Although I can't find much stronger evidence right now, the Mickey Mouse cartoon The Nifty Nineties from 1941 certainly seems to support the view that there was a nostalgia for the 1890s at some point.

It's got Mickey and Minnie going to see a vaudeville show, driving around in an old-timey 1890s car, and pretty much all the songs are actually from the 1890s. Seems pretty nostalgic to me.

And then of course, there's the term "The Gay Nineties."

Source: The Nifty Nineties (1941), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBb48ELMm2g

Follow up, where people as aware of what times were like 50-60 years ago as we are now?

Were the 1890s a particularly stable time to be alive? I was under the impression thing were sliding downhill pretty rapidly, but then again, I do live in the South.