Virtual Museum( Chapter 26 Age of Democracy and Progress, 1815–1914)

2. Room 1 Room 2
Room 3 Room 4
WELCOME to
Age of Democracy
and Progress,
1815–1914
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3. Democratic Reformand Activism
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert

4. EXIBIT 1
The Representation of the People Act 1832
(known informally as the 1832 Reform Act,
Great Reform Act or First Reform Act to
distinguish it from subsequent Reform Acts)
was an Act of Parliament (indexed as 2 & 3
Will. IV c. 45) that introduced wide-ranging
changes to the electoral system of England
and Wales.
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5. EXIBIT 2
About two years after her coronation,
Queen Victoria (1819–1901) fell in love with
her cousin Albert (1819–1861), a German
prince. She proposed to him and they were
married in 1840. Together they had nine
children. Prince Albert established a tone of
politeness and correct behavior at court, and
the royal couple presented a picture of loving
family life that became a British ideal.
After Albert died in 1861, the queen
wore black silk for the rest of her life in
mourning. She once said of Albert, “Without
him everything loses its interest.”
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert
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6. EXIBIT 3
The Dreyfus affair was a political scandal that
divided France from 1894 until its resolution in
1906. The affair is often seen as a modern
and universal symbol of injustice,[1] and
remains one of the most striking examples of
a complex miscarriage of justice, where a
major role was played by the press and public
opinion.
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7. Self-Rule for BritishColonies

8. EXIBIT 4
Sir John Alexander Macdonald GCB KCMG
PC PC QC (11 January 1815 – 6 June 1891)
was the first Prime Minister of Canada (1867–
1873, 1878–1891). The dominant figure of
Canadian Confederation, he had a political
career which spanned almost half a century.
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9. EXIBIT 5
Irish Republican Army (IRA), also called
Provisional Irish Republican Army, republican
paramilitary organization seeking the
establishment of a republic, the end of British
rule in Northern Ireland, and the reunification
of Ireland.
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10. EXIBIT 6
Maori, a Polynesian people who had settled in
New Zealand around A.D. 800. Maori culture
was based on farming, hunting, and fishing.
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11. War and Expansion in the UnitedStates

12. EXIBIT 7
Thomas Jefferson (April 13 [O.S. April 2] 1743 –
July 4, 1826) was an American Founding Father
and the principal author of the Declaration of
Independence (1776). He was elected the second
Vice President of the United States (1797–1801),
serving under John Adams and in 1800 was
elected the third President (1801–09). Jefferson
was a proponent of democracy, republicanism, and
individual rights, which motivated American
colonists to break from Great Britain and form a
new nation. He produced formative documents and
decisions at both the state and national level.
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13. EXIBIT 8
Lincoln passionately believed in preserving
the Union. His upbringing might help explain why. The
son of rural, illiterate parents, he educated himself.
After working as rail splitter, boatman, storekeeper,
and surveyor, he taught himself to be a lawyer. This
career path led eventually to the White House.
In Europe, people stayed at the level of
society into which they had been born. Yet the United
States had been founded on the belief that all men
were created equal. Small wonder that Lincoln fought
to preserve the democracy he described as the “last
best hope of earth.”
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Abraham Lincoln 1809–1865

14. EXIBIT 9
President Abraham Lincoln issued the
Emancipation Proclamation on January 1,
1863, as the nation approached its third year
of bloody civil war. The proclamation declared
"that all persons held as slaves" within the
rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall
be free."
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15. Nineteenth-Century Progress

16. EXIBIT 10
Thomas Alva Edison was one of the greatest
inventors in history. He held thousands of patents for his
inventions in over 30 countries. The United States Patent
Office alone issued Edison 1,093 patents. Among his
inventions was an electric light bulb, the phonograph, and
motion pictures, all shown on this page.
Some scientists and historians, however, believe
that Edison’s greatest achievement was his development of
the research laboratory. Edison worked with a team of
different specialists to produce his creations. His precise
manner is illustrated by his famous quote: “Genius is 1
percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.”
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Thomas Alva Edison

17. EXIBIT 11
Marie Curie’s original name was Marya
Sklodowska. Born in Warsaw, Poland, she emigrated to
Paris to study, where she changed her name to Marie.
She achieved a number of firsts in her career.
She was the first woman to teach in the Sorbonne, a
world-famous college that was part of the University of
Paris. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize—
two, in fact.
In 1911, she won the Nobel prize for chemistry.
In 1921, she made a journey to the U.S. In 1934, she
died from leukemia caused by the radiation she had
been exposed to in her work.
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MARIE CURIE

18. EXIBIT 12
Charles Darwin (above) was a naturalist, but a
number of 19thcentury thinkers tried to apply his
ideas to economics and politics. The leader in this
movement was Herbert Spencer, an English
philosopher. Free economic competition, Spencer
argued, was natural selection in action. The best
companies make profits, while inefficient ones go
bankrupt. Spencer applied the same rules to
individuals. Those who were fittest for survival
enjoyed wealth and success, while the poor remained
poor because they were unfit. This idea became
known as Social Darwinism. It also provided a
rationalization for imperialism and colonialism.
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Social Darwinism