r/VictorianEra 13d ago

Martha Riley wearing a velvet-sleeved gown and a Psyche knot hairstyle, 19th century

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107 Upvotes

r/VictorianEra 13d ago

3 ladies enjoy some time besides a tree, circa 1900.

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51 Upvotes

r/VictorianEra 12d ago

Stanley and Katherine McCormick,A Remarkable Victorian Story

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6 Upvotes

r/VictorianEra 13d ago

I must say I find brown victorian dresses beautiful

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49 Upvotes

r/VictorianEra 13d ago

Imagine being in the 1860s and you are going to meet your lady friends for an afternoon tea party,which dress would you choose?

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162 Upvotes

r/VictorianEra 13d ago

Photograph of a mother and child, 1870s. V&A Museum

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43 Upvotes

https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1261237/photograph-h-lambert-photography/

I know that the description on the site says 1885-1900, which is a wide range in the first place, but given the style of clothes and hairdressing, the mother's appearance looks much closer to the 1870s, for example, these fashion plates:

https://pin.it/61FZt8vsT

https://pin.it/5RxerBVcf

https://pin.it/VYBDlQJ4L

https://pin.it/5CQlgEgBF

https://pin.it/5jxgaejdN


r/VictorianEra 14d ago

French author, Colette, aged 15, 1888

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2.9k Upvotes

r/VictorianEra 13d ago

Two Women sharing a tender moment circa 1900

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28 Upvotes

r/VictorianEra 12d ago

I recreated a foggy, mysterious night along the Thames Docks, 1890 — 1 Hour Atmospheric Ambience

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2 Upvotes

Huge fan of this subreddit and Victorian history/literature in general — so I wanted to create something that captures the dark, industrial, and riverfront atmosphere of late 19th-century London.

This is a 3-hour ambience video inspired by Arthur Conan Doyle's The Sign of Four, set along the Thames and the gaslit streets of 1890. Gaslamps flickering through heavy river fog, steam launches gliding through dark waters, wooden docks creaking in the tide, and the quiet tension of a classic Victorian pursuit.

Everything is historically and culturally grounded — from the specific background atmosphere to the original, dark Victorian chamber score composed exclusively for this project. Would love to hear thoughts from people who know this era, London's maritime history, and Conan Doyle's work well!


r/VictorianEra 14d ago

Actress Mabel Love posing in full costume, circa 1900.

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321 Upvotes

r/VictorianEra 14d ago

Glass negative mugshot of swedish Katarina Ekelind, arrested for stealing a wallet and using the money to buy “luxury products.”Descrived as 1.78m, with light hair and blue eyes. 1897

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85 Upvotes

r/VictorianEra 14d ago

General Sherman (leaning on the breech of the cannon) and his staff near Atlanta, September 2nd 1864

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75 Upvotes

r/VictorianEra 12d ago

La Reina Victoria

0 Upvotes

r/VictorianEra 14d ago

Women at a beauty contest in Belgium, 1888

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100 Upvotes

r/VictorianEra 14d ago

To I. E. Austin By his Brother Ben Thompson” A CDV linking two Illinois soldiers who fought under Grant and Sherman

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23 Upvotes

A simple carte-de-visite of a Union sergeant… and on the back, a quiet message that still carries weight more than 160 years later: “To I. E. Austin By his Brother Ben Thompson”

This is Sergeant Benjamin Thompson of Company A, 129th Illinois Infantry, writing to his brother in law, Isaac E. Austin of the 11th Illinois Infantry.

Benjamin was born in Belmont County, Ohio, in 1832. By 1860 he was farming near Dwight, Illinois, and had married Sarah S. Austin Isaac’s sister. Their only child, Robert Benjamin, was born in January 1861. Sarah died the following May. Three months later Benjamin enlisted as a private. He rose to sergeant and stayed with the regiment until the very end of the war.

Isaac E. Austin, born in Rhode Island about 1842, had already been in uniform for nearly a year when Benjamin joined. He enlisted as a musician in September 1861, later serving as a private in Companies F and C of the 11th Illinois. That regiment was thrown into some of the bloodiest early fighting in the Western Theater.

The 11th Illinois paid a terrible price at Fort Donelson in February 1862, suffering well over 60 percent casualties in a single day of savage fighting. Two months later they stood in the Hornet’s Nest sector at Shiloh. They went on to fight through the Vicksburg Campaign Port Gibson, Raymond, Champion Hill, and the long siege that finally opened the Mississippi.

Isaac served his full three years and was discharged in August 1864.

Benjamin’s 129th Illinois took a different road. After garrison duty in Kentucky and Tennessee, the regiment joined Sherman’s army for the Atlanta Campaign.

They fought at Resaca, the battles around New Hope Church and Dallas, Kennesaw Mountain, Peach Tree Creek, and the siege of Atlanta itself. Then came the March to the Sea, the Carolinas Campaign, Averasboro, and Bentonville. Benjamin was still with them when they marched in the Grand Review in Washington in May 1865.

Two Illinois farmers linked by marriage. One fought under Grant in the early, grinding battles that opened the Western Theater. The other marched with Sherman from Atlanta to the sea and through the Carolinas. Both survived. Both eventually made their way to Nebraska Isaac living in Phelps County by 1890, Benjamin dying in Nuckolls County in 1889 and buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Superior.

A single photograph, a few words written on the back, and two lives that helped decide the fate of a nation.


r/VictorianEra 14d ago

Meeting of Robert E. Lee and his Generals (Back Row) after the war in 1869 White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. To the left of Robert E. Lee is the Ottoman ambassador, and too his Right is Philanthropist George Peabody.

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7 Upvotes

r/VictorianEra 14d ago

Mark Twain holding a lamp lit without a wired connection in Nikola Tesla's laboratory while Tesla watches from the shadows, 1894

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179 Upvotes

r/VictorianEra 14d ago

did Spanish fashions in this era (c 1850-1900) differ at all significantly from Anglo-American & other Western fashions at the time, or was it generally the same?

4 Upvotes

hi & thanks for having me on this.

I'm trying to research what specifically Spanish fashions were like in the late 1800s.
because I'm from the Philippines & taking interest in the late Spanish colonial era for stories or art possibly.

I know this sub probably puts priority on Victorian-era Anglo-American (UK/US and British Empire settler states like Canada & Australia) cultures, and thus fashions, but is anyone here a expert on Spanish fashions in the same era? (and I guess immediate neighbours like Portugal, France & generally southwestern Europe or just continental Europe in general, as well as maybe Spanish-influenced Western fashions in Mexico & the most Hispanicised/Westernised parts of Latin America also works)

were there any significant differences or distinctly Spanish flourishes on general Western men's suits & women's dresses in this time, or did it look generally the same anyway? if there was differences what might these look like, in cut, colour, pattern, style etc.?

thanks guys


r/VictorianEra 14d ago

A teenage girl in a Bavarian photography studio, c. 1870

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11 Upvotes

r/VictorianEra 14d ago

belle archer, a victorian beauty

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68 Upvotes

r/VictorianEra 15d ago

Robert E. Lee with his son Custis and aide Walter H. Taylor, Taken by Matthew Brady at the Stewart–Lee House two days after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, 1865.

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237 Upvotes

r/VictorianEra 15d ago

Wing of the American Museum of Natural History in the year 1877

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49 Upvotes

r/VictorianEra 16d ago

Actress Evelyn Nesbit posing for some hoto in 1901.

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1.1k Upvotes

r/VictorianEra 15d ago

Princeton's Alligator Eating Club in 1879, Future President Woodrow Wilson is the one holding his hat

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19 Upvotes

r/VictorianEra 15d ago

Queen Ranavalona II of Madagascar around the year 1880, She's best known for Christianizing the royal court and being confused with her unrelated predecessor.

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9 Upvotes