Imagine if you can the world 119 years ago; teachers were comfortable having their addresses and summer destination plans published in the local newspaper. This prompted me to ask, what was life like in 1900?

Genealogy.com states in part;
Expensive presidential campaigns, controversial military involvement overseas, prosperity, fast-moving technology, monopolies, immigration, natural disasters. Sound familiar? Although we may not wear corsets, we are facing a technological revolution, and many of the issues and realities facing turn-of-the-century America are still with us today.

Americans in 1900 emerged in an increasingly complex world, a world quickly moving toward the unknown. These were our mothers, grandmothers, great-grandmothers. These were our fathers, grandfathers, great-grandfathers. With optimism, tempered by a vague sense of anxiety, they realized that a cultural revolution was at hand.

Attitudes
“As 1900 opened, society reflected — much as we did with the turn of 2000. “What did the 1800s bring us?” they asked. “What have we achieved, where are we going?” It was a time for looking back to a century of rapid transformation and looking forward to the changes still to come.

Americans were optimistic in 1900. For most of them, life was better materially than it had ever been. This was a time of prosperity — a new materialism, available leisure time, and vacations for the emerging middle class appeared. America was now the world’s most affluent country. Access to electricity, automobiles, and indoor plumbing was not widespread, but most people felt that such conveniences were just a matter of time.

For every American, including the working class, there was “possibility.” Anything was possible in America. This was the place of the self-made man, the American Dream, “rags to riches.”

Interesting! The full article is a great read at;
1900: A Year in the Life of America – Genealogy.com