he late 19th and early 20th centuries marked the emergence of modern America, including the rise of the modern industrial economy and the growth of government. These were turbulent years that saw rising racial tension, labor violence, and militancy among farmers. But they were also an era of far-reaching reforms that would touch almost every aspect of American life. Photographs of Yellowstone by William Henry Jackson, 1871. GLC 3095 William Henry Jackson's photographs helped persuade the federal government to make Yellowstone the nation's first national park. Frederick Douglass to Robert Adams, December 4, 1888. GLC 4997 A fugitive slave who began to speak out publicly against slavery in the 1840s, Frederick Douglass was a brilliant author, orator, and organizer who became the nineteenth century's most famous black leader. In this letter, he protests the disfranchisement of black voters in the South. Susan B. Anthony to Senator Henry W. Blair, January 7, 1888. GLC 3300 In this letter, pioneering suffragist Susan B. Anthony writes to Senator Henry W. Blair of New Hampshire about bringing the women's suffrage amendment up for a vote in Congress. Anthony would not live to see the triumph of the cause for which she fought from the 1850s until her death in 1906 at the age of eighty-six. It was not until 1920 that American women obtained the vote with ratification of the 19th Amendment.