A Thought on Historical Perspective

One of my current writing projects is a paper on the effect of urbanization on women in Chicago at the turn of the twentieth century. It came as a result of rereading Theodore Dreiser’s Sister Carrie and asking myself the question, “What were Carrie Meeber’s choices?” As you may recall, the book was rejected by many publishers because of the main character’s lack of, what was considered at the time, moral substance. In a nut shell, Carrie tried her hand at working in a shoe factory but eventually became a kept woman, not once, but twice. This was actually not an unusual scenario for many “women adrift” during the period. But, I digress…

As I began work on the paper I took stock of the resources in my library. My bookshelves are filled with old treasures and I dug out three fragile issues of The Ladies Home Journal, from 1901, 1902 and 1909 respectively. I was trying to establish a connection to the women of the period. What I got was a reminder from historian David McCullough surfacing in my thoughts: “The past after all is only another name for someone else’s present. Or, as Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “There is properly no history; only biography.”

Within the pages of the magazines I read Rudyard Kipling’s new story, “How the Leopard Got His Spots, with illustrations by Frank Verbeck” Oscar Hammerstein published his new waltz, “Mia Cara” for the ladies and I learned how to decorate china with roses …correctly. There were pages of advertisements with absolutely enticing copy promising health, wealth and beauty. And, there was an article by Jane Addams of Hull House, Chicago on “The Bad Boy of the Street.” The cover of the 1901 issue (shown here) was drawn by Albert Herter, a New York born artist who studied in Paris returned to the United States and moved to Chicago to teach at the Art Institute. I saw ads for many Chicago companies – Quaker Oats, Armour and Swift, to name a few.

The object I had in my hand was a magazine that had been originally read by some of the very women I was writing about in my paper. The fictional character Carrie Meeber would have read it, too.

These magazines gave me my connection to the past and helped me to focus on what was important about my topic. It wasn’t the period – the end of the Gilded Age and the over lapping Progressive Age. It wasn’t even the wide polarization of the classes. It was remembering that as I am looking backward, what I am glimpsing is someone’s day to day life, their dreams, struggles, successes and monumental failures.

I’ve scheduled an interview that I hope to include in my paper. It is with the daughter of a Polish immigrant who settled in Chicago and got a job making cigars, worked in a hotel kitchen and eventually a garment factory. I don’t know if I’ll be able to garner much from the interview that is enlightening or new. But I do know one thing. It will put a face on my topic and the past will become what it is... biography.