Immigration and Ports of Entry
This famous island in New York Harbor processed over 17 million immigrants between 1892 and 1954.
What is Ellis Island?
This inventor is credited with creating the telephone in 1876.
Who is Alexander Graham Bell?
This major railway project, completed in 1869, connected the eastern and western United States.
What is the Transcontinental Railroad?
This businessman made his fortune in the steel industry and built a massive steel empire.
Who is Andrew Carnegie?
This union, founded in 1869 by Uriah S. Stephens, aimed to unite all workers, skilled and unskilled, into one large organization.
What is the Knights of Labor?
Many Chinese immigrants opened these types of businesses instead of mining for gold.
What are restaurants and laundries?
This revolutionary invention by Thomas Edison brought practical electrical lighting to American homes.
What is the incandescent light bulb?
This important change standardized the width of railroad tracks, allowing trains to travel farther and carry heavier loads.
What is standard gauge?
This type of business structure allows companies to raise large amounts of capital by selling shares to investors.
What is a corporation?
The first president of the American Federation of Labor (AFL), he helped push for an eight-hour workday and collective bargaining.
Who is Samuel Gompers?
Immigrants from this European country fled due to a potato blight that led to starvation in the 1840s.
What is Ireland?
This invention by George Westinghouse improved the safety of trains by allowing them to stop more efficiently.
What is the air brake?
This man bought up small rail lines in Pennsylvania and Ohio, creating one of the largest railroad networks in the region.
Who is J. Edgar Thomson?
This man formed the Standard Oil Trust in 1882, which became the first major corporate trust in the U.S.
Who is John D. Rockefeller?
This 1886 event in Chicago tarnished the reputation of labor unions when it became associated with violence and anarchism.
What is the Haymarket Square Riot?
This act, passed in 1882, significantly reduced Chinese immigration to the United States.
What is the Chinese Exclusion Act?
In 1903, this historic event marked the first successful powered flight by two American brothers.
What is the Wright brothers' first flight?
This act, passed in 1887, was designed to regulate railroad rates and practices to ensure fair competition.
What is the Interstate Commerce Act?
Passed in 1890, this act made it illegal for businesses to engage in contracts, combinations, or conspiracies that restrained trade.
What is the Sherman Antitrust Act?
This type of court order, often issued during labor disputes, was used to stop strikes and limit union power.
What is an injunction?
This disease control agency ensured immigrants did not bring contagious diseases into the United States.
What is the Public Health Service?
This man is known for creating a railroad empire by consolidating smaller lines, eventually controlling much of the Great Lakes and New York City railway systems.
Who is Cornelius Vanderbilt?
This railroad tycoon built the Great Northern Railroad using only private funds, making it one of the few transcontinental lines that didn’t rely on government support.
Who is James J. Hill?
This term describes the process of combining several companies into one large entity, which Rockefeller used to dominate the oil industry.
What is a trust?
Founded by John D. Rockefeller and his associates, this first corporate trust helped inspire the rise of labor unions due to its control over smaller companies.
What is Standard Oil?