The Gilded Age is a period of time defined by quick economic growth, materialism, living in excess, and obvious political corruption in America. It lasted from around the 1870s until the early 1900s and was a time of great wealth disparity between the rich and the poor. New York City was the center of glitz and glamor during this time. Industrious individuals took advantage of the industrial revolution and became incredibly wealthy. People like J.P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and Leland Stanford grew large monopolies in steel, petroleum, and transportation industries. But it wasn’t all roses. While these people generated and hoarded vast amounts of wealth, it was often at the working class’s expense. Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner coined the phrase ‘The Gilded Age’ in their book The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today, a satirical novel about political corruption and greed in post-Civil War America.  Later, historians adopted the term when discussing this period. During this time, the rich displayed self-indulgent behavior, living their lives to excess with greed and gluttony. Let’s look at some of the most ridiculous and extraordinary displays of wealth from The Gilded Age. The Golden Toilet The rich will add gold to anything–even toilets. In the 1870s, when these new money families blossomed, they wanted to put their stamp on things and be unique. So what could be more memorable than a 24K toilet made of solid gold? At this time, toilets weren’t a standard in houses. They were considered a luxury on their own, never mind one made of gold. Most people used outhouses, went outside, or had to share toilets with their street. Getting to use the bathroom in solitude–something we all love now–was a real luxury that only the elite could access. In Baltimore, a family called the Garretts got rich in the railway industry. So T. Harrison Garrett bought the Evergreen Mansion (now open as a museum and library) and transformed it into a luxurious home for his family. The library had German porcelain, Japanese ivory, Italian paintings, and floor-to-ceiling walnut bookshelves. But at the very top, he painted the bathtub with gold leaves and got a solid gold toilet. Visitors can still go to the Evergreen Mansion and see the toilet! Servants Were Expected to Change The Bedsheets MULTIPLE Times a Day During The Gilded Age, the wealthy could snap their fingers and get whatever they wanted. It wasn’t about what you could have at that point. Most just wanted to show off. Everyone wanted to be better than their friends and neighbors, it had to be newer, more expensive, or you had to be more demanding. Nouveau (new) rich tried to stand up against old money and prove themselves. Every large mansion or estate had a staff of servants who were expected to be invisible. That often meant using hidden entrances and secret passageways so they wouldn’t be seen in the central avenues of the home. As a result, they could move in and out of rooms without being seen by any guests or the family. Outlandish orders from this period included changing towels after every use and changing the bedsheets twice a day regardless of whether anyone had used them. The point was to brag that you had your bedsheets changed so they were fresh every time you slept in the bed, even if it was just for a nap. People Built Immense Sprawling Estates The ‘new rich’ built massive mansions during The Gilded Age to compete with the old rich’s massive estates.  One such estate was Biltmore Estate in North Carolina, constructed by George Washington Vanderbilt II between 1889 and 1896 for his family.  The main house was insane 200,000 square feet–over 100 times larger than the average American suburban home. The entire estate took up eleven square miles, and when it was being built, it was so large that a village was needed to house the workers. An entire railroad was built to transport the building materials, and the site cost so much to run that the owners had to sell areas of the ground back to the government to keep it running. Biltmore Estate remains a tourist attraction now and is the biggest private residence in the United States. The Vanderbilt family still owns it and allows people to visit it for a fee. Designer Dresses and Glittering Jewels During The Gilded Age, the social season was lined with exclusive parties. Every occasion required a new dress, and the women spent thousands (if not millions) making sure they stood out from the crowd. One dress, worn by Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt II to the 1883 Vanderbilt Ball, was made of satin, velvet and silver bullion and purchased in Paris. It was a visual representation of ‘Electric Light’ to honor Thomas Edison’s newly built New York power station. A certain area in New York City was dubbed ‘Millionaire’s Row’ where it was said that women paraded up and down the streets wearing millions of dollars worth of dresses and jewels.  Clothing was important part of one’s status. There was also a part of Manhattan dubbed ‘Ladies’ Mile, where elite women could browse tightly packed department stores in well-lit streets without taking a chaperone. Ladies Mile was from 14th to 23rd street, between Broadway and 6th Avenue. However, people didn’t limit themselves to New York City for shopping. Why would you when you could travel the world? Many women went to Europe and hip places like Paris and Milan to get their intricate jewels and opulent dresses. Everyone was trying to outdo the other. Tiffany & Co made their mark in New York City with items like platinum, diamond, and seed pearl choker. At the same time, Marcus & Co rose in popularity because of their attention to fine detailing and craftsmanship. The Only Way To Travel Was Via Private Railway Car Much like how celebrities and the wealthy travel the world via private jet now, back in The Gilded Age, it was all about the private railway car. It was the most technologically advanced way to travel while being completely luxurious. The private railway car was first popularized by P. T. Barnum, who used it for his traveling circus. Soon the robber barons caught on and started using them to travel around the United States. By 1900 around 2000, private railway cars were being used. Often these had observation decks, full kitchens, office areas, servant’s quarters, and staterooms. Presidents used private railway cars as part of their campaigns. Prior to Air Force One, the presidential railway car was the primary way for the most important man in the country to get around. Party Activities Included Mummy Unwrapping In the Gilded Age, people were always trying to outdo each other to be the party everyone remembered, the people who had the most. Some of these activities included mummy unwrapping as Egyptomania overtook the western world. In the late 1800s, as discoveries were being made of Ancient Egypt constantly, the craze first took hold in England but soon made its way across the pond to the United States.  A mummy unwrapping party Less important mummies were sold off to be unwrapped at parties and were considered very dramatic. Stories were told about the mummies being related to Biblical figures (all lies), and X-Ray machines took images of the guests–before we understood how harmful they were. Other activities included eating a meal on horseback (while indoors), and one host booked an entire Broadway cast to perform at her party. They really outdid themselves. Buying A Whole Village Just To Reroute a Train One of the truly most outlandish things done back in The Gilded Age was when John D. Rockefeller bought an entire village so he could move a train line that was causing smoke over his golf course. That kind of money and influence is insane when we think about it now, but in 1913, it happened. At his peak, it was considered Rockefeller controlled 90% of the US’s oil supply, and he has been called the richest American of all time. He was buying lots of land in Westchester, New York. By 1913 Rockefeller had built a sprawling estate of over 3,400 acres. Making his money in oil, he didn’t have to spare any expense when he spent thousands on a private golf course and filled up his house with sculptures and art. However, one irksome fact about his new estate was the nearby train line. The Putnam Division tracks were causing acrid smoke on the golf course and making it difficult for the players in between the villages of East View and Briarcliff Manor. His solution? He bought the entire village of East View and relocated 46 families. To smooth it over with them, he paid them all more than their house was worth and moved the train through the old village instead. It cost around $700,000, but at least he could tee off without seeing any smoke. Shipping Butterflies from Brazil for a Ball Debutante balls are held today in America, but they hold nowhere near the same importance as they did during The Gilded Age. Then, when a young woman was making her debut, she wanted to be unique, to be remembered. Mary Astor Paul was facing her debutant ball in 1906 in New York City, and she was pondering these very questions. Her answer was to ship 10,000 butterflies to Brazil, where they would be hidden behind netting that was attached to the ceiling. Then, when she made her debut, the netting would fall and people would be impressed and delighted by the 10,000 butterflies fluttering around. Except it didn’t quite work out that way. Instead, the butterflies were on the ceiling, and the lamps were too hot for them. So they all died before they could be revealed, and when the netting fell with a flourish instead, all the limp carcasses fell all over the repulsed guests. Greed and Gluttony Another way for the elite of the Gilded Age to show how much wealth they had was to eat it. This was a time when food was not as readily available as it is now. Therefore to grow plump and round was seen as an elite thing. Not like now, when being slender is considered having restraint and looking after yourself. The wealthy in the Gilded Age could show that they ate whatever they wanted. Being fat meant you could afford to eat. ‘Diamond’ Jim Brady was the perfect embodiment of this gluttony. He had a never-ending appetite for food and was called ‘the best 25 customers I ever had’ by well-known restauranteur George Rector. A typical meal for Jim Brady looked like ‘a couple dozen oysters, six crabs, bowls of green turtle soup.’ Followed by ‘two whole ducks, six or seven lobsters, a sirloin steak, two servings of terrapin, and a variety vegetables.’ Finished with ‘several whole pies.’  Food-eating contests flourished during this time as people wanted to prove they could eat the most, and do the most. In a world where their own servants were likely starving. Extravagant Party Favors Caroline Astor was known for throwing elaborate and exclusive parties for people who came from ‘old money.’ She had a list of 400 guests and would only invite people she deemed worthy of attending. The Vanderbilts, being nouveau riche, were shunned from the affair and ended up retaliating by throwing their own costume ball. Astor’s parties were reportedly dull in comparison with the other extravagant parties held in the Gilded Age. However, the party favors were decadent and opulent, things like leather letter cases, gold pencil cases, and China figurines. The post The Most Outlandish Excesses By The Rich During The Gilded Age first appeared on History Defined.

  During the Russian Civil War, the Soviets and anti-Bolsheviks employed explosive and apocalyptic propaganda to engage the largely illiterate Russian masses and convince them to embrace Bolshevik ideology or fight the Soviets.   Red and white riders, dragons, capitalist and religious symbols, and heroic workers charged across propaganda posters painted on boxcars or tossed from agitprop trains. Soviet propaganda images featured an avant-garde style, while White propaganda used Romanticism, Impressionism, realism, symbolism, and caricature. Propaganda posters carried a message or ideology to change beliefs and drive political results.   Why Propaganda Played a Crucial Role in the Russian Civil War Glory to Victorious Red Army Soldier by Dmitri Stakhiekich Moor, 1920. Source: New York Public Library   The Russian Revolution of 1917 divided Russia into antagonistic spheres: the Bolsheviks versus class enemies, the proletariat versus the expropriators, the individual versus the collective, and the abolished past versus the Soviet future.   From utopian ideals to realism and symbolism, the Soviets and the anti-Soviets grasped visual media’s power to change public opinion. The Soviets created a new, militant iconography to peddle the revolution, transform Communist ideas into accessible public art, and spread ideology among the masses. Controversially and effectively, Soviet propaganda also popularized the 1918 orthography reform, which revolutionized and updated the Russian alphabet. In contrast, White Army propaganda used symbolic, religious, and realistic motifs to highlight the practical results of Bolshevik terror and to resist Soviet power.   During the Civil War, printing presses churned out heroic images and animalized caricatures to manipulate public opinion. While the Reds often employed avant-garde art, White propaganda combined realism with symbolism and Impressionism. Each side used caricatures to dehumanize their enemies, portray their social origins or activities in a negative light, and secure support in the apocalyptic struggle for Russia’s future.   1. The Bolshevik (1920) The Bolshevik by Boris Mikhaylovich Kustodiev, 1920. Source: Hoover Institution Library & Archives   In this image, a giant worker wearing a fur hat and a quilted coat strides through the city streets. He trails a blood-red revolutionary banner behind him. Armed crowds pour through the streets after him, symbolizing the Bolshevik narrative of a popular revolution ignited by the proletariat. He looks just like the people around him, a simple Russian man of the people.   The worker tramps with purpose. His stern gaze fixes on his goal. The simple title, Bolshevik, emphasizes the role of workers in the rise of the USSR. Only the domed Russian Orthodox church looming ahead blocks his progress. The church symbolizes religion as the “opiate of the people” and the last bastion of tsarism. The Soviet worker’s gaze and purposeful stride indicate that the church will not stop the Soviets’ decisive power.   2. The People’s Uprising (1920) The People’s Uprising, 1920. Source: Washington State University Library   This May Day revolutionary graphic poster shows peasants and workers striding triumphantly into a new red dawn.   They wield scythes, shovels, and sickles as the weapons of manual labor celebrated in Soviet imagery. They move, unstoppable, over toppled crowns, double-headed imperial eagles, and barrels of gold coins representing the old Tsarist order. Around them, crowds carry crimson banners topped with Soviet stars. Here, the proletariat wields ultimate political power.   The People’s Uprising banner references the collective via the 1917 Decree on Land that abolished private property, redistributed landowners’ estates, and nationalized land, industries, forests, rivers, mines, livestock, and agricultural implements for communal use.   3. For One Russia (1919) For One Russia, 1919. Source: Hoover Institution Library & Archives   An existential fight for good and evil dominates this anti-Bolshevik poster created by the Volunteer Army at the height of the civil war.   A White Army knight, dressed in medieval Russian armor and mounted on a pale horse, battles a red dragon (representing the Bolsheviks). The red dragon coils around Moscow’s golden church domes and Kremlin walls. The knight’s face focuses on the dragon’s gaping jaws, coiled and scaled body, and sharp claws poised to destroy him. Symbols of Armageddon and salvation are common in anti-Soviet posters. The text implies that the Bolsheviks will engulf the Russian land in a snake-like ring unless Russia saves itself.   4. Cossack, Who Are You With? (1919 & 1920) LEFT: “Cossack, Who are you with? With us or with them?” by Dmitri Stakhievich Moor, 1920. Source: Rhode Island School of Design; RIGHT: Cossack, You Only Have One Path” by Dmitri Stakhievich Moor, 1919. Source: Harold M. Fleming Papers, New York Public Library   From the first days of the revolution, the Soviets aimed massive propaganda efforts at the Cossacks to attract them to the Bolshevik cause. The “Cossack Question” centered around whether the Cossacks would cast their vote for the Bolsheviks or whether their large military force would threaten Soviet power.   The first propaganda poster asks, “Cossack, Who Are You With? With Us or With Them?” It depicts a Don Cossack wearing signature red-striped trousers tucked into leather boots. He carries a Cossack lance with a rifle slung over his shoulder. He stands between confident, armed workers, peasants, and Red Army soldiers, and a horde of anti-Soviet enemies caricatured as fat capitalists, generals, and Kuban Cossacks wielding sabers. For the viewer, the enemy is clear. While the Cossack looks undecided, his gaze inclines towards the Soviets.   In the second propaganda poster, the Soviets answer the question. Based on Victor Vasnetsov’s famous painting, Knight at the Crossroads, this image shows a Cossack on horseback at a crossroads decision. He can join the obese and inhuman hordes of capitalists, industrialists, and White Army officers, or he can follow the natural path of the people to Communism.   5. Literacy Is the Path to Communism (1920) Literacy is the Path to Communism, 1920. Source: New York Public Library   In this image, a fiery red-winged horse, representing a Communist Pegasus, gallops through a sky on fire. Soviet posters often depicted Red Army horses as powerful, muscular, heroic beasts leading their riders to victory. The horseman holds an open book and carries a flaming torch over his head to symbolize enlightenment.   The Soviets placed a high value on literacy. A person who could read could access the avalanche of written propaganda posters, newspapers, and leaflets churned out by Bolshevik printing presses housed in trains and village soviets (councils).   To create a new “Soviet Man,” the Soviets used cultural propaganda, literacy campaigns, and early childhood education in Communist Party ideas to ensure loyalty to the collective rather than family, religious, ethnic, or regional identities. They used visual propaganda with colorful images and simple, clear phrases to reach Russians who could not read or write.   6. Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge (1920) Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge by El Lissitzky, 1920. Source: Boston Museum of Fine Arts   During the Russian Civil War, the Soviets controlled Petrograd and established Moscow as the capital for the first time in 300 years. Pushed to the south, the Volunteer Army launched an unsuccessful campaign to take Moscow in 1919. Later that autumn, the Northwestern Army almost recaptured the former capital in the Battle of Petrograd.   Meanwhile, several anti-Bolshevik forces established regional governments, such as the Omsk Government and the Kuban Cossack Rada in Ekaterinodar. Each government sought to consolidate territorial control against the Soviets or to create a separate state and unite with revolutionary Ukraine. These military and nationalistic efforts drove the Soviets to ramp up propaganda efforts and War Communism.   This Soviet propaganda poster depicts the struggle for Russian territory. It shows a red wedge (representing communism) driving straight into the heart of a white ball (representing the anti-Bolsheviks) and knocking it off the map.   7. How the Bolsheviks Take Charge in Cossack Stanitsas (c. 1918-1920) How the Bolsheviks Punish Villages, c. 1918-1920. Source: New York Public Library   Like most ordinary Russians, questions of bread, peace, and land also occupied the Cossacks’ minds. At first, many young Cossacks, disillusioned by World War I, supported the Bolsheviks. Recognizing the threat and potential the Cossacks had as mobile equestrian units, Trotsky fought hard to convince them to support Soviet power.   As Soviet soldiers confiscated grain, burned Cossack villages, and conducted class warfare via extrajudicial shootings, early ambivalence or support for the Bolsheviks often turned into resistance. In 1919, the Don Cossack village of Vyoshenskaia erupted in a popular uprising against the Bolsheviks. In the Caucasus, as the Bolsheviks executed thousands of Cossacks and civilians, a wave of neutral Kuban Cossack villages joined the White Army.   The Soviets responded with a violent punitive policy called Decossackization (raskazichivaniye). This radical and ruthless campaign stripped the Cossacks of weapons and symbols of ethnic, cultural, or military identity. It banned wearing traditional uniforms such as red-striped trousers and the Kuban Cossack cherkesska. During this extermination, internment, and deportation process, thousands of Cossack men, women, and children died or disappeared in labor camps.   This Volunteer Army poster shows an elderly Cossack man, barefoot and stripped to his white shirt, standing in a Cossack stanitsa (village) yard. His coat and boots lie on the ground, a common action before execution. A Bolshevik commissar holds a pistol to his head. In the background, two Red Army soldiers pillage grain and livestock. A third carries a bag to a waiting wagon. On the doorstep, a child clings to a crying woman.   For Russian and Cossack villages, grain or animal requisitions and disruptions in the agricultural process often meant starvation. In 1921-1922, widespread famine stalked the country, resulting in an estimated 5 to 10 million deaths.   8. Russia Crucified (1919) Reproduction of Russia Crucified by a Russian soldier in the army of General Denikin, 1919. Source: Library of Congress   Anti-Bolshevik propaganda often relied on religious symbols, apocalyptic images, and realistic representations of burning villages and people killed by the Bolsheviks to reach their audience.   In this image, a peasant woman wearing a kokoshnik headdress represents a human incarnation of the Motherland. She is bound to a cross and flanked by a grinning Red Army soldier, a Bolshevik sailor, and Leon Trotsky. Imps dance like demonic minions around her. Her tragic face and bound body indicate Mother Russia’s inability to save herself from her enemies.   The Bolsheviks’ war on religion escalated in the second year of the war. Despite their efforts to purge the land of any vestiges of Russian Orthodox religion, Soviet propaganda posters often included iconographic images and designs.   9. One Must Work, The Rifle is Right Here (1920-1921) One Must Work, The Rifle is Right Here by Vladimir Vasilyevish Lebedev, 1920-1921. Source: Library of Congress   When the defeated anti-Bolshevik forces escaped via Crimea and Siberia in 1920, the Soviets faced the final task of routing out remaining enemies and building a new socialist state.   This Russian Telegraph Agency (ROSTA) poster by Vladimir Lebedev uses simple color blocks and geometric figures to appeal to everyday Russians. A worker uses a saw while his rifle stands ready nearby. The image promotes social consciousness amid economic reconstruction. It shows the uneasy transition from war to peace and reminds Soviet citizens that the revolution is far from over. Soviet citizens still had to watch for threats lurking in a bourgeois face, accent, or name.   Soviet posters from this period often used simple slogans, puns, and crude expressions to satirize class enemies. ROSTA posters hung in the public gaze in market squares, shop windows, and train stations.   10. A New Soviet Birth (1925) Rozhdestvo by Dmitri Stakhievich Moor, 1925. Source: New York Public Library   Officially, the Russian Civil War ended in 1920. Unofficially, Soviet punitive detachments stamped out the last pockets of resistance among White and Green partisans during the 1920s.   This final Soviet poster portrays the triumph of the revolution. It compares the old religious and cultural Christmas celebrations with a USSR characterized by workers, peasants, and soldiers hailing a glorious future. It represents the completion of the revolution and contrasts the past, associated with capitalism, corruption, enslavement, and religion, with a modern proletarian paradise.   During the Russian Revolution, Vladimir Lenin argued, “Art belongs to the people.” Soviet propaganda ensured that the people believed it. Even with the revolution secured, this poster demonstrates how the Soviets would continue to see enemies of the state everywhere in the coming years.