Spread the love

Even though the Victorian era was, relatively speaking, not that long ago, looking at pictures or old items from it can feel like stepping back into an alien world. However, that’s no reason to stop exploring the time that gave us the telephone or Sherlock Holmes.

We’ve gathered some of the best posts from this online group dedicated to sharing interesting posts and pictures from the Victorian era. So get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote the most interesting posts and be sure to share your own thoughts and ideas in the comments section down below.

#1 Tabby And Dixie, The Two Kittens Gifted By Secretary Of State William Steward To Abraham Lincoln, Newly Elected President At The Time, In August Of 1861

#2 Ida B. Wells In The 1890s. She Was A Leader Of The Civil Rights Movement, A Suffragist, And A Founder Of The Naacp

#3 Photographs Of Cats With Silly Descriptions, Taken By Henry Pointer, Part Of A Series Of Around 200 Cat Photos From The 1870s-1880s, Known As The Brighton Cats ✨

When scrolling through sepia-toned photographs of the Victorian era, it is easy to assume that the 19th century was a deeply serious time filled with unsmiling people trapped in very tight clothing. While the corsets were indeed breathtakingly snug, the era itself was a bizarre carnival of contradictions, deeply weird trends, and practices that would send a modern health inspector into immediate cardiac arrest.

Beneath the veneer of stiff upper lips and prudish morality lay a society obsessed with the macabre, prone to poisoning themselves for aesthetic reasons, and employing people for jobs that sound entirely made up. If you see a photo of a stoic Victorian family, look closer, there is a non-zero chance that one of the people in the picture is actually deceased.

#4 Photographs Of A Trio Of Women Frolicking, C. 1905

#5 German Paper-Mache “Kitchen” Doll, The Cone-Shaped Skirt Unhinges At Center Front To Reveal A Miniature Fitted Kitchen. 1870

#6 Ladies From Zanzibar, Tanzania, Dressed On Their Best, Some Have Gold Chains And Bright Smiles, Circa 1890s And 1900s

The practice of post-mortem photography, or “memento mori,” was surprisingly common. Because photography was expensive and rapid transit rare, a family often wouldn’t have a picture of a loved one until they died, leading them to prop up the dearly departed in lifelike poses for one final, slightly unsettling group shot.

#7 Miriam Kate Williams, AKA Vulcana, Welsh Strongwoman And Bodybuilder C. 1900

#8 “The Irritating Gentleman” By Berthold Woltze, 1874. The Girl Has A Tear Near Her Eye And Behind The Man Is An Older Man Ignoring The Scene

#9 African American Ladies Pose For Their Solo Shots, Circa 1890s

If the long passed people in the photos don’t disturb you, the fashion choices of the living certainly should. The Victorians loved vibrant colors, likely as a rebellion against the relentless gray sludge of industrial London sky. Their absolute favorite hue was a brilliant, eye-searing emerald green made popular by a dye called “Scheele’s Green.”

#10 “The Crawlers”, 1877. ‘The Crawlers’ Were The Lowest Of The British Poor

This elderly widow is sitting outside a tailor’s shop, holding a baby while its mother works. She was given a cup of tea and a slice of bread daily in return

#11 Before Sequins, There Were Beetle Wings. Fabric From 1858 Embellished With Bug Wings

#12 Three Women Dressed In Their Sunday Best, Marshall, Texas, 1900 ✨

It looked stunning on gowns, exquisite on wallpaper, and festive on children’s toys, unfortunately, its primary ingredient was arsenic. It wasn’t uncommon for women wearing these toxic frocks to suffer open sores on their skin, or for households with green wallpaper to slowly grow ill from inhaling poisonous dust. Historians have extensively documented how this fatal attraction to bright green baffled doctors who couldn’t figure out why their most stylish patients kept wasting away, proving that being a fashion victim used to be a literal diagnosis.

#13 An Exhausted Mother Making Matchboxes. Her Child Is Asleep On The Floor Under The Table. C.1900

#14 French Actress Sarah Bernhardt, Who Was Known For Her Peculiar Tastes, Like Having Her Own Luxury Coffin Where She Slept And Her Favorite Hat With A Real Bat. Photos Circa 1860s-80s

#15 The All-Female Fire Brigade At Girton College, Cambridge, 1877-1878

The everyday hustle of the Victorian street was equally strange, filled with professions whose descriptions sound like entries in a dystopian Mad Libs. Before the iPhone alarm clock revolutionized our sleep schedules, people relied on a “knocker-upper.” This was a person, usually an elderly man or woman wielding, generally, a long bamboo stick, who was paid to walk the streets at dawn tapping on bedroom windows until their clients woke up for their factory shifts. It was a human snooze button you couldn’t easily ignore.

#16 Portrait Of American Actress Maude Adams, CA. 1900

#17 A Girl With Down’s Syndrome, Late Nineteenth Century. On The Album Is Written “Imbeciles & Idiots Of “Mongol” Type”

#18 Girl Skipping Rope At Her Backyard, Circa 1890s

Even further down the career ladder were the “pure finders.” In an age before synthetic chemicals, dog feces, known euphemistically as “pure”, was a valuable commodity used in the tanning process to cure leather. Armies of poor collectors would scour the streets, scooping up canine deposits to sell to tanneries, creating an entire economy based on scooping refuse that Charles Dickens himself observed with morbid fascination.

#19 Snow Fight Between Ladies At Cumberland Valley State Normal School, Circa 1900

#20 Two Children In Spitalfields, One Of The Worst Slums In London, 1903

#21 Lovers Oscar Wilde And Lord Alfred ‘Bosie’ Douglas At Oxford In 1893

Perhaps the most terrifying aspect of Victorian life, however, was dinner. Without modern regulations like the FDA, food adulteration was rampant and terrifyingly creative. Unscrupulous bakers would cut flour with chalk, alum, or plaster of Paris to make bread look whiter and weigh more, while milkmen watered down their product and added sheep’s brains to create a frothy “cream” layer on top.

#22 Ambrotype Of A Raccoon Resting On A Chair, 1855-1860

#23 Alphonse Bertillon, The French Detective Who Invented The Mugshot, Tried The Technique Out In His Young Daughter, 23-Month-Old François, In October Of 1893

#24 ‘lady With Her Horse On A Snowy Day’. Félix Thiollier, 1899. Shows That It Wasn’t Necessary To Stay Still For Photos

If this culinary nightmare made you ill, the medical remedies were often worse than the disease. You could soothe a teething baby with syrup laced with morphine or treat a persistent cough with heroin, which was marketed by Bayer as a non-addictive wonder drug. As records of Victorian pharmacy practices show, you could walk into a chemist shop and buy enough laudanum to knock out a horse, all without a prescription, which explains why so many people in those old photographs look slightly dazed.

#25 Baby, Us, 1891-94. She’s Sitting On A Cushion For Extra Height. So Cute!!

#26 Princess Alix Of Hesse, Granddaughter Of Queen Victoria (1890)

#27 Found This Nestles In The Pages Of An Old Family Bible

#28 Lady Pulling A Funny Face For The Camera

#29 Trapeze Artist Laverie Cooper (“Charmion”), 1904

#30 A Doll Crafted From Scraps And A Shoe Heel. It Belonged To A Child In The Slums Of London, C 1905

#31 Glass Negative Of A Irish Family, The Stafford’s, 29 Of June 1904

#32 Laloo Ramparsad (1874-1905) Was A Famous Indian Muslim Sideshow Performer Who Made A Good Living Traveling In Circuses And Sideshows

Was An Advocate Against Using The Term “Freak” In Advertising. He Was Born With A Parasitic Twin Who Was Attached To His Sternum

#33 Photograph Of The Moon By Lewis M. Rutherfurd, Taken In 1865. National Gallery Of Canada

#34 Ella Harper, Born 1870 In Tennessee. She Had “Curved Knees” And Was A Circus Exhibit From Age 12

She was called “Camel Girl” and the “most wonderful freak of nature.” She was paid the equivalent of $6300 a week

#35 Sarah Forbes Bonetta, Queen Victoria’s Goddaughter

#36 Peter Jackson, 1889. He Became A Boxer After Using His Fists To Quell A Mutiny, Later Having An International Career

#37 A Serious Looking Princess Dagmar (Future Empress Of Russia) Being Photobombed By Her Elder Brother Prince William Of Denmark (Future King Of The Hellenes) From Behind Curtains, 1861

#38 Mothers Holding Their Babies Still For Photographs. They Were Trying To Blend In. 1850s-80s

#39 Before And After Photo Retouching

#40 Coal Miners Returning From The Depths After A Day’s Work, Belgium, C. 1900

#41 Portrait Of Young African American Lady, Really Like Those Gilded Frames, Circa 1850s-60s

#42 Krao Farini, An ‘Adopted’ Sideshow Performer Born In 1876. She Had Hypertrichosis (Excess Hair) And Was Said To Be The Missing Link Between Apes And Humans

#43 Actress And Dancer Cleo De Merode Walking And Posing For Photographers, 1905

#44 A Second Hand Clothing Shop In St. Giles, London. Late 19th Century. The Child Is Looking At The Photographer While The Women Are Talking

#45 One Of The Most Controversial Photographs Of The Period: ‘Fading Away’, 1858

#46 Glass Negative Of Future Queen Mary (Of Teck) In Her Wedding Dress, 6 Of July 1893

#47 The Seven Sutherland Sisters, C 1890s-1900. They Had Floor Length Hair And Were Celebrity Singers. At The End Of Concerts They Would Let Their Hair Down. They Died Penniless

#48 Portraits Of African American Ladies, Circa 1890s

#49 Portraits Of Black American Families Taken By William Bullard, 1900-1904

#50 Photograph Of A Woman Wearing An Embellished Hair Snood, 1860

#51 My Maternal Great-Great-Grandmother Circa 1865

#52 Jamie Winkler Smiles While Posing With His Little Fluffy Friend, 1890s. Glass Negatives

#53 Ella Ewing Posing With A Regular Size Woman By The Tree, Circa 1890s. She Was 7ft 4.5 (Billed As 8ft4 By The Circus)

#54 Portrait Of An Unidentified Young Woman, Circa 1890

#55 British Actress Maud Branscombe In 1883, Posing For Some Photos In Black Dress. Considered One Of The Beauties Of Her Time

#56 Photograph By Lady Hawarden, Showing Her Husband And Daughter Bathed In Sunlight. The Moment Is Open To Interpretation. 1858-61

#57 Queen Victoria’s Bedroom At Buckingham Palace, 1848

#58 African American Woman, Us, 1860s. I Love The Big Bow Under Her Chin From Her Bonnet. She Looks Like She’s Slightly Smiling

#59 Photograph Taken By Clementina, Lady Hawarden, Of Two Of Her Daughters Holding Pomeranians, 1858-1861 ✨

#60 “How Can She Vote When The Fashions Are So Wide, And The Voting Booths Are So Narrow?”, Us, 1894

#61 Young Woman With Jewels On Her Hair, Circa 1860s

#62 Some African American Couples In The 1880s To 1890s

#63 Upper Middle Class Family With Very Elaborate Hair Posing In Front Of… A Blanket Nailed To The Wall. Lady On The Left Has A Very Unique Hairstyle. By William Harding, New Zealand

#64 The Back Of This Photo Says ‘Grandma’s Maid’. Was It Common For Women To Keep Photos Of Their Maids? What Were Their Relationships Like?

#65 Harriett Valentine, Born 1876, Brooklyn. She And Her Baby Passed Away Shortly After Childbirth. She Was Only 24

#66 Irish Children Pose With Their Gifts, 24 Of December 1894. Glass Negative

#67 Girls With Down’s Syndrome At The Institution For Feeble-Minded Children, New York , 1902

#68 A Couple Poses For Their Portrait, Looks Really Young, 1890s

#69 Wetnurses/Nursemaids Pose With Children And Help Pose Those Children For Their Portrait, Circa 1850-60s

#70 Miss Gabrielle Ray And Miss Dorothy Craske

#71 The First Same-Sex Marriage In Spain

#72 Hulda Warren Bump (AKA Minnie Warren) (1849-1878) Was A Famous American Circus Performer Who Was Known For Her Singing Talents

#73 Glass Negative Of Bertha Barber With Her Pet Parrot, Circa 1890s. Cm Bell Estudio

#74 1880s People Sharing Ice Cream From A Tray

#75 Mrs. Carrigan And Her Baby In A Fancy Pram, Circa 1902

#76 Dean Shelton Of Tamore And Her 7 Children, Glass Negative, Ireland Circa Early 1900s

#77 Edith (On The Left) And Ethel Dillon Hug Their Friend Which Poses Proudly, 22 Of September 1882, Glass Negative

#78 Myrtle Corbin, Born 1868 In Tennessee. She Had Four Legs And Two Pelvises But Was Healthy

#79 Conjoined Twins Millie And Christine, Born In 1851. They Were Sold As Babies And Forced In To Performances And Freak Shows

#80 The Vokes Family, New York, 1870s. The Woman On The Left Has Very Thick Hair, Was This A Hair Piece?

from Bored Panda https://ift.tt/eJsXi4I
via IFTTT source site : boredpanda

Bored Panda, IFTTT