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**Pvt Schnapps** · 04-08-2009, 08:29 PM

Re: Cost of living?

Sorry I didn't see this earlier. Try "The Standard of Living in 1860" by Edgar W. Martin. Part of it is on Google Books:

The Standard of Living in 1860 - American Consumption Levels on the Eve of the Civil War

http://books.google.com/books?id=2U4Um6kq0KcC&printsec=frontcover&dq=the+standard+of+living+in+1860#PPA418,M1

The Standard of Living in 1860 THE Standard of IN 1860 American Consumption Levels on the Eve of the Civil War BY EDGAR W. MARTIN THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS CHICAGO ILLINOIS TABLE OF CONTENTS, PAGE LIST OF TABLES ix CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION i II. THE PRODUCTION OF FOODSTUFFS 11 III. WHAT PEOPLE ATE 45 IV. ARCHITECTURE AND INTERIOR DECORATION 83 V. HOUSING AND HOUSEHOLD OPERATION 106 VI. BOARDING AND LODGING 148 VII. CLOTHING AND PERSONAL CARE 181 VIII. MEDICAL CARE AND PUBLIC HEALTH 220 IX. TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION 248 X. GOVERNMENTAL AND PHILANTHROPIC CONTRIBUTIONS . . . 278 XI. EDUCATION, READING, AND THE CHURCH 295 XII. LEISURE AND RECREATION 343 XIII. CONCLUSION THE STANDARD OF LIVING IN 1860 .... 393 APPENDIXES 405 INDEX 439 LIST OF TABLES TABLE PAGE 1. CONSUMPTION OF FOODSTUFFS IN THE UNITED STATES AT SELECT ED PERIODS 72, 2. TYPES OF DWELLING HOUSE, NEW YORK STATE, 1855 AND 1865 . 120 3. SQUARE YARDS OF MATERIAL REQUIRED FOR COSTUMES OF THE WELL-To-Do IN VARIOUS YEARS 186 4. THE GROWTH OF THE AMERICAN WOOL MANUFACTURE . . . 189 5. EXPECTATION OF LIFE AT BIRTH, MASSACHUSETTS, 1789-1929 . 220 6. NUMBER OF DOCTORS IN 1860 226 7. MORTALITY RATES IN SEVEN CITIES, 1860 AND 1930 .. . . 246 8. EXPENDITURES OF STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS, 1860 AND 1932 279 9. NEWSPAPER COVERAGE, 1860 AND 1929 315 10. WORKINGMANS BUDGET, PHILADELPHIA, 1851 394 11. STANDARD WORKINGMANS BUDGET, NEW YORK CITY, 1853 . . 395 12. TYPICAL BUDGET, NEW YORK BUSINESSMAN, 1857, 395 13. PERCENTAGE ALLOCATION OF EXPENDITURES BY AMERICAN FAMI LIES, 1850-60 AND 1935-36 397 14. POPULATION IN 1860 BY STATE AND SECTION 405 15. WAGES IN SELECTED OCCUPATIONS, 1860 ........ 409 16. WAGES IN SELECTED FACTORIES ANDMILLS, 1860 410 17. WAGES OF UNSKILLED LABOR IN SELECTED INDUSTRIES, 1860 . .411 18. WAGES OF FARM LABORERS, 1859-60 412 19. WAGES OF SERVANTS AND FARM HANDS, 1860 413 20. WAGES IN SELECTED INDUSTRIES, 1860, BY WAGE GROUPS ., 414 21. WAGES IN SELECTED INDUSTRIES, 1860, BY WAGE GROUPS . . .415 22. INDEX NUMBERS FOR REAL WAGES, 1820-1900 415 23. CONSUMPTION OF MILK IN THIRTEEN STATES, YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1860 4 1 24. RETAIL MEAT PRICES, MASSACHUSETTS, 1860 418 x LIST OF TABLES TABLE PAGE 25. RETAIL PRICES OF DAIRY PRODUCTS AND EGGS, MASSACHUSETTS, 1860 419 26. RETAIL PRICES OF CEREAL PRODUCTS, MASSACHUSETTS, 1860 . . 419 27. RETAIL PRICES OF FRUITS AND VEGETABLES, MASSACHUSETTS, 1851-60 419 28. RETAIL FOOD PRICES, ILLINOIS, JANUARY, 1856 419 29. RETAIL FOOD PRICES, LAWRENCE, KANSAS, SEPTEMBER 22, 1855 4 2 30. RETAIL FOOD PRICES, DENVER, JULY 9, 1859 4 2 31. RETAIL FOOD PRICES, CHINA TOWN, NEVADA, JUNE n, 1859 . . 420 32. RETAIL FOOD PRICES, SALT LAKE CITY, 1860 421 33. AVERAGE MONTHLY HOUSE RENT IN MANUFACTURING TOWNS, 1860-61 422 34. MONTHLY HOUSE RENT IN VARIOUS CITIES, 1860 423 35. ESTIMATED CONSTRUCTION COSTS FOR COUNTRY HOUSES, 1851 . 424 36. ESTIMATED CONSTRUCTION COSTS, 1857 425 37. RETAIL PRICE OF COAL PER TON IN VARIOUS CITIES, 1860 . ., 426 38. RETAIL PRICE OF WOOD PER CORD IN VARIOUS CITIES, 1860 . . 426 39. PRICE OF BOARD PER WEEK TO LABORING MAN, BY STATES, 1860 . 428 40. PRICE OF BOARD PER WEEK IN VARIOUS CITIES, 1860 .... 429 41. ADVERTISED PRICES, MENS FALL AND WINTER QLOTHING, OCTO BER 24, 1860 430 42 ADVERTISED PRICES, MENS SUMMER CLOTHING, JUNE 27, 1857 . 431 43. LENGTH OF WORKING DAY IN VARIOUS INDUSTRIES, 1860 . ., 432 44. LENGTH OF WORKING DAY IN 350 FIRMS, BYSTATES, 1860 ... 433 45. SCHOOL ATTENDANCE IN 1860 434 46. LIBRARY FACILITIES IN 1860 BY SECTION AND STATE .... 435 47. SUMMARY OF LIBRARY STATISTICS, EIGHTH CENSUS, 1860 ., ., 436 48. RHEESS ESTIMATE OF THE NUMBER AND SIZE OF LIBRARIES, 1859 43 49. PUBLIC LIBRARIES LENDING TWENTY THOUSAND OR MORE VOL UMES ANNUALLY, 1859 437 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STANDARD OF LIVING The nature of economic history...

The whole might be available through your local library.

For example, some prices in Boston in 1860 (p. 418):

Corned beef, 10c a lb

Fresh pork, 12.5c a lb

Milk, 5c a quart

Eggs, 17-27c a dozen

Bread, 7.5c a loaf

Four room tenement (p. 422) $5.86 a month; six rooms, $6.54

bituminous coal, $5.75 a ton

There's lots of good stuff there. Enjoy!

**ElizabethClark** · 04-13-2009, 11:29 AM

Re: Cost of living?

Quick moderator note:

Oregon, you'll want to configure your profile to show a signature (first and last name), or else add it to each post and reply. Not many rules here, but that's one. :) If you need any help, let me or another moderator know, and we'll help you get set up with an auto-signature.

Mod-Bonnet Off.

This topic is also fully able to be discussed in the Citizen section (where military impressionists are very welcome, by the way--I've a big, broad lecture stump on the need for military men to know citizen life!)

Defining standard of living really reaches into a lot of research avenues. You'll want to know the area the family lives, what the profession is, what the war-time income is, how far that's stretching, how much they're paying to room/board at a local boarding house or hotel (visiting families happened--camping visiting families didn't as a general rule), how and where and the cost of train or other travel... so many factors are involved that it's impossible to define it in strictly generic terms.

**Beth Chamberlain** · 04-13-2009, 10:46 PM

Re: Cost of living?

One of my favorite sources is Comparative Wages, Prices, and Cost of Living, it's an offprint of From the Sixteenth Annual Report of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor published in 1885 but it covers 1752-1860. It's not widely held but it has recently shown up in Googlebooks, http://books.google.com/books?id=xA0XAAAAYAAJ

There are also some bibliographies of price information at http://www.iisg.nl/hpw/data.php#northamerica.

For NYC the Times and the Brooklyn Eagle should also be useful. The Times archive is freely searchable, http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/nytarchive.html. I haven't looked at advertisements in the Times for a while. The last time I did it was much easier to do in the commercial version, you might want to check if your library has access the the NYT Historical from ProQuest. The Brooklyn Eagle is also online, http://eagle.brooklynpubliclibrary.o...AppName=2&GZ=T

If that doesn't give you enough let us know. There is more for the NYC area online but I'm tired and drawing a blank.

Elizabeth - can you help me with an avatar problem? Or tell me who can?

Beth

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