Victorian Nudes, Drawing Fine Lines at Fig Leaves

The Victorian era witnessed a political push for indecency laws.On any given day in any given city in nearly every neighborhood, foot traffic and passersby would be compelled to overlook the shockingly common sight of partially clad prostitutes and lower-class mistresses seeing Gentlemen into their gilded coaches at curbside. As a side effect of the [...]

Whiskey or Whisky?

Let’s have a drink and talk about this.The spirit has been around long before Victoria’s reign, but at least two of us refer to it in our WIPs, so I thought it worthy of discussion. I must start off by saying I hate the stuff–and I don’t know what you mean when you use the [...]

Period Quotes

Thought I’d pass along these interesting period quotes I came across in a special edition of The Citizens’ Companion, a periodical written for Civil War civilian reenactors. These are from the August, 2006 special edition:

“In private, watch your thoughts; in your family, watch your temper; in society, watch your tongue.”

Original Source: Civil War Etiquette; Martine’s [...]

Heraldry, Fashionably Revived if Under-regulated

An interest in classical heraldic elements was revived during the Victorian Era, hand-in-hand with the revival of Elizabethan and Renaissance Eras and nostalgia for pageantry.
Most heraldry designed in the Victorian era was intentionally presumptuous. It crowded as many illustrious affectations into as small a space as possible. The result was beautiful and increasingly detailed heraldic [...]

Robber baron causes panic 1873

Twelve years of unchecked expansion (1865-1873), the economy was bloated from inflation, an excess of speculation, and one man’s mistake combine for Panic. For 5 years after the 1873 panic, banks closed (37), brokerage houses shut their doors (2), markets deflated, American’s faith in the economy was nonexistent, and the nation seemed on the verge [...]

Battle of Yalu River (1894)

It involved the Japanese and the Chinese navies, and was the largest naval engagement of the First Sino-Japanese War. The Yalu River is the border between Korea and China. This battle was actually fought at the mouth of this river, in the Korea Bay (or the Yellow Sea, depending on who you ask).
A Japanese fleet [...]

Claim your land now! (Before all the good parts are taken.)

Considered worthless desert some years before 1893, on Sept. 16 of that year, 100,000+ people gathered in the Cherokee Strip of Oklahoma to claim land the US Government had given to the Native Americans in a forced relocation better known as “The Trail of Tears”.
With one gunshot (that was probably heard by only half the [...]

Agatha Christie is born in 1890

I wanted to do something on this, but couldn’t find anything about this last day, only the war itself. So Dear Agatha is was!In 1873, the last German troops leave France upon completion of payment of indemnity.
Born Mary Clarissa Agatha Miller in Torquay, Devon, England, Agatha Christie wrote 80 novels, 30 short story collections, 15 [...]

Civil War Ladies’ Hairstyles and Hair Accessories

When I first became a Civil War reenactor, I had a lot of misconceptions about how women wore their hair back then. Most of this misinformation, I have to admit, came from Hollywood’s inaccurate portrayals of women of the period.

Just don’t get me started on blue eyeshadow!

One of the biggest mistakes I myself made as [...]

Oh, say can you see?

Not that it has anything to do directly with the Victorian Era, but in 1814 Frances Scott Key composed the Star Spangled Banner. It was regarded as the US national anthem by the armed forces during the 19th century, however. In 1916, by executive order, President Woodrow Wilson made it officially the National Anthem.
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0194015.htmlhttp://americanhistory.si.edu/ssb/