The Progressive Era (1896–1917) was a period of widespread social activism and political reform across the United States focused on defeating corruption, monopoly, waste, and inefficiency. The main themes ended during American involvement in World War I (1917–1918) while the waste and efficiency elements continued into the 1920s. Progressives sought to address the problems caused by rapid industrialization, urbanization, immigration, and political corruption; and by the enormous concentration of industrial ownership in monopolies. They were alarmed by the spread of slums, poverty, and the exploitation of labor. Multiple overlapping progressive movements fought perceived social, political and economic ills by advancing democracy, scientific methods, professionalism and efficiency; regulating businesses, protecting the natural environment, and improving working conditions in factories and living conditions of the urban poor. Spreading the message of reform through mass-circulation newspapers and magazines by "probing the dark corners of American life" were investigative journalists known as "muckrakers". The main advocates of progressivism were often middle-class social reformers.
The Social Gospel is a social movement within Protestantism that aims to apply Christian ethics to social problems, especially issues of social justice such as economic inequality, poverty, alcoholism, crime, racial tensions, slums, unclean environment, child labor, lack of unionization, poor schools, and the dangers of war. It was most prominent in the early 20th-century United States and Canada. Theologically, advocates of the movement sought to put into practice the Lord's Prayer : "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven". They typically were postmillennialist; that is, they believed the Second Coming could not happen until humankind rid itself of social evils by human effort. The Social Gospel was more popular among clergy than laity. Its leaders were predominantly associated with the liberal wing of the progressive movement, and most were theologically liberal, although a few were also conservative when it came to their views on social issues. Important leaders included Richard T. Ely, Josiah Strong, Washington Gladden, and Walter Rauschenbusch.
Maria Louise Sanford was an American educator. She was a professor of history at Swarthmore College from 1871 to 1880 and a professor of rhetoric and elocution at the University of Minnesota from 1880 to 1909.
The First Unitarian Church of Rochester is located at 220 Winton Road South in Rochester, New York, U.S. The congregation is one of the largest in its denomination, the Unitarian Universalist Association. The non-creedal church conducts programs in the areas of spirituality, social concerns, music, and arts. This church is one of two Unitarian Universalist congregations in Monroe County, the other being First Universalist Church of Rochester.
Madeline (Madge) McDowell Breckinridge was an American leader of the women's suffrage movement in Kentucky. She married Desha Breckinridge, editor of the Lexington Herald, which advocated women's rights, and she lived to see the women of Kentucky vote for the first time in the presidential election of 1920. She also initiated progressive reforms for compulsory school attendance and child labor. She founded many civic organizations, notably the Kentucky Association for the Prevention and Treatment of Tuberculosis, an affliction from which she had personally suffered. She led efforts to implement model schools for children and adults, parks and recreation facilities, and manual training programs.
Como is a neighborhood within the University community of Minneapolis. It is sometimes referred to as Southeast Como, due to many of its streets ending in SE, and possibly to differentiate it from the Como neighborhood in neighboring Saint Paul. Its boundaries are East Hennepin Avenue to the north, 33rd Avenue Southeast to the east, the Southeast Industrial Area to the south, and Interstate 35W to the west.
Fanny Baker Ames was an American philanthropist and women's rights activist.
Emma Smith DeVoe was an American women suffragist in the early twentieth century, changing the face of politics for both women and men alike. When she died, the Tacoma News Tribune called her Washington state's "Mother of Women's Suffrage".
Caroline Maria Seymour Severance (1820–1914) was an American abolitionist, suffragist, and founder of women's clubs.
First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis is a non-theistic humanist community and member of the Unitarian-Universalist Association located at 900 Mount Curve, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Once led by the influential minister John H. Dietrich who is known as the "Father of Religious Humanism," First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis is considered in today's terminology the "birthplace of Congregational Humanism."
The woman's club movement was a social movement that took place throughout the United States that established the idea that women had a moral duty and responsibility to transform public policy. While women's organizations had always been a part of United States history, it was not until the Progressive era that it came to be considered a movement. The first wave of the club movement during the progressive era was started by white, middle-class, Protestant women, and a second phase was led by African-American women.
Sarah Tarleton Colvin was an American nurse and women's rights advocate who served as the national president of the National Woman's Party in 1933. Jailed for her activism while picketing the White House in 1918 and 1919, Colvin later wrote her autobiography about the suffrage movement and her nursing career.
The Era Club of New Orleans was a woman's club in New Orleans, Louisiana. It was one of the largest woman's clubs in the southern United States. The club did charitable works, advocated for reform and for women's suffrage.
Socialhousekeeping, also known as municipal or civil housekeeping, was a socio-political movement that occurred primarily through the 1880s to the early 1900s in the Progressive Era around the United States.
Ethel Edgerton Hurd (1845–1929) was a physician, a social reformer and a leader in the woman's suffrage movement in the U.S. state of Minnesota. She was a founder of the Political Equality Club of Minneapolis and the Scandinavian Woman Suffrage Association, and a member of the executive board of the Minnesota Woman Suffrage Association. For her activities, she was named to the national roll of honor of the League of Women Voters.
A. L. Frisbie was a pioneer minister at Plymouth Church, Des Moines, Iowa, from 1871 to 1899. After he retired he served as Pastor Emeritus for a total of 42 years of service. Martha Frisbie was a teacher and leader in the Iowa Congregational Church. Frisbie Park in Des Moines and the former Frisbie Public School were named for them. The Frisbies were active abolitionists and suffrage advocates in Des Moines. He shepherded Plymouth Congregational Church during years of growth and building. She was a teacher and a leader in women’s organizations. Her former students formed the Frisbie Club, a study club which still exists today.
James Tallmadge Elwell was a Minneapolis, Minnesota real estate developer and state legislator. He founded and developed the Como neighborhood in Minneapolis, where the Como Congregational Church and the Tuttle School are historic structures of the period. Later in his career, he played a major role in the public financing of the Minneapolis park system, the expansion of the University of Minnesota campus, and served as president of the Minneapolis Planning Commission.
Neighborhood House was an American settlement house in Chicago, Illinois. It was opened in October 1896, by Samuel S. and Harriet M. Van Der Vaart, under the auspices of the Young People's Society of the Universalist Church, of Englewood, Chicago, and with the assistance of teachers of the Perkins, Bass, and D. S. Wentworth public schools. It was officially established in the Fall of 1897 by Harriet Van Der Vaart as the outgrowth of the kindergarten opened the year before "to bring together for mutual benefit people of different classes and conditions."
Anna E. Nicholes was an American social reformer, civil servant, and clubwoman associated with women's suffrage and the settlement movement in Chicago. She devoted her life to charitable and philanthropic work.
Fannie Bayly King was an advocate for women's suffrage and social reforms in the early 20th century.
