Victoria and Albert’s dream house

I was given a heads up about this interesting article at The Royalist. Apparently, even Queens want a home they can call their own.

Flamenco Guitars and Gypsy Troupes Part I

Victorians found the sonorous notes of guitars and their accompanying wailing love songs to be especially endearing during moonlit forays or on starry nights.
Music was evolving both on and off the Continent (Europe), like everything else during the Victorian Era. International sentiments were mixing into America’s melting pot, including in the realms of musical [...]

Mary Walker, M.D.

I researched Dr. Mary Walker years ago and used her along with a few other Victorian women whose stories I admired as a composite for my fictional young heroine in my young adult novel, UNDER THE GUNS.

Mary Walker grew up in rural Oswego, New York and graduated from Syracuse Medical College in 1855. Her parents [...]

How Victorians crossed a river before a bridge was built: Part I

This morning I sat before the computer painting a word picture of my heroine riding a cantankerous mare named Maud across the dusty plains of Alberta to the Bow River at Calgary. She needed to get to the other side, but I knew there wasn’t a bridge across the river in 1883. How would she [...]

VICTORIAN FASTLANE: Part 1, The Tycoons

WELCOME to a new series on the Tycoons,the fascinating men who created today’s corporate world. Their heyday matched Victoria’s reign almost exactly – although some say their age ended when the Titanic sank in 1912.The Tycoons created the industrial system that gave the United States the most powerful and dynamic economy in the world. Masters [...]

A Dress for Every Occasion

Just as we wear different outfits to the office, a night on the town, exercise, shopping or working or lounging around the house, the Victorian woman of the 1860s had a dress for every occasion.

The main feature of all these dresses (excluding formal wear) was that they all fastened in the front, whether one-piece or [...]

Chocolate is life

Oh, wait…what do you mean it isn’t part of the Food Pyramid? Are you sure? That has to be an oversight! Sacrilege! Blasphemy! Oh the horror! Who do I talk to about changing that?
Ahem…right then. So before the 1840s, chocolate was mostly drank, had a bitter taste, and wasn’t in solid eating form. Luckily, Joseph [...]

Mourning Rituals and Customs

Mourning Rituals and Customs in the Victorian Era*Death is a subject most of us don’t like to think about or even talk about, but Victorians openly accepted it. This is evidenced by the extensive mourning rituals and the social acceptance of being in mourning.
My hometown boasts one of the country’s first Victorian municipal cemeteries (http://www.fomh.org/). [...]

Those Free Lovin’ Victorians

So you think the Victorians were prudish, uptight people in high-necked clothing, huh? Well I suppose at certain times during the period, and with certain people, that description is apt. Certainly there were quite a few “purity writers” during the 19th century. On the other hand, there was rampant prostitution, an increase [...]

Not quite the era…

It’s the end of the world, as we know it… [REM, Its the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)]On Wednesday night, at 2 minutes and 3 seconds after 1 in the morning, it’ll be 01:02:03 04.05.06. Apparently, this isn’t going to happen again until 2106.