State Historical Society of Iowa
Where you live has a critical impact on your lifestyle, your options, community services and even your health. Historically, the transition from rural to urban has meant that a household has options to use specialties the community offers and not to rely entirely on its own resources. A bakery can supply bread, a hospital health care, transportation services like buses or taxis, a school graded classrooms and clubs social outlets. On the other hand, rural families avoid urban noise and often pollution, ethnic tensions from different neighborhoods and sometimes the loss of tight-knit neighborhoods and family connections. Depending on one's priorities, urban or rural living may have more or less appeal.
For the first time in American history, the urban population surpassed the rural population in the 1920 U.S. Census. The census showed that 51.2 percent of Americans lived in cities with a population over 2,500 (the definition of urban). In Iowa, rural residents still commanded a distinct majority with 36 percent. But there was a definite trend toward urban living, especially in the big cities in the East, and many Iowans found this disturbing. Descendents of Northern Europeans countries (British Isles, Germany, Scandinavia, Ireland) had traditionally dominated the countryside throughout the 19th century, but Eastern and Southern European immigrants had been swelling Boston, New York, Philadelphia and the manufacturing centers around the Great Lakes. Railroads and automobiles had greatly increased travel exposing Iowa residents to urban values that threatened long-standing traditions. World War I had witnessed the beginning of mass migrations of African-Americans to Northern cities creating new racial tensions. Additionally, due to the collapse of high wartime practices and agriculture growing surpluses created by wartime stimuli, Americans experienced economic hardship.
American values were in flux in the early 1900s. Prohibition was officially the law of the land with the passage of the 18th Amendment but the bootlegging industry and widespread disregard of the law created tensions. The rise of motion pictures and radio brought images of urban life to rural areas. As troops returned home from the fighting in Europe, many hoped that the U.S. could withdraw from international affairs and return to a more isolated foreign policy, but world affairs continued to draw America into diplomatic issues. Technology, economics and political tensions prevented the United States from returning to the pre-war "normalcy" - as President William Harding described it - and the nation would face unprecedented challenges in the coming years with the Great Depression, World War II and the onset of the Cold War in the Atomic Age.
| Rural Life in a Modern Age Teaching Guide |
| Printable Image and Document Guide |
The first automobiles were introduced in the late 19th century and became more commonly available after 1900 when Henry Ford developed his assembly line production for the Model T. In this 1899 newspaper article printed in Laport, Pennsylvania, the increa...
This 1903 White Oaks, New Mexico newspaper article, entitled "Is Our Pace Too Fast?", focuses on an address given by a New Haven, Connecticut physician before the American Therapeutic Society. In it he attributed weakness of the heart and the ci...
With the Bessemer process and later the Open-Hearth process, steel could be mass produced and began to be used in a wide variety of ways. In cities, steel girders were used to build much taller buildings and the first skyscrapers appeared. This 1904 newsp...
This essay by Estelline Bennett examines the lifestyle of a "leisure class" woman in the modern age. The publication was printed in the Grand Rapids, Wisconsin Wood County Reporter in 1907.
By the early 20th century, Thomas Edison was a well-known inventor whose work on the incandescent light bulb, as well as the phonograph and other inventions was well known. Here, as reported by the New York American and printed in The Manchester Democrat ...
By the end of the 19th century, many children were attending primary school, but most did not attend high school and even fewer attended college or university. The newspaper industry was highly competitive. Major urban areas had multiple papers representi...
This September 1900 newspaper article described the rural drive in Hardin County from Iowa Falls to Eldora, Iowa before showcasing the latter's prosperity. While this account was published in The Eldora Herald, it was written for publication in the Om...
This view of State Street in Chicago, Illinois, is presented as a stereographic image. These images were designed to be used in a viewing device so the viewer would see a 3D image. These images were a popular way to experience distant places that were oth...
In 1900, Iowa City was the 13th largest city in Iowa. While it saw rapid population growth in the 1850s, population growth slowed after 1860 when the state capital was moved to Des Moines. This image shows a panoramic view of an intersection in the busine...
Compare and contrast Iowa City with Fort Dodge. How do these two Iowa cities compare to Chicago? Would you consider Iowa City and Fort Dodge to be modern cities, like Chicago? Use evidence from the images to support your answer.
This interview was collected in 1938 by the Federal Writers' Project, a component of the Work Projects Administration. In the interview, Harry Reece described his first trip to Chicago around 1900. Reece was born and grew up in rural Illinois.
In 1890, two events indicated the changing nature of American life. The Census Bureau declared the frontier closed since no "empty" lands remained to be settled and for the first time, the value of manufactured goods was greater than the value o...
In 1890, two events indicated the changing nature of American life. The Census Bureau declared the frontier closed since no "empty" lands remained to be settled and for the first time, the value of manufactured goods was greater than the value o...
This series of graphs are from a 34-page document published in 1950, detailing the changes that had occurred in agriculture over the previous 50 years. The report covered changing land use patterns and the major agricultural products produced in the Unite...
This image is intended to be used in a stereograph viewer. The side-by-side images in the viewer would provide a 3D image. Stereograph images were popular ways to see the world. This image was sold in the United States, Canada and Britain. These side-by-s...
This posed image taken near Dubuque, Iowa in 1910 was used to create a postcard, a relatively new invention at the time. A farm family can be seen in the foreground of the photograph. Two adults on the left each hold a small child. Two members of the fami...
In the early 1890s, Postmaster General John Wanamaker proposed the extension of mail delivery service into the countryside. In U.S. cities, mail delivery to homes began in the 1860s. Wanamaker's proposal gained wide support in rural areas where farm f...
This "Country Life" image was published as part of a collection about rural life. The collection was published in 1904. The bottom third of the image shows a "typical Arabian horse" and a "typical Percheron horse." The top of...
In the 1890s, the U.S. Post Office began the free delivery of rural mail. The program began as a few test cases in various places around the country. Rural people very quickly saw the benefits of this service and advocated strongly for the expansion of th...
Newspapers regularly reported on the expansion of rural free delivery with the opening or surveying of new routes. These news stories often included information about the program and its success. This report came from the government official responsible f...
At the beginning of the 20th century, several new inventions were changing life for many Americans, especially in the cities. Some changes were spreading to the countryside, like rural free delivery, while others would take longer to spread through the co...
As modern innovations spread in the cities, rural residents also desired access to those conveniences of modern life. Rural life, in particular, was often viewed as isolated, and the telephone seemed a good remedy. This newspaper article looks at the infl...
By the early 20th century, Thomas Edison was a well-known inventor whose work on the incandescent light bulb, as well as the phonograph and other inventions would have been well known.
This academic journal article was featured in The Mississippi Valley Historical Review and looks at the transition to rural free delivery of mail around the turn of the 20th century.
This journal article follows the progression of road development and its effect on rural America. This includes the passage of the first state-aid road laws, the creation of the first federal road agency and the growth of a strong urban-rural coalition promoting rural road improvements.
This article from the Journal of Social History focuses on the evolution of telephone development and technology in rural America.
"Rural Education Reform and the Country Life Movement, 1900-1920" by David B. DanbomThis article, which was published in the Agricultural History journal, looks at the parallels of education reform and rural America.
Born in the Country: A History of Rural America by David B. DanbomThis book features a general history of rural America. Ranging from pre-Columbian times to the enormous changes of the twentieth century, the book integrates agricultural, technological and economic themes with new questions social historians have raised about the American experience.
Part of the Library of Congress' United States History Timeline Presentation. A description of the topic, suggested keywords for finding additional sources in the Library, and primary sources can be found here.
Part of the Library of Congress' United States History Timeline Presentation. A description of the topic, suggested keywords for finding additional sources in the Library, and primary sources can be found here.
Listed below are the Iowa Core Social Studies content anchor standards that are best reflected in this source set. The content standards applied to this set are elementary-age level and encompass the key disciplines that make up social studies for students 9th through 12th grade.
| No. | Standard Description |
| SS-US.9-12.18. | Analyze the effects of urbanization, segregation, and voluntary and forced migration within regions of the U.S. on social, political, and economic structures. |
| SS-US.9-12.22. | Evaluate the impact on inventions and technological innovations on the American society and culture. |
| SS-US.9-12.24. | Critique primary and secondary sources of information with attention to the source of the document, its context, accuracy, and usefulness such as the Reconstruction amendments, Emancipation Proclamation, Treaty of Fort Laramie, Chinese Exclusion Act, Roosevelt's Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, Wilson's Fourteen Points, New Deal Program Acts, Roosevelt's Declaration of War, Executive Order 9066, Truman Doctrine, Eisenhower's Farewell Speech, Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, Test Ban Treaty of 1963, Brown vs. Board of Education decision, Letter from a Birmingham Jail, and the Voting Act of 1965. |
| SS-Econ.9-12.14. | Use cost-benefit analysis to argue for or against an economic decision. |
| SS-Econ.9-12.21. | Explain why advancements in technology and investments in capital goods and human capital increase economic growth and standards of living. |
| SS-Geo.9-12.17. | Analyze how environmental and cultural characteristics of various places and regions influence political and economic decisions |
| SS-Geo.9-12.24. | Identify and evaluate Iowans or groups of Iowans who have influenced Iowa's environmental or cultural geography. |
