The Gentleman's Page

Unfortunately most websites on the Victorian male are tongue in cheek. This one is a serious, well researched site. Created by Walter Nelson, the Gentleman's Page is dedicated to the "proper behavior and attire for the 19th Century American Man," and focuses on 1860 to 1900. He also has a collection of vintage photographs he has scanned and posted. The site was created with costumers, performers, and reenactors in mind, so he does go into detail.

Hey, Walter actually does this for a living! (Yes, that's Walter Nelson on the left.) He works with museums, schools, historical societies, etc. and has provided historical expertise to the History Channel, A&E, Showtime and Disney. Here is a segment Walter Nelson did for Pen & Teller's show. Victorian Etiquette

I wonder if Walter knows that he helped "train" Wendell for his work as a Temporal Anthropologist in the Victorian Age?

Link to: The Gentleman's Page

Averyl's Attic

This site is a grab bag of Victorian life, etiquette, fashion, dining, art, and poetry. Many of the posts being reprints of period articles.

This website was created by Hillstock, LLC, which sells vintage stock images and greeting cards. Averyl's Attic also has free Victorian electronic clip-art for private, non commercial use. That's one of them to the left. You can use up to three on a blog site, provided you let people know where it came from.

Link to Averyl's Attic

The Victorian Era

I'll let Geerte tell you about her blog site in her own words:

My name is Geerte, and I have been writing this blog for a while now, because I think all the fun and interesting things about the nineteenth century are too good not to share! Many people still the nineteenth century was boring, prudish, or uptight. While there is a bit of truth in it, there are many funny, silly and interesting things as well. I hope to give you a taste of them through my articles.

On this blog you will find some light reading and fun facts about the 19th century. I like to find the more unusual information because I think that all info on Impressionism or steam engines can be found elsewhere. I also talk about books a lot, mostly because that is something I really like. Apart from that, this blog features pictures, famous Victorians, art, architecture, music, literature, and fashion, and movies.

Link to: The Victorian Era

Victorian History

Bruce Rosen has been posting essays on Victorian history and society since September 2006 and has a huge collection on just about everything. His well written essays include pictures and links to historic sources.

In his own words "These short essays are based on more extensive research and are usually extracts from longer pieces." I'm not sure who this mysterious Bruce Rosen is, but I'm betting he's a professional historian--or should be. If the man lived in the 27th Century, he would definitely be a candidate for Temporal Anthropologist--or at least a close friend of Dr. Wendell Howe.

Link to Victorian History

Victorian Women

If you want to know what the Victorian Woman was reading, check out Billie Jane's blog, Victorian Women. She owns a large collection of Victorian periodicals and uploads samples from them. She is currently posting a romantic serial, but already has many non-fiction articles and news stories posted. To the side she has the entries filed by decades. Jane also takes requests if you are interested in a particular topic.

Link to her site: Victorian Women

Charles Booth Online Archive

All right, you are writing a historic romance set in late Victorian London. Middle class girl is in love with poor boy but dad wants her to marry wealthy guy. Now, exactly where does everyone live?

In 1898-99 Charles Booth did a survey of London showing exactly where all the economic classes lived. It divided London into seven classes, from the very wealthy to the worst slums. Below the 1899 map is a modern map so you can compare the two. (Modern map does not show economic state, just what is there now.)

Click on the little map on the left to pinpoint a particular neighborhood. You may not be able to read street names easily, but it does give enough reference to find it on a modern map.

Now you don't have to guess, or steal a street out of a Victorian novel everyone else has used. Or worse go by what is there today. Some of those posh neighborhoods are no longer posh, and some neighborhoods have gone the opposite direction!

Link to: Booth Poverty Map & Modern Map

The Victorian Dictionary

Created by writer Lee Jackson this is a Gold Mine! Although focusing on London it is probably the best site out there on Victorian culture. Much of it is original documents! Great place to also get place names to drop. He covers about every topic and is constantly adding to this collection. He also has a large collection of "penny dreadfuls" and Punch cartoons.

Lee Jackson has also published a book of this site, as well as some mystery novels set in...well, you guessed it. Haven't read them yet, but I'm sure the man knows his subject very well!

This is the first place I head when I need to know details on the day to day life of the Victorians.

Link to: The Victorian Dictionary
Link to Lee's blog site with updates and additions: The Cat's Meat Shop. Lee describes this as an appendix to the website.

Internet Archive

I love this site! It has free sources from around the world of out-of-print books, audio and film. Most books printed in the Victorian Age are out-of-print. Try various searches and see what comes up. You never know what you will find here.

What I do is click on text at the far right. Type in the author, title or subject. A list of books will come up. Some will give date in description, some won't. Click on one that looks interesting. I click the top option "read online" and then find the date the book was published to see how useful it will be. Some files are just text but most are pdfs. If there is more than one source of the same book, I like to see which pdf looks best. Go back to your format choices and download your book.

There is more than just novels here. They have everything! There are guidebooks, pamphlets, how to books, law tracts, magazines (including The Strand), programs, etc. You would be amazed at what you can find here.

They also have old films, recordings, and books on tape (most read by volunteers, some good, some dreadful, so you might want to try a sample before downloading). Now you can have someone read you that Victorian novel you always wanted to read, while you drive.

Link to: Internet Archive