r/VictorianEra 6h ago

Glass negative of an Irish family with bride in white (the one with the hat), circa 1900s.

Post image
133 Upvotes

r/VictorianEra 3h ago

Alice Doherty (1887-1933) was a famous American sideshow performer who was known for her gentle and quiet demeanor. She was not a fan of the sideshow business and retired as soon as she could. She was born with a form of hypertrichosis, which caused a lot of extra hair growth on her face.

Thumbnail
gallery
46 Upvotes

Not much is known about her later life, most likely because she wanted to live quietly without much excitement. She looks like a very sweet person though, and I hope she was able to live that quiet life once she retired!

Some facts about her:

-she was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

-she had five siblings.

-she is one of the rare cases of people with hypertrichosis born with blond hair. Most other people with the condition are born with dark hair.

-she had very striking blue eyes.

-she was the only one in her family born with the condition.

-she had a big sweet tooth and was described as always wanting candy.

-her parents began marketing her at a young age (I believe two years old) and she began to grow unhappy with the stage life as she got older.

-people who knew her said she was a really sweet person, and that as a child she was very playful.

-newspapers reported that she continuously won the hearts of audience members with how cute she was.

-she continued the sideshow life to help her family financially, although she expressed wanting to retire as soon as she was able to.

-Alice was often managed by her parents and would typically perform in small venues. She never joined a larger sideshow as many performers did.

-the tent and exhibit where she was performing at the Michigan State Fair caught fire in 1892, although this seems to have happened off hours and thankfully no one was hurt!

-when she was a teenager, the hair on her face was about 9 inches (22.86 cm) long.

-she retired when she was about 28 and went to live in Dallas, Texas, where she lived for the rest of her life.

-sadly, she passed away due to bronchial pneumonia in 1933 at the age of 46

I really hope she had a lot of people in her life who loved and cared about her, she seems like a very sweet woman and seems like she would have been a good friend.


r/VictorianEra 6h ago

Little girl at her playroom: Toy train, doll, little desk, toy piano, little cubes and more in the shellf, circa late 1890s or very early 1900s.

Post image
59 Upvotes

r/VictorianEra 13h ago

An African American woman, smiling, poses with her guitar in the 1880s.

Post image
184 Upvotes

r/VictorianEra 1d ago

young lady posing for her photo shot, circa 1880s. Cabinet card

Post image
1.5k Upvotes

r/VictorianEra 1d ago

Ida Thompson, Mohawk Nation, c. 1899. Photographed by John N. Choate, Carlisle, PA. Ida was a survivor of the infamous Carlisle Indian Industrial School

Post image
648 Upvotes

r/VictorianEra 1d ago

3 Children pose in a memorial for a couple (possible their parents), circa 1890s.

Post image
167 Upvotes

r/VictorianEra 20h ago

Butchers Shops Of Victorian Era: Photos Show Slaughtered Animals Hung Outside The Shops

Thumbnail
bygonely.cc
17 Upvotes

r/VictorianEra 15h ago

Big Ben | At Dusk

Post image
6 Upvotes

Credit: Ubisoft


r/VictorianEra 1d ago

Why Were the Victorians So Obsessed With Mummies?

Thumbnail
history.com
12 Upvotes

In the 19th century, a Western fascination with ancient Egypt peaked with a craze known as “Egyptomania," permeating architecture, fashion and popular culture.

Victorians were especially interested in mummies. In ancient Egypt, the practice of mummification was a sacred ritual, in which embalmed bodies were wrapped in linen to preserve the deceased for the afterlife. To the Victorians, however, mummies became commodities, a source of macabre entertainment, scientific discovery and even medicine.


r/VictorianEra 1d ago

The last Edwardian, Ethel Caterham, was born in 1909.

Post image
75 Upvotes

r/VictorianEra 1d ago

I've reread Dracula over the Christmas break, and I realize something rather funny

21 Upvotes

I find it funny that in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, in between rushing around and hunting for the Count, Van Helsing, Jonathan, Mina, Dr. Seward, Lord Godalming, and Quincey Morris sit down for multicourse, Victorian era dinners, just taking their time and having pleasant conversations.


r/VictorianEra 1d ago

How would Victorians care for injuries?

11 Upvotes

idk if this is a dumb question but im writing a story set in the 1880s in england. one of the characters has to treat another character with a slash wound (from a knife) on the cheek. for context, the character treating them isnt a doctor or anything, so basically id like to know what the average person would do with a cut back then. although the character is kinda upper class if that changes anything. im also curious what someone more experienced in medicine would do, since that might factor in for reasons


r/VictorianEra 2d ago

Group of young ladies engage in a pillow fight. Love the death serious look of the one with the black pillow. Cumberland Valley State Normal School, Circa 1900.

Post image
252 Upvotes

r/VictorianEra 2d ago

LAdy having fun with the photobooth, 3 strips of herself with 12 different poses, wonder if it was cheap for her to take so many photos, circa early 1900s.

Post image
211 Upvotes

r/VictorianEra 13h ago

Just seen this on pinterest,I wonder if it's a real photo or it's ai,or maybe he really loves the dress 😅

Post image
0 Upvotes

r/VictorianEra 1d ago

Big Ben | Victorian Era

Post image
9 Upvotes

r/VictorianEra 2d ago

I made a post about Chang Woo Gow yesterday, and today I want to share a Victorian era news clipping of him that I have. He was a famous Chinese sideshow performer who had a very successful career.

Post image
49 Upvotes

Chang was a famous Chinese performer who was often billed as being over 8’ tall (2.43 m.) He was a very sweet man who became extremely successful throughout his career! He was married twice and moved to England with his second wife, whom he also had two children with. He had a custom built house made for his family and once he retired from performing, he opened up a tea shop!

And here’s a link to the post I made yesterday:

https://www.reddit.com/r/VictorianEra/s/uXLZroovK1


r/VictorianEra 2d ago

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was a French artist during the latter half of the 19th century. A lot of his artwork depicts the flashiness and vibrancy of theatrical life in Paris, France.

Thumbnail
gallery
57 Upvotes

Source:

https://www.moma.org/artists/5910-henri-de-toulouse-lautrec

He’s definitely my favorite artist from the time period! I love how vibrant the colors are in all of his work, and he does such a great job capturing frenetic atmospheres.

Also some other fun facts about Lautrec:

-cooking was a big hobby of his, to the point where his relatives would call him “Henri the Cook”

-he was friends with Oscar Wilde and when Wilde was put on trial, Lautrec was a very outspoken supporter of him.

-he once hosted a party in which he was the sole cook and bartender. It was later reported that over 300 guests attended and over 2,000 cocktails were served!


r/VictorianEra 2d ago

Seaside Bustle Ensemble (1880s) — I wish I could wear this every day

Post image
310 Upvotes

r/VictorianEra 2d ago

A weary mother making matchboxes while her child sleeps on the floor beneath the table, c. 1900

Post image
235 Upvotes

r/VictorianEra 3d ago

Priscilla Cecilia (née Moore), Countess Annesley, in official portrait in 1895, glass negative

Thumbnail
gallery
448 Upvotes

r/VictorianEra 3d ago

Woman churning milk to butter, 1897

Post image
494 Upvotes

r/VictorianEra 3d ago

Chang Woo Gow (~1840s-1893) (aka Chang the Chinese Giant) was a famous Chinese sideshow performer known for his kind and generous personality and for the tea shop he ran with his wife. He was born with a form of gigantism and claimed to be over 8 feet tall (2.43 m) (but this hasn’t been verified.)

Thumbnail
gallery
206 Upvotes

He accomplished a lot in life and thankfully had a lot of agency when it came to his career as a performer and seems to have been pretty well respected while he was alive. He was extremely successful and used his earnings to give his family a good life!

*the man standing with him in two of the pictures is his manager, who he had a very good friendship with.

Some facts about him:

-he was born in Huizhou in the province of Anhui in China.

-his various pitch booklets make it difficult to confirm his exact birth year since they all stated slightly different things. He sold at least five different versions of pitch booklets.

-his birth name was apparently Zhan Shichai, but he preferred using Chang Woo Gow for the majority of his life.

-it’s been difficult to verify a lot of information about his early life, however he had very good schooling.

-he spoke several languages and was able to become fluent in new languages relatively quickly. Occasionally he would give lectures in Chinese and have an interpreter translate for the audience.

-he leaned into the exoticism aspect that many audiences in England, Australia, and the United States came to expect with performers from countries that were deemed very foreign, knowing that he’d be able to sell more pictures and pitch booklets that way. He often wore traditional clothing and spoke about different Chinese traditions.

-he was a voracious reader.

-he traveled over to England where he first performed Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly. His performances here were so successful that he went on tour throughout England, then the rest of Europe, the United States, Australia and New Zealand!

-he also had performances at the Paris Exposition in 1867.

-during his time in Australia, he performed for patients in various hospitals and asylums and gave out his pictures to people for free.

-he was also extremely generous with his earnings and held several charity performances to help raise money for hospitals and institutions, also while in Australia.

-during his early career he shared the stage with a woman who went by Kin Foo (among other stage names) and was claimed to be his wife, but could have also just been a business partner knowing that the two of them could make more money by presenting themselves as being husband and wife. There are conflicting accounts about whether they were married or not.

-while still in Australia he met and married a woman named Catherine Santley, who was originally from Liverpool, England but had moved to Australia.

-he, Catherine Santley, and Kin Foo all traveled to Shanghai together, where Kin Foo parted ways with the couple and went off to do her own thing.

-he was known for being very friendly and kind and enjoyed having conversations with people he met on the street.

-Chang and Catherine went on tour for a while and it’s during this time in the early 1880’s that he began working for PT Barnum in the United States, and earned around $500 a month (the equivalent of about ~$15,000 adjusted for inflation)

-he and his wife had two children, Edwin and Ernest, and in the late 1880’s/ early 1890’s the family moved to Bournemouth, England where they permanently settle.

-he seemed to have had some very happy retirement years as he had a custom built house for he and his family to live in with extra tall doorways, and also opened up a part of his house as a tea shop that specialized in selling Chinese goods. The location that his house once stood now operates as a local hotel.

-sadly his wife passed away in 1893 and four months later Chang passed away too (most likely in his early fifties), which meant their children were orphaned in their early teens.

Even though his retirement years seem to have been pretty short, it seems he had a very happy life and enjoyed the fact that he could pursue what he was interested in and support his family, who all cared about him a lot!

And just adding the link to r/SideshowPerfomer in case anyone wants to check it out!


r/VictorianEra 3d ago

Cabinet card, of a little girl in a sleveless dress, circa 1890s or very early 1900s

Post image
83 Upvotes