, they represented only 1.5 % of all New Yorkers. In Philadelphia, more than 12 % of the population was black in 1830; by 1860, that proportion had dropped to less than 4 percent.” (Chudacoff, pg66).Between 1820 and 1830, ferries and bridges helped in developing cities, lands across Manhattan and Philadelphia get accessible and that increased the population of these areas doubled and tripled in just single decade. That was another reason of decrease in population of African Americans in these cities. Such a Large scale immigration of Irish people took place main due to potato blight. “The potato blight that struck Ireland in 1845-1847 destroyed the food supply for countless families “(CHUDACOFF, Pg 64). As a result 1.7 million Irish fled to US. By the 1850’s, more than half the residents of Boston and New York city were foreign born, and Philadelphia 30 percent of household heads were born in Europe.” (CHUDACOFF, Pg 64).

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One similarity about New York and New Orleans that existed between 1800 and 1865 was the conflict between new immigrants and native-born residents together with the foreign-born expansion in the population. As a result, “by the 1850’s, more than half the residents of Boston and New York City were foreign born.” (Chudacoff 74) According to Chudacoff these new comers where Europeans:  “Major populations of Irish immigrants could be identified in New York, Boston and Philadelphia…”(74) This new group of immigrants added their culture and customs in these cities. Chudacoff states these new immigrants “brought their cultural traditions of work and leisure, spirituality and sociability, which often came into conflict with those of native-born residents.”(74)  One example of these traditions was their drinking and the Catholic religion. Similarly, in New Orleans  “by 1860, 40 percent of New Orleans population was foreign born.” (Chudacoff 74) The immigrants in New Orleans, French and Spanish brought with them their traditions of carnival, “…with maskers, Harlequins, and Punchinchellos parading the streets with guitars, violins and other instruments in the days before lent.”(Chudacoff 74) As a result, this caused the hatred of the native-born residents. According to Chudacoff: “By the 1830s and 1840’s, New Orleans revelers were throwing flour and pieces of brick as well as candies and cake and apples and oranges to people along the parade route..”  Referring Mardi Gras as a “vulgar and tasteless” celebration (74) To the contrary, one difference between these cities was that New York was a Protestant city while New Orleans was Catholic. “An early wave of Irish immigrants, fleeing British persecution at the end of the 1700s, landed in New Orleans and became well integrated into the economy and social life of the city. The first St. Patrick’s Day celebration was held in 1809. Irish social and benevolent organizations were formed, and Irish theater thrived.  (neworleansonline).  On the other hand, New York didn’t see the Irish population in that way:  “native –born enthusiasm for temperance translated into passionate anti-Catholicism, sharply splitting the working classes along ethnic lines and turning neighborhoods into battlegrounds.” (Chudacoff 75)

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The evolution of transportation allowed for explosive growth in immigration and the sizes of Americas cities. In New York City the increase in immigrants from Europe caused cities to overcrowd. This forced the development of public ferry lines. Before the public ferry system was established, transportation between NYC, its boroughs and the main land territory bordering the Hudson river, was possible only because of private, local shipowners that had to be hired to make the trip. This private ferrying system prevented the expansion of the population, as its limited capacity and its prices effectively made it impossible for the lower classes to travel. With  public transportation becoming available in early and mid 19th century, the immigrant population were given a way to settle in different parts of the land.

Transportation also allowed the immigrants arriving in New York City to expand across the country into places such as San Francisco, California. The only way European immigrant could get to California and other far off American land was by ship, that had to travel around south America then north to California, or by land, which was a quite long  journey through hostile Indian territory and the harsh  American landscape. With the creation of the train and its connection with the east coast, the west was opened to settlement by immigrants. Since the major stations for trains were cities and, compared to NYC, were small in size, arriving immigrants tended to stay in the cities as overcrowding was not as established as in NYC. That will not always be the case as those same cities, such as San Francisco would eventually outgrow its limit to house all the people arriving and the growth of its native population, causing an opening up of land outside cities in California to settlement by new immigrants and the native population tired of city life.

A main difference between NYC and San Francisco’s  increase in immigration is the difference in the nationalities of the immigrants. In NYC the majority of its immigrants were made up of Europeans,specifically Irish ,Germans and Italians.This is not to say that these nationalities did not find their way to Californians cities, but they did stick to the north eastern region of America. The western part of America’s immigrants were made up of people from Spain and other Spanish groups,such as Mexicans. This is due ,in major part, to the fact that San Francisco was once a part of the Spanish empire and its language being Spanish.

Ferry Building 1889, foot of Market Street Photo: Greg Gaar Collection, San Francisco, CA

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During the period of 1800 and 1865, the Erie Canal was built because of the in need of the trading in west coast. That was the first transportation system between New York City and the west coast. It made transportation much easier at that time. As the result, the Central Pacific Railroad Company was established in San Francisco in 1863 and they would like to construct the Pacific Railroad from Council Bluffs, Iowa to Oakland, California to increase trading. These two projects both faced one problem: the lack of labors. In the case of New York City, as the increase of the immigrants, more and more immigrants were hired to do the work. Almost the same as the case of San Francisco, however, the company hired labors from China. In both cases, many workers died during the construction because of the harsh and dangerous working condition. At last, the Erie Canal was not supported by the federal government. President Jefferson rejected the project and called this “a little short of madness”, but the New York governor, Dewitt Clinton, supported this idea. The Pacific Railroad was supported and funded by the Congress.

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Please download the midterm review guide here.  The exam will be given in class on June 21.

I will answer any questions that you have about it in class tomorrow and Monday.  I will also provide more detailed information about the format of the exam.

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New York City was a city port that accepted many immigrants. By the 1850’s more than half the residents of New York were foreign born (Chudacoff pg.64). San Francisco became part of the United States in 1848 and soon after came the Gold Rush. San Francisco also accepted many immigrants but it seems that the Chinese was the main fastest growing group of people. White miners in the gold fields began to ask the state protection from competitive Chinese miners. San Francisco then imposed tax on “foreign” miners to encourage the Chinese to leave (Chudacoof pg.67). A similar action was taken on freed slaves that lived in New York and other cities; freed slaves had to pay an annual tax, even though they were “free.”

European Immigrants Arriving in New York, 1850's

Chinese Miners in San Francisco

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New York City

When looking at New York and New Orleans during the 1800’s both are on opposite ends of the map. They seem like complete opposites in comparison, but they do contain similarities between them. New York is well known for its diversity, for example “by the 1850s, more than half the residents of  Boston and New York City were foreign born” (Chudacoff & Smith 72). This isnt’ a surprise as New York is well known for this, however, New Orleans is actually very diverse as well. “By 1860, 40 percent of New Orleans’s population was foreign born” (Chudacoff & Smith 72). In comparison, the ratio’s are similar, but when comparing this in number of people it isn’t as close. The foreign born population of New York in the 1850s was about  257750 (Chudacoff & Smith 60). While in the 1860s the foreign born population of New Orleans was about 67470 (Chudacoff & Smith 60).  This shows that even after ten years the New Orleans foreign born population was no where close in number the New York foreign born population was about 3.8 times the foreign population of New Orleans. This leads us to the big difference between both cities which is the size of them. New York was more greatly populated and more larger than New Orleans. For example in 1860 the New York population was 813,600 while the New Orleans population was 168,675 (Chudacoff & Smith 60).  The total New York population in 1860 is about 5 times more than the population of New Orleans. Overall, the two cities of New York City and New Orleans are both similar and different in certain aspects.

New Orleans

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Website:
–Visit and browse through:
http://www.slaveryinnewyork.org/tour_galleries.htm

Blog:
–Respond to this post with one comment (1 paragraph in length)describing something new that you learned about slavery on the website, or respond to a comment that is already up by clicking “reply” next to an existing comment.  In both cases, add something new to the conversation and refer specifically to the website to indicate exactly what content on the site you are talking about.

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The website gives the viewer some detailed historical content around 19th century, and events of the Lost Museum. The museum was something that almost everyone attended for entrainment. Similar to today’s Broadway theaters, Barnum’s Museum was something that was magnificently enjoyable in more of an art form. The first time when i was exploring the “Lost museum”, i found that the museum contains every mysterious objects that somehow unique and relates to unfound results.Each and every object in museum makes us to think on our own way no matter how the result is. Mainly, this museum gives a knowledge, facts, events, reality that used to exist during 1800-1900.

In comparison between “The Innocent Boy,” 1836 and “The Lost Museum”, both incidents seemed mysterious because the public never found out about the truth. For instance, the gesture of the boy looked as if he was leaving or just broke inside the apartment. Firstly, he is holding an ax in his hands. Secondly, the door knob seems to be broken, which might suggests the viewer that he just broke inside in order to help the burning Jewett. In addition, the boy is dressed as a hotel doorman which also convey that he was trying to save Jewett.
On the other hand, the boy may be holding axe because he just murdered Jewett and running away from the crime scene. It is mysterious because the painting itself is complicated and hard to decode. It does not give viewers, the exact details. It seems that the artist purposely left things out to gain more costumers/readers. Because the incident occurred around 1800s, this gives an impression of competition. It was written that “… the mass-circulation “penny press” had a field day covering the gruesome story for their largely working-class readers”. This appears that the newspaper company also left the story mysterious because they wanted readers to speak out, think and gain more costumers. In fact, Penny-press newspaper only costed a penny and was in competition with other average newspaper which cost six-cents each. So, this incident is still mysterious.

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In the Lost Museum, there is a model wearing female dress and carrying a metal bucket, however, it is with a male face. It is a figure that represents the image of Confederate President Jefferson Davis when he purportedly disguised himself as his wife in order to get rid of the arrest of Union soldiers. Although media did not have advanced technology to take photos or videos to record the historical events in 1800s, they used many other ways to try to show the situation again.

The model in the Lost Museum is not the only public to present this event, many newspapers had sketches of the photo and draw cartoons to express opinions about it. In the picture, it was a cartoon from Harper’s Weekly. In this cartoon, it mocked the Confederate States and its president with the presentation of feminine attributes. It was the general attitude of Northerners toward Southerners during that time. These Historical records provided perfect evidence of the Civil War about the Northerners’, or even New Yorkers’ opinions.  Furthermore, people during that time had chances to receive news and trends in many different ways, by visiting the museum, reading newspapers or magazines and recieving handouts. The Lost Museum has well preserved these historical records and presented these to the public.

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The Barnum museum brings us back to a time period where we can more than anything imagine a world with endless possibilities. Reading through the museum archives and exhibitions, I realized that a time where internet nor tv existed was a perfect time for show business and entertainment. Ranging from the “Feejee mermaid” to the world tallest woman, if it was for money these show business men would create anything to draw people’s attention. The website is a very useful tool of keeping me focused and immersed since I actually virtually enter into a museum space. If the website was formatted just like any other webpages with endless lines of information with photos here and there, I would be very tempted to navigate away from the page. Another pro is that the virtual space also has an interactive aspect that puts viewers in control giving us the choice to read about an object or an image that intrigues us.

The image below is of a woman named Jenny Lind. In September 1850, Barnum took this Swedish opera singer and brought her to New York to start a new cultural phenomenon, the celebrity. She was called the “Swedish Nightingale” and created what was called then “Lindomania”. Just like how a big celebrity’s possessions are auctioned off with a high price, her songs, clothes, chairs, and pianos were all negotiated and sold by Barnum. Ultimately she became the “standard for measuring not just sopranos … but women”. It is interesting to note that the cultural idea of “celebrity” has its origin in New York, instead of Hollywood and the way top celebrities today set the standards for young girls today was also seen back in 1850.

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Exploring The Lost Museum was a very intriguing experience. Navigating through this virtual museum helped to understand the events and people that shaped New York City and the U.S. as a whole. One exhibit that was especially interesting was the No. 6 Sumner-Brooks Warworks found on the second floor of the museum, which shows an exact representation of the infamous May 22nd assault on Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner in the Senate chamber by South Carolina representative Preston S. Brooks. Here we see our politics in its infancy, yet very passionately displayed, in its attempt to quell the fight on slavery. Preston Brooks was the cousin of South Carolina Senator Andrew Butler, who Senator Sumner, a staunch abolitionist, blasted for what he called his “crime against Kansas”, an area where slavery was beginning to resurface after a 30-year ban. Brooks took to his cousin’s defense and savagely beat Sumner with his cane, which the picture on the right displays. The museum prevalently showed the horrors of slavery as an institution, and brought the the forefront the essence of freedom for the enslaved that bleeds from the veins of our country’s history. The image on the left represents the rising tension in the country during the mid-1800s over the issue of slavery. The Lost Museum was truly rich in history and definitely a great tool in exploring the events, politics and arts of our country.

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Ad for whales and hippopotamus

The Lost Museum shows many exotic and bizarre things that entertains people in 19th century in New York city. It also reminds me of Ripley’s Believe IT or Not. For Barnum, who is an American entertainer and business man, his museum is one of remarkable achievement of entertainment culture of the  United States. One of objects in the Lost Museum that grabs my attention is the advertisement flier of wales and hippopotamus. In 19th century, there were no zoos or other place that people could go and see gigantic or nonnative animals. At this point, in 1861, Barnum shows two live white whales to the public in his American museum. It was a great sensational event that was the beginning of not only a common zoo but also circus.

This 3D museum is a great tool that makes a motivation to learn each object of the history. Even though I had so much fun with touring the Lost Museum, I felt little uncomfortable with the screen size that is a tiny small window view. Other than this, I think it is good experience to know more American entertainment system.

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The Barnum museum shows that the entertainment in 19^th century NYC is pretty rich. When I visited the museum, I was impressed by different performers, lecturers, and curiosities. One surprised thing I found is that these performers, lecturers, and curiosities demonstrated various skills and crafts, as well as new technological devices. A continual stream of changing exhibitions ranging from talking machines, panoramas of Niagara Falls, Paris and Peru, ivory carvers, glassblowers, sewing machine operators, and musicians. So I think the entertainment in 19^th century NYC is combined with new technology and new studies. It is not only just entertainment for enjoy people, but also gave new knowledge to people. And this knowledge still affect people live today. In the second floor, I saw an exhibition called The mechanism of human facial expressions which was contributed by French neurologist Duchenne de Boulogne. He combined his intimate knowledge of facial anatomy with his skill in photography and expertise in using electricity to stimulate individual facial muscles to produce a fascinating interpretation of the ways in which the human face portrays emotions. Until today the plates from Mechanism are highly valued as landmarks of photographic history and art.

America was a new and culturally emerging nation. Some amusements as we know them today did not exist at 19^th century. The concept of public entertainment was perceived as questionable and even considered inappropriate as Americans aspired to the highest standards of moral and civil behavior. The opening of the Barnum Museum challenged this popular social ideology. The Museum became a place for family entertainment, enlightenment and instructive amusement. It became a shrine for advancing public knowledge of fine arts, music, literature and the marvels of nature, showcasing natural curiosities alongside artistic and historic exhibitions. It played an important role in cultural history of NYC and even the U.S.

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Today I took my first trip to a virtual museum, “The Lost Museum.” I entered not knowing what to expect. For the most part I found that the website was able to make me feel like I was actually in the original Barnum Museum.

From the museum I was able to learn that people of the 19th century NYC had a taste in entertainment that was much different from ours. Most people today would tell you that they are interested in technology and the latest innovations. While in the 19th century people were more interested in the unexplained and peculiar. People flocked to see anomalies like a glass steam engine or Siamese twins.

I personally found the glass steam engine to be interesting because of the level of detail it had and the effort and work that went into making it. Since it was class it allowed spectators to see all of the intricate parts and engineering it was made of.

Like many of the other visitors I was disappointed to find that most of the entertainment was on the 2nd floor.  At first it was a little bit challenging to figure out what was a a clickable exhibit and what wasn’t, but after a while it began to feel like a scavenger hunt. The museum taught me a lot about life in the 19th century. However I felt that there could have been more organization of the exhibits and easier interaction. That said it was a pretty interesting historical tool that I feel should be used more often.

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Fire lecture film ironic since museum was burnt down

When I first visited “The Lost Museum” I got bored and I was not interested. Truthfully, the ground floor did not really capture my attention. So, I decided to move up to the second floor and check out if there was something more entertaining. I was impressed based on what I saw on the second and third floor. I was also surprised to see that this museum was different. It actually had a wide variety of exhibits ranging from those that dealt with history, science, and entertainment. The lecture film about fire caught my attention. I thought it was a little funny and ironic that this museum included a lecture film about fire as both Iranistan (Barnum’s mansion) and Barnum’s American Museum burned down. It was also interesting to see the amounts of fires that destroyed New York City and how fires were such a big problem for the city of New York.

“The Lost Museum” showed me something very important about entertainment in 19th century NYC; that it is not much different than entertainment today. The “freak show” aspect of the museum reminded me of the Ripley’s Believe It or Not! museum in Manhattan. The wax figures in the waxworks room on the second floor were similar to Madame Tussauds wax museum also in Manhattan. Many people in New York City visit both of these museums for entertainment purposes probably the same way others visited The Barnum Museum in New York City in the 19th century.

I thought the interactive aspect of this website was a very effective tool to choose to include. It makes the visitors feel like they are in a actual museum. It is as if they are able to walk through it, move up levels and it keeps your attention and interest. The strength of this website is its ability to depict a form of entertainment in the 19th century and show how similar it is to forms of entertainment today. It also informs the visitors of the website about several different historical facts such as the assault on Charles Sumner by Preston S. Brooks (which actually happened). In my opinion, I feel they should have attempted to make the ground floor more interesting or for it to contain more interesting facts as it would impress the viewers and keep  them in the website to continue o to the other floors so they could learn more.

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