You sometimes look at Victorian photographs, and you take a shudder - how strange and often monstrous they are in the truest sense of the word. Pictures of dead people, made up and fixed so as to appear alive; images of physical handicaps and injuries; collages with severed heads and "ghosts" shot at slow shutter speeds. Who and why needed these photos? Let's leaf through an old album and try to find an explanation for the contents of its pages.
Caution, the article contains shocking illustrations
standing dead
Photos of dead people are a very popular and replicated story. You can find many similar collections on the Web: beautiful, smart men, women and - most often - children half-sitting or lying surrounded by living relatives with their eyes closed. It is far from always possible to guess that the central hero of the composition is already in a better world. Such pictures were widely distributed in Europe and America in the second half of the 19th century. Books of the dead really existed, there were even photographers who specialized in capturing the dead - both individually and in the circle of still living family members. Most often they photographed children and the elderly, extremely rarely photographed the young dead.
In this family photo, the girl on the far left is dead.
The explanation for this tradition, prevalent from the 1860s to the early 1910s, is extremely simple. In those days, almost no one had their own cameras, daguerreotype, and then collodion photography were complex technologies and required a professional approach. Almost no private pictures were taken, the work of the photographer was prestigious and required high qualifications, so it was very well paid.
It's hard to believe, but both girls are dead. The supports of the stands behind their legs are clearly visible.
Going to the studio for a family photo was an expensive affair, and only wealthy people could afford to invite a photographer to their home. They prepared for photography in advance, put on their hair, put on the best costumes - that is why people in the pictures of the 19th century seem so proud and beautiful. They just posed really hard. Recall, for example, the famous photo of Butch Cassidy's "The Wild Bunch" (on the right): wanted criminals are dressed to the nines, in brand new suits and bowler hats, they look like real dandies and are not shy about being filmed. Why? Yes, because the photographer received a good fee, and not devoid of pride, Cassidy wanted to have a beautiful photo of his organization. These people robbed banks and trains in a completely different way.
So, because of the high prices for images and the complexity of the process, many simply did not have time to photograph during their lifetime. This was especially true for children - infant mortality in the 19th century was monstrous and at the same time completely familiar. Families were large, with an average of 2-3 out of 10 children dying of disease in the absence of antibiotics, vaccines, and other modern remedies. Old people also rarely took pictures during their lifetime - in the days of their youth there was no photography, and in their old age they were no longer up to it.
As a result, people realized that they did not have family photos, only after the death of someone close to them. Immediately, a photographer was hastily hired, the body was pomaded and seated in a “live” pose. Often such pictures were generally the only ones where the deceased was captured. The dead middle-aged, from 20 to 60, were photographed much less often, because they usually had time to be photographed while alive.
Here, the eyes of the dead girl are not drawn, but fixed in the open position.
Photographers made good money on this genre. There were many tricks and devices that made it possible to pass off a dead person as a living person. For example, specialized (patented!) props to give the dead a natural pose - although more often they took a photograph where the deceased imitated a sleeping person. Spacers were inserted into the eyes, and the pupils were rotated so that the deceased "looked into the camera." Sometimes it was generally impossible to guess that the picture was of a dead person, except perhaps from a barely noticeable tripod at his feet.
Sometimes photographs of famous dead people were sold as souvenirs: for example, in 1882, looking at the body of the murdered robber Jesse James, exhibited for educational purposes, one could buy a photograph of his corpse at the exit.
The genre began to decline already at the beginning of the 20th century, and by the 1920s it completely disappeared. Compact personal cameras proliferated, filming became ubiquitous and cheap, it was hard to find a person who had never hit the lens. And we are left with a lot of nightmarish photos. However, many of them seem very elegant and interesting, until you realize that the Victorian beauties depicted on them are dead.
In addition to the stand, the state of the protagonist is given out by bulging eyes painted over the picture. 
It's hard to believe, but both girls are dead. The supports of the stands behind their legs are clearly visible.
hidden mothers
Many children did not have intravital pictures because it is difficult to seat the child evenly and make it not twitch. And exposure in those days were very long. If it was necessary to photograph a child alone, without a mother, photographers of the 19th century used a simple trick. The mother sat on a chair, and she was carefully draped, covering her arms, face, legs, as if she were a piece of furniture. The child was put on the mother's lap, where he could behave decently for some time. At the same time, from the photographer’s side, everything looked as if there was no one in the picture except the child.
True, if you look closely, these photos create an eerie feeling. It is noticeable that under the coverlet, in the darkness, a man sits motionless. It looks like it's about to jump out and devour an unsuspecting innocent child.
victorian photoshop
On May 23, 1878, a young British photographer Samuel Kay Balbirni from Brighton (Sussex, UK) placed an advertisement in the Brighton Daily News newspaper, which later became famous and gave rise to a whole genre of photo manipulation. It read: “Photographs of Spirits: The ladies and gentlemen in the photographs will be flying in the air in the company of tables, chairs and musical instruments! Headless photos: ladies and gentlemen in the pictures will be holding their own heads in their hands! Photos of dwarfs and giants: this is really funny!”
There were enough photographers in Brighton, and Balbirni, who opened a photo studio, wanted to stand out. And he invented a method of photo manipulation based on combining several negatives. In fact, it became the forerunner of modern Photoshop. Oddly enough, Balbirni's idea was not successful. Accustomed to traditional photography, Brighton residents were in no hurry to shoot headless or flying. Two years later, the photographer closed the studio and left to serve as an army doctor.
But, oddly enough, his work continued to live. The few photographs taken by Balbirni spread not only in private albums of customers, but also in newspapers. As a result, dozens of photographers in England and abroad mastered the simple manipulation of negatives. Headless portraits became a popular genre of photography and remained in vogue until the 1910s.
By the way, most likely, Balbirni was not the inventor of the technology. At least one "headless photograph" is known, taken in 1875, before the opening of the studio, by another master from Brighton, William Henry Wheeler, who kept a photo studio on High Street. But Wheeler did not advertise his "Photoshop" as openly as Balbirni, and did not become the founder of a new direction.
exploding mule
The most famous headless photograph is not from a man, but from a mule. And the mule does not really have a head on it! It was taken by British photographer Charles Harper Bennett on June 6, 1881 for purely scientific purposes.
Bennett was the son of a Surrey hatter, but in the 1870s he decided to open a business selling photographic equipment. In 1878, trying to find a way to reduce exposure, he realized that the collodion process could not be accelerated in any way and a radically new composition of the emulsion was needed to instantly fix the image. By that time, another photographer, the English physician Richard Maddox, had already achieved success in this area, replacing collodion with gelatin. But he also could not achieve a sufficient fixing speed due to the fact that there was too much liquid in the gelatin. Bennett undertook to improve the Maddox method and quickly achieved success. He managed to reduce the shutter speed from a few seconds to 1/25 of a second.
First of all, Bennett decided to show the technology to the military, and the American, not the British, and he needed a spectacular and at the same time effective experiment. He chose a peculiar method of demonstration: he tied dynamite to the mule's neck, set the camera on a tripod, and then blew up the head of the animal in the presence of US Army Lieutenant Colonel Henry Abbott and several other military personnel from the Willets Point base (New York). He managed to take a picture at the moment when the fragments of the head were already scattered, but the body of the mule was still standing, not having time to fall. This demonstrated the speed of photography.
The description of the experiment and the results of Bennett's work were published in Scientific American. The technology was successfully implemented, Bennett received a patent and made money on his invention. But the press brought down on him a mountain of criticism for animal cruelty. Since Bennett's father was a hatter, some newspapers played on the phrase "mad as a hatter" from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
Treatment or torture?
The second photo is widely circulated on the Internet. On the first one is a girl with a curved spine, on the second - the process of straightening, on the third - a tight bandage that keeps the spine in an aligned state.
Another popular trend in 19th-century photographs is of people who are clearly being tortured. Whipping on the back, shocking, squeezing his head in a vise. In fact, in most of these pictures there is absolutely nothing to worry about. Imagine that a person who has never seen a dentist sees a picture in which you are sitting with your mouth wide open, and some guy with terrible tools climbs into it. He'll be horrified, won't he? Here we are, for the first time faced with the long-forgotten and sometimes erroneous medical methods of the 19th century, we are horrified, although in those days they seemed completely normal.
For example, a photograph is widely circulated on the Web, in which a slender half-naked woman is tied by her arms to a strange cone-shaped frame. Nearby stands a fully clothed middle-aged man who appears to be staring at a woman's breasts. What is a Victorian BDSM club? Of course not. This photo just illustrates the method of correcting scoliosis, developed by the famous American orthopedic surgeon Lewis Sayra.
He was a true revolutionary in his field. With the help of a cone-shaped frame, Sayra temporarily straightened the spine, mutilated by scoliosis, and then tightly bandaged the patient, preventing him from bending again. After several weeks of such procedures, the spine straightened noticeably. The photo with the girl is most famous due to the fact that her heroine is young, slim and looks all this mysterious and erotic. In fact, pictures of Saira at work are a dime a dozen. Most depict men with round bellies or, on the contrary, bony, with hairy, excuse me, butts sticking out of their pants that have slipped down. Of course, a really beautiful photo has become popular.
And by the way, you have not yet seen other devices for correcting scoliosis, common in the 19th century.
Duchen shows a smile. In fact, due to facial paralysis, the patient was physically unable to smile. Duchenne simply “turned on” the necessary muscles with the help of electrical impulses.
The French neurologist Guillaume Duchen, who lived in the 19th century, studied the response of muscles and nerves to electrical impulses. Subsequently, his work formed the basis of electroneuromyography, a diagnostic test to detect nerve damage.
Among other things, Duchen captured the facial expressions of patients when impulses were applied to one or another facial nerve. The problem was photography of that time - a long exposure did not allow such a procedure to be carried out. But Duchenne was lucky - he had at his disposal a middle-aged shoemaker who suffered from facial paralysis (Bell's palsy). In other words, if Duchenne received some expression on the patient's face with the help of current, it remained there unchanged for several minutes, until the muscle “let go”. This made it possible to take a high-quality picture at a slow shutter speed.
The doctor did more than 100 experiments with the shoemaker, connecting electrodes to various muscles and getting a variety of facial expressions. The study, complete with photographs, was published under the title The Mechanism of Human Physiognomy. Thanks to this work, Duchen determined the purpose of a number of facial muscles and, in particular, revealed the mechanism for the appearance of a smile.
And in the pictures - the same shoemaker during one of the experiments.
Portrait of Phineas Gage
Phineas Gage was an American railroad worker and explosives specialist. On September 13, 1848, the 25-year-old Gage was preparing to blow up a rock near the Cavendish while laying a section of the railroad between the cities of Rathmond and Burlington in Vermont. He had to drill a hole at the right point in the rock, put explosive and a wick there, tamp it all down with a tamping pin and caulk the hole with sand, releasing a section of the wick out.
At the moment when Gage brought the pin over the hole, where the explosives had already been planted, he was distracted by one of the workers. Gage turned around and automatically lowered the pin. On impact, the gunpowder caught fire and exploded. The pin entered Gage's cheekbone under his left eye, pierced his skull, and exited the top of his head. So you understand: this thing was 3.2 cm in diameter, more than a meter long and weighed 6 kg. After passing through the skull, the pin flew, spraying blood and brains, 25 meters up and fell nearby.
But Gage somehow survived. First, he fell and twitched in convulsions, then calmed down, came to his senses and, with the help of his colleagues, reached the hotel where the workers lived, 1.2 km from the scene. When surgeon Edward Williams arrived half an hour later, Gage, who had been bandaged in a hurry, was sitting on the porch in a rocking chair.
After 2 months, Gage returned to active life, apparently losing only his left eye. But his personality changed dramatically - friends and relatives claimed that "this is no longer our Phineas." As a result of the injury, he lost 4% of the cortex and 11% of the white matter, as well as connections between different parts of the brain. For 12 years, Phineas Gage was studied by the best specialists. Based on this case, a number of patterns were identified, for which one or another part of the brain is responsible. Two pictures of Gage were taken. On both he sits, elegantly dressed, and holds in his hands the same tamping pin that pierced his head.
Phineas Gage died in 1860 from an epileptic fit triggered by an old injury. His skull is kept at the Warren Anatomical Museum at Harvard.
It's ok, just keep scrolling
This expression is most suitable for most old photographs in which something strange happens. In fact, there is nothing unusual there - we are simply not used to that reality, because we live in a different one. Just as strange and monstrous sometimes seem to us pictures of, say, the animal world, when a female praying mantis eats a male after mating, or some other abomination occurs. Each Victorian photograph, like any modern one, has a subtext, a history, an explanation, without which it is not clear what is happening on it. And when you recognize them, suddenly it becomes not scary at all. Or, conversely, even more uncomfortable. It's up to you to decide.
The prim British in the era of the reign of Queen Victoria seem to be an example of decorum and good manners. It's hard to imagine, but the British of those years wore pantaloons with a hole in the most interesting place, and reputable doctors saved them from hysteria with a thorough massage ... of the clitoris. Rotten food and canned food with arsenic, dead children in the photo, the glutton queen, and other strange and nasty facts about the Victorian era.
Doctors of that era treated hysteria in women with masturbation.
In those days, female "hysteria" (i.e. restlessness, irritability, nervousness and other similar symptoms) was seen as a serious problem. But doctors have discovered that these symptoms can be relieved temporarily with "finger massage in the intimate area," which, if done correctly, will cause "hysterical paroxysm."
Victorian pantaloons were, as it were, cut in two, the halves for each leg were cut separately and connected with ties or buttons at the waist, on the back. Thus the crotch (i.e., the crotch) was opened, which could be very convenient in certain cases, which we, being very well-mannered, will not mention.
Many historians believe that due to the lack of special hygiene products at that time and the fact that women's clothing consisted of many layers of fabric, most women during menstruation did nothing at all and allowed blood secretions to freely flow out and soak into petticoats. Other solutions to the delicate problem were the use of cloth diapers, which were fastened with a belt, or sheep's wool, which was glued to the vulva with lard. Thank God modern women have pads and tampons.
In the Victorian era, there were no such useful items as a safety razor. And although depilation formulations were already invented then, they were very toxic and were used only to remove hair from the face and hands. So the armpits, legs and intimate area were terribly overgrown. But given that they were all hidden under several layers of clothing, it didn't matter.
By 1860, about a thousand tons of feces were dumped into the waters of the Thames every day, since there was simply no other storage for sewage. And at the same time, the river was the main source of drinking water for the inhabitants of London. People were dying like flies from dysentery, cholera and typhoid, believing that dirty air was to blame. Oh, how wrong they were!
A written certificate from 1891 by Lady Harburton states that during a short walk around London, the hem of her long dress gathered together: two cigar butts, nine cigarettes, a piece of pork pie, four toothpicks, two hairpins, a piece of cat food, half the sole of a shoe , tobacco bar (chewed), straw, dirt, scraps of paper and God knows what else.
The "Age of Crinolines" lasted from 1850 to 1870. At that time, the dome-shaped shirred skirt became the basis of the women's toilet, the shape of which was given by numerous petticoats. Sometimes a lady in such an outfit really could not squeeze through the door. And you could inadvertently touch the candle and knock it over yourself, and this is really life-threatening. The satirical magazine Punch even advised husbands to purchase insurance for their wives specifically in case of fire due to crinolines. So this fashion trend did not last long.
Before the invention of pasteurization, milk could be a source of tuberculosis. It was impossible to rely on the safety of products, especially those bought in large cities. Unscrupulous traders sold rotten meat mixed with fresh carcass fat; bakers added alum and chalk to the dough to make the bread whiter. Arsenic was added to pickles and other canned foods to enhance the taste and make it brighter. Well, kill the buyer.
Victoria hated spicy food, but as the ruler of India, she insisted on making curry every day - just in case "oriental people" came to visit her.
As a child, Victoria was brought up in great strictness and was not allowed to eat much, so when she became queen, she did everything to catch up. She ate a lot and at an incredible speed, which was a problem for her guests - after all, according to etiquette, they had to finish each dish as soon as the queen finished eating it (even if they managed to bite off only a piece). In general, by today's standards, Queen Victoria was a rather obese woman.
A beauty-advice writer recommended to readers: "Make a mask every night using thin slices of raw beef, which is said to protect the skin from wrinkles and give it a freshness." Of course, if your dog does not gnaw your face in a dream.
This Russian boy was called Fedor Evtikhiev, and he suffered. Fyodor and his father Adrian were presented to the public as "the two greatest curiosities of our time." Their faces were covered with hair, which made them look like Skye Terriers. Subsequently, Andrian died from complications caused by alcoholism, but Fedor continued to "please people" for many more years.
In wealthy families, small children, regardless of gender, were usually dressed in white, elegantly decorated dresses with frills and lace. And bonnets with ribbons were also the same for both girls and boys.
The highest infant mortality rate was, of course, in the slums. The slums of Seven Dials in London and Angel Meadow in Manchester were so creepy they were called hell on earth. Manchester had over 30,000 workers, mostly Irish immigrants, in an area of just one square mile. The children there were left to their own devices, eating whatever garbage they could find, and some even eating cats and rats.
Rich people usually took photos, and those who could not afford this expensive pleasure hired an artist. For example, a kind-hearted artist named John Callcott Horsley often visited morgues to paint portraits of recently deceased children. Such a posthumous image was often the only memory of departed relatives.
In the Victorian era, when gluttony coexisted with incredible frugality, not a single piece of food was wasted. For example, whole veal heads were boiled for dinner, and brains were cooked as a separate dish: they looked like pink blocks floating in an oily sauce. Veal ears were shaved, boiled, and then fried in boiling oil. A kind of feast in the style of Hannibal Lecter.
Darwin not only studied rare animals, but also loved to feast on them. He joined the Cambridge Gluttony Club, whose members ate unusual dishes of hawks, squirrels, grubs and owls. And while traveling, the scientist tasted an iguana, a giant tortoise, an armadillo and a cougar.
The Victorian era is considered the reign of the English Queen Victoria (1837 - 1901). During this period, England made a big breakthrough, both politically and economically. Many inventions and social innovations have been made that have completely changed the modern world.
inventions
During the Victorian era, new inventions were in full swing. For example, in 1876 Alexander Bell invented the telephone, and 19 years later, in 1895, Guglielmo Marconi invented the radio. But not only that. The camera, the toilet, the sewing machine, the vacuum cleaner, the train, and the printing of newspapers were all invented and brought to life during the Victorian era. Yes, the steam engine and the police are also inventions of that time.
Rules of behavior
During the reign of Queen Victoria, the rules of etiquette, behavior and morality were extremely strict. Children were not allowed to make noise and spend much time with their parents. Ladies were not allowed to wear dresses that did not cover their ankles. And the men did not call a single unmarried girl by name until she got engaged to someone.
social structure
During the Victorian era, there was a class system that included the upper class, the middle class and the working class. After the industrial revolution, which took place in the same period, class inequality was somewhat smoothed out. In particular, the middle class, which made good money during the industrial revolution, began to live much better and richer. By the way, during the Victorian era, the population of Great Britain doubled.
healthcare
During the Victorian era, the largest number of health-related deaths were caused by tuberculosis. At that time, painkillers or anesthesia were not used during operations, so a person on the operating table could endure unbearable pain and suffering for several hours.
meal
In addition to all of the above, Victorianism was remembered by contemporaries for dining in basements, since it was believed that food was best digested when the body was in the dark. Therefore, most of the Victorian era dining rooms were located in the basements of houses.
And as a bonus, we offer you to find out 8 more truly amazing video facts about the Victorian era. Don't miss the video below!
Victorian era (1837-1901) - the period of the reign of Victoria, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, Empress of India.
Although this era is generally clearly tied to a specific country (Great Britain), it is often linked in general as the era of steampunk. And there are reasons for this.
But first, a little about Queen Victoria herself.
Victoria (eng. Victoria, baptismal names Alexandrina Victoria - eng. Alexandrina Victoria) (May 24, 1819 - January 22, 1901) - Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from June 20, 1837, Empress of India from May 1, 1876 (proclamation in India - 1 January 1877), the last representative of the Hanoverian dynasty on the throne of Great Britain.
Victoria has been on the throne for over 63 years - more than any other British monarch. The Victorian era coincided with the Industrial Revolution and the heyday of the British Empire. Numerous dynastic marriages of her children and grandchildren strengthened the ties between the royal dynasties of Europe and strengthened the influence of Great Britain on the continent (she was called the "Grandmother of Europe").
1837. Portrait of the Queen after her coronation.
And this is her classic (one might even say - the canonical look).
The Industrial Revolution turned Britain into a country of smoking factories, huge warehouses and shops. The population increased rapidly, cities expanded, and in the 1850s the country was covered with a network of railroads. Highly productive and far behind other countries, Britain became the "workshop of the world", which she demonstrated at the first international industrial exhibition in 1851. The country retained its leading position until the end of the century. Against the background of rapid transformation, the negative aspects became more and more noticeable: unsanitary conditions in the dwellings of workers, child labor, low wages, poor working conditions and exhaustingly long working hours.
World Exhibition of 1851. The first of such exhibitions.
The British themselves in our time perceive the era of their zenith ambiguously. There were too many different things, including hypocrisy ..
During this period, people belonging to the upper and middle classes adhered to strict values, among which were the following:
Sense of duty and diligence;
Respectability: a mixture of morality and hypocrisy, strictness and conformity to social standards (having good manners, owning a comfortable home, regular church attendance and charity), it was this that separated the middle class from the lower;
Charity and philanthropy: an occupation that attracted many wealthy people, especially women.
Patriarchal orders reigned in the family, so a single woman with a child became marginalized due to the widespread idea of \u200b\u200bfemale chastity. Sexuality was suppressed, affectation and hypocrisy were extremely common.
Colonialism was also an important phenomenon, it led to the spread of patriotism and was influenced by ideas of racial superiority and the concept of the white man's mission.
The rules of conduct and morality were very strict, and their violations were strongly condemned. Severe corporal punishment was extremely common in families and educational institutions. Such phenomena as affectation and excessive moderation, suppression are considered important and very common features of the Victorian era. So, in English, the word "Victorian" is still synonymous with the words "sanctimonious", "hypocritical".
Despite the efforts of the state to streamline economic life, the industrialization of society had its negative consequences. Unthinkable poverty may not have increased compared to the old days, but became a real problem for society when the mass of the poor migrated to the urban slums. People's uncertainty about the future grew as the new economic system alternated between ups and downs, causing workers to lose their jobs and join the ranks of the poor. The defenders of the system argued that there was nothing to be done, since such were the “iron laws” of the economy.
But such views have been challenged by socialist thinkers such as Robert Owen and Karl Marx; their views were condemned by Charles Dickens, William Morris and other prominent writers and artists.
The Victorian era saw the birth and growth of the labor movement, from self-help and self-education programs (cooperatives, mechanic schools) to mass uprisings such as the Chartist struggles of the 1830s and 40s. for the expansion of political rights. Trade unions, which had been outside the law until the 1820s, gained real strength with the growth of socialist sentiment.
Although the Victorians failed to cope with the problem of poverty, the social and economic achievements of the era were significant.
Mass production led to the emergence of new types of products, the standard of living gradually increased. The development of industry opened up new professional opportunities - for example, the growing demand for typists allowed a significant number of literate women to get a job for the first time in their lives. A new mode of transport - trains - daily transported employees from the city home to the suburbs, and workers every weekend - on excursions to the coast, which eventually became an invariable attribute of the English way of life.
English school in 1897. Late Victorian era.
Family photo from the Victorian era.
Another photo of a Victorian school.
And here is what the Victorian era looked like through the eyes of photographic lenses (by the way, the photo appeared just then):
Childhood photos of that time:
By the way, then they went to school at the age of 8-9.
Do you want to see how teeth were treated back then? Like this:
Mechanical drill of the Victorian era. Want to try?
Rule, Britannia by the seas! Map of the world in 1897.
Indeed, an empire on which the sun never sets.
This is by no means a documentary photo. But this may well have happened in world history. Advanced steampunk, yes.
Here is what everyday life looked like in that era:
A train leaving Paddington Station.
And this is the celebration of the 60th anniversary of Victoria's coronation. 1897
Photos of this event:
Would I like to live at that time? And it depends on the social status :) Then the social-class division was much sharper than today.
Moreover, the average life expectancy in those days was about 40 years.
So most likely I would not refuse to visit that time, but to live there permanently - I most likely would not like it too much. Although, of course, I would adapt :)
Interesting Facts
about Queen Victoria and the Victorian era
May 24, 1819 Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was born. On the birthday of the great queen, we recall interesting facts about her and the era named after her - the "Victorian era".
Queen Victoria
The Queen's full name is Georgina Charlotte Augusta Alexandrina Victoria. It was named in honor of the Prince Regent, close relatives and the Russian Tsar.
It was after the wedding of Victoria that a tradition appeared when all brides wear a white dress.
For the British queen, English was not native. Her mother, the daughter of a German duke, always spoke German at home and therefore Victoria never learned to speak fluent English.
Queen Victoria
became queen at 18
- Victoria was on the throne for 64 years, a record time for a monarch. Her birthday is still celebrated as a holiday in Canada. At the same time, Victoria spent 40 years of her life as a widow. She constantly wore a black dress, and among the people and in the army she was nicknamed: "The Widow."
The happiest day, according to Victoria, is the day of marriage with "her angel" Prince Albert. By the way, since she was the queen, it was the queen who proposed to Albert, and not vice versa.
Victoria at 4
Victoria had 9 children and 34 grandchildren. However, the queen did not like small children and was squeamish about babies. The queen experienced the disadvantages of longevity - she outlived her three children.
Victoria liked to drink a cocktail called Vin Mariani. One of its main ingredients was cocaine.
Victoria wrote 8,000 letters to her eldest daughter Vika, who was married to Germany.
Height at Queen Victoria
was 1 m 52 cm
- Victoria's first letter to Russia, dated 1837 and addressed to Empress Alexandra Feodorovna (wife of Nicholas I), is nothing more than gratitude for congratulations on the occasion of her accession to the throne.
One day, Queen Victoria was at a diplomatic reception in London, where an African leader was the guest of honor. Everything was going well until dinner arrived. Each person present was given a bowl to wash their hands. The African did not know what this object was intended for and drank the entire contents of the bowl.
All the lords were simply stunned by what they saw and began to whisper, but the queen found a way out of the situation. She followed the example of the African guest, and all the courtiers followed her. This act of the queen allowed the African leader to avoid embarrassment.
Victorian era
- A distinctive feature of this era is the absence of significant wars (with the exception of the Crimean war), which allowed the country to develop intensively - in particular, in the field of infrastructure development, construction of railways.
In the field of economics, the industrial revolution and the development of capitalism continued during this period.
By the end of the 19th century Britain
was the strongest maritime power
- The social image of this era is characterized by a strict moral code (gentlemanship), which consolidated conservative values and class differences.
In the field of foreign policy, Britain's colonial expansion in Asia and Africa continued.
1851 International Industrial Exhibition
Lithograph by A. Butler in Hansen M. 2000 Years of London.
Illustrated History, 1967
The industrial revolution during this era in Britain led to a significant increase in the number of factories, warehouses, shops. There was a rapid increase in population, which led to the growth of cities. The leading positions in industrial production remained until the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries.
In the 1850s, the whole of Britain was covered by a network of railroads, which greatly improved the position of industrialists, as it facilitated the delivery of goods and raw materials. Britain has become a highly productive country that has left other European states far behind
At the heart of many achievements
Victorian era
lie the values and energies of the middle class
- Despite the significant success of Britain during this period, the Victorian era was also a period of doubt and disappointment. This was due to the fact that the progress of science undermined faith in the inviolability of biblical truths.
At the same time, there was no significant growth of atheists, and atheism itself still remained an unacceptable system of views for society and the church.
The Victorian era was marked by the strengthening of the position of the middle class, which led to the dominance of its core values in society. In honor were sobriety, punctuality, diligence, frugality, thriftiness.
These qualities soon became the norm, as their usefulness in the new industrial world was undeniable. Queen Victoria herself acted as an example of such behavior.
Earliest known photo of Victoria,
showing her with her eldest daughter, taken circa 1845
The rapid development of Britain from an agrarian state to an industrial state led to the rapid growth of cities and the emergence of new jobs, but did not alleviate the situation of workers and their living conditions.
The Victorian era was a period of parliamentary restructuring, as well as the formation and strengthening of the main parties that exist in Britain today.
Victorian era for Britain
was marked by the expansion
colonial possessions
- By the end of the 19th century, Britain was the strongest maritime power, and also controlled a significant part of the land.
The main task of Britain of that period in the foreign policy arena was not the conquest of new territories, but the maintenance of order in the old ones.
