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Articles on Victorian era

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Men and boys, many dressed as women, attacking a turnpike gate in protest at charges at tollgates on public roads in west Wales. The Illustrated London News, 1843. World History Archive/Alamy

Why men in 19th century Wales dressed as women to protest taxation

The Rebecca riots saw Welsh farmers disguised as women destroy tollgates as a way of challenging what they believed was an oppressive taxation system.
Illustration of explorer Isabella Bird’s first walk through Perak (Malaysia), from her book ‘The Golden Chersonese and the way thither’. Library of Congress / Wikimedia Commons

How English women wrote about their travels in the 19th century

In the 19th century, several English women wrote accounts of their world travels. While considered by some as second-rate travellers, they were just as restless as their male contemporaries.
January is named after the two-faced Roman god Janus, and the Victorians understood this has long been a season of looking backward as much as forward, and not just in search of lessons. (Shutterstock)

How 19th-century Victorians’ wellness resolutions were about self-help — and playful ritual fun

The 1859 book ‘Self-Help’ by Scottish journalist and physician Samuel Smiles was written in bite-sized pieces reminiscent of today’s wellness and lifestyle New Year tips.
Spirit photograph by William Hope, taken around 1920. (National Media Museum Collection/Flickr)

Spirit photography captured love, loss and longing

Today viewers may be preoccupied by the methods used by spirit photographers, but spirit photographs had a notable impact on the bereaved who commissioned the portraits.
The Jewish Museum’s Purim Ball at the Park Avenue Armory in 2015 in New York City. Andrew Toth/Getty Images

How New York’s 19th-century Jews turned Purim into an American party

In the 19th century, Purim became an occasion to hold fancy dress parties, the proceeds from which were given to charities. These parties helped American Jews gain a standing among the elite.
Dotheboys Hall, from Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens. Illustration by ‘Phiz’ (Hablot K. Browne). Image scan and text Jacqueline Banerjee, Associate Editor, Victorian Web

Charles Dickens and the push for literacy in Victorian Britain

Dickens’s novels highlighted the poverty of education for the working classes. The all-important Education Act was finally passed in the year of his death.
Crinolines, by design, made physical contact nearly impossible. Hulton Archive/Stringer via Getty Images

The fashionable history of social distancing

In the past, maintaining physical distance was an important aspect of public life – and clothes played a big role.

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