Group 9

HIS101
Dr. Gordon
Fall 2018
Doing History 8
I. Document Analysis
A. Author- Cartoonist, most likely male, 19th Century worldview, affluent in society
B. Audience- Educated, influential, elite, land-owning/wealthy, powerful in society,
citizens of the United States
C. Purpose- The purpose of this cartoon is to demonstrate the role of domestic
women of influence and wealth in the mid-nineteenth century.
D. Concepts-
1. Fashion of the 19th Century
2. Hobbies and Sports of the time
3. The typical décor of a wealthy household
4. The standard literature of the time period
E. Assumptions- This document was influenced by the artist’s assumptions that a
woman’s domestic role and purpose in a household was limited directly to
material and artificial activities.
II. Contemporary Context
A. Facts and Concepts
1. “Hamilton Corporation”
2. “Lowell Mills”
3. Teachings of the “Lowell Institute”
4. Children have been working since 11 years old
5. The value of a dollar in that time period
6. Four holidays (days off) per year
7. Changing the labor hours would result in a change of wage
B. Questions
1. What did the “Hamilton Corporation” manufacture?
2. What did the “Lowell Mills” produce?
3. Was the “Lowell Institute” a Sunday school, or what did they teach?
4. How does the value of a dollar compare to that of today?
5. Why didn’t a country that was founded on religious freedom respect the
different religious holidays of various beliefs?
C. Academic Article
1. "Inflation Rate between 1850-2018 | Inflation Calculator." $1 in 1850 →
2018 | Inflation Calculator. Accessed October 19, 2018.
https://www.officialdata.org/1850-dollars-in-2018?amount=1.
III. Direct Context
A. As identified in “Irish in America,” many immigrants and people seeking work
were living in poverty and squalid conditions. The immigrants numbering
500,000 lived in “16,000 tenement houses in New York” (Irish in America,
Maguire, 1867). These people looking for work endured horrible conditions “for
thirteen to fourteen hours per day in unhealthy apartments” (Yankeedoodledum,
Schauler, 1845). The atrocious conditions that they had to live and work in led to
“pain, disease, and privation, down to a premature grave” (Yankeedoodledum,
Schauler, 1845).