Go for Gold With This Quiz on the Gilded Age

Copper mining tycoon William Clark completed construction on his nine-story house at 960 Fifth Avenue in New York City, in 1911 after 14 years of work. It had 121 rooms (including four art galleries) and a rail line for bringing in heating coal, and cost him $6 million to build (over $212 million in 2022). Reviews were awful — according to “The New York Times,” it was “a pile of granite,” and its elaborate decor was already out of style . After Clark died in 1925, the mansion was sold for less than half the cost and was demolished in 1927.

Democratic presidential hopeful William Jennings Bryan was in favor of free silver, arguing that expanding legal tender money to include silver would give economic justice to Americans, as opposed to the more restrictive gold standard. His famous Cross of Gold speech won Bryan the 1896 Democratic nomination, but he lost the general election to William McKinley. Bryan ran (unsuccessfully) for President two more times, served as Secretary of State, and prosecuted the famous Scopes Monkey Trial about teaching evolution in schools.

The circuses of P.T. Barnum and James A. Bailey combined shows in 1881, and Barnum bought Jumbo, billed as “the largest elephant ever seen,” the following year. In 1884, the circus gained publicity by testing the integrity of the new Brooklyn Bridge with a parade of 21 elephants and 17 camels. Later combined with Ringling Bros. circus, the show was hugely popular and required 92 train cars for travel.

Edith Wharton came from an upper-crust family and married a wealthy Boston banker. Her novel “The Age of Innocence” won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, drawing on her youthful memories of the 1870s. She depicted the wealthy families of the era anthropologically, as if she were describing unfamiliar tribes, as she told the story of a planned society marriage disrupted by the arrival of an unconventional Polish countess.

Caroline Schermerhorn was descended from colonial Dutch ancestry on both sides, but she became one of the country’s most influential socialites when she married William Astor, heir to a hereditary fortune. By the 1860s, numerous newly wealthy families wanted the respect of other aristocrats. Astor became the unspoken arbiter of who could be admitted, keeping her guest lists closely guarded.

In 1893, industrialist George Pullman’s rail car company cut wages by 25%. Most workers lived in company towns, where prices and rents remained the same. When some workers tried to complain, Pullman fired them instead of agreeing to meet. Eventually, some 250,000 railwaymen quit, went on strike, or rioted against Pullman. Only after President Grover Cleveland sent in federal troops did the strike end.

With sports, culture, art, and shows, the World’s Columbian Exhibition marked 400 years since Christopher Columbus arrived in the New World. Chicago was selected as a center of rail transportation, and for offering a $10 million guarantee. At the “White City'' that was built, the Ferris wheel debuted, electricity was demonstrated, and hamburgers and fizzy sodas were popularized. Over 25 million people visited the event.

In 1898, Spain’s harsh reaction to Cuba’s independence movement was portrayed luridly by the American press’ “yellow journalism,” as sensational reporting became known. When the USS Maine sank off Havana, the press blamed it on Spain. The public called for war, and “Remember the Maine!” became a rallying cry. In the conflict, Theodore Roosevelt and his “Rough Riders” (volunteer cavalry) won the Battle of San Juan Hill, and the U.S. gained Puerto Rico as a territory.

The railway air brake, the brainchild of inventor George Westinghouse, was needed since braking manually was too slow, and an incredibly dangerous job for brakemen.. Later, Westinghouse focused his attention on electricity, and founded the Westinghouse Electric Company. He hired Nicola Tesla, and promoted Tesla’s AC power in a long, fierce competition with Thomas Edison’s DC system.

Andrew Carnegie made his fortune in the steel industry in the 1870s. He sold the Carnegie Steel Company to J. P. Morgan for $480 million in 1901 and then devoted himself to philanthropy. The Carnegie Institution for Science, Carnegie Mellon University, and the Carnegie Foundation were all the result of his financial gifts, but his major achievement was the establishment of 2,500 public libraries.

The Transcontinental Railroad linked the U.S. from east to west. In 1862, the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific Railroad Companies began building railway lines, one starting in Omaha, Nebraska and the other in Sacramento, California. On May 10, 1869, the two lines finally met at Promontory, Utah, where the ceremonial “golden spike” was tapped into the rails.

America was seen as the land of opportunity, and from the 1850s onward, immigration from Europe boomed. Europeans, mostly from Germany, Ireland, and England, entered the country via Castle Garden near the tip of Manhattan, garnering New York the nickname “The Golden Door.” In 1892, a new processing center at Ellis Island opened, solidifying NYC’s status as a symbol of the American Dream.

The Gilded Age (1860s - 1890s) was a period of innovation: Technologies such as the telephone, incandescent bulb, and Kodak’s camera made their way into the hands of consumers. But the telegraph came earlier, developed in the 1830s and ‘40s. By 1866, a telegraph line had been laid underneath the Atlantic Ocean, allowing messages to be sent quickly between America and Europe, ushering in a new era of high-speed communication.

The Home Insurance Building, the world’s first skyscraper, was located on the corner of Adams and LaSalle Streets in Chicago, Illinois. Finished in 1885, the building employed an innovative steel frame that allowed it to stand tall while maintaining stability. Unfortunately, the history-making building was demolished in 1931 so another could be built in its stead — today’s LaSalle Bank Building.

Mark Twain collaborated with Charles Dudley Warner on “The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today,” first published in 1873. The satirical novel reflects the era’s optimism after the Civil War and the reality of rampant corruption across business, politics, and banking. Gilding means applying a thin layer of precious metal over a baser metal, thus contrasting the new age unfavorably with the Golden Age.

Thomas Edison moved to Menlo Park, New Jersey in 1876 — before his great scientific and financial successes. There, he set up a laboratory and machine shop where he and his employees invented or improved many technologies, including telegraphy, the telephone microphone, the phonograph, the electric light, and the alkaline battery. Today, the Thomas Edison Center at Menlo Park is an interactive museum that features Edison artifacts and science demonstrations.

John D. Rockefeller established Standard Oil in 1870 and built an empire that controlled most oil production, processing, and transportation in the United States. The company formed a trust in 1882, creating a complicated company structure that was difficult to regulate. As a result, the U.S. government brought an antitrust suit against it, and Standard Oil was dissolved in 1911.

Muckrakers were Gilded Age writers and journalists who highlighted the corruption and social inequality that characterized the age. These activists were known for researching and exposing unsavory aspects of various industries. The term “muckraker” was popularized by Theodore Roosevelt, who likened these campaigning journalists to those who raked through mud and debris looking for misfortune.

The Gilded Age — which began in the 1870s and ran until the turn of the 20th century — saw the rapid industrialization of America, led by some of the wealthiest businessmen to ever live. Names such as Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, Carnegie, and even Henry Ford dominated industries including oil, railroads, and steel, which expanded in ways that were previously unimaginable.

The term “robber baron” was coined in 1870s America to liken the corrupt magnates of the Gilded Age (1860s - 1890s) to medieval European warlords. Robber barons were criticized for their unethical business practices, which included monopolizing major industries through the creation of trusts, exploiting workers, and pursuing wealth at any cost.

Work on George Vanderbilt’s 250-room Renaissance-style chateau, Biltmore, began in 1889. Construction took six years, and the lavish estate in North Carolina's Blue Ridge Mountains was finally finished in 1895. It is considered America’s largest private residence with 35 bedrooms, 43 bathrooms, and 65 fireplaces — just one example of several elaborate Vanderbilt houses scattered across the U.S.