ANN ARBOR—It’s vacation time, that season when the kids and suitcases are packed into the family vehicle, belted into an airplane seat, or secured on the back of a bicycle. But until late in the last century, vacations were not available to everyone.

“In the Good Old Summertime,” an exhibition at the University of Michigan’s Clements Library, reveals that at the turn of the 20th century more Americans were enjoying vacations than before, thanks to modern transportation, expanded leisure time and discretionary income. Through photos, brochures, postcards and advertising materials from the 1880s to the early 1900s, “In the Good Old Summertime” documents Americans’ leisure time preferences from a “roller chair” on Atlantic City’s Boardwalk to travel in sumptuous railroad “Palace Cars” and seaside resorts with hotels, boarding houses and cottages.

Office staffs were given paid vacations during this time period, but hourly wage workers were not. Middle class families sent their women and children to a resort or cottage for the summer and the men joined them on weekends, traveling by train. The working class, unable to take long periods of time, made day excursions to the seashore and amusement resorts like Coney island.

Many Americans at the turn of the century took vacations for health and pleasure, heading towards spas such as White Sulphur Springs and Saratoga Springs. Luxury resorts and hotels became major tourist attractions with grand verandahs for viewing and being viewed.

Tourists often clustered with their own kind and kin, creating special religious and ethnic vacation resorts. Protestants flocked to scenic campgrounds, like Ocean Grove and Asbury Park. Jewish resorts became landmarks in the Catskills of New York or St. Petersburg, Fla. And Atlantic City became the excursionist’s Mecca for the new middle class. Railroads and steamship lines took tourists to spectacular scenic landscapes once accessible only to the wealthy. National Parks became tourist attractions.

Vacationers were enticed by elaborate railroad and steamboat brochures advertising luxury and comfort while traveling to the country’s coasts and interior leading one writer of the time to note, “Railroads and steamboats have now become so numerous that all classes, from the humblest mechanic to the wealthy banker, can have their homes in the country?..We see studded along the lines of our railroads picturesque and cheerful homes, where the heads of families are recuperating from the deleterious effects of the confinement of city life.”

“In the Good Old Summertime” can be seen Monday-Friday, 1-4:45 p.m., through Sept. 30. Admission is free.

More information: 

• John Dann
• Clements Library
• mjnesbit@umich.edu