Understanding Urban Progressivism and the City Beautiful Movement

This article places the City Beautiful movement in Harrisburg within the history of urban progressive reform in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century America, a time of industrial growth and the various problems stemming from it. In order to better understand the City Beautiful movement, it is helpful to engage the scholarly literature on Progressivism, which notes its complexity, with many different goals, strategies, and historical actors. Of benefit to those seeking to further our understanding of the City Beautiful movement in Harrisburg are new tools, methodologies, and approaches that include digital history, public history, and public humanities.