Turn-of-the-Century Child
at Home

General Resources

• Bettmann, Otto L.  The Good Old Days – They Were Terrible!  New York: Random, 1974.
  
  
• Calvert, Karin. Children in the House; The Material Culture of Early Childhood, 1600-1900.  Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press, 1992.
  
  
• "Hearth and Home" from Centenarians ed. Bernard Edelman.  New York: Farrar, 1999.
  
  
• Prosperity and Thrift: The Coolidge Era and the Consumer Economy, 1921-1929
  [http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/coolhtml/coolhome.html]
  Documents the widespread prosperity of the Coolidge years, the nation's transition (except for farmers and immigrants) to a mass consumer economy, and the role of government in this transition. In a variety of print and media formats, the collection materials draw attention on the one hand to business concerns, such as advertising, marketing, merchandising, and industrialization, and on the other to popular notions about responsible consumerism, thriftiness, and efficiency in the home.
  
  
• Ross, Pat.  Remembering Main Street; An American Album.  New York: Viking, 1994.
  
  
• Ryskamp, George.  "House Histories: Reconstructing Your Ancestors' Daily Lives."
  Ancestry Magazine.  v. 18. no. 5.  September/October 2000.  
  [http://www.ancestry.lycos.com/library/view/ancmag/2347.asp]
  
• Yolen, Jane.  House, House.  Tarrytown, NY: Marshall Cavendish, 1998.
  Photographs by the Howes brothers at the turn-of-the-century in Hatfield, Massachusetts, side-by-side with current photographs by  Jason Stemple.
  
  
• The Great Homes of America's Gilded Age. Flagler Museum.
  [http://www.emi.net/palm_beach/flagler_museum/essay.html]
  
  
• Sears Roebuck Honor Bilt Modern Home1: 1908-1940 The Arts and Crafts Society.
  [http://www.arts-crafts.com/__d2363fdb/archive/sears.html]
  
  
• Aladdin Readi-Cut Houses 1906-1940 The Arts and Crafts Society.
  [http://www.arts-crafts.com/__d2363fdb/archive/aladdin.html]
  
  

Specific Area Resources

• Digital Archive of American Architecture (Boston, Massachusetts area)
  [http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/fa267/contents.html#location]
  
• Illinois State Museum: At Home...with Art and Industry 1890-1920
  [http://www.museum.state.il.us/exhibits/athome/1890/welcome.htm]
  
  
• Michigan: Detroit News archive: Rearview Mirror
  [http://www.arts-crafts.com/__d2363fdb/archive/aladdin.html]

New York

• 100 Years of New York City
  [http://www.nytimes.com/specials/nyc100/]
  
• Metropolitan Lives: The Ashcan Artists and Their New York
  [http://nmaa-ryder.si.edu/metlives/ashcanintro1.html]
  
• Lower East Side Tenement Museum
  [http://www.wnet.org/archive/tenement/]
  
• On the Lower East Side: Observations of Life in Lower Manhattan at the Turn of the Century
  [http://tenant.net/Community/LES/contents.html]
  

• Blum, Stella ed.  Everyday Fashions of the Twenties as Pictured in Sears and Other Catalogs.  Mineola, NY: Dover, 1981.
  
• Condé Nast Photo Collection - high society clothes and style
  Vogue and Vanity Fair c.1920s; 
  browse or search covers and illustrations from 1910
  [http://www.condenastart.com/photo_home.asp]
  
  
• 1897 Sears Roebuck Catalogue ed. Fred L. Israel (Chelsea House, 1968).
  A "wish book" for all economic classes, with prices from pennies to thousands of dollars.  Immigrants, whose English was poor, could submit orders in their native tongue.  The Catalog allowed people across the nation to learn of new styles, new remedies and inventions. 
  

"What do catalogs tell us?" contains explanations of how to understand catalogs:
http://www.museum.state.il.us/exhibits/athome/1890/clues/catalog1.htm
http://www.museum.state.il.us/exhibits/athome/1890/clues/catalog2.htm

• Emergence of Advertising in America: 1850-1920 
  [http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/eaa/index.html]
  See beauty aids
  
• Olian, JoAnne ed.  Everyday Fashions 1909 – 1920 as Pictured in Sears Catalogs.  Mineola, NY: Dover, 1995.
  
  
• B. Altman & Company (1914) - description of a fashionable New York Department Store
  
  
• Century Girl
  [http://www.workhouse.com/girls/century/index.html]
  
  
• The Century in Shoes
  [http://centuryinshoes.com/intro.html}
  
  
• College Girl
  [http://www.workhouse.com/girls/businesscollege/college1.html]
  
  
• The Costume Page
  Extensive links to online reference works, costume by period, folk costumes, specialized costumes
  [http://members.aol.com/nebula5/costume.html]
  
  
• Early 20th Century Fashion Links: Edwardian Era 1901 - 1911
  [http://www.costumes.org/pages/1900links.htm]
  
  
• Fashion and Costume resources
  [http://www.ala.org/acrl/resapr99.html]
  
  
• Flapper Culture and Style
  [http://www.pandorasbox.com/flapper.html]
  
  
• History of the Girl in America 1900-1910
  [http://www.workhouse.com/girls/girls.html]
  
  
• 20th Century Western Costume: 1900-1910
  [http://www.costumes.org/pages/timelinepages/1900s1.htm]
  
  
• 20th Century Western Costume: 1910 -1920
  [http://www.costumes.org/pages/timelinepages/1910s1.htm]
  
  
• Ad*Access Beauty and Hygiene
  [http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/adaccess/browse.html]
  Advertisements for products (such as cosmetics, soaps, and shaving supplies) that were targeted for personal hygiene and enhancing one's attractiveness. (2,391 ads)
  

• Glass Museum Online
  [http://www.glass.co.nz/]
  Read about "Carnival Glass" and styles popular in America.
  
  
• Emergence of Advertising in America: 1850-1920 
  [http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/eaa/index.html]
  See household objects
  
  
• Quilts, Counterpanes & Throws
  Smithsonian National Museum of American History
  [http://www.si.edu/nmah/ve/quilts/quilt.htm]
  
  
• TOOL CHESTS: Symbol and Servant
  Smithsonian National Museum of American History
  [http://www.si.edu/nmah/ve/toolbox/index.html]
  

• Emergence of Advertising in America: 1850-1920
  [http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/eaa/index.html]
  See foods
  
  
• Houston, Kay. "Soda fountains and ice cream parlors" from The Detroit News Rearview Mirror.
  [http://detnews.com/history/sanders/sanders.htm]
  
  
• Pollock, Darrell.  "Cellars; A Store of Produce" from Bittersweet.  Vol. V, No. 3 (Spring 1978).
  Food storage before electricity
  [http://198.209.8.166/sheproom/periodicals/bittersweet/sp78h.htm]
  
  
• "Sundays and Celebrations" from Centenarians ed. by Bernard Edelman.  New York: Farrar, 1999.
  
  
• New foods: ice cream cones (introduced at the World's Fair), jello
  
  
• Traditional foods from ethnic cultures: fruitcakes and plum puddings (English); blintzes and chicken soup (Jewish); corned beef and cabbage (Irish); bunuelos and tamale (Mexican)
  

• Hill, Thomas E.  Never Give a Lady a Restive Horse; A Handbook of Etiquette from Victorian Times in America.  San Francisco: Diablo Press, 1911, 1967.

© Debbie Abilock August 22, 1999-2004