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Lecture 1

The Democratization of Culture:
Print, Literacy, and the New Public

Popular Culture in America, 1815–1850

Crowded newspaper office, people reading newspapers in the 1830s — *American newsroom, 1830s — the expanding print culture of the new republic*

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Key Concepts

What is "Popular Culture"?

Culture produced for and consumed by ordinary people (not just elites)
Commercially produced and distributed for mass audiences
Accessible, affordable, entertaining
Distinguished from "high culture" — BUT boundaries are blurring

What is "Democratization of Culture"?

Expanding cultural access beyond traditional elite gatekeepers
Lower costs, new technologies (steam press), new institutions (lyceums)
Culture becomes market-based rather than patronage-based

CRITICAL QUESTION: Democratization for whom?
Who gains access and who remains excluded?

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Setting the Scene: 1815

A Cultural Turning Point

Post-War of 1812 nationalism and rising literacy
Urban growth and expanding markets
Steam technology enables faster printing
Cultural institutions begin to democratize

🏛️ THE POSTAL ACT OF 1792

The Information Superhighway

Newspapers mailed at extremely low rates (often free between publishers)

Creates a national information network: news from Washington reaches frontier towns

📊 CLICK FOR STATISTICS

19th-century New England post office interior, 1878 — *New England Post Office, 1878 — expanding communication networks of the early republic*

Why would the federal government subsidize newspaper distribution?

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Understanding the Public Sphere

What is the Public Sphere?

A social space where private individuals discuss public matters
Distinct from private life (family, home)
Distinct from the state (government)
Created through communication—newspapers, pamphlets, lectures
Access based on literacy and participation (ideally)

Diagram illustrating the relationship between private life, the public sphere, and the state — *The Public Sphere — a space between private life and the state, shaped by print culture and communication*

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How Print Creates the Public Sphere

The Power of Print

Newspapers circulate information to geographically dispersed readers
Readers imagine themselves as part of a larger community of "the public"
Print enables debate, discussion, and formation of public opinion
Penny press makes participation affordable (1¢ vs 6¢)
Lyceums bring public lectures to ordinary citizens

CONCRETE EXAMPLE:

A farmer in Ohio and a merchant in Boston both read about the same Senate debate in their local newspapers. Though they've never met, they now share knowledge and can discuss the same political issue. This is the public sphere in action.

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The Public Sphere: Who's Excluded?

Key Question: Who has access to this "public" sphere?

✓ White men (primary participants—voting rights, literacy, leisure time)
◐ Some middle-class women (limited roles—reading circles, moral reform societies)
✗ African Americans (largely excluded, create separate spheres—Freedom's Journal, 1827)
✗ Enslaved people (legally barred from literacy in most Southern states)
✗ Working poor (economic barriers—time, cost, limited literacy)

"Democratization" is partial and contested—access remains structured by race, class, and gender.

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The Print Revolution: Scale & Impact

Technological Innovation

Steam presses, mass-produced paper, stereotyping

Economic Innovation

Advertising replaces subscriptions as primary revenue

Social Impact

Literacy expands across class and region
Print becomes a commodity, not a luxury

Key Example

Benjamin Day's New York Sun (1833)—news for a penny

BY THE NUMBERS

📊 VIEW STATISTICS

~1,000 newspapers by 1835
(vs. ~200 in 1800)
~75% literacy among white men
~50% among white women by 1840
Book prices drop from $1.50 to 25¢

19th-century printing press — *Steam printing press — symbol of the print revolution*

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The Penny Press: A New Business Model

The Innovation

Newspapers sold for 1¢ (not 6¢)—affordable to working-class readers
Sold on streets by newsboys, not by subscription
Advertising revenue replaces subscriber fees
Mass circulation = mass influence

The Players

New York Sun (1833) – Benjamin Day
New York Herald (1835) – James Gordon Bennett
New York Tribune (1841) – Horace Greeley

Why would selling papers on the street change what gets published?

Newsboys selling papers on the streets of New York City during the 19th century — *Newsboys in New York City — the street-level revolution of the Penny Press era*

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Sensationalism: Where's the Line?

What the Penny Press Published

The Great Moon Hoax (1835): “scientists” discover winged humanoids on the moon
Helen Jewett murder case (1836): sex worker’s death becomes daily drama
Crime, scandal, spectacle — anything that sells papers

CRITICAL QUESTION:
Where is the boundary between truth and entertainment?

Impact on Democracy

Ordinary readers become participants in shared public conversation
Journalism shifts from “information” to “performance”

Close-up detail from the Great Moon Hoax illustration — *Close-up from the **Great Moon Hoax** (1835) — the dramatic detail that drew readers in*

Later 19th-century sensationalist illustration reflecting crime and press culture — *Crime and spectacle — the sensationalist legacy of the penny-press model*

Use mouse wheel or ↑ / ↓ to scroll inside the box

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The Book Revolution

Publishing Explosion

Harper & Brothers, Carey & Lea pioneer cheap editions
James Fenimore Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales create frontier mythology
Serialization in story papers creates new reading habits
Books become affordable commodities, not luxury items

IMPACT:

Reading becomes a form of leisure, self-improvement, and identity formation. Americans begin to imagine themselves through the stories they read—whether tales of frontier adventure or sentimental domestic life.

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Sentimental Fiction & Female Readers

The "Scribbling Women"

Susan Warner (The Wide, Wide World, 1850)
Maria Cummins (The Lamplighter, 1854)
E.D.E.N. Southworth (The Hidden Hand, serialized)

Cultural Significance

Blend of sentiment and moral didacticism
Novels teach "emotional literacy"—feeling becomes virtuous
Female reading publics gain cultural authority

Link forward: Emotional reading prepares ground for Lecture 2's religious feeling

Cover of Susan Warner's The Wide, Wide World (1850) — *The Wide, Wide World* (1850) — cover

Interior illustration from The Wide, Wide World — *The Wide, Wide World* — interior illustration

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Visual Print Culture: Images for the Masses

Lithography Revolution (1820s–1830s)

Cheap decorative prints enter middle-class homes
Currier & Ives (founded 1834) mass-produce American scenes

Political Cartoons & Illustrated Newspapers

Visual culture democratizes alongside textual culture
Images shape national myths — frontier, domesticity, prosperity

Currier & Ives: American Homestead — idealized rural family scene — *American Homestead* (Currier & Ives)

Americans could now see idealized versions of themselves and their nation hanging on their walls.

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The Lyceum Movement: Education, Culture, and Spectacle

What Were Lyceums?

The Lyceum movement began in the 1820s as a network of local associations devoted to adult education, civic improvement, and moral uplift. These organizations hosted lectures, debates, and demonstrations designed to bring knowledge to ordinary citizens.

Founded by Josiah Holbrook in 1826, the lyceum became the backbone of antebellum public culture—where Americans could learn about science, literature, reform, and philosophy outside formal schools.

AI-generated depiction of a 19th-century Lyceum lecture hall — *Typical Lyceum lecture scene — education as civic performance*

High Culture and Moral Philosophy

Prominent writers and thinkers like Ralph Waldo Emerson brought Transcendentalist ideas to Lyceum audiences. Their lectures on self-reliance, moral philosophy, and the pursuit of truth helped popularize intellectual and literary culture among the middle class.

Emerson’s tours through small towns and city halls made philosophy a public performance, accessible to tradesmen, teachers, and farmers alike.

Portrait of Ralph Waldo Emerson — *Ralph Waldo Emerson* — philosopher of self-culture and moral independence

Popular Science and Spectacle

Alongside high-minded philosophy, Lyceum stages also hosted demonstrations of phrenology, mesmerism, and electrical experiments—blurring the line between education and entertainment.

Figures like Orson and Lorenzo Fowler delivered engaging phrenology lectures, promising moral and personal insight through the “science” of skull reading. These popular pseudo-sciences reflected Americans’ hunger for self-knowledge and moral order.

Phrenology chart showing faculties of the brain — *Phrenology charts* — pseudo-scientific tools for moral self-assessment

Detailed phrenological head diagram — *Phrenology charts* — pseudo-scientific tools for moral self-assessment

Critical Question:

Was the Lyceum a democratic classroom or a performance stage? Did it elevate the public or merely entertain them?

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Print and Politics: From Pamphlet to Partisan Press

Political Mobilization Through Print

Broadsides and party newspapers link print to mobilization
Jacksonian era's "partisan press" turns voting into spectacle
Editorials and cartoons appeal to working-class readers
Political participation becomes a form of popular entertainment

Political cartoon: Andrew Jackson 'slaying' the Bank of the United States — *“Slaying the Bank”* — Jackson versus the BUS

Political cartoon: 'King Andrew the First' showing Jackson in royal regalia trampling the Constitution — *“King Andrew the First”* — fears of executive overreach

KEY CONCEPT: Print makes politics accessible and exciting—but also partisan and emotional

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Conclusion: Print and the Making of American Culture

Main Argument:

Print didn't just spread information—it created a new kind of public and a new kind of American identity. But democratization had limits: access remained structured by race, class, and gender.

Next Time: Lecture 2

From print culture to spiritual culture—camp meetings, revivals, and the democratization of religion. Who gets to define American faith?

The Democratization of Culture:Print, Literacy, and the New Public