Ushers of a New Era: The Gilded Age Humorist

In the decades after the Civil War, people in rural communities were happy to be entertained by touring lecturers of varying degrees of notoriety. Humorists, trying to expand their popularity and supplement their income, were among those who visited small towns, their arrival eagerly anticipated by young and old. During this period, characterized by social fluidity and marketplace upheaval, visiting humorists at times played the role of an advertiser whose wit helped quack doctors sell their patent medicines and at others the role of a respectable lecturer on the lessons of life. This article aims to place the figure of the Gilded Age comic lecturer in its larger historical context.