Chapter 10- Technology, Culture, Life Flashcards
McCormick Reaper
Mechanical reaper invented by Cyrus McCormick in 1847
American system of manufacturing
System of manufacturing that used interchangeable parts
New York stock exchange
New York City’s center of financing where leading railroads were traded in the 1850s
Epidemics
Diseases in a human population during a certain period of time
Phrenology
The idea that the human mind comprised of 37 distinct faculties, or “organs”, each located in a different part of the brain. Phrenologists thought that the degree of each organ’s development determined skull shape, so that they could analyze a person’s character by examining the bumps and depressions of the skull.
Penny price
Inexpensive newspapers that were produced in the 1830s
Minstrel shows
Performances where white men in blackface would act as degrading stereotypes of black people in a “comedic” fashion. Ed. Note: Justin Trudeau is a huge fan
P.T. Barnum
Small town grocer from Connecticut who, after moving to New York City in 1834, started a new career as an entrepreneur of popular entertainment. A few years later, he established the American Museum, which became the most popular museum in America (it was essentially a Ripley’s believe it or not). He later founded the famous Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey circus.
American Renaissance
A flowering of art and literature in the United States that began in the 1820s. Not only were Americans writing more books; increasingly, they sought to depict the features of their nation in literature and art.
Walt Whitman
Well known author of the groundbreaking work “leaves of grass”. Not only did he write in free verse, but the poems were also lusty and blunt at a time when delicacy ruled in the literary world.
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Well-known author of “the scarlet letter”
Edgar Allen Poe
Famous American writer who pretty much invented the genre of gothic fiction with stories such as “the raven” and “the cask of amontillado”. Also dated his 14 year old cousin, which is a bit wack.
Herman Melville
Famous writer of “moby dick”
Hudson River school
American art movement in the mid-1800s. The artists primarily painted scenes in the region around the Hudson River, a waterway that Americans compared in majesty to the Rhein.
George Carlin
American painter whose main goal was to paint as many native Americans as possible in their pure and “savage” state. Contributed heavily to the “noble savage” stereotype.
