Social Studies Programs - Americans through History
Inventions / Communications Change, Reconstruction / Industrialization: Sarah Breedlove
Download Inventions / Communications Change, Reconstruction / Industrialization Word Document
Similar content addressed in SOLs: VS.1a-i; USII.1a-h; USII.3c; USII.3e
In the 1800s, advertising became an important part of American consumer life. With the increased distribution of printed materials and rise in wealth for some following the industrial revolution, advertisements became an important way for people to see new products and trends in society.
People who effectively used this new form of promotion became celebrities. One such person was an African-American woman named Sarah Breedlove, better known as Madame CJ Walker. Her hair tonic became popular among African-American women around the turn of the century and the first African-American female millionaire. Her success became an important symbol for the turn-of-the-century – even though many African-Americans were still being denied basic rights, the possibility of success and hope for change remained.
Madame C.J. Walker was one of the wealthiest African-Americans of her era. She used her wealth to purchase this house along the Hudson River, at a time when many African-Americans were struggling with the after-effects of failed Reconstruction policies.
This is an example of an advertisement for one of Madame C.J. Walker’s products. Many of her “beauty products” for African-American women were actually designed to bleach and straighten hair or lighten skin complexions, i.e., to make an African-American woman appear similar to a European-American physical stereotype of beauty. Thus, although the success of these products led to Walker’s personal fortune, they nonetheless reflected the racism – both ostensible and latent – of the era.
Mme. Walker, in addition to accumulating vast personal wealth, also donated large portions of her money to the African-American community. She was a strong supporter of Booker T. Washington, pictured here, and his Tuskegee Institute and more radical figures such as Marcus Garvey.
While Walker’s products used the emerging advertisement culture to earn great fortune, no single person utilized the emergence of advertising in American as well as P.T. Barnum. Barnum initially began advertising his sideshow tours of “illustrious Americans” and the American Museum he established in New York City in the mid 1800s. As the years progressed, though, Barnum’s biggest impact came with his creation of the Barnum circus. His circus shows were some of the first products to use color posters, like the one above, for advertisements. They changed the way America looked at entertainment.