“Conventions of Simultaneity”

Abstract

This article considers the saturation of American cities and towns with government-sponsored public clocks during the Gilded Age. In doing so, it seeks to establish that while clocks are part of the modern technological landscape of order, discipline, and efficiency, they also constitute another terrain of power: that of the state. The article considers the diffusion of government clocks across the nation and the nationalist symbolism associated with many period government clocks as well as clocks in general.