This is the grave of Joseph Choate. Born in Salem, Massachusetts in 1832 to a well-off and well-connected family, Choate went to Harvard, graduating in 1852 and then from Harvard Law in 1854. He was i
This is the grave of Henry James. Born in 1843 to old New York money, Henry grew up in luxury. He and his family, which of course included his brother, the philosopher William James, and his sister, t
This is the grave of Stephen Field. Born in 1816 in Haddam, Connecticut to a Congregationalist minister and a larger family who would produce many leading 19th century figures, including Cyrus Field,
This is the grave of the odious Gilded Age lawyer and capitalist George Baer. Born in 1842 in Lavansville, Pennsylvania, Baer dropped out of school at the age of 13 and started working in a printer
This is the grave of John Altgeld. Born in 1847 in what is today Germany, Altgeld’s parents immigrated to Ohio when he was an infant, settling on a farm near Mansfield. He grew up there, lied ab
Above: The student body at Carlisle Indian School, 1885, which evidently was not part of the Gilded Age I was pretty excited last night. PBS’ American Experience was premiering its new two-hour
On December 23, 1872, coal miners near Clearfield, Pennsylvania got into a fight with strikebreakers trying to mine coal during a strike. This minor moment in American labor history tells us a great d
On November 23, 1903, Colorado governor James Peabody sent the state militia to Cripple Creek to crush the Western Federation of Miners led strike in that mining town. This all too typical action by t