When Inca Mummies Came to Europe
Older than their Egyptian counterparts, the preserved remains of Andean peoples fascinated 19th-century Europe, leading to a ‘bone stampede’ for Inca mummies. But to what end?
Victorian
John Goffe Rand Invents Paint Tubes
On 11 September 1841, John Goffe Rand patented the ‘metal rolls for paint’, sparking a revolution in oil painting.
‘Jane Eyre’ Goes to the Theatre
When it arrived on the Victorian stage, Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre had a cast of new characters and a new social order.
‘Bismarck’s War’ by Rachel Chrastil review
Bismarck’s War: The Franco-Prussian War and the Making of Modern Europe by Rachel Chrastil argues that German victory was a catastrophe for Germany and the world.
The New Tourists
The visitors’ books of 19th-century hotels, pubs and inns show Victorians on holiday, revealing them to be irreverent pleasure seekers, capable of highfalutin pomposity and touristic wrath.
The Moral of the Story
Illustrated picture books in Victorian England reached new aesthetic heights. But was it always for the benefit of the children?
Sheppard’s Warning
A thief who had been dead for more than a century caused a moral panic in the theatres of Victorian London.
On the Wrong Side of History
A celebrated novelist and tireless social reformer, Mary Ward has been all but forgotten because of her support for the anti-suffrage movement.
A Spiritual Wilderness
In the Victorian countryside, what did going to church on Sundays actually mean?
Missing Links: The Victorian Freak Show
In Victorian Britain, attitudes towards race, gender, disability and Empire were all to be found in the popular ‘freak shows’.