| A | B |
|---|
| Thomas B. Reed/"Uncle Joe" Cannon | Very powerful Congressional leaders and Speakers of the House (ex: the "Reed Rules"- examples of the power of Congress during the Gilded Age |
| William "Boss" Tweed | Leader of the very powerful Tammany Hall municipal machine in NYC, very corrupt. Brought down by cartoons of Thomas Nast and the lawyer Samuel Tilden |
| George Washington Plunkitt | Member of Tammany Hall political machine. Articulated the idea of "honest graft" |
| Ulysses S. Grant | Civil War hero, president (1869-1877). Though not personally involved his administration reeked of scandal (Credit Mobilier, Whiskey Ring, Indian Ring) |
| Jim Fisk/Jay Gould | Unscrupulous financiers who were involved in a major scandal to try to corner to gold market in 1869 |
| Carl Schurz | German immigrant from the Revolution of '48. Leader of the Liberal Republican Party to oppose the corruption of the GOP and Grant |
| Horace Greeley | NYC newspaper editor. Known for his advice- "Go West Young Man"- opponent of Grant's corruption |
| Rutherford B. Hayes | GOP Presidential candidate in 1876- won the presidency because of the Compromise of 1877. As POTUS- put down the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 |
| Samuel Tilden | NYC lawyer who helped bring down Tweed, presidential candidate in 1876 (D)- lost to Hayes b/c of Compromise of 1877 |
| James A. Garfield | Republican President (1881). Assassinated by a deranged office-seeker- Charles Guiteau- resulted in the Pendleton Act (1883) |
| Chester A. Arthur | Took over the presidency with the death of Garfield. Member of the Stalwart faction of the Republican Party |
| Grover Cleveland | Only Democratic President of the Gilded Age and nonconsecutive terms (1885-1889, 1893-1897), favored lowering the tariff, hurt by Panic of 1893 |
| Benjamin Harrison | Republican President (1889-1893) Grandson of William Henry- Billion Dollar Congress and all its acts during his administration |
| William McKinley | Republican President (1897-1901)- victor over Bryan in 1896- favored the gold standard and pro-business- imperialist- Spanish-American |
| Denis Kearney | Leader of the Workingman's Party in California- opposed Chinese immigration to the West Coast |
| Colonel J.M. Chivington | Leader of the notorious Sand Creek Massacre in 1864 |
| George A. Custer | Flamboyant Indian fighter was massacred at the Little Big Horn (1876) |
| Crazy Horse | Sioux war chief who led the Indians at Little Big Horn (1876) |
| Sitting Bull | Sioux medicine man who led the Indians at Little Big Horn (1876)- later killed by in own people on the reservation (1890) |
| Chief Joseph | Leader of the Nez Perce in their unsuccessful flight to Canada |
| Quanah Parker | Leader of the Comanche in Texas- son of white captive Cynthia Ann Parker |
| Geronimo | Leader of the Apache in New Mexico and Arizona |
| Wovoka | Indian spiritual leader who was behind the Ghost Dance in the late 1880s and early 1890s |
| Helen Hunt Jackson | Reformer who wrote A Century of Dishonor (1881) about the justices the federal government on the Native Americans |
| John Wesley Powell | Adventurer who sailed down the Grand Canyon, argued much of the West beyond the 100th meridian was too arid for agriculture |
| Joseph F. Glidden | One of many, but usually credited with the invention of barbed wire |
| Joseph McCoy | Facilitated the cattle drives by building railroad facilities in Kansas so cattle could be shipped East to Chicago |
| Buffalo Bill Cody | Promoter who was known for his wildly popular Buffalo Bill Wild West Shows with real life Indians and animals |
| Frederick Jackson Turner | Author of The Significance of the Frontier on History (1893)- or simply the "Frontier Thesis" |
| Greenville Dodge, Leland Stanford, Collis P. Huntington, James J. Harriman | "The Big Four" railroad builders of the transcontinental railroad |
| Cornelius Vanderbilt | Initially dominated steamboat shipping before becoming the nation's first big railroad tycoon |
| Alexander Graham Bell | Invented the telephone |
| Thomas Edison | Inventor of multiple inventions such as phonograph, incandescent light bulb, motion parks; research facility at Menlo Park |
| George Westinghouse and Nikola Tesla | Made developments in electricity by focusing on alternative current instead of direct current |
| Robert Ingersoll | "Why I Am an Agnostic" |
| Andrew Carnegie | Captain of industry/robber baron who dominated the steel industry- also known for his philanthropy (Gospel of Wealth) |
| John D. Rockefeller | Captain of industry/robber baron who dominated the petroleum industry- Standard Oil |
| Swift and Armour | The partnership that dominated the meatpacking industry |
| James B. Duke | Captain of industry/robber baron of cigarettes and tobacco |
| J.P. Morgan | Powerful banker/financier who was involved in several industries- bought Carnegie out to form U.S. Steel, bailed out the government with a loan in 1895 |
| Thorstein Veblen | Author of "The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899)"- about the extravagance of the wealthy |
| Terence Powderly | Along with Uriah Stephens, leader of the Knights of Labor |
| Samuel Gompers | Leader of the American Federation of Labor- believed in "bread and butter unionism" |
| William "Big Bill" Haywood | Radical leader of the Industrial Workers of the World- the "Wobblies" |
| Eugene V. Debs | Head of the American Railway Union, after Pullman Strike turned to socialism and became leader of the American Socialist Party for a quarter century |
| Henry George | Author of "Progress and Poverty (1879)"- advocated a single tax on land to equalize wealth |
| Edward Bellamy | Author of the fictional novel "Looking Backwards (1888)"- a portrayal of a socialist utopia set in the year 2000 |
| Louis Sullivan | Architect- most known for his work with skyscrapers |
| Jacob Riis | Author of "How the Other Half Lives (1890)"- a photographic expose of urban poverty and slums |
| Jane Addams | Head of Hull House in Chicago, most famous of the settlement house workers for women in the late 1800s and early 1900s |
| Lyman Moody | Evangelist of the post-Civil War period |
| Washington Gladden | Along with Walter Rauschenbusch, most famous of the Social Gospel movement |
| Charles Darwin | Author of "The Origins of Species (1859)"- argued the tenents of natural selection and evolution |
| Charlotte Perkins Gilman | Author of "Women and Economics (1898)"- feminist who wanted greater gender equality |
| Carrie Chapman Catt | Suffrage leader of the National American Woman Suffrage Association |
| Herbert Spencer and William Graham Sumner | Proponents of Social Darwinism- "survival of the fittest" |
| Horatio Alger | Author of numerous rags-to-riches stories such as "Tattered Tom", "Pluck and Luck", and "Pluck and Luck" |
| Mark Twain | Author who combined realism and humor in novels such as "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" |
| Stephen Crane | Author of "The Red Badge of Courage" and "Maggie: Girl of the Streets" |
| Theodore Dreiser | Realist author of "Sister Carrie" |
| Winslow Homer | Painter, known for his maritime scenes |
| Frederick Remington | Painter, known for his Western scenes |
| George Bellows | Painter, most famous of the Ashcan School who painted realist urban settings |
| John Philip Sousa | Musical composer of marches- "Semper Fidelis" and "Stars and Stripes Forever" |
| James B. Weaver | Greenback candidate in 1880, member of the Farmers' Alliance, Populist candidate for president in 1892 |
| C.W. Macune | Founder of the Farmers' Alliance in Texas |
| Tom Watson | Populist from Georgia- turned to race-baiting after the fall of the Populists |
| Mary E. Lease | Kansas Populist who urged farmers to "raise less corn and more hell"- "Patrick Henry in Petticoats" |
| William H. Harvey | Author of "Coin's Financial School" about a mythical professor who lectures on the benefits of silver |
| Jacob Coxey | Lead an "army" of unemployed workers to Washington D.C. in the midst of the Panic of 1893- called for public works projects for jobs |
| William Jennings Bryan | Famous orator from Nebraska, Populist/Democrat candidate for president in 1896- known for his "Cross of Gold Speech" |
