Episodes Nearest to January 1, 1920 to December 31, 1920: 1 through 25 of 25

  1. Prohibition in the United States as a Social Experiment
    date 1920map Somerset, Mainetags Prohibition, Alcoholism

        Upon the beginning of the 20th century, many Americans, including various social groups introduced and supported the radical new idea of Prohibition. As made official through the Volstead Act and The Eighteenth Amendment, “The manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and...

  2. Lighting Up During the Roaring Twenties
    date 1920map New York, New Yorktags Del Rio, green campign, Father of Public Relation, Barney's, Edward Bernays, Smoking

    While you are flipping through the pages of your favorite magazine a mysterious woman in a white and green gown catches your eye. She has an air of power, intelligence, and strength. Something about her captivating expression renders you powerless. Her stance is one of both strength and seduction. You can do nothing but stand there and stare in awe of her glory as she takes a puff from her Lucky...

  3. From Front Porch to North Portico
    date June, 1920 to November, 1920map Marion, Ohiotags Women, Politics

    Even though most historians today view Warren G. Harding as one of the worst U.S. presidents, he was a very modern and innovative thinker even before becoming president.  His presidential campaign in 1920 is a prime example of this.  What historically has been called his “front porch” campaign captured the imagination of the public.  It was the first campaign to be heavily covered by the...

  4. Boston Suffragists Celebrate Their Efforts
    date September 22, 1920map Suffolk, Massachusettstags Women, suffrage, Laws

    On September 22, 1920, the women of Boston took to the streets for a “victory parade” to celebrate the “happy ending to a ‘long fight and a good fight’.” Four hundred strong, they wore dark clothing and hats; with the exception of 37 women, who were dressed in white clothing, wore blue streamers and carried the name of each state that had passed the Suffrage Amendment. Seven automobiles...

  5. Players Confess to Fixing 1919 World Series
    date September 29, 1920map Cook, Illinoistags Eddie Cicotte, "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, Black Sox Scandal, 1919 World Series, Cincinnati Reds, Chicago White Sox

    On September 29, 1920, the New York Times published an article entitled, “Eight White Sox Players are Indicted on Charge of Fixing 1919 World Series; Cicotte Got $10,000 and Jackson $5,000.” The 1919 World Series played between the Chicago White Sox and Cincinnati Reds will forever be remember was one of the darkest moments in Major League Baseball and American Sports History. Baseball...

  6. Potential Danger for Prohibition
    date January 31, 1920map New York, New Yorktags Temperance Movement, women's rights, Prohibition, woman's suffrage

    In 1920 Linton Smith, also known as the Bishop of Hereford, wrote a controversial article on the Temperance Movement and Prohibition. Linton claimed that prohibition could possibly divide political parties on a, “Sex basis," meaning that female prohibition proponents could vote as a block against male opponents of prohibition.

    Strong drink was very popular in the lives of men during...

  7. Prohibition and the Whiskey Rebellion
    date January 16, 1920map Dist Columbia, District of Columbiatags Prohibition, Whiskey Rebellion

    On February 13, 1927, the New York Times published an article entitled “Wet and Dry Talk Heard in 1791: Arguments Used in the Whisky Rebellion Crisis Are Like Today’s,” which sought to highlight similarities between the 1790s Whiskey Rebellion and the events of Prohibition in the 1920s. Much like the events of the Whiskey Rebellion, the period of Prohibition caused citizens to actively...

  8. French Opera House Destroyed in Flames
    date December 4, 1919map Orleans, Louisianatags Urban Society, Arts/Leisure

    On December 4, 1919, hundreds of New Orleans's high society watched as their social gathering spot was engulfed in flames. A writer at the time, Andre Lafargue, recounted the deep emotion embedded within the French Opera House, and the mourning that took place upon its historic loss to flames. The French Opera House, located on the corner of Bourbon and Toulouse Streets in the French Quarter,...

  9. Top Dog at the White House
    date March 5, 1921map Dist Columbia, District of Columbiatags Politics, Arts/Leisure

    Though there were many presidential pets before him, Laddie Boy was the first celebrity White House pet.  Few people realize that Laddie Boy, President Warren G. Harding’s Airedale terrier, was the first to receive regular coverage from newspaper reporters. Presidential pets had to receive the same scrutiny as their distinguished masters.  Whether providing companionship or humanizing the President’s...

  10. A Dinner for Harry Chandler
    date March 23, 1921map Los Angeles, Californiatags publisher, Los Angeles Times, Harry Chandler

    On the Friday evening of the 23rd of March 1921, Harry Chandler enjoyed a dinner in his honor. The event occurred in Los Angeles and included guest speakers H.W. O’Melveny (founder of what is now L.A.’s oldest law firm) and William Mulholland (head of the Department of Water and Power of Los Angeles). The dinner was to commemorate the accomplishments that Chandler had made thus far...

  11. View of City from Richard Furman Hall, May 11, 1921
    date May 11, 1921map Greenville, South Carolinatags Furman Hall, Greenville, SC

    “Creation…Expansion…Development” These are just a few words that spring to mind when looking through the viewing glass of 1920 Greenville. From the high viewpoint outside of Richard Furman Hall of the Old Campus, one looks out at an expanding city, in the midst of the development and growth. In the immediate foreground, a lone smoke stack rises above the buildings, trees and fields surrounding...

  12. The Peak of Excellence
    date 1921map Orleans, Louisianatags Architecture, Economy

    This building serves as a symbol of the innovation that the Cotton Exchange implemented in its field of industry. The exterior of the building appears to be a typical 1921 classically inspired design. The architects, Favrot and Livaudais, who built several of the buildings in the area, designed the eight story steel framed structure. They believed that they created a new style of building because...

  13. First Sitting President to Mention Civil Rights in the South
    date October 26, 1921map Jefferson, Alabamatags Race Relations, african americans

    On October 26, 1921 President Warren G. Harding visited Birmingham, Alabama.  The Magic City was celebrating its semi centennial - fifty years of being a city in the New South. It was a city without a typical Southern past.  Founded in 1871, Birmingham was a model city at this time – railroads, blast furnaces and steel mills marked its landscape.  It was a bustling industrial giant; and, it...

  14. French women's impression of American race relations
    date November 11, 1918 to May 1, 1919map Dist Columbia, District of Columbiatags Travel, Race Relations

     

    Comtesse Madeleine de Bryas and her sister Jacqueline were born, raised and cultured in Paris.  During 1918, the two sisters were in the United States for six months to raise funds for the “American Committee for Devastated France”  by giving speeches. While they travelled shore to shore by train they liked America and the American people they met.  They had wonderful comments...

  15. A worried mother writes her son’s boarding school
    date December 14, 1921 to December 20, 1921map Whatcom, Washingtontags Boarding Schools, Cultural Assimilation, Native Americans

    On December 14, 1921 a worried mother wrote a letter to the Superintendent at the Tulalip Indian Agency. In the letter she addressed her concern for her son Robert’s failing health, and asked the Superintendent to let Robert return home for the holiday season. Six days later, she received the Superintendent’s typed response denying her request. He stated that none of the school’s students...

  16. 30th Division in Combat
    date October 29, 1918map Orange, North Carolinatags 30th division, Sergeant V. J. Johnson, World War I Letter, Pvt. Jesse M Avery

    When soldiers were sent to war, they left behind loved ones who anticipate the worst; not knowing the status of their soldier was the biggest scare of all.  The only way a soldier could update his or her family was by keeping in touch with them by letters. The strength a letter carried was remarkable; a few words written on a piece of paper would easily keep the mind from wondering or worrying.  ...

  17. Fun Times During the 1918 Spanish Flu Epidemic
    date October 21, 1918map Jefferson, Alabamatags influenza, Medicine/Health

    On October 21,1918, Birmingham News staff writer Henry Vance told his readers “[i]t is much better to be interned than interred.” The Spanish influenza had reached Birmingham, and officials had advised citizens to stay inside to avoid infection. Each day Vance featured a new game idea suitable for families to play while they remained indoors. In number six of a series called “Indoor...

  18. Flu Ravages Families in Birmingham
    date October 20, 1918map Jefferson, Alabamatags Medicine/Health, influenza

    Ms. Lucy Dickinson, writing for the Birmingham News in October 1918, sent out an urgent plea to the city for a foster mother. An infant had been brought to the Children's Hospital by neighbors who had been caring for him. The baby's parents were victims of the epidemic “Spanish” influenza and were being treated at the local infirmary. Dickinson explained that the two "big-hearted fellows”...

  19. Spanish Influenza Aspirin Scare
    date October, 1918 to 1918map Jefferson, Alabamatags Medicine/Health, epidemic, influenza

    In 1918 the American Bayer aspirin manufacturer ran an advertisement in the October 18, 1918 edition of the Birmingham News, assuring readers that “the manufacture of Bayer-Tablets and Capsules of Aspirin is completely under American control.” They wanted to assure readers that they were “being operated as a 100% American concern” and that the overseers of that operation were all...

  20. Citizens Appeal to the White House to put an end to Lynching
    date May 19, 1918map Brooks, Georgiatags letters, Women

    On the night of Thursday, May 16, 1918 assailants killed white farmer, Hampton Smith in his home and wounded his wife in Brooks County, Georgia. The next night a white mob lynched two black men in conjunction with Smith's murder. By Sunday a mob lynched two tenants of Smith, husband and wife, Hayes and Mary Turner, while another black man went missing, also believed to be involved in Smith's...

  21. Morality and Birth Control- What Every Woman Should Know
    date February, 1918map New York, New Yorktags women's health, Margaret Sanger, birth control

     

    Morality and Birth Control by Margaret Sanger is a pamphlet written in 1918 questioning the morality of denying the knowledge of birth control to working class women. She compares the lack of education given to women at that time to the “shackles of slavery.” Sanger believes that birth control is the first step towards women’s freedom. She gives several examples of how not...

  22. The Espionage Act of 1917
    date 1917map Dist Columbia, District of Columbiatags World War I, J. Edgar Hoover, Espionage Act, Eugene V. Debs, Emma Goldman, A. Mitchell Palmer

    In 1917 the United States Congress passed the Espionage Act while involved in World War I. This act made it illegal for someone to obtain, distribute, or possess information relating to the national defense of the United States, her dependents, or those under her control or jurisdiction. The act also made it illegal to aid, conspire, or share any information or documents relating to national defense....

  23. Patriotism or Equal Rights: The Suffragist’s Dichotomy during World War I
    date February 26, 1917map Dist Columbia, District of Columbiatags Women, women's rights, suffrage, World War I

    The Great War in Europe had already lasted much longer than anticipated by the early months of 1917. Despite a long-standing precedent of neutrality in the face of foreign conflict, the United States steeled itself for the possibility of war. On February 26, 1917, the New York Times ran an article entitled "Suffragist Pledge Aid to the Nation" covering the National American Woman Suffrage...

  24. Rhapsody In Blue
    date January 4, 1924 to February 12, 1924map Richmond, New Yorktags Gershwin,Rhapsody in blue, jazz, classical music,, composers

       

    “I heard it as a sort of musical kaleidoscope of America, of our vast melting pot, of our unduplicated national pep, of our metropolitan madness.”- George Gershwin

     “Rhapsody in Blue” was a musical experiment morphed into masterpiece. Paul Whitman asked George Gershwin to write a jazz concerto piece mixing jazz and classical music to shock...

  25. Frederick A. Blossom resigns post as Director of the National Birth Control League
    date December 8, 1916map Allegheny, Pennsylvaniatags birth control, Frederick A. Blossom, Birth Control Movement, Margaret Sanger, Virginia T. Heidelberg, NBCL

    Conflict remained high between Frederick A. Blossom, a socialist party member from Cleveland, and the members of the Executive Committee of the National Birth Control League. The Executive Committee of this organization advocated the removal of birth control from “the category of obscene materials and information”. The open bill versus the doctors-only bill was the contested topic up for debate. ...