Scrooge, or, Marley’s Ghost A Ride on a Tramcar through Belfast Fire! Race for the Muratti Cup at Manchester The Countryman and the Cinematograph What Happened on Twenty-third Street, New York City The Man with the Rubber Head Cunard Vessel at Liverpool The Big Swallow Building Up and Demolishing the Star Theatre Nankin Road, …
Here’s a wonderful thing. In 1994 a stack of negatives was found in a cellar by workmen demolishing a shop. The prints turned out to be the largest surviving collection of actuality films anywhere in the world, and their restoration is almost certainly the best window on to life in Edwardian England. Sagar Mitchell and …
Theodore Roosevelt towers over the Progressive Era like nobody else – he rose to fame at its inception, became president at its height and died as it was spluttering out. Viewed from the 21st century he seems like a mass of contradictions – a strongman intellectual, a populist warmonger who won the Nobel Peace Prize. …
President William McKinley was shot by anarchist Leon Czolgosz on September 6th, 1901, during a visit to the Pan-American Exposition at the Temple of Music in Buffalo, New York. He died eight days later of gangrene caused by the gunshot wounds. He was the third American president to have been assassinated in forty years – …
The Edwardian Era is a short one – a decade at its basic understanding, 14 years in its extended version – but it’s nevertheless an age that lives on in the memories more than any royalty-based-group-of-years since. Usually it’s referred to as a pleasant break between the stern seriousness of the Victorians and the horrors …
Trawling through the years there’s always a lot of talk of the ending of one era and the beginning of another. Much of it is the sort of bluster engaged in to promote an area of study. In 1901 with the start of the 20th century, the death of Victoria (and later McKinley) and the …
These days you can’t move for historical reenactment shows, but back in the heady days of 1999 the concept was new, and hadn’t been swallowed up by the often frustrating enforced narratives and predetermined “journeys” which have now made the subgenre barely watchable. The members of the family tasked with living in 1900 find the …
The funeral of Queen Victoria is held at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle American anarchist Leon Czolgosz shoots U.S. President William McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York. McKinley dies 8 days later. Annie Edson Taylor, a 63-year old schoolteacher from Bay City, Michigan, became the first person to plunge over Niagara Falls …
Psst – come and join my Patreon here – https://www.patreon.com/centuriesofsound – and get access to our radio podcasts in January! MP3 direct download | Itunes | Mixcloud | Feedburner (RSS) | MP3 pack Escaping a blinkered view of early 20th century recorded music sometimes seems like an impossible task. If the Edwardian era is …
Time inexorably marches on at a 12x speed, and sometimes there isn’t the opportunity to fully immerse myself in the moment. I bought this book at Oxfam two weeks ago, but have only had time to read the introduction and two chapters. The one on entertainment was excellent, its description of the cultural value of …
Jonathan Schneer – London 1900: The Imperial Metropolis Read More »
