LEP 20-21

Frederick Law Olmsted

Landscape architect known as the Father of Urban Landscaping who designed Central Park and urban green spaces as places of cultural improvement for city dwellers.

Walking Cities

Compact urban areas prior to mass transit where residential neighborhoods and work districts were in close proximity across income and ethnic groups.

White City

A monumental complex of gleaming, neoclassical stucco buildings constructed for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

City Beautiful movement

Urban architectural reform movement inspired by Chicago's 1893 fair that advocated imposing aesthetic order, grand monuments, and greenery on American cities.

Midway Plaisance

The amusement section of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition that featured commercial concessions, cultural exhibits, and the original Ferris wheel.

World's Columbian Exposition (1893)

Famous Chicago fair celebrating American civilization where Black leaders distributed pamphlets protesting the exclusion of African Americans.

New Immigrants

European migrants who arrived between 1880 and 1914, mostly from Southern and Eastern Europe, who were primarily Catholic, Orthodox, or Jewish.

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire (1911)

Tragic industrial disaster in New York City in which 146 garment workers perished due to locked exit doors and missing fire escapes.

Political Machines

Corrupt municipal political organizations that maintained power by providing services and infrastructure to urban voters in exchange for votes.

Al Capone

Infamous Chicago mobster who built a criminal empire from bootlegging, gambling, and protection rackets during Prohibition.

Booker T. Washington

Black leader who advocated vocational education and economic self-help, famously delivering the Atlanta Compromise speech.

Madam C.J. Walker

Entrepreneur who became one of the first female self-made millionaires by manufacturing hair and skin products for African American women.

Feminism (Progressive Era context)

Social movement seeking complete political, social, and economic equality between men and women.

Greenwich Village

Lower Manhattan neighborhood that became a hub for radical bohemian artists, writers, and political activists in the early 20th century.

Melting Pot

The concept that diverse immigrant groups would abandon their Old World traditions and assimilate into a single American identity.

Skyscrapers

Tall urban structures enabled by structural steel frameworks and electric elevators, allowing cities to expand vertically.

Daniel Burnham and John Root

Architects who co-designed the master plan for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

Louis Sullivan

Gilded Age architect known for steel-frame commercial buildings who championed the philosophy that form follows function.

Jacob Riis

Muckraking photographer and author of How the Other Half Lives, which exposed living conditions in NYC tenements.

Lewis Hine

Investigative photographer whose images of working children in factories helped stir public support for child labor laws.

Richard Croker

Notorious political boss who led New York City's Tammany Hall machine in the late 19th century.

Arnold Rothstein

Underworld figure who established a vast gambling empire and organized crime network in the early 20th century.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Progressive author who called for releasing women from domestic labor through communal living and centralized housekeeping.

Emma Goldman

Anarchist activist and writer who denounced marriage as an institution of economic prostitution.

Margaret Sanger

Nurse and feminist activist who campaigned for reproductive rights, established family planning clinics, and published birth control information.

Big Bill Haywood

Founding member and leader of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).

Israel Zangwill

Playwright who wrote the popular 1908 Broadway play about immigrant assimilation, popularizing a famous cultural metaphor.

Randolph Bourne

Intellectual who rejected forced immigrant assimilation, advocating instead for cultural pluralism and cosmopolitanism.

Julia Lathrop

Progressive reformer and co-founder of Hull House who became the first director of the U.S. Children's Bureau.

Alice Paul

Radical suffragist who founded the National Woman's Party and used picketing and hunger strikes to press for women's voting rights.

John Dewey

Progressive philosopher and educator who supported educational reform and co-founded the NAACP.

Helen Keller

Author and political activist who campaigned for women's suffrage, disability rights, and labor rights.

Women's Christian Temperance Union

Organization led by Frances Willard and others that campaigned against alcohol consumption, culminating in Prohibition.

Mann Act (1910)

Federal law prohibiting the transportation of women across state lines for prostitution or immoral purposes.

City Manager System

Municipal reform model where an elected city council hires an expert professional administrator to run city operations.

Wisconsin Idea

Progressive state government policy that used university experts to help draft legislation and regulate corporations.

National Urban League

Interracial civil rights organization established to improve economic and social conditions for African Americans in urban areas.

Public Lands Commission (1903)

Body appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt to evaluate and recommend efficient rules for public land management.

Gifford Pinchot

First Chief of the U.S. Forest Service who championed scientific conservation and management of natural resources.

Richard A. Ballinger

Secretary of the Interior under Taft whose leasing of Alaskan coal lands led to a public feud with conservationists.

Mann-Elkins Act (1910)

Legislation that expanded the Interstate Commerce Commission's jurisdiction to cover telecommunications and allowed it to initiate rate changes.

Hammer v. Dagenhart (1918)

Supreme Court ruling that declared the Keating-Owen Child Labor Act unconstitutional, ruling child labor regulation was a state matter.

Munn v. Illinois (1877)

Supreme Court case upholding the government's power to regulate private businesses devoted to public use.

Muller v. Oregon (1908)

Supreme Court ruling that upheld state laws limiting working hours for female factory workers.

Lochner v. New York (1905)

Supreme Court ruling that struck down a state law limiting working hours for bakers, arguing it violated freedom of contract.

United States v. E.C. Knight Co. (1895)

Supreme Court decision that narrowed the Sherman Antitrust Act by ruling manufacturing was not interstate commerce.

Sherman Antitrust Act (1890)

First federal antitrust law passed to curb monopolies, though initially weaponized against labor unions.

Clayton Antitrust Act (1914)

Law strengthening federal antitrust enforcement by outlawing specific anti-competitive practices and protecting labor unions.

Northern Securities Co. v. United States (1904)

Supreme Court ruling ordering the dissolution of J.P. Morgan's railroad monopoly, marking a major trustbusting victory.

Elkins Act (1903)

Federal law that prohibited railroads from granting secret rebates to favored corporate shippers.

Anthracite Coal Strike of 1902

Labor dispute in which President Theodore Roosevelt intervened as a neutral arbitrator, securing a wage increase for miners.

Adamson Act (1916)

Federal law establishing an eight-hour workday for interstate railroad employees.

Tariff Act of 1913

Law that significantly reduced protective tariffs and instituted the first modern federal income tax.

18th Amendment (1919)

Constitutional amendment prohibiting the manufacture, sale, and transportation of intoxicating liquors.

Sabbath Movement

Effort led by Christian traditionalists to require businesses, museums, and public events to close on Sundays.

Beaux-Arts Architecture

Architectural style combining classical Roman and Renaissance forms with elaborate ornamentation.

Frederick Winslow Taylor

Mechanical engineer who introduced scientific management to maximize industrial workplace efficiency.

W.E.B. Du Bois

Civil rights leader, first African American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard, editor of The Crisis, and co-founder of the NAACP.

Carrie Chapman Catt

Suffragist leader who served as president of NAWSA and helped secure the 19th Amendment.