Dark Side of the Gilded Age

An NYC Walking Tour of High Society and Working-Class Struggles

New York’s Gilded Age placed spectacular fortunes within a few miles of garment workers laboring up to 100 hours a week in tenement sweatshops. Dark Side of the Gilded Age brings wealthy and working-class New Yorkers into the same story.

The rich moved north for privacy as immigrant workers followed factories into the same part of Manhattan. From Greenwich Village to Union Square, money protected reputations while workers risked violence for demanding shorter hours.

Bernhard Gillam’s 1883 Puck cartoon The Protectors of Our Industries depicts industrialists carried on the backs of workers. Library of Congress.
Bernhard Gillam’s 1883 Puck cartoon The Protectors of Our Industries depicts industrialists carried on the backs of workers. Library of Congress.

Why This Tour?

New York’s Gilded Age is often remembered through vast fortunes and the families who accumulated them. The name itself was satirical, describing a thin layer of gold over something far less admirable.

Dark Side of the Gilded Age examines the class divide captured in the widely used period phrase “the upper tens and the lower millions.” Its focus is the conflict between wealthy New Yorkers and the working-class people whose labor created those fortunes.

Stanford White and Society’s Silence

At Jefferson Market, explore the murder scandal surrounding a celebrated architect and the conduct New York society preferred not to discuss.

Prison Labor at Washington Square

Discover the labor unrest sparked by NYU’s use of Sing Sing prisoners to build its first home at Washington Square.

The Shirtwaist Kings

Trace the Triangle factory owners through the garment strike they fought and the troubling insurance settlement that followed the fire.

Victoria Woodhull in Disguise

Meet the first woman to run for president as she enters Cooper Union in disguise while federal marshals watch the doors.

Mother Mandelbaum and the Tiffany Diamond

Meet the immigrant peddler who became a major crime boss and stood behind an audacious Tiffany diamond theft.

Tammany Hall and Working-Class Loyalty

See how political bosses earned working-class loyalty by offering practical help that respectable reformers sometimes refused.

Tour Details

Meeting point: Jefferson Market Library (entrance), 425 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10011

Endpoint: Society of Saint Tammany, 44 Union Square East, New York, NY 10003

Tour length: 2 hours

Distance covered: 1.7 miles

Map of the Dark Side of the Gilded Age meeting point at Jefferson Market Library.

Upcoming Public Dates and Tickets

View scheduled public dates and book tickets for this tour below.