The Gilded Age time period is a real moment in American history; the HBO series follows characters from the era and explores themes of the time.

The Gilded Age time period depicted in the HBO series of the same name is a real historical era of the United States. Premiering in January 2022, The Gilded Age is a historical drama series that follows Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon) and her “new money” family as they try to break into New York City high society during the eponymous era. The Russells move across the street from the old money van Rhijn-Brook family led by matriarch Agnes van Rhijn (Christine Baranski) and discover that fitting into the rigid social scene of 19th-century Manhattan is not simple. The Gilded Age features impeccable costumes, outstanding production design, and fantastic performances for a well-rounded and memorable series.

The first season of The Gilded Age takes place in 1882, while season 2 occurs the next year, in 1883. Much like Downton Abbey, The Gilded Age deals with class mobility and social expectations. However, unlike that popular series, The Gilded Age is also concerned with the plight of Black Americans and America’s domestic workforce, groups that suffered during the period as they tried to find a place for themselves post-Reconstruction. The series’ success has been in part due to its accurate representation of late 19th-century America, imagining the materialistic, often corrupt, but opportunity-filled time period.

The Gilded Age Takes Place In The United States Between 1877-1900

The Gilded Age is a time period specific to the United States of America that is generally considered to have taken place between 1870 and 1900 when The Gilded Age is set. This puts the era just after Reconstruction and just before the Progressive Era; both also US-specific time periods. Reconstruction took place right after the Civil War and saw efforts to rebuild the country after the brutal and destructive conflict. While the South saw depression and unsuccessful efforts to rebuild their infrastructure, the North and West saw a huge boom in their respective economies.

Why Was It Called The Gilded Age?

The term “Gilded Age” actually comes from the contemporary author Mark Twain. The political corruption and material consumption of the era gave way to many books and writings criticizing and satirizing the era, via Britannica. One of these, The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873), is a satirical look at the rampant capitalism and corruption that infected America soon after Reconstruction. The term “Gilded” is purposeful. Twain saw the era as one where the excesses and wastefulness of the time period were just a thin layer of richness overlaid on a corrupt and ridiculous society.

While the original intention of the term was satirical, it soon became the commonly used way to refer to that era. The title of “Gilded Age” can also be a reference to the idea of a “Golden Age”. A Golden Age for any society is its height, so to refer to this period as “Gilded” implies that while it was still a cultural and economic peak, it was much less substantial. It only has the appearance of greatness, while the reality is that the decades were hollow.

The Important Figures Of The Gilded Age

Beyond Mark Twain, there are a number of significant historical figures who rose to prominence during the Gilded Age. For one, the Russell family are partial stand-ins for the Vanderbilts; Bertha represents Alva, and her husband George (Morgan Spector) is William Kissam Vanderbilt. As new money, the shipping and railroad magnate Vanderbilts were not immediately accepted into New York City high society, but their wealth could not be ignored for long, via Vogue. Caroline Schermerhorn Astor (Donna Murphy) and Ward McAllister (Nathan Lane) were prominent social gatekeepers of the era and also appear as recurring characters in the series.

T. Thomas Fortune (Sullivan Jones), Mamie Fish (Ashlie Atkinson), Carrie Astor (Amy Forsyth), and Stanford White (John Sanders) are a few more figures from the time period who appear in The Gilded Age. Because The Gilded Age is more focused on the high society of NYC rather than a wide-reaching examination of the time period, there are plenty of significant people not represented in the series. Susan B. Anthony, Harriet Tubman, J. P. Morgan, William Frederick Cody “Buffalo Bill”, and Andrew Carnegie are just a few of the names responsible for the culture, politics, and economy of the Gilded Age.

Major Advancements Of The Gilded Age

The newfound wealth of the Gilded Age led to many economic, cultural, and technological advancements. From an invention standpoint, the telephone, phonograph, incandescent lightbulb, kodak camera, automobile, and even airplane were all invented during this time period, via History. Railroads led to the increased interconnectivity of the country and to the wealth of many notable families of the time, like the Vanderbilts, Carnegies, and Morgans. The modern American economy also arose out of this time period with entrepreneurship and rising wages, a positive, but widening class disparity, a negative, via Digital History.

Labor unions also began to form around this time, with the National Labor Union being founded on August 20, 1866, via Library of Congress. Labor relations, tariffs, the effect of the railroad on communities, and the high rate of emigration from Europe led to political turbulence and drew clear lines between the Republican and Democrat parties that still remain today.

What Was Happening In the Rest Of The World During The Gilded Age?

While America was experiencing the Gilded Age, other parts of the world had memorable decades of their own. Around the same time, the Victorian Era was happening in England. This was also a time of technological and societal advancement that ended at the start of the 20th century. The rest of mainland Europe experienced a similar time period collectively known as the Belle Époque, or “The Beautiful Era”. It was during this time, after the destruction of the Napoleonic Wars, that arts and science flourished and countries knew relative peace.

How Well Does HBO’s The Gilded Age Depict The Era?

In terms of costuming and set design, The Gilded Age goes to great lengths to mimic how people dressed and how they lived. According to Erica Armstrong Dunbar, the show’s historical consultant and co-executive producer, “The clothing that our actors are wearing, the carriages that they’re stepping into, the teacups that they are using, all of this is accurate,” via Smithsonian Magazine. It is not only how the show looks and the historical figures who appear in it that make The Gilded Age an accurate representation of the time period, it’s the themes of the series that place it soundly in the era.

The series does not shy away from the race and gender divides that still existed despite the strides made in societal mores. Women in the series are often granted some freedoms but still don’t have nearly the same rights as the men in the show. The situation of Black people is also accurately depicted. Though slavery had been made illegal after the Civil War, Black people were still treated as inferior in most circles. One character from history and the show, T. Thomas Fortune (Sullivan Jones), was born enslaved but rose to become a prominent newsman before wielding his platform to fight for the rights of other Black citizens.

The Progressive Era Ended The Gilded Age

The Gilded Age eventually came to an end around the start of the 20th century, when the Progressive Era began. In some ways, a response to the Gilded Age, the Progressive Era sought to reform the business and political sectors that had been infected with waste and corruption, via Library of Congress. Ideas about business regulation, women’s right to vote, conservation, and other democratic ideals began to become popular and helped lead into the “Roaring Twenties”. The excesses of the Gilded Age also led to prohibition becoming popular in the United States.

The time period of The Gilded Age did not end with a single, notable event as some others in American history did. Instead, the excess and richness of the era proved to be unsustainable. With the average person having more wealth and access to education, reform was eventually called for and the United States entered into a very different period of history in the 20th century.