The Gilded Age Poster Guidelines and Grading
From the end of the Civil War in 1865 until the turn of the century in 1900, America underwent significant changes that
transformed it into a modern industrial nation. Your assignment will be to tell one part of the story of this
transformation through words and visuals in a poster. Your poster will give us the ability to cover a significant amount of
material (four chapters from your textbook) in a short amount of time. The directions below provide you with
information on what you will need to be successful in producing your assigned poster.
Directions
1. Topic selection/research: On February 8th, you and your partner will be asked to commit to working with one of
the subtopics from the list provided on the reverse side of this page. Once you have selected your subtopic, you
will need to consult the textbook for information on your topic. You'll want to pay special attention to the terms
listed next to your subtopics. These terms need to appear and be fully explained in your poster that you
produce.
2. Poster design/production: You and your partner will have significant class time during the week to design and
produce your final poster. Poster must include the following elements:
a. relevant title
b. 5-7 panels with both visuals and text captions/banners
c. inclusion and explanation of all terms listed for the assigned textbook section
i. terms should be written in bold and/or a different color from other text
d. title and panels fill an 18 x 24 sheet of construction paper
3. Poster gallery: Completed posters must be ready for viewing at the beginning of class on February 21st.
Students will then be given an opportunity to view/read all posters and completed guide that will help to
prepare them for the unit test.
Grading
The completed poster constitutes both a classwork and a project grade, as it will require both class time and at home
preparation to be successfully completed. Your grade will be based on the rubric below.
1. Students produce a superior quality poster that has all required elements, including substantive details and
creative artwork, clearly describes required terms, all visuals and text are relevant, comprehensive, and
informative. ---100%
2. As above, but could use additional substantive details for clarity/comprehension
---90%
3. Good effort; final product shows quality and attention to detail but may need further explanation of terms and
context; visuals could use more creativity/attention to detail.
---80%
4. As above, may be missing up to one required term and/or panel.
---75%
5. May need more substantive detail and/or attention to visuals; product provides an adequate treatment of the
assigned topic area, but may be missing more than one panel/term.
---70%
6. Submitted late (after start of class on due date) but not after the second date of viewing; final product may be
missing significant elements/details.
---65%
Approved Storyboard Topics
Topic (required terms listed below)
Textbook Chapter/Section(s)

The Plight of the Native Americans
Chapter 13, Section 1 (pp. 408-414)
o Term: Sand Creek Massacre, Treaty of Fort Laramie, Sitting Bull, General Custer, Battle of Little Big Horn, Dawes
Act, assimilation, buffalo destruction, Battle of Wounded Knee

Cattle Trails & Cowboys
Chapter 13, Section 1 (pp. 414-417)
o Terms: longhorns, vaqueros, cowboys, Joseph McCoy, Chisholm Trail, long drive, Joseph Glidden, barbed wire

Homesteaders
Chapter 13, Section 2 (pp. 420-424)
o Terms: Homestead Act, homesteaders, exodusters, closing of the frontier, soddy, reaper, steel plow, Morrill Act,
bonanza farms, mortgage

The Populist Movement
Chapter 13, Section 3 (pp. 425-429)
o Terms: The Grange, Farmers' Alliances, Populism, Panic of 1893, bimetallism, gold standard, Gold Bugs, Silverites,
William Jennings Bryan, Election of 1896

Inventions and Industry
Chapter 14, Section 1 (pp. 436-439)
o Terms: Edwin L. Drake, oil, Bessemer process, steel, Brooklyn Bridge, skyscrapers, Thomas Edison, electricity,
typewriter, Alexander Graham Bell, telephone

The Age of Railroads
Chapter 14, Section 2 (pp. 442-446)
o Terms: Transcontinental Railroad, time zones, George M. Pullman, Credit Mobilier scandal, Granger laws, Munn v.
Illinois, Interstate Commerce Act

Big Business
Chapter 14, Section 3 (pp. 447-450)
o Terms: Andrew Carnegie, vertical integration, horizontal integration, Social Darwinism, John D. Rockefeller,
Standard Oil Company, "robber barons", Sherman Antitrust Act

The Labor Movement
Chapter 14, Section 3 (pp. 450-455)
o Terms: National Labor Union (NLU), Knights of Labor, American Federation of Labor {AFL), Samuel Gompers,
Eugene V, Debs, Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), "Big Bill" Haywood, Haymarket Riot, Homestead Strike,
Pullman Strike.

The New Immigrants
Chapter 15, Section 1 (pp. 460-467)
o Terms: Chinese Railroad Labor, motives of immigration, the transatlantic journey, Ellis Island, Angel Island, melting
pot, nativism, Chinese Exclusion Act, Gentlemen's Agreement

Urbanization
Chapter 15, Section 2 (pp. 468-72)
o Terms: Urbanization, Americanization, tenements, mass transit, water supply, sanitation, crime, fire, Social Gospel
movement, settlement houses, Jane Addams

Science, Urban Life, and Mass Culture
o

Chapter 16, Section 1 (pp. 482-487)
Chapter 16, Section 4 (pp. 498-503)
Terms: skyscrapers, electric transit, city planning, Wright Brothers, George Eastman, amusement parks, baseball,
newspapers, Mark Twain, department stores, mail order catalogs, vaudeville, ragtime
African-Americans
o
Chapter 16, Section 2 (pp. 488-491)
Chapter 16, Section 3 (pp. 492-497)
Terms: Booker T. Washington, Tuskegee Institute, W.E.B. Du Bois, Niagara Movement, Ida B. Wells, poll tax,
grandfather clause, segregation, Jim Crow laws, Plessy v. Ferguson
AMERICAN POSTER: GALLERY NOTES
Name: _____________________________
Please use the time provided in class today and during the next class period (half of the block) to take notes on
the posters produced by your classmates. Pay special attention to terms in bold (the same ones listed on your
American Storyboards assignment sheet). You might even want to summarize your own poster since you will
be able to use this set of notes on the upcoming “Industrial America” unit test. The completed gallery notes will
be turned in with the unit test and will constitute a class work credit.
The Plight of Native Americans
Who is Sitting Bull?
Who was killed at the Battle of Little Big Horn?
What happened at Sand Creek?
What is the Dawes Act?
What is the idea of blending Native Americans into American culture?
Cattle Trails & Cowboys
What was the type of cattle used on the long drives?
Where did the term cowboys originate from?
What did Joseph McCoy do?
Who invented barbed wire?
Homesteaders
What act provided farmers with free land from the Federal Government?
What are Homesteaders?
What is the term for African-Americans who left the south to settle and farm in the Great Plains?
What act created agricultural colleges in the mid-west?
The Populist Movement
What group of people are most closely associated with the Grange Movement?
What is the main focus of Populism?
What is the idea of backing paper money with both silver and gold?
What is the Gold standard?
Who is William Jennings Bryan?
Inventions & Industry
Who perfected a means to retrieve oil from the ground?
The Bessemer process is used for what?
What did the stronger steel help build (it helped with the growth of cities)?
Who invented the light bulb
Who invented the typewriter?
Alexander Graham Bell is most closely associated with which invention?
The Age of Railroads
What was the Transcontinental Railroad?
Time zones were introduced to benefit which group?
Who was George M. Pullman?
What was the Credit Mobilier scandal?
Big Business
Andrew Carnegie is most closely associated with which industry?
What business strategy did Andrew Carnegie use?
John D. Rockefeller is most closely associated with which industry?
What is a “Robber baron”?
What act outlawed the formation of trusts?
What is Social Darwinism?
The Labor Movement
National Labor Union (NLU) was formed by which group?
Who is Samuel Gompers?
What is the Haymarket Riot?
What is the Homestead Strike?
The New Immigrants
A new immigrant coming in from Europe would go through which place?
A new immigrant coming in from Asia would go through which place?
What does the term Melting pot mean?
What is the idea that America is better than everyone else and there should be a limit on immigration?
What is the Gentlemen’s Agreement?
Urbanization
What is the idea of Urbanization?
What is the process of assimilating people into a dominant culture?
What were some of the problems w/ Urbanization?
What is a Settlement house?
Who created Hull House?
What was the Social Gospel Movement fighting for?
Science, Urban Life, and Mass Culture
Who invented the first airplane?
What did George Eastman invent?
What different recreational activities were available to people living in the cities?
What did Mark Twain write?
African-Americans
Who was the founder of the Tuskegee institute?
What did W.E.B. Du Bois do?
Who was the women that became a civil rights activist and fought against lynching in the South?
What is Segregation?
What laws were created to separate the races?
What court case established the idea of separate but equal?