The Progressive Era – Empowering women through fiction and history.

A Safe and Sane 4th of July

Today is Independence Day in America, also known as the Fourth of July. Americans have always been enthusiastic about their freedom, especially when you consider it’s an integral part of the American philosophy of life.

The Gilded Age and Progressive Era were no exceptions. America was coming into its own during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Spanish-American War of 1898 brought America to the world stage for the first time. The nation was prosperous, and social reforms were making it even better. Things were pretty good.

But sometimes Americans carried their enthusiasm a little too far. Today the Fourth of July is largely a social holiday with parades, family BBQs, and fireworks. I’ll never forget my first San Francisco Fourth celebration in 1995. I went to Crissy Field to see them shoot fireworks over the bay. It was an amazing spectacle of national spirit and dedication.

Photo Credit: Drawing of a skeleton dressed up for the 4th of July celebrations, 1899, lithograph, created by L. Crusius, Welcome Collection: Look and Learn/CC BY 4.0

Ironically, during the Progressive Era, however, many politicians and reformers were pushing for a “quiet” Fourth of July celebration, encouraging Americans to stay home instead of going out into the street. They had good reason. The enthusiasm for the Fourth had, by that time, gotten out of hand. Children were going around shooting off toy guns, and sometimes their aim wasn’t so careful. Fireworks, as you might imagine, weren’t exactly sophisticated in those days, so safety wasn’t a priority. Added to that were cannons, firecrackers, and other explosives that caused many injuries and even death. And we’re talking serious numbers here. In 1903, more than 400 people died, and 4,000 were injured during the nation’s Fourth of July celebrations. Many of these fatalities came from shrapnel wounds acquired by dangerous explosives or careless toy guns that resulted in tetanus.

The reformers of what was dubbed the Safe and Sane movement weren’t exactly welcomed with open arms. Many Americans made fun of the reform movements taking place in the early 20th century, and they resented these reformers who wanted to take away their holiday fun. But they could do little about it when cities began to implement ordinances to curtail these dangerous practices. In San Francisco (where part of my Adele Gossling Mysteries series takes place), women’s clubs worked hard to get toy guns banned from kids under seventeen. Sadly, they did not succeed, but they did succeed in restricting dangerous explosives, cannons, and firecrackers from these celebrations.

By the 1920s (when my Grave Sisters Mysteries series takes place), Fourth of July celebrations were an entirely different animal. The transformation from chaos and danger to community was complete. You were more likely to see people running in a three-legged race or participating in a pie tasting contest than shooting off cannons or toy guns. Other events besides fireworks included sports and picnics. These practices gave Americans a chance to celebrate the holiday in a social environment that was, well, safe and sane!

Feel free to check out my Adele Gossling Mysteries and my Grave Sisters Mysteries to learn a lot more history from the early 20th century (and engage in some fun mysteries too!)

If you love fun, engaging mysteries set in the past, you’ll enjoy The Missing Ruby Necklace! It’s available exclusively to newsletter subscribers here. By signing up, you’ll also get news about upcoming releases, fun facts about women’s history, classic true-crime tidbits, and more!

School of Hard Knocks: What School Was Like in the Early 20th Century

I’m a teacher as well as a writer. I got into teaching pretty much by surprise. I was always very shy and introverted, the kid who slouched down in her seat in the back so the teacher wouldn’t call on her. When my parents suggested I do a teaching certificate when I was in college, mostly because they couldn’t see any practical profession for me as an English major, I shuddered. I didn’t end up getting that teaching certificate, as I had no interest in teaching children. But when I got into a master’s program and was offered a part-time instructorship teaching freshmen English composition courses as a way to pay part of my tuition, I grabbed it. Shockingly, I found I loved teaching adults (if you can consider college-aged students adults). In 2004, I transitioned from teaching college English classes to teaching ESL to business professionals. I still do that today, and I still love it.

Maybe that’s why teachers figure prominently in several of my books. But my teachers are victims not only of murder but of the rather unpolished and sometimes brutal school system in America in the early 20th century.

A typical schoolhouse in a small town or rural area in the early 20th century. Note the one-room structure and the mix of students (younger and older) posing in front of it.

Photo Credit: A one-room schoolhouse with the teacher and students, north of Kearny, Nebraska, 1910, Solomon D. Butcher (photographer), Library of Congress: LOC’s Public Domain Archive/Public Domain

Compared to schools today, the American school system, especially in small towns and rural areas (where many of my books take place) was pretty harsh. Parents complain today of crowded classrooms, but in the early 20th century, school was a one-room affair that packed in kids from the first to the eighth grade. The younger kids learned the basics while the older ones did more self-study. Older children were expected to help younger ones with their lessons. As you might expect, the separate spheres dictated some differences in what boys and girls were taught. Although both were taught the basics (reading, writing, and math), girls were taught subjects considered more appropriate for their future station in life (like sewing and mending) while boys were allowed to tackle subjects like science and biology.

Perhaps one of the most surprising things about American schools at the turn of the 20th century is that corporal punishment was legal and widely used in many schools. It wasn’t unheard of for a child to get a sharp rap on the knuckles or on the palm of his or her hand with the teacher’s ruler if they misbehaved. For example, the murder of a schoolteacher in 1915 by one of her former students was partly provoked by her and the school principal’s liberal use of this kind of punishment (you can read more about that case here).

Teachers didn’t have it easy in the early 20th century. Surprisingly, most teachers were men up until that time. Things changed during the Progressive Era when more women went to work. Teaching was one of the few respectable professions for a young woman (some as young as seventeen), and school districts could get away with paying women much less than they paid the men.

But, as those who have read the first book of my Grave Sisters Mysteries know, the teaching profession bound these young ladies to rigid and restrictive rules. They had to dress a certain way and were forbidden to do certain things, like take in some of the outside leisure activities that were becoming popular at the time (think: vaudeville, moving pictures, and even drug store soda fountains). They were forbidden to go out with men and couldn’t even be seen with any man who wasn’t family. They were expected to save most of their paltry earnings for retirement so they wouldn’t be a burden on the community in their old age. That left them with barely enough to support themselves.

Another one of my books that features the death of a teacher is A Wordless Death. That book is on sale now for a great price, and you can find out more about it here.

If you love fun, engaging mysteries set in the past, you’ll enjoy The Missing Ruby Necklace! It’s available exclusively to newsletter subscribers here. By signing up, you’ll also get news about upcoming releases, fun facts about women’s history, classic true-crime tidbits, and more!

Forensic Pathology in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries

Mourning practices were an art form in the 19th and early 20th centuries. When I did research on mourning for my Gilded Age family saga, the Waxwood Series, back in 2022, I found no shortage of information. People during these eras had a fascination with death that is almost the antithesis of how we approach death in the 21st century.

However, when I started doing research on the more technical and scientific aspects of dealing with the dead for my Grave Sisters Mysteries series, the information was surprisingly lacking or difficult to find. As Deborah Blum emphasized in this TED-ED video, in our CSI-friendly era, crime investigation relies heavily on picking apart the corpse (both physically and emotionally). But 19th and early 20th century crime investigation focused much more on clues, witnesses, and suspects, and less on the victim’s body.

In the 19th and early 20th century, you couldn’t even say American forensic pathology was in its infancy. More like it was in the womb. The role of medical examiner was pretty ad hoc and didn’t officially exist in many places until the 1930s. In addition, many medical examiners were not trained specifically in pathology, consisting mostly of local doctors who were good at treating the living but had little experience with examining the dead. Both my Adele Gossling Mysteries and Grave Sisters Mysteries feature this type of medical examiner, though both doctors have enough experience to know what they’re doing. In contrast, in the latter series, Helena Wright (the middle Grave sister), is the mortician of the family funeral home, and her training provides her with more in-depth knowledge of pathology (something the medical examiner resents!)

Medical examiners and pathologists were, like policemen and mayors, government-appointed, and as such, subject to the kind of corruption that ran rampant in the 19th and early 20th centuries (until the Progressive movement called for reforms). They could be bribed to cover up evidence for various reasons. Maybe the victim was a well-respected citizen, and the pathology brought up something that pointed toward a less-than-stellar life the influential family didn’t want made public (like certain diseases). Or maybe the examination of the victim showed foul play that would require important people to be involved in the case, who didn’t want to be involved. The examination might even implicate someone important to the town in a dastardly crime, so evidence needed to be covered up or distorted. I’m reading a true crime book right now about the death of a woman in the early 20th century, where the writers surmise this is exactly what happened.

Photo credit: Leather doctor’s bag and its contents dated between 1890 and 1930, Wellcome Collection Gallery: Fae/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 4.0

Thankfully, things started to change in the 1920s. Law enforcement began to take forensic experts and medical examiners more seriously and saw them as a vital part of the investigation rather than just part of their standard procedure. One example that changed the way the New York police thought about forensic pathology happened in 1923. A housewife living in one of the tenement buildings in the city was found dead in her apartment. At first, the case seemed cut and dried – accidental death by poisoning from a gas oven (not an uncommon thing in the early 20th century, as gas was the main source of power in tenements). However, because of reforms going on in the city at the time, the coroner was also a trained medical man and was able to determine that death had not occurred due to carbon monoxide poisoning (interestingly, based on the color of the dead woman’s skin) and in fact had been strangled (as there were marks on her neck). Later, it was discovered her husband had indeed strangled her (for the insurance money) and had tried to stage the murder to look like an accident, which the authorities almost bought.

Pathology plays a role not only in my Grave Sisters Mysteries (as I discussed above), but in Book 3 of my Adele Gossling Mysteries. A doctor is asked to write out a new death certificate because what looked like an accident proves to be anything but. It was possible to retract the death certificate if further examination suggested otherwise. This is what starts off the investigation into Thea Marsh’s death in the book.

Death At Will has been chosen by Barnes & Noble as a favorite reading year pick! To celebrate, I’ve discounted the book to $2.99. You can grab it here. And did you know Book 1 of the series, The Carnation Murder, is free? If you haven’t yet gotten into this series, you can start now by getting your copy of the first book for free here.

And if you want to see some more fascinating early 20th century pathology at work (without the gore!), check out my Grave Sisters Mysteries! Book 2 of the series was just released last November and is on Barnes & Noble’s Top Indie Favorites list for this month. The book is still at a nice discount of $3.99, so you can get The Missing Witness now.

Release Day for Murder Among The Rubble!

Title: Murder Among The Rubble

Series: Adele Gossling Mysteries: Book 7

Author: Tam May

Genres: Historical Cozy Mystery

Release Date: December 28, 2024

Chosen for the Barnes & Noble Top Indie Favorite list!

On a quiet morning in 1906, an earthquake of horrendous magnitude shakes one of California’s most vibrant cities. Buildings crumble to the ground. Fires destroy everything from South of the Slot’s dilapidated buildings to Nob Ill’s most ornate mansions, leveling nearly eighty percent of San Francisco.

Radical suffragist and progressive reformer Elsie Blessings calls her friends Adele Gossling and Nin Branch to her side at the Presidio’s refugee camp to help destitute women and children as San Francisco begins the slow process of rebuilding. Adele’s brother, Jackson, and Sheriff Hatfield accompany them as volunteers to help maintain law and order amidst the chaos of the ruined city.

While citizens come together to pick up the pieces of their homes and lives among the rubble, somebody thinks it’s just the right time for murder.

Includes an Author’s Note with background on the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906!

You can get your copy of the book at a special promotional price at the following online retailers.

Excerpt

“Perhaps if we saw her face, the ladies would be able to tell,” Hatfield suggested.

Dr. Fleming bent down and gently turned the woman over.

Missy’s piercing scream echoed among the quiet shrubbery. Nin closed her eyes, clutching Adele’s arm. Adele’s stomach turned over. The entire front of the woman’s body was bloody and full of slits as if someone had tried to rip the dress off her.

“My God, what an animal!” Jackson stared at the horror.

Adele felt as if another earthquake were swaying the ground. Nin seemed to know what was happening and pulled her friend away from the horrible sight into another clearing. Adele leaned against a redwood, feeling the sharp tips of bark pierce into her back. The breeze brushed gently against her cheeks and the sun created a warm umbrella over her. Gradually, the sick feeling passed.

“How could he have done that to her?” Adele choked out. “So much stabbing!”

“Some men are savages,” Nin snarled. “A wild coyote would have been more civilized.”

Adele glanced at her friend and gave a small laugh. “You have a strong stomach, Nin.”

“I’ve seen what humans can do to one another,” Nin said, her tone heavy.

Adele steadied herself. “The rage is more honest, anyway.”

“It was rage that did that,” Nin agreed.

“What could she have done that was so terrible, I wonder,” Adele murmured.

“She probably didn’t do anything but live her own life,” Nin said.

“That’s what I mean.” Adele was beginning to feel stronger. “A woman living her own life is bound to offend someone.”

Nin put her hands on her shoulders. “It’s coming closer, the time when women will be able to live their own lives without offending anybody.”

Adele smiled. “Don’t tell me you believe in our cause at last, dear.”

“I don’t believe in causes and you know it,” Nin declared. “I believe in what the Generous Ones tell me.”

“And they tell you that?”

“The years tell me that,” said Nin. “The years passing by other people’s prejudices.”

Adele pressed her hand. “We should be getting back. I’m all right now.”

“Take some peppermint,” her friend advised. “There’s plenty of it here and it’s very soothing.”

Adele bent down and picked some of the spiky, rough leaves. Nin was right. The stinging scent calmed her stomach. As she plucked a bunch from the ground, she caught sight of a golden ring that looked as if it had been carelessly tossed there. Picking it up, she saw it was inscribed L.S. & G.W.

“Nin, look at this!”

Her friend peered at the ring. “Do you think it belonged to the dead girl?”

“It might have,” Adele said. “Or it might have fallen from the finger of a woman who came out here to meet her soldier beau.”

“A very married woman,” Nin remarked with disapproval.

“It looks fresh to me,” Adele said. “I don’t think it could have been left here for very long.”

“The camp’s been open for only a few weeks,” her friend pointed out.

“No, I think it was even a shorter time than that.” Adele slipped it in the pocket of her jacket. “It hardly has any dirt on it.”

“Are you going to tell the police?” Nin took her arm.

“I think we’d better not,” said Adele. “We don’t know that it has anything to do with the girl.”

“And you’re not going to tell them we saw the girl last night, are you?” Her friend’s eyes were shrewd.

“If we tell Sergeant Walker she was near the Chinese camp, it wouldn’t look very good for them,” Adele said.

“Maybe a Chinese did kill her,” Nin suggested.

“I don’t think so,” Adele said as they carefully made their way among the shrubs. “It doesn’t seem likely someone from the Chinese camp would rip through her clothes like that.”

“Who knows what anyone would do under circumstances like these?” Nin sighed. “Some people have their sense of decency knocked out of them when Sister Nature reacts with such violence.”

“Violence begets violence,” Adele said, feeling her body shake.

About the Author

Writing has been Tam May’s voice since the age of fourteen. She writes stories set in the past that feature sassy and sensitive women characters. Tam is the author of the Adele Gossling Mysteries which takes place in the early 20th century and features suffragist and epistolary expert Adele Gossling whose talent for solving crimes doesn’t sit well with her town’s conventional ideas about women’s place. Tam is also working on a new series, the Grave Sisters Mysteries about three sisters who own a funeral home and help the county D.A. solve crimes in a 1920s small California town, set to release in 2025. She has also written historical fiction about women breaking loose from the social and psychological expectations of their era. Although Tam left her heart in San Francisco, she lives in the Midwest because it’s cheaper. When she’s not writing, she’s devouring everything classic (books, films, art, music), concocting yummy plant-based dishes, and exploring her new riverside town.

Social Media Links

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tammayauthor/

Instragram: https://www.instagram.com/tammayauthor/

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/tammayauthor/

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Tam-May/e/B01N7BQZ9Y/

BookBub Author Page: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/tam-may

Goodreads Author Page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16111197.Tam_May

Making Progress: Thanksgiving in the Progressive Era

It’s that time of year when Thanksgiving is upon us (at least it is if you’re in the US). A few years ago, I wrote a blog post about Thanksgiving in the Gilded Age. But since I’ve been diving into the Progressive Era with my Adele Gossling Mysteries, I was curious to know how turn-of-the-century Thanksgiving traditions compared to those of America’s Gilded Age.

The Gilded Age was, remember, all about excesses, wealth, and showing off when it came to the holidays. Well-to-do Americans saw the holidays as a time to get into their best dress and parade themselves in hotel dining rooms or swank restaurants for a multi-course Thanksgiving meal that included non-traditional Thanksgiving fare such as oysters and lobster (if you don’t believe me, take a peek at the menu I included in the blog post mentioned above.)

Photo Credit: Cover of Puck magazine showing a mother making a pumpkin pie in the kitchen while her four children look onward, emphasizing the family nature of Thanksgiving, 1903, chromolithograph, created by L. M. Glackens: pingnews.com / Flickr/Public Domain Mark 1.0

Americans started to get a grip on all those excesses and realized their country needed to make some changes in the Progressive Era. Reform was the order of the day, including worker’s rights, women’s rights, and environmental concerns. There was also more emphasis on intimate social circles (family, friends), probably because the modern era made many people feel fragmented and isolated (something I daresay we struggle with today in our social-media-heavy 21st century.)

For all these reasons, Thanksgiving became more of a family affair at the turn of the century. Magazines and books came out with Thanksgiving recipes to help encourage Americans to stay home for the holiday rather than let hotels and restaurants do the cooking. The recipes were much more what we consider traditional Thanksgiving foods, such as roasted turkey, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. The 1902 menu on this site still has some oddities, such as oysters, but it looks much more like the kind of Thanksgiving meal we feast upon these days than the menu on my previous blog post.

Progressive reformers carried their work into the holidays as well. One thing we see with turn-of-the-century Thanksgiving which was less prevalent in the Gilded Age was the idea of giving thanks and gratitude by helping others. Missionaries and other charitable organizations hosted large Thanksgiving feasts for the poor all over the country. In addition, holiday gift boxes became popular just as they are today (my local Sprouts Market prepares gift bags with food every year that customers can purchase and have the store give to a family in need). Overall, the spirit of gratitude and giving was not lost on early 20th-century progressives.

While none of my Adele Gossling Mystery stories feature a Thanksgiving murder yet, be on the lookout for one in the future! In the meantime, check out The Carnation Murder, the first book of the series, which is totally free on all bookstore sites.