a century that is still with us via an old clock

This week the students are learning about how department stores contributed to the formation of city culture in the United States during the nineteenth century.  Such stores were seen in the United States as early as the 1830s. Among their predecessors was the European bazaar, which carried a variety of merchandise. While studying the department store, we can see how American consumption habits went beyond simply buying food or fabric for dresses. We can also see how retailers were as interested in  architecture and creating discipline in their employees as they were in their varied merchandise. All this as the everyday craftsman or shopkeeper became increasingly irrelevant to many shoppers. The nineteenth century city via the department store created what Gunther Barth calls a "feminine public" as  women left their homes to work as store clerks. Many increasingly made their household's purchases, too. As I read Barth's words in his book City People: The Rise of Modern City Culture in Nineteenth Century America, I was curious about whether anything in my home might have been sold in a department store during the nineteenth century. My husband directed me to a clock once owned by his father. It was given to his father by an older friend. The clock was built by the Ansonia Brass Company, which has been making clocks since the mid-nineteenth century. Though it has been through name changes, the company still exists. As an aside, we found an advertisement for the clock glued inside of the clock we own. It helped me see, as Barth also explains, the ways in which advertising in newspapers  - another topic for this week's class - also figured into city culture. As people looked more and more to newspapers -  or the "metropolitan press" as Barth says - for information about events, products and even advice, they often developed a similar worldview that reflected modern thinking. That said, while Barth wants us to see the degree to which cities helped create a more democratic society (i.e. even the poorest person could go into a shop and purchase something), I am pushing the students to think about this point a bit more. They will especially have opportunities to think about this as we move beyond his book, City People. For now, it is good to see again the degree to which the emerging city life that he describes is right in my own home.