thevictorian-things-blog

[thevictorian-things-blog]

Bibliography

Primary Sources:

1. Beckett, Gilbert. (1846) ‘Electric Telegraphs for Families.’ [Image]. Punch Historical Archive. Web. Accessed 27th April 2018. Available at: http://find.galegroup.com/pnch/infomark.do?action=interpret&source=gale&prodId=PNCH&userGroupName=livjm&tabID=T003&docPage=article&searchType=AdvancedSearchForm&docId=ES700137106&type=multipage&contentSet=LTO&version=1.0&finalAuth=true

2. Horsley, J.C. (1843). ‘Greetings Card’. [Image]. Web. Accessed 27th April 2018. Available at: https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/the-first-christmas-card

3. ‘The Game of Chess Played between London and Portsmouth, through the Electric Telegraph of the South Western Railway, 10th April’ (1845). [Image]. Illustrated London News. Web. Accessed 27th April 2018. Available at: http://find.galegroup.com/iln/infomark.do?&source=gale&prodId=ILN&userGroupName=livjm&tabID=T003&docPage=article&docId=HN3100011760&type=multipage&contentSet=LTO&version=1.0

4. Great Northern, North Eastern, and North British Railways.’ (1899). [Image]. Illustrated London News. Accessed 27th April 2018. Available at: http://find.galegroup.com/iln/newspaperRetrieve.do?sgHitCountType=None&sort=DateAscend&tabID=T003&prodId=ILN&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchId=R1&searchType=BasicSearchForm&currentPosition=173&qrySerId=Locale%28en%2C%2C%29%3AFQE%3D%28KE%2CNone%2C8%29railways%3AAnd%3ALQE%3D%28da%2CNone%2C19%2918420101+-+19011231%24&retrieveFormat=MULTIPAGE_DOCUMENT&userGroupName=livjm&inPS=true&contentSet=LTO&&docId=&docLevel=FASCIMILE&workId=&relevancePageBatch=HN3100164919&contentSet=ILN&callistoContentSet=ILN&docPage=article&hilite=y&tabLimiterIndex=&tabLimiterValue=

 Secondary Sources:

1. ‘The first Christmas card.’ https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/the-first-christmas-card. N.d. Web. Accessed 27th April 2018. 

2. Gange, David. The Victorians. England: Oneworld Productions, 2016.

3. Hwang, Haewon. London Underground Spaces: Representing the Victorian City, 1840-1915. Scotland: Edinburgh University Press, 2013.

4. Morus, Iwan Rhys. ‘The Nervous System of Britain: Space, Time and the Electric Telegraph in the Victorian Age’. The British Journal for the History of Science. (December 2000) 455-475. 

5. Richard, Tim. Sweets: A History of Temptation. Reading: Bantam Press, 2002.

6. Toman, John.  Kilvert's World of Wonders: Growing up in Mid-Victorian England. Cambridge: Lutterworth Press, 2013.

7. Vann, J. Don. Victorian Periodicals and Victorian Society. Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1994.

8. Whiteley, Shelia. Christmas, Ideology and Popular Culture. Scotland: Edinburgh University Press, 2008.

[thevictorian-things-blog]

Comic books are still hugely popular in modern day Britain, and worldwide, millions being sold every single year! Some of the most popular comics have spawned huge movie franchises, some of which I'm sure you all know!!

Rather than being purely focused on comedic value, comic books that exist today rely heavily on story lines and plot, whilst still incorporating some aspects of what made them famous in the Victorian Times.

[thevictorian-things-blog]

Comic Books, otherwise known at the time as Comic Periodicals, often contained, ‘jokes, comic verse, riddles, parodies, caricatures, puns, cartoons and satire’. (Vann, 1994, 278). The first comic book to be released was titled, ‘Comic Cuts’, by a reporter called Alfred Harmsworth.

http://brbl-archive.library.yale.edu/exhibitions/illustratedword/comics/09comics.html

[thevictorian-things-blog]

Railways in Britain we developed throughout Queen Victoria’s reign, and used frequently by travellers in the late 19th century. In this time period, ‘railways had become the most important symbol of industrial, economic and financial power’ (Toman, 2013, 90). Above shows a timetable of trains in the month of July 1899, between the journey form the East Coast to Scotland.

Illustrated London News [London, England] 22 July 1899: 85. Illustrated London News. Web. 27 Apr. 2018.

[thevictorian-things-blog]

Just Imagine. . .

Your toilet isn't in the house, its in a shed at the bottom of the garden or worse, down the street, a communal one you share with neighbours. Known as a ‘ privy’ it was nothing more than a wooden bench with a hole underneath. 

[thevictorian-things-blog]

The Sewage System and the Flushing Toilet

As the population in Britain was increasing in the 19th century, the toilet situation was not matching up, up to 100 people could be sharing a ‘toilet’, ie: a hole in the ground, and therefore the sewage began to spill out onto the streets (!!!) and into the rivers, consequently contaminating the drinking water of the city leading to thousands of deaths. To fix the problem, the government decided to build a sewerage system, that was fully built and completed in 1865! A notable time was after a hot summer in 1858, the heat mixed with the rotting open sewage resulted in ‘The Great Stink’! 

The city was unclean and unhygienic and an unpleasant place to live, ‘the effective removal of filth and waste from the body of the city is essential in forging and maintaining social, psychological and cultural boundaries.’ (Hwang, 2013,19) 

https://www.baus.org.uk/museum/164/the_flush_toilet

[thevictorian-things-blog]

‘Unclaimed’ babies

Know what they are? In 1864 a mould was created by Fryers of Lancashire for jelly bears, and they came out looking more like chunky babies, hence they were given the name unclaimed babies! Dark humour of the time as ‘unclaimed babies were a part of life back then - people would leave them on church steps and its possible that people even found the name amusing.’ (Richardson, 2004). In 1953 they were launched with the name ‘jelly babies’. 

https://www.bing.com/images/search?view=detailV2&ccid=UI7iD9LP&id=034196C3F75E59D459C178AC1A6641DF099EBBFE&thid=OIP.UI7iD9LP-7x2o3vVsEuAmgHaHZ&mediaurl=https%3a%2f%2fs-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com%2f564x%2f00%2fa1%2f14%2f00a114b4ea0a99527cff4674f770ccb1.jpg&exph=563&expw=564&q=jelly+babies&simid=608021106231479538&selectedIndex=19&ajaxhist=0

[thevictorian-things-blog]

Telegraphs have advanced in leaps and bounds since the 19th century, its most comparable invention in modern day is to the phone, which most of the population value and make use of nowadays.

 http://www.phonesworld.co.uk/mobile-phone-contracts-a-brief-sneak-peek/

[thevictorian-things-blog]

FUN FACT: A game of chess was even played over the telegraph in 1845!

http://find.galegroup.com/iln/infomark.do?&source=gale&prodId=ILN&userGroupName=livjm&tabID=T003&docPage=article&docId=HN3100011760&type=multipage&contentSet=LTO&version=1.0

[thevictorian-things-blog]

The Telegraph was invented and developed in the 1840′s by Samuel Morse in order for talking and messaging to become easier. In the Punch article above, the intended purpose of this piece of technology was for husband and wife to sort their disputes, without actually having to face one another.

‘Cultural Historians of nineteenth century science and technology are increasingly agreed that the electric telegraph had a crucial role to play in Victorian techno-scientific culture’ (Morus,200, 455).

Punch Historical Archive [London, England] 19 Dec.1846: 253.

http://find.galegroup.com/pnch/infomark.do?&source=gale&prodId=PNCH&userGroupName=livjm&tabID=T003&docPage=article&searchType=AdvancedSearchForm&docId=ES700137106&type=multipage&contentSet=LTO&version=1.0

[thevictorian-things-blog]

Approximately 1.7 billion Christmas Cards are sent in Britain every year!!! Even everyone's favourite love to hate family annually release a family picture Christmas card!

https://www.usmagazine.com/stylish/news/kardashian-christmas-card-2017-jeans-where-to-buy/

[thevictorian-things-blog]

The first Christmas card! - Sent in 1843 by Henry Cole, illustrated by John Calcott Horsley it features ‘three generations of the Cole family’. He put them up for sale at a shilling per card, which was pricey at the time! This was a time where Christmas was becoming more commercialised, Charles Dickens’ published A Christmas Carol in ‘All The Year Round’ in 1843! 

‘The ‘traditional’ English Christmas was invented between the 1830s and 1880s. It’s invention was directly connected to the processes of industrialisation and urbanisation and only indirectly connected to religion.’ (Storey, 2008, 17), echoing similarities to now, as Christmas has become one of if not the most expensive time of year, very much commercialised. 

https://www.vam.ac.uk/articles/the-first-christmas-card 

[thevictorian-things-blog]

The Victorian Era

A time of great technological advances, the reign of Queen Victoria saw a variety of new inventions, most of which we still use today, albeit adapted with time. Take a look through our timeline of inventions, you may surprised by what you find. 

‘All this evocation is fitting, since the teeming , fog-bound streets of Victorian cities were recognised at the time as a dizzying sensory extravaganza.’ (Gange, 2016, 15)