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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.
This post may include affiliate links.
#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
RELATED:
#2
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 ✨
#3
German Paper-Mache "Kitchen" Doll, The Cone-Shaped Skirt Unhinges At Center Front To Reveal A Miniature Fitted Kitchen. 1870
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
Ida B. Wells In The 1890s. She Was A Leader Of The Civil Rights Movement, A Suffragist, And A Founder Of The Naacp
#5
Photographs Of A Trio Of Women Frolicking, C. 1905
Damned_Cat 9 hours ago
What a bunch of hussies showing their ankles and calves like that! LOL!
#6
African American Ladies Pose For Their Solo Shots, Circa 1890s
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
"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
#8
Before Sequins, There Were Beetle Wings. Fabric From 1858 Embellished With Bug Wings
#9
Ladies From Zanzibar, Tanzania, Dressed On Their Best, Some Have Gold Chains And Bright Smiles, Circa 1890s And 1900s
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
Miriam Kate Williams, AKA Vulcana, Welsh Strongwoman And Bodybuilder C. 1900
#11
Three Women Dressed In Their Sunday Best, Marshall, Texas, 1900 ✨
#12
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
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
"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
#14
An Exhausted Mother Making Matchboxes. Her Child Is Asleep On The Floor Under The Table. C.1900
#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"
Renee Kamphuys 9 hours ago (edited)
Important side note here is that the terms imbeci*e and idiots did not yet have the derogatory meaning of today but were classifications of (lower) intelligence
#18
Lovers Oscar Wilde And Lord Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas At Oxford In 1893
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
Princess Alix Of Hesse, Granddaughter Of Queen Victoria (1890)
#20
Girl Skipping Rope At Her Backyard, Circa 1890s
#21
Two Children In Spitalfields, One Of The Worst Slums In London, 1903
Nathaniel He/Him Cis-Het 10 hours ago
What about the third person in the window? Or can no one else see them?
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
Lady Pulling A Funny Face For The Camera
#24
Trapeze Artist Laverie Cooper ("Charmion"), 1904
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
Snow Fight Between Ladies At Cumberland Valley State Normal School, Circa 1900
#26
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
Hippopotamuses 9 hours ago (edited)
Alphonse Bertillon and his wife had no children of their own. Apparently the photo is of his nephew, François.
#27
'lady With Her Horse On A Snowy Day'. Félix Thiollier, 1899. Shows That It Wasn't Necessary To Stay Still For Photos
highwaycrossingfrog 8 hours ago (edited)
The technology to take everyday photographs of objects in motion was developed from around the late 1870s onwards, and was widely possible in the late 1880s-1890s. For the majority of the Victorian era, it was necessary to stay still for photographic subjects to be successfully captured.
#28
Baby, Us, 1891-94. She's Sitting On A Cushion For Extra Height. So Cute!!
#29
Found This Nestles In The Pages Of An Old Family Bible
PeepPeep the duck 8 hours ago
HOw sad they really wanted a Robert and question that name for lucks sakes upon the third child - only for it to happen again. I’m not a mother but this card is very sad indeed
#30
Sarah Forbes Bonetta, Queen Victoria's Goddaughter
highwaycrossingfrog 9 hours ago
From Wikipedia: "Sarah Forbes Bonetta or Sally Forbes Bonetta (born Aina or Ina; c. 1843 – 15 August 1880) was ward and goddaughter of Queen Victoria. She was believed to have been a titled member of the Yewa clan of the Yoruba people in West Africa, who was orphaned during a war with the nearby Kingdom of Dahomey as a child, and was later enslaved by King Ghezo of Dahomey. She was given by Ghezo as a "gift" to Captain Frederick E. Forbes of the British Royal Navy and became a goddaughter of Queen Victoria. She married Captain James Pinson Labulo Davies, a wealthy Lagos philanthropist."
#31
Actress And Dancer Cleo De Merode Walking And Posing For Photographers, 1905
Multa Nocte 6 hours ago
One of the most beautiful actresses and dancers ever. She was a stunner.
#32
Glass Negative Of A Irish Family, The Stafford's, 29 Of June 1904
#33
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
Bored Jellyfish 6 hours ago
Laloo’s. managers would advertise his parasitic twin as his “sister” and dress it in female clothes to attract gullible masses (the twin did have male genitalia, though lacking testes).
#34
Photograph Of The Moon By Lewis M. Rutherfurd, Taken In 1865. National Gallery Of Canada
David Paterson 7 hours ago
Contrast enhanced? You can't normally see that many craters at once.
#35
Before And After Photo Retouching
#36
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
FranSinclair 7 hours ago
Sheesh good for her! If anyone laughed at her, i hope she was able to laugh right back and think "you pay my bills 💅 "
#37
Peter Jackson, 1889. He Became A Boxer After Using His Fists To Quell A Mutiny, Later Having An International Career
#38
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
#39
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
Hippopotamuses 9 hours ago
It appears, from the later photos, that she shaved her torso, arms, and legs. Presumably to fit in with her sideshow story.
#40
A Second Hand Clothing Shop In St. Giles, London. Late 19th Century. The Child Is Looking At The Photographer While The Women Are Talking
FranSinclair 7 hours ago
Idt the lady in the white apron is too entertained by what shes talking about
#41
A Doll Crafted From Scraps And A Shoe Heel. It Belonged To A Child In The Slums Of London, C 1905
#42
Coal Miners Returning From The Depths After A Day's Work, Belgium, C. 1900
Hippopotamuses 9 hours ago
The trip down to the coal face would have been so claustrophobic, let alone what it would have been when you got there.
#43
Glass Negative Of Future Queen Mary (Of Teck) In Her Wedding Dress, 6 Of July 1893
#44
Portrait Of Young African American Lady, Really Like Those Gilded Frames, Circa 1850s-60s
#45
British Actress Maud Branscombe In 1883, Posing For Some Photos In Black Dress. Considered One Of The Beauties Of Her Time
#46
Mothers Holding Their Babies Still For Photographs. They Were Trying To Blend In. 1850s-80s
#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
Rose the Cook 3 hours ago
There was once a photo of my maternal grandmother with her hair that long. I remember seeing it as a child. No idea what became of it.
#49
Photograph Of A Woman Wearing An Embellished Hair Snood, 1860
#50
One Of The Most Controversial Photographs Of The Period: 'Fading Away', 1858
Forrest Hobbs 9 hours ago
This wasn't a plain photograph. It was a composite artwork formed from five separate photographs. "Although the photo was staged and the woman wasn't really dying, some people believed the composition didn't afford enough dignity to what was a tragic situation faced by many families." and "Albumen print from 1858 depicting a young woman dying of tuberculosis. It formed part of a series of 5 photographs showing her final moments."
#51
Queen Victoria's Bedroom At Buckingham Palace, 1848
#53
African American Woman, Us, 1860s. I Love The Big Bow Under Her Chin From Her Bonnet. She Looks Like She's Slightly Smiling
#55
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?
PeepPeep the duck 8 hours ago (edited)
Our family has a few. We also had a lot of out of the closet gays (Roma east Europe) up until today’s times including my mother, so it’s possible it is just a maid Photo btw.
#56
Jamie Winkler Smiles While Posing With His Little Fluffy Friend, 1890s. Glass Negatives
#57
Photograph Taken By Clementina, Lady Hawarden, Of Two Of Her Daughters Holding Pomeranians, 1858-1861 ✨
#58
Ella Ewing Posing With A Regular Size Woman By The Tree, Circa 1890s. She Was 7ft 4.5 (Billed As 8ft4 By The Circus)
#59
Portrait Of An Unidentified Young Woman, Circa 1890
#60
"How Can She Vote When The Fashions Are So Wide, And The Voting Booths Are So Narrow?", Us, 1894
Nathaniel He/Him Cis-Het 9 hours ago
One way to stop those pesky women from having the vote! I just hope they do not discover trousers!
#61
Photograph By Lady Hawarden, Showing Her Husband And Daughter Bathed In Sunlight. The Moment Is Open To Interpretation. 1858-61
David Paterson 7 hours ago
A woman photographer. A candid rather than posed shot. Interesting.
#64
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
#65
The First Same-Sex Marriage In Spain
Hippopotamuses 9 hours ago
Apparently. The first same-s*x marriage in Spain was by Marcela Gracia Ibeas and Elisa Sánchez Loriga in June 1901. When it was discovered that Elsia was a man, the presecution forced the to leave Spain. The marriage was never annulled. (Wikipedia)
#68
Girls With Down's Syndrome At The Institution For Feeble-Minded Children, New York , 1902
Nathaniel He/Him Cis-Het 9 hours ago (edited)
They look so miserable. I hope they had happy life despite being put into an institution.
#69
A Couple Poses For Their Portrait, Looks Really Young, 1890s
#70
Wetnurses/Nursemaids Pose With Children And Help Pose Those Children For Their Portrait, Circa 1850-60s
#71
Miss Gabrielle Ray And Miss Dorothy Craske
#72
Harriett Valentine, Born 1876, Brooklyn. She And Her Baby Passed Away Shortly After Childbirth. She Was Only 24
#73
Hulda Warren Bump (AKA Minnie Warren) (1849-1878) Was A Famous American Circus Performer Who Was Known For Her Singing Talents
Bored Jellyfish 6 hours ago
Her sister, Lavinia Warren, married General Tom Thumb (Charles Sherwood Stratton)
#75
Dean Shelton Of Tamore And Her 7 Children, Glass Negative, Ireland Circa Early 1900s
#76
Edith (On The Left) And Ethel Dillon Hug Their Friend Which Poses Proudly, 22 Of September 1882, Glass Negative
#77
Myrtle Corbin, Born 1868 In Tennessee. She Had Four Legs And Two Pelvises But Was Healthy
Bored Jellyfish 6 hours ago
Myrtle married and was the mother of five. Circus handouts would claim she had 3 children with one body and two with the other.
#78
1880s People Sharing Ice Cream From A Tray
#79
Conjoined Twins Millie And Christine, Born In 1851. They Were Sold As Babies And Forced In To Performances And Freak Shows
Bored Jellyfish 5 hours ago (edited)
Millie and Christine’s lives started out rough, but ended well. They were born into slavery, but they and their entire family was sold to J.P. Smith who would tour with a showman, exhibiting the girls. Their mother traveled with them. However, the showman later kidnapped the girls. He tried to show them in a “free” state and was reported, but fled overseas to the UK before any action could be taken. Because the UK abolished slavery, their owner, Smith couldn’t claim them as his property, but he instituted a suit on their mother’s behalf. The kidnapper hired a black woman to pose as their mother and coached her on how to testify, but it was not as believable as their real mother’s plea. The girls were returned to their mother, and later met Queen Victoria who gave them priceless mementos of their visit. With the end of the Civil War, they chose to stay with Smith’s widow and were pulling in $600 a week, putting a share of it into savings, later moving into a 10-room house
#80
The Vokes Family, New York, 1870s. The Woman On The Left Has Very Thick Hair, Was This A Hair Piece?
Susan Reid Smith 5 hours ago
It may be either. I have an 1897 reproduction Sears Catalog that shows all kinds of hair pieces.
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Forrest Hobbs 9 hours ago
persephone134: the Victorian era was a period of time - 1837-1901, being the reign of Queen Victoria. It applied everywhere on Earth, not just inside the British Empire.
Load More Replies... Forrest Hobbs 9 hours ago
persephone134: the Victorian era was a period of time - 1837-1901, being the reign of Queen Victoria. It applied everywhere on Earth, not just inside the British Empire.
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