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Episodes from "U.S. History: 1812 - 1914," Foothill College (Winter 2011): 1 through 10 of 24

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  1. Hundreds of Mormons in Honolulu en Route to California
    date June 20, 1846map TERRITORY, Territorytags Utah, Hawaii, Migration, Mormons

    It was June 20th, 1846, when the ship Brooklyn arrived in Honolulu, Oahu. Its passengers were hundreds of Mormon immigrants en route to California from New York led by a man named Samuel Brannan. The people of Hawaii were intrigued and confused by these new people, especially such a vast amount. The unknown elements were filled in by a history of the Mormon religion and its people. The history that...

  2. James O. Pattie witnesses the return of a Pawnee war party
    date June 20, 1824 to August 30, 1830map TERRITORY, Territorytags Territory, Native Americans

    James O. Pattie, on a trip through the southwest of America, had been traveling in Pawnee territory for multiple days. After enjoying a peaceful time with the Pawnees, partaking in traditional Pawnee activities like the smoking of pipes and eating buffalo meat together, he was impressed with their hospitality and even went so far as to, in his travel notes, call the chief paternal. Because of these...

  3. Susie Clark’s arrival in California by train from Boston
    date 1890map LOS ANGELES, Californiatags Native Americans, Railroad, Transportation

    During the 1890s Susie Champney Clark left Boston on a Raymond & Whitcomb Co. organized railroad trip across the country to California, recording her observations and notes along the way.  Though this trip may have seemed impossible to make earlier in the century, as Ms. Clark said in the first chapter of her book The Round Trip from Hub to the Golden Gate, “California [was] much nearer Boston than...

  4. ­Agriculture in California
    date 1890map MERCED, Californiatags Agriculture, Farming, California

    California’s land constitutes a diverse terrain. Between the mountain ranges and the coastlines, the deserts and the valleys, the state has always provoked an astonishing wonder from both locals and newcomers. Additionally, the climate proves to be beneficial in certain areas with minimal exposure to winter weather and ideal mild sunshine.  The people of the late 19th century acknowledged the optimum...

  5. Lower Working Class Life of New York City
    date 1830map NEW YORK, New Yorktags Immigration, Health, Labor, New York

    During the 19th century New York City was a populous municipality, with over 220,000 inhabitants by the 1830s. It was diverse, consisting of both prosperous and impoverished areas. Many buildings were beautifully created with an artistic impression, while others were insignificant and deplorable.  Prince Maximilian of Wied’s chronicled his travels in New York during this time and described the contrast...

  6. Industrial competition between Chicago and Pittsburg
    date 1915map Cook, Illinoistags Pittsburg, Chicago, Steel and Iron Industry, Economy

    Internal competition in a country can be a strong force for development and improvements in some industries.  This “American versus American” phenomenon appeared in many industries in the US. In the early twentieth century, the United States was still developing. At that time, many industries were still in their early stage  -- the car industry and aviation industry, for example. Because these...

  7. Rapid development of railways and canals in America.
    date May 10, 1869map BOX ELDER, Utahtags Railroad, canals

    Before the development of an interstate freeway system in the mid-twentieth century, most of the transportation systems in the US consisted of railways and canals.  “Canal fever” spread through the states from the early 1820s because of the development of flatboats and steamboats but faced a decline after 1880. A statistic conducted in 1840 showed that “between 1810 and 1840 canal mileage...

  8. Chevalier and Lowell: The American Prophecy
    date 1839map MIDDLESEX, Massachusettstags Chevalier, Industrial Revolution, women's rights, Lowell

    The machine once promised humanity greatness—or so the 19th-century train of thought went. “There is nothing in the physical order of things,” wrote Michel Chevalier, “of which our race has a better right to boast, than the mechanical inventions, by means of which man holds in check the irregular vigour, or brings forth the hidden energies, of nature. By the aid of mechanical contrivances,...

  9. Charles Dickens and the Women of Lowell, Massachusetts
    date 1842map MIDDLESEX, Massachusettstags Industrial Revolution, Cotton Mills, Charles Dickens, Lowell, women's rights

    He said he wasn’t going to compare the textile factories at Lowell, Massachusetts, to the ones in his home country of England, but how could he not? After all, Charles Dickens would make it his life’s work to critique the deplorable working conditions that his fellow countrymen had to suffer through on a daily basis. “The contrast would be a strong one,” Dickens wrote in comparing Lowell to...

  10. With poor immigrants to America
    date 1914map New York, New Yorktags European immigrants, America in 19th Century., Immigrants

    In 1914, Stephen Graham, an European, wrote a book describing his first journey in the United States and why he was so impressed. First, he wrote about why he came to U.S., “I came to America to see men and women and not simply bricks and mortar, to understand a national life rather than to moan over sooty cities and industrial wildernesses. Hundreds of thousands of healthy Europeans passed annually...

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