The Whitechapel murders of 1888 are a sordid, unpleasant business, and the books, tours and new museum which attempt to romanticise and spin money out of the violence perpetrated on young women are nothing short of disgusting. ‘From Hell’, on the other hand, might be the only great piece of art to be inspired …
In 1887 23-year-old Nelly Bly talked her way into the offices of Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World, and talked the editor into letting her feign insanity in order to write an undercover report into the conditions at the Women’s Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell’s Island. Her investigation was a success in many ways – not only …
The late 19th Century was an astonishing time for invention – aside from recorded sound we have radio, electric lights, the telephone, the internal combustion engine, electric motors and of course motion pictures. In Roundhay, Leeds, on 14th October 1888, French inventor Louis Le Prince made the first ever film. It’s less than three seconds …
In the 1888 US presidential election, Democratic Party incumbent Grover Cleveland wins the popular vote, but loses the Electoral College vote to Republican challenger Benjamin Harrison. Elsewhere in the USA, Anne Sullivan begins teaching Helen Keller, Susan B. Anthony organizes a Congress for Women’s Rights in Washington, D.C., George Eastman registers the trademark Kodak, and …
MP3 download | Patreon | Apple | Mixcloud | Spotify | Castbox | Stitcher | RSS The gramophone and phonograph had been experimental toys for a decade, their inventors deciding to tinker with them from time to time in between other, more immediately lucrative projects. In 1887, aside from Edison’s occasional developments, Alexander Graham Bell’s …
For the final segment of general Victorian-era background, here’s Ruth Goodman’s book, which is substantially more interesting and informative than the macro-histories of the empire. Of course, most of what we’re coming to was recorded on the other side of the Atlantic, so perhaps I could’ve found something a little more relevant – but plenty …
An alternative history podcast rundown of the second half of Victoria’s reign, if one isn’t enough.
The follow-up to Victorian Farm seemed to be quite an obscure choice at first, but pharmacies turn out to offer more of a window onto Victorian life and society than even farms do, so there you go. Also, keeping Ruth Goodman on is a winning strategy. The Victorian Pharmacy [DVD]
A long-ish lecture series, quite good on overall political themes, but a bit lacking in a certain something – obviously I was most interested in popular culture, especially music, and it wasn’t really his area. As we will continue to see, finding worldwide perspectives seems to be difficult. The Great Courses – America in the …
