The Victorian Web

It doesn't look like much when you go to the home page. Just start clicking on icons and start digging. This unpretentious site is probably the oldest and one of the largest on Victorian culture and history. In fact it's older than the internet! It started out as part of Brown University's Intermedia Project begun by Professor George P. Landow. In 1992 when Intermedia ceased it was transferred to Eastgate Systems Storyspace. In 1995 it was translated to HTML. From it's beginnings hundreds of scholars have added to the content. There are links to other sites, but much of it is essays and scans for this site alone. Just about everything is covered here.

Link to: The Victorian Web

Bonus! On the page on how to contribute to this web are hints for students to strengthen their writing. It's spelt out instead of alluded to like too many books and sites do. Some Easy Ways to Strengthen Your Writing

El Centro History Department Website

This is a Gold Mine--and I mean that in the literal sense. It's very easy to get lost in this labyrinth and sometimes difficult to find your way back, but oh, there are some real nuggets here.

These are link pages created by the El Centro College of Dallas, Texas to give students further reading in the History 1301 (to 1877)and History 1302 (after 1877) classes. The courses focus on Texas, but cover much of American history and culture. Below I've put in links to the useful pages for the 19th century.

Industrial Age to 1877 / Civil War / Reconstruction / The Year 1877 / Late 19th Century /
The South 1877-1900 / The West to 1900 / Native American / African American

There are all sorts of links here to numerous to list. Go ahead and explore.

The Quack Doctor

A collection of medical advertisements from 18th and 19th century newspapers and periodicals. We can laugh at these "cures" now, but this was orthodox medicine in their day.

Beyond being entertaining, these can make nice details for a novel--which is how this site got started. Caroline Rance is a writer with an interest in the history of medicine. Her first novel Kill-Grief is set in a 1750s hospital.

To make things easier for you, the blogs are not only listed by post-date, but by malady. So if your hero gets a toothache, you'll know exactly what was available in his time. You might want to think twice if using any of theis "wisdom" on yourself. There's a reason these products aren't around any more.

Link to Quack Doctor

The Virtual Victorian

This site may not be the encyclopedia on all things Victorian that some other sites are, but then it wasn't meant to be. This is a blog-site created by author Essie Fox of London, where she writes short essays on little known subjects of Victorian life.

I'll let Essie describe it in her own words:

"A few years ago I decided to try and write a novel. My story was going to be contemporary but I wanted to use my own home as a setting and, while looking into its history, I soon found myself lured into a virtual Victorian world...from which I have yet to break free.

In this blog, I'm hoping to share some of the facts and fictions that I've discovered during my research. Some will be serious, some less so, but most will be based on, and in, the Victorian era - a fascinating age which often still influences the way we live today."

Where else on the web could you learn about Queen Victoria's bloomers, the Victorian obsession for taxidermy, or Champagne Charlie?

Link to The Virtual Victorian

Arthur LLoyd Website

Arthur Lloyd was an actor, singer, comedian, song writer and music hall performer who lived from 1839 - 1904. He was very famous in his day, but like most Victorian entertainers he is largely forgotten. Since 2001, his great grandson, Matthew Lloyd, has been trying to rectify that by creating a massive website dedicated to him.

If you are doing anything involving Victorian theaters or Music Halls, go here first! This site has over 2,000 pages and 5,000 images on their history. There are photos, programs, songs and posters. Think of it, your character could go to a Music Hall on a particular night and you now know what it looked like, and who was playing there.

The site also has period maps and a timeline that tells what else was going on in a particular year.

Link to: arthurlloyd.co.uk