5 Life in the Gilded Age
Biltmore Estate in Asheville was one of the great mansions of the late nineteenth century. Image source.
“Gilded” means “covered with gold,” and for some, the late nineteenth century truly was a gilded age. Industrialists accumulated wealth at an incredible rate and often spent it in elaborate ways. The growing urban middle class also had money to spend, on new consumer items, new forms of entertainment, and travel. In this chapter we’ll explore some of the ways North Carolinians participated in the changing culture of the Gilded Age.
- 5.1Biltmore Estate
- 5.2The Bouquet
- 5.3Southern women and the bicycle
- 5.4Bicycles: Scourge of the streets?
- 5.5The roller skate craze
- 5.6Advertising new products
- 5.7Cities and public architecture
- 5.8Sanitariums
- 5.9The growth of tourism: Warm Springs
- 5.10The growth of tourism: Southern Pines
- 5.11Domestic work in the nineteenth century
