Activity
Other

Illinois State Museum: The American Railway Union

For Students 9th - 10th
Excerpt from U.S. Strike Commission Report. Site also provides focus questions at the bottom.
Article
Other

Marshall Taylor: Newspaper Articles

For Students 9th - 10th
Watching bicycle racing indoors was a popular pasttime during the Gilded Age. Marshall Taylor, an African American, was one of the premier racers not only in the United States, but in the world. Read newspaper articles about his career.
Handout
PBS

Pbs: Carnivals of Revenge

For Students 9th - 10th
Site contains information on the frustration of "Gilded Age workers."
Website
Independence Hall Association

U.s. History: Sports and Leisure

For Students 9th - 10th
Read about the options for leisure time in the Gilded Age for the typical American. Baseball, vaudeville, and bicycling all came into their own in the 1890s.
Website
Independence Hall Association

U.s. History: The Gilded Age

For Students 5th - 8th Standards
The United States had an industrial resurgence after the Civil War. Read about the growth of big business in many areas and the men associated with these businesses. See also the people who did not prosper during this time and evaluate...
Lesson Plan
Library of Congress

Loc: Teachers: America at the Centennial

For Teachers 9th - 10th
A lesson plan requiring student to analyze primary documents from the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition of 1876. Students interpret what these historical artifacts say "about the lives and values of Americans in 1876" among other things.
Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Big City Politics, the Gilded and the Gritty: America, 1870 1912

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Ash Can School artist John Sloan's painting Election Night captures the exuberance of urban politics in the early-twentieth century, and artist Henry Glitkencamp's illustration Voting Machines suggests its corrupting power. Both pieces...
Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Progress, the Gilded and the Gritty: America, 1870 1912

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Eighteen primary sources-historical documents, literary texts, and visual images-that explore the industrial, racial, and technological progress of the late-nineteenth century.
Primary
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: "Burden," the Gilded and the Gritty: America, 1870 1912

For Teachers 9th - 10th
This site includes poems and editorials, some of which that praise, others that harshly condemn what Rudyard Kipling asserted was the "White Man's Burden."
Unit Plan
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: "The Private," the Gilded and the Gritty: America, 1870 1912

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
Hamlin Garland's short story, "The Return of a Private", that describes the post-Civil War conflicts for western farmers with nature and with other settlers.
Handout
Khan Academy

Khan Academy: Ap Us History: 1890 1945: Introduction to the Age of Empire

For Students 9th - 10th
Discusses the transition of the United States in the late 19th century from an isolationist country into an imperial power with colonies of its own and the reasons for this abrupt change in foreign policy. Includes questions for students...
Handout
Bartleby

Bartleby.com: Chapter Viii. Mark Twain

For Students 9th - 10th
Site is from "The Cambridge History of English and American Literature, 1907-21." Covers Mark Twain himself and critiques on his work.
Unit Plan
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History

Gilder Lehrman Institute: Ap Us History Study Guide, Period 6: 1865 1898

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
[Free Registration/Login Required] AP U.S. History study guide on the social, cultural, economic and political changes that occurred during the period of American expansion, industrialization, and urban migration, 1865-1898. Learning...
eBook
OpenStax

Open Stax: Urbanization 1870 1900: Change Reflected in Thought and Writing

For Students 11th - 12th
American writers and intellectuals played an important role in articulating the changes taking place in Industrial America in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Learn about some of the prominent writers, scientists, and philosophers at that...
Graphic
Cleveland Museum of Art

Cleveland Museum of Art: "On the Beach, No. 3"

For Students 9th - 10th
"On the Beach, No. 3, 1915" in an oil painting on canvas by Post-Impressionist Maurice Prendergast (American, 1858-1924).
eBook
CK-12 Foundation

Ck 12: Epsid 2019 2020 Us History

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
Flexbooks 2.0 are interactive, customizable, digital textbooks. Flexbooks are standards-aligned. Flexi, a student tutor, is integrated into each book to guide you on your learning journey. Flexi can assist in learning, answer questions,...
Study Guide
Khan Academy

Khan Academy: Ap Us History Period 6: 1865 1898: Development of the Middle Class

For Students 9th - 10th
The study resource from Khan Academy provides an overview of Period 6: 1865-1898 in American History. The development of the middle class is discussed in this lesson. This resource is designed as a review for the AP US History Test.
Website
Washington State University

Washington State University: American Authors: William Dean Howells

For Students 9th - 10th
This site provides links to some of William Dean Howells works. Includes a picture and some biographical information.
Study Guide
Khan Academy

Khan Academy: Ap Us History: Period 6: 1865 1898

For Students 11th - 12th
This Khan Academy resource provides a table of contents with notes for several sections of AP US History: Period 6: 1865-1898.
Handout
Khan Academy

Khan Academy: Ap Us History: 1865 1898: The Homestead Act and the Exodusters

For Students 9th - 10th
Explains what the Homestead Act of 1862 was and what it meant for settlers, as well as the Exodus of 1879 when many African Americans became exodusters and left the South. Includes questions for students at end.
Activity
PBS

Pbs: American Experience: Around the World in 72 Days

For Students 9th - 10th
This PBS site follows undercover journalist Nellie Bly (1864-1922) on her 72-day journey in 1889 around the world.
Primary
University of Groningen

American History: Outlines: The Era of Expansion and Reform

For Students 9th - 10th
This resource, a speech by Woodrow Wilson to Congress on April 8, 1913, gives a great review of how the United States transformed from from a rural country to an urban one. It includes a review of industrialization, new inventions,...
Unit Plan
National Humanities Center

National Humanities Center: Toolbox Library: Power: Taming the Octopus: The Image of the Octopus

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Six versions of the octopus, a pervasive image in late-nineteenth-century America, that illustrate the extensive and corrosive power held by corporations over American political and economic life. Reading guide with discussion questions.
Website
Independence Hall Association

U.s. History: Artistic and Literary Trends

For Students 5th - 8th
The arts blossomed in the Gilded Age, aided by the wealth of the business tycoons. Read about the artists who flourished at the time, along with the realism in literature that ranged from poetry to novels.