Progressive Era

notes for Progressive era

Lincoln Steffens (author)

Made Shame of a City to call out Corruption in State and City politics

Upton Sinclair (author)

Unsanitary conditions in meat packing industry; lack of consumer protection & regulation of goods. Made The Jungle (book)

Lewis Hines (photographer)

Child labor, unsafe and exploitative business practices. Made NCLC (National Child Labor Committee)

Ida Tarbell (author)

Monopolistic, corrupt and/or aggressive business practices of Big Business; gov regulation of business. Made The History of the Standard Oil Company (book)

Jacob Riis (writer & photographer)

Unsafe, unhealthy, and unsanitary living conditions in NYC tenement housing and poor/immigrant neighborhoods. Made How the Other Half Lives (book & photographs)

Jane Addams (activist)

Aid to immigrants & the working class. Made The Hull House (settlement house movement)

WEB DuBois and Booker T. Washington (civil rights activists)

Fight racism, segregation and racial inequality. Made The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (DuBois) and National Negro Business League (Washington)

Theodore Roosevelt (president)

8 hour day & min. wage, regulation of business, insurance for injured workers & unemployment, women’s suffrage. Made Bull Moose (aka Progressive) Party

Samuel Gompers & Eugene Debs (labor union leaders)

8 hour workday, higher wages, support for strikes, insurance for injured workers. Made American Federation of Labor (Gompers) & Wobblies (Debs)

Theodore Roosevelt, David Muir (president, conservationist)

Nature and the environment should be protected & used responsibly, Made National Parks (Conservation movement)

Frederick Law Olmsted (landscape architect & journalist)

Cities should provide public spaces for recreation and enjoyment as well as sanitation services. Made Created Central Park (city beautification)

The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

A huge fire was triggered in Manhattan New York City killing many young women and girls because of a lack of workplace safety guidelines.