Early 20th Century U.S.
In the early 20th century, America was flexing its economic and political muscle on the international stage. The era was defined by the temperance movement, Progressive-era activism, the sinking of the Titanic and World War I.
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The man known for changing the auto industry also used his immense power and influence to quash unions, control immigrant workers and vilify Jewish people.
The catalog was the Amazon.com of its time—packaged in hundreds of pages.
The 1906 bestseller was one of the most influential books in American history—but not in the way its author intended.
More than just facts and figures, these statistics highlight the massive scale of Titanic's ambition—and of its tragic sinking.
Zoot Suit Riots
How Anti-Mexican Racism in L.A. Caused the Zoot Suit Riots
Learn how media bias and anti-Mexican racism contributed to the Zoot Suit Riots in Los Angeles in 1943.
3 Key Early 20th Century Movements
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Jim Crow laws were state and local statutes enacted after the Civil War that legalized segregation by race.
Explore eight surprising facts about the groundbreaking polio vaccine that Dr. Salk developed.
To craft legal discrimination, the Third Reich studied the United States.
Clifford Beers Revolutionizes Mental Healthcare
A graduate of Yale University, Clifford Beers founded the Clifford Beers Clinic in 1913, America's first outpatient mental health clinic. His work would establish a foundation for caring for people suffering with mental illness in America.
Federal agents aggressively detained more than 10,000 immigrants suspected of being anarchists and communists.
The first credit cards were issued in the 1950s—and women had limited access to them until the mid-1970s.
In 1907, bank failures exposed the financial system's fragility.
Who owns your image? Even in 1902, privacy laws had to grapple with new technology.
In 1868, a U.S. Secretary of State promoted Greenland as a land that could empower the United States to 'command the commerce of the world.'
William Randolph Hearst (1863-1951) launched his career by taking charge of his father’s struggling newspaper the San Francisco Examiner in 1887. By the 1930s, he had built the nation’s largest media empire, including more than two dozen newspapers in major cities nationwide.
A 1929 prepaid hospital plan created in Dallas gave rise to early health insurance companies—and helped spur the growth of a major industry.
The discovery that microorganisms, including bacteria, caused disease helped spur breakthroughs in public health.
These people made history, but they also found friendship—in each other.
