Archduchess Assunta of Austria

Music

Instruments and foot-tapping dance customs

In the Ziller Valley, traditional wedding music was performed by ensembles consisting of two fiddles, a diatonic accordion, a Tyrolean folk harp, and a string bass. Dancers at these events frequently tapped their toes in time with the music, using specific patterns for two-four and three-four time signatures.

Daily life

Housing for the poor in Vienna

In 1909, around 66,000 people in Vienna were bed-renters who did not have their own home and paid to use a bed for only a few hours. Many tenement buildings lacked running water, toilets, and electricity, requiring residents to collect water from a corridor tap called a Bassena.

What it cost

Weekly earnings for workers

An unskilled worker in the early 1900s earned about $10 a week, while many textile workers averaged around $8.76 for a full week's work in 1911.

What people wore

Peasant men's holiday shirt-sleeves

On feast days, peasant men in rural Austria-Hungary traditionally wore white shirt-sleeves as an essential and prideful part of their indoor holiday dress.

Getting around

Limited paved roads in 1904

By 1904, there were approximately two million miles of public highway in the United States, though only 140,000 miles were covered with gravel or macadam.

At the table

Ideal middle-class meals and coffee house culture

Before the war, the ideal middle-class meal consisted of a three-course menu featuring soup, a main dish of meat with side dishes, and dessert. Intellectuals frequented coffee houses around 1900 to enjoy coffee drinks like the Melange.