During the Progressive Era (1886­–1920), New York City became a shaping force of America’s national culture. It was a period that saw Theodore Roosevelt evolve from police commissioner to president; the advent of the Ashcan School painters in Greenwich Village; the Armory Show of 1913; Edward Steichen's 291 Gallery; and a distinctly vertical turn in the city’s architecture as Beaux-Arts monumentality gave way to skyscraper Modernism.

Cultural historian George Scheper explores the impact of the era, as well as the subsequent Jazz Age New York of F. Scott Fitzgerald. During the 1920s, the intellectual and political ferment radiating from of the taverns of Greenwich Village and the salons of Fifth Avenue helped to bring a new spirit of artistic openness and social commitment to American culture—as reflected in the paintings of John Sloan and Florine Stettheimer, the poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay, and the architecture of Daniel Burnham's Flatiron Building.

Scheper is a senior lecturer in advanced academic programs at Johns Hopkins University.

World Art History Certificate elective: Earn 1/2 credit*

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*Enrolled participants in the World Art History Certificate Program receive 1/2 elective credit. Not yet enrolled? Learn about the program, its benefits, and how to register here.