by The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Clothing Through American History 1900 to the Present (pdf)
appropriate. Still, many women rode their bikes while wearing even the
‘‘S-bend’’ corset.
In 1895, bowling became standardized. Before that time, every com-
munity developed different rules. When the rules became standardized,
they also included rules for women’s play. Many women learned to enjoy
the sport.
The 1910s
95
Americans enjoyed other sports during this period. Tennis and golf
achieved popularity and were played by both men and women. Each sport
required a different kind of outfit. Few sports could be played by a woman
wearing a corset or bustle.
Although these sports did not emancipate women as the bicycle did,
these activities had one thing in common: the women who engaged in
these sports began to complain about their clothes, insisting that ‘ old-
fashioned’ fashion was inhibiting their lifestyles. Not everyone would
engage in travel or sports, but enough women did that fashion started to
change. The great fashion houses could not afford to ignore the growing
numbers of women who wanted clothes that fit their new lifestyles.
Travel was another popular leisure activity. Young wealthy Americans fre-
quently went on a European tour for their honeymoons or before they started
working. Europe was seen as the center of culture despite the vast artistic tal-
ent in the United States and the American museums filled with fine art.
The age of westward expansion had come to a close, and rail lines
linked the east coast and midwest to the western half of the United
States. Train travel tended to be dirty, loud, and uncomfortable, but it was
the fastest way to get around the United States.
In the first decade of the century, only the wealthy could afford auto-
mobiles. The general public saw them more as expensive toys and nuisan-
ces than a mode of transportation. They would frequently break down,
and the owner would need to acquire the skills to fix it or bring along a
mechanic for the ride. The open cabin and lack of a windshield on the
automobile resulted in dust-covered drivers and passengers. To protect
themselves, motorists would wear a long coat called a duster, gloves, gog-
gles, and a hat.
Although alcohol was the drug of choice during the 1900s, the tem-
perance movement sought to combat it. Reformers saw alcohol as a coun-
teragent to family values. Opium was another drug under scrutiny during
this period. It was associated with Chinese immigrants, some of whom
imported the drug. Opium dens were dark, hazy rooms where opium
users stayed while they were on the drug. The proliferation of opium use
led to the outlaw of its importation in 1909.
T H E
1910S
WWI had a tremendous impact on the daily life of many Americans. Many
men joined the war effort in Europe. After the United States declared war
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DAILY LIFE
on Germany, most communities had several young men who enlisted in the
war effort. As Europeans had discovered, someone had to keep the country
going to support the troops and create the weapons and materials that the
troops needed. For the first time, American women in large numbers
became employed in a variety of jobs, most of which had been done
by men.
Women drove automobiles and worked in factories, and they joined
military-like units that provided support to the military troops. They held
jobs in large numbers and it was respectable. Their clothes, however, had
to change. Nurses could not help the wounded and sick while wearing
hobble skirts or bustles. Women who worked with machinery could not
wear ornate dresses. Women wore work clothes that were strictly utilitar-
ian. Corsets were still required for many clothes, but, instead of restricting
motion, they were supposed to help support the body. Some women
actually wore pants, because the job required them. Many wore a form of
culottes because they made the work easier. Many wore dresses that
resembled military uniforms. Skirts, which had slowly become shorter to
accommodate bicycles and other sports, became even shorter. Women in
the workforce needed and demanded clothes that were comfortable.
Many of the superfluous fashions of past generations disappeared.
Hats with lots of feathers and jewels, dresses of silk and velvet, and skirts
with yards and yards of material were seen as unpatriotic. The material
was needed for uniforms and bandages for the soldiers. People were
encouraged to buy war bonds rather than expensive dresses and jewelry.
Flaunting wealth by wearing expensive clothing was considered inappro-
priate considering the many families who had family members die in
the war.
After the war, many women wanted to return to the simpler lives they
had before the war. Many could not because their soldiers did not return
or were so wounded that they could not get good jobs. Many women were
thus forced to retain their jobs and become the support of their families.
Many women found that they did not want to return to the restrictive
lifestyles they had before the war. This caused much tension across the
country as men saw women competing for the same jobs. It also blurred
the lines between home life and work life.
Women had achieved a level of independence; they had jobs to do and
those jobs helped the Allies win the war. Many women, especially those
in the middle classes, realized that they could survive on their own with-
out a man to make decisions for them. Women did not want to follow
the lives their mothers and grandmothers led, nor did they want their
fashions.
The 1910s
97
By the end of WWI, women had the right to vote, which brought
social issues into the political limelight. Birth control became a volatile
issue. Margaret Sanger tried to educate women about birth control, which
spurred critical backlash from conservatives. Temperance groups gained
momentum. Their work against alcohol would see fruition during Prohi-
bition in the next decade.
The isolation of rural life evaporated as new forms of communication
linked rural residents to cities and the outside world. Their lives changed
in other ways as well. They were able to purchase the same products as
urbanites by ordering from the Sears Roebuck and Montgomery Ward
catalogs. Motorized machinery reduced much of the backbreaking labor
and need to hire additional workers or purchase draft animals. Prices for
crops went up during the war, so farmers experienced profitable harvests.
Cities continued to grow as immigrants settled there. Most ethnic
groups settled in distinct ethnic neighborhoods. With their ethnic group,
they built social structures, such as houses of worship, stores, aid societies,
unions, theater groups, and native language newspapers. The immigrants’
sons and daughters often broke away from their parents’ ethnic life and
adopted a more homogenous American lifestyle.
In addition to the war, new technologies influenced daily life in the
1910s. The electric light bulb, a seemin
gly innocuous item, could be said
to have changed the daily life of the world. The light bulb would allow
people to extend their lives beyond the daylight hours. It was cleaner and
safer than gas and candles. As more people wanted to have their houses
wired for light, people began to consider other things that could be done
with electricity. Once people had their homes wired for light, it was sim-
ple to find other uses for the electricity.
One such item was the phonograph. This invention allowed music
and voice to be reproduced and played back repeatedly. People who could
afford to have several phonograph disks would be able to entertain them-
selves and their friends at home. A radio, although not in widespread use
in the early twentieth century, was available in some large urban areas.
People could turn on their radios and get a variety of news and entertain-
ment items without leaving their homes.
Large cities had subways and electric trolleys, which brought people to
large areas such as parks to listen to bands and other forms of entertain-
ment. Whereas some people would continue to go to the theater and see
plays, others would visit vaudeville houses and be entertained by music such
as Scott Joplin’s ragtime music. Various comedy and dramatic acts would
also be seen on the vaudeville stage. Life and entertainment became more
casual.
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DAILY LIFE
Irene and Vernon Castle. Irene and Ver-
non Castle were a dynamic husband
and wife ballroom dancing duo, who
helped popularize modern dancing. The
couple debuted in New York in 1912
performing ragtime dances such as the
‘‘turkey trot’ and ‘‘grizzly bear.’’ Their
popularity was immediate, and they
were soon in demand in stage produc-
tions, vaudeville, and motion pictures.
They opened a dancing school, Cas-
tle House, in New York and taught
local socialites modern dancing. Their
dance lessons were often secured by pri-
vate clients, and they commanded high
prices. They are attributed with refining
and popularizing the fox trot. They
appeared in the newsreel Social and The-
atrical Dancing in 1914 and wrote the
book Modern Dancing, which became a
bestseller. Although they appeared in
numerous movies, their best success was
their performance in Irving Berlin’s first
musical, Watch Your Step, in 1914.
Irene and Vernon Castle demonstrating
Irene became a fashion icon during
dance. [Library of Congress]
the 1910s. She bobbed her hair several
years before it was common. She wore
died during WWI training maneuvers in
shorter skirts and wore dresses designed
1918, but Irene continued to appear in
by Lucille or herself. In magazines, she
films. In 1939, their story was made into
was held up as a model of the fashiona-
the movie The Story of Vernon and Irene
ble woman, with the grace to successfully
Castle, starring Fred Astaire and Ginger
carry any style. Vernon, who was a pilot,
Rogers.
SOCIAL OCCASIONS
Women continued to aspire to marriage, and society continued to expect
them to remain devoted wives to their dominant husbands. The war had
changed this dynamic, and many women began to spend time marching for
The 1910s
99
the right to vote, participating in social organizations, and taking advantage
of educational lectures. The Victorian ideals of womanhood that had
reigned since the middle of the nineteenth century finally began to erode.
Americans continued to enjoy society balls and introducing their
daughters to society through debutante balls. The debutantes typically
‘ came out’ in groups of several girls. In this respect, upper-class society
separated itself from middle- and lower-class societies, which did not have
the means to participate or host these types of soirees.
HEALTH AND LEISURE
Life expectancy had dramatically increased since 1900, when Americans could
expect to live an average of forty-seven years. By 1919, their life expectancy
had increased to fifty-five years. The year 1918 was an exception to this trend,
when life expectancy dropped to thirty-nine years (U.S. Census Bureau 2001).
This was a result of a widespread flu pandemic known as the Spanish flu,
which started in the United States and traveled around the globe. At least
50 million people died of it because of its extremely high infection rate.
The athletic trend that began in the first decade of the 1900s continued
in the 1910s. What was remarkable about these sports is that women would
play them, even while wearing some of the confining clothes that fashion
dictated. In time, fashion followed need and clothes were developed that
gave a woman more freedom of movement. Although these clothes might
have been restrictive by today’s standards, they did indicate a subtle change
in the apparel of women and men. A subtle change in one outfit was not
necessarily a major trend, but, taken together, younger women and girls
began to expect that their clothes would fit their lifestyles. As these young
women grew to adulthood, they refused to be confined by their clothes as
their mothers and grandmothers had been. Skirts became somewhat shorter
around 1910, allowing a woman to show her ankles. Part of this trend was
to allow a woman more freedom when she practiced her favorite sport.
For the extremely rich and the growing middle class, travel was a pop-
ular leisure activity. One of the favorite modes of travel was by ship.
Travel across the oceans took time, which allowed the passengers to bring
their personal items and live life onboard ship almost as they lived it on
land. Everyone knew there was a chance that a ship would sink, but that
did not seem to be a major concern for most people. To some degree, this
would change on April 10, 1912.
It was on this date that the RMS Titanic set sail from Southampton on
her maiden voyage to New York. At that time, she was the largest and most
luxurious ship ever built. At 11:40 PM on April 14, 1912, she struck an
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DAILY LIFE
iceberg about 400 miles off Newfoundland, Canada. Less than three hours
later, the Titanic plunged to the bottom of the sea, taking more than 1,500
people with her (Barczewski 2004, 71). Only a fraction of her passengers
were saved. The world was stunned to learn of the fate of the unsinkable
Titanic. It carried some of the richest, most powerful industrialists of her
day. Together, their personal fortunes were worth $600 million in 1912
money. In addition to wealthy and the middle-class passengers, she carried
poor emigrants from Europe and the Middle East seeking economic and
social freedom in the New World.
The sinking of the Titanic was a shock to many people. Ships had
sunk before, but the advancements in communication meant that much of
the world knew about the tragedy wit
hin days after it happened. Many
people delayed any nonessential ship travel out of concern that they might
meet the same fate. Before ship travel could regain the prestige and popu-
larity it had held before the Titanic, war in Europe was declared. When
the German U-boat sank the passenger ship Lusitania, fewer people
wanted to travel by ship. Many people chose to travel by rail, or they
would take an adventurous ride in the increasingly popular automobile.
The use of the assembly line meant that Henry Ford could produce
automobiles more cheaply and quickly. In 1905, there were 77,000 regis-
tered automobiles in the country. By 1920, there were more than 8 million
(Lief 1951, 23). The automobile had gone from a plaything for the rich to
an everyday mode of transportation for the American masses.
Although Americans continued to attend the theater and symphony, a
new art form, movies, had captured their imagination. Increasingly, mov-
ies became a leisure activity of choice. Americans were also fond of going
to clubs to dance and listening to popular music.
Before 1910, marijuana had been used for medicinal purposes. In 1910,
as many Mexicans immigrated to the United States after the Mexican revo-
lution, they popularized the recreational use of marijuana. Beginning in
1906, states began to regulate its use. In 1914, the Harrison Narcotics Act
regulated and taxed opiates including opium and cocaine. After WWI, the
temperance movement was able to leverage anti-German sentiment to pass
the Eighteenth Amendment in 1919, which established Prohibition.
T H E
1920S
The 1920s are often referred to as the ‘‘roaring twenties’’ in reference to
the parties and socialization that occurred during the decade. Although
The 1920s
101
the period was dominated by optimism, there were troubling trends. Pro-
hibition and violent crime marred the rosy ideal of the carefree twenties.
Prohibition went into effect in 1920. It outlawed the manufacturing
and sale of alcoholic beverage. Temperance leaders had been fighting alco-
hol since the nineteenth century, and the Eighteenth Amendment that cre-
ated Prohibition was their victory. Prohibition divided the nation. Rural
America saw drinking as an urban problem and generally complied with
the new law. ‘ Wets,’’ those who wanted Prohibition to end, often lived in