The Lilac Tunnel: My Journey with Samantha

Discusses how Samantha would’ve grown up in the early 20th century. Topics include:

• The new inventions that were around: telephones, electricity, planes, and automobiles
  • In factories, machines produce goods more swiftly and cheaply than humans could do themselves
  • The brand new century was called “The Age of Confidence” because many Americans were certain that progress would improve their lives
  • But others, like Grandmary, believe they got along just fine before machines and people filled their lives with noise and new ideas
• But things did change, especially for girls and women
  • They began playing sports that were a previously only considered proper pastimes for men
  • Ladies were bicycling, practicing gymnastics, and playing lawn tennis
  • Women and girls started wearing bloomers, or full pants that were gathered at the knee
  • Many people didn’t think the pants were appropriate clothing for women, but “bloomer girls” soon became a common sight
• New healthcare products, like medicine (such as aspirin) and the discovery of germs that spread disease made Samantha’s world a safer and healthier place to live
  • Women studied medicine, too, and by 1904, hundreds of “lady doctors” were working across the country
• Other women went into the field of social work
  • They were known as reformers who worked to improve the quality of life for everyone, but especially for poor people and immigrants
  • They wanted to make sure factories and other workplaces were safe
• Social workers helped children who were orphaned
  • Thousands of orphans from New York City west on trains in the hope of being adopted
  • Farming families who needed extra workers for the fields would often take in orphans
  • Sometimes, unfortunately, they would adopt a brother, but not his sister
  • Those orphans who didn’t find a new home would return on the train to New York City
• When Samantha was a young girl, women could not vote in elections
  • People who believed that women should vote were called suffragists
  • Like Samantha’s Aunt Cornelia, they fought hard to convince America that they were right
  • Finally, in 1920, when Samantha would’ve been 25 years old, a law was passed giving women the right to vote