The second half of the 19th century has been called the positivist age and one of the most fascinating periods in

our history. It has been an age of faith in the positive consequences of what can be achieved through the

close observation of the natural and human realms.

TheVictorian era

The Victorian era of the United Kingdom was the

period of Queen Victoria's reign from June 1837 until her death on the 22nd of January 1901.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Queen_Victoria_1887.jpg

   The spirit of 19th century England could be personified

through Queen Victoria. through out her reign the British Empire became the

most powerful, and England the most modern, and wealthy

country in the World .

Queen Victoria 1837-1901 When 18 year old Princess Victoria pictured in the

header above, became Queen in 1837 no one dreamed she would reign for the rest of the century for another 64 years. The name Victorian to describe the whole period is a misnomer as for some years at the beginning of the era, Regency attitudes prevailed. 

Prince Albert the Prince Consort.

After 1840 when Victoria married Albert we see the heyday of

Victorian attitudes of prudery and a strict outwardly moral

code that lasted until about 1890 when Prince Edward the Prince Of Wales and his more spirited lifestyle was echoed in society.

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in 1861

The Railway - A Symbol of Victorian Progress

Victorian Prosperity - The Country Becomes Urban

Victorian prosperity for an elite was built on the development of new

machinery, new work methods and an underpaid workforce consisting of

adults and children living in wretched poverty. Many people previously rural

became urbanised by the new rail transport. Country families often

drifted into towns to stay with other relatives whilst seeking work.

Victorian life

The quality of life depended on whether you were rich or poor. If you were rich you could have a good and easy life. But if you

were poor you could have a rough and hard life, often

ending up in the workhouse or early death.

What did child call his/her father?Each member of the family had their own

role and children were taught to "know their place" and "be seen and not heard". They called their fathers 'sir'.

Who did the house work in rich people’s houses?

All households except the very poorest had servants to do their everyday work.

Religion:Region was very important to the Victorians. A

great number of people went to church, at least once and probably twice, every Sunday.

Food:At the beginning of the Victorian period, people relied

on the foods that were in season and available locally or those which had been pickled or preserved. Later, when the railways were built, many new and fresh foods to the towns and cities. The invention of the steam ship, and of transport refrigeration, meant that also meat, fish and fruit could be imported from overseas quite cheaply.

MoneyPounds (£)Shillings (s.)Pence (d.)

Clothing

Victorian people dressed appropriately to their age, and position in society.

• Victorian men often wore a waist coat

• Most wealthy Victorian men wore a top hat whilst poor men wore caps.

• The majority of Victorian gentlemen used a walking stick, or cane.

• It was unheard to see Victorian ladies legs. Ladies wore long skirts or dresses.

• The majority of women wore a hat or bonnet.

• Women often wore shawls.

• Ladies wore a corset to pull-in their waist. Young Victorians tried to have a waist the same size as their age. Eighteen years old? That meant you would strive for a seventeen inch waist.

At the beginning of the Victorian era skirts went straight down .Later it became fashionable for women to wear their skirts spread over large hoops. At the end of the era, the hoop disappeared from view and it was back to slimmer skirts, although now sporting a bustle

Children were often dressed in

a miniature version of

their parents.

Wealthy Victorians

The very rich, or upper class people did not have to work. They lived in big houses and had many servants such as

maids, gardeners, butlers and cooks to look after them and

their homes.

The children of rich Victorians spent the majority of their day

with their nanny. The nanny was responsible for the children's daily activities. Nannies also

taught children proper behavior, disciplined the children, and took care of them when they were ill.

Wealthy Victorian men and women did take an interest in helping the working class and impoverished

population. Ragged Schools, which were a type of charity

school, were started by upper class Victorians for the education

of the lower class children.

Poor people

Most people in Britain were very poor and lived in small and overcrowded houses.

Everyone had to work, often even children. Families with no money either

starved or went to the workhouse. It was very hard for poor people to improve their lives, they had little

education, wages were low and few would help them.

Families were usually large, in 1870 many families had five or six children.

Working Conditions

Millions of workers lived in slums or in vacated old decaying upper class houses. The

occupants of slums had no sanitation, no water supply, no paved streets, no schools,

no law or order, no decent food or new clothing. Many now had to walk miles to mill

or factory work, whereas before they had frequently lived in the house or near land where they did their work. Their hours of

work began at 5.30.a.m.and were never less than ten. The brutal degrading conditions

were so awful that drunkenness and opium taking was usual as their homelife had so

little to offer.

Society's attitude towards the poorIt does appear that many people and various

agencies were becoming aware of the problem, but the sheer scale of it must have seemed overwhelming. One of the difficulties in dealing with it were contemporary attitudes:

‘the poor were improvident, they wasted any money they had on drink and gambling’;

‘God had put people in their place in life and this must not be interfered with because the life after death was more important’

are some of the comments people might have made.

As far as the later comment is concerned, this is clearly demonstrated in a hymn published in 1848 by Cecil Frances Alexander:

The rich man in his castle,The poor man at his gate,God made them, high and lowly,And order’d their estate

Woman's Place in 19th Century Victorian History

the huge majority life was easier if they accepted that a woman's place was in the home. the attitude of men toward women in the Victorian age was highlighted by Tennyson who wrote of women staying by the hearth with their needles whilst men wielded their swords.

the late Victorians were very familiar with many of the things we use everyday. The one thing that was different was the place of women in society. There were of course perceptive women of independent original thought, To lump all women of the Victorian era as one body would be wrong. The era spanned 64 years and changes in attitudes were gradually shifting as the century closed. 

A Woman's Qualities

The accepted reasoning was that the career for women was marriage.  To get ready for courtship and marriage a girl was groomed like a racehorse.  In addition to being able to sing, play an instrument and speak a little French or Italian, the qualities a young Victorian gentlewoman needed, were to be innocent, virtuous, biddable, dutiful and be ignorant of intellectual opinion. 

  Fashion history images we see today are usually of beautifully

gowned women, yet many working women as opposed to ladies such as these wore rags.

Whether married or single all Victorian women were expected to be weak and

helpless, a fragile delicate flower incapable of making decisions beyond selecting the menu and ensuring her

many children were taught moral values.  A gentlewoman ensured that the

home was a place of comfort for her husband and family from the stresses of

Industrial Britain. 

Mistresses for MenEven in high places Victorian men

kept mistresses, but they still expected their wives or mistresses to be faithful whatever their own misdemeanours.  If a women took a lover it was not made public. If it did become public knowledge she would be cut by society.  But men could amble along to one of their gentleman's clubs and always find a warm welcome. 

Married Woman's Property Act 1887Until late in the century in 1887 a married woman

could own no property.  Then in 1887 the Married Woman's Property Act gave women rights to own her own property.  Previously her property, frequently inherited from her family, belonged to her husband on marriage.  She became the chattel of the man.  During this era if a wife separated from her husband she had no rights of access to see her children.  A divorced

woman had no chance of acceptance in society again. 

Social Differences Between Classes of Women

A wealthy wife was supposed to spend her time reading, sewing, receiving guests, going visiting, letter writing, seeing to the servants and dressing for the part as her husband's social representative. 

For the very poor of Britain things were quite different.  Fifth hand clothes were usual. Servants ate the pickings left over in a rich household.  The average poor mill worker could only afford the very inferior stuff, for example rancid bacon, tired vegetables, green potatoes, tough old stringy meat, tainted bread, porridge, cheese, herrings or kippers. 

• By the end of the Queen Victoria's reign there were great differences between members of society, but the most instantly apparent difference was through the garments worn. 

• The Victorian head of household dressed his women to show off family wealth.  As the 19th century progressed dress became more and more lavish until clothing dripped with lace and beading as the new century dawned. 

A wealthy woman's day was governed by etiquette rules that encumbered her with up to six wardrobe changes a day and the needs varied over three seasons a year.  A lady changed through a wide range of clothing as occasion dictated. 

Fashion history and photographic records clearly illustrate there was morning and mourning dress, walking dress, town dress, visiting dress, receiving visitors dress, travelling dress, shooting dress, golf dress, seaside dress, races dress, concert dress, opera dress, dinner and ball dress. 

Yet change was happening everywhere.  Many women adopted the tailor made garment that showed their more serious concern to be recognised as thinking beings with much to offer society beyond being a social asset for a husband.

By 1900 the railway, the typewriter, telephones, the post, the camera, the sewing machine, artificial rayon fibres and the bicycle became normal for many.  For some gas, water, electricity and even the motor car were already in use.  New inventions and how to use them led to new thinking and women of all classes felt the dynamic atmosphere of change as much as men.

Reform was in the air as intellectual female thinkers began to state their case.  Many joined the Fabian Society, a group of non revolutionary thinking socialists.  Others sought reform for more practical dress, better education, the right to take up paid work if they wished and  better employment prospects if they were poorly paid women.  Most importantly brave women  campaigned for votes for women and birth control information even though many never lived to see the changes they fought for.  

England was growing Fast

By 1850 half the country's former peasants were squashed into Britain's cities. The growth of

industry, the building boom, the swift population spurt and

spread of the railway changed the character of Britain too

rapidly for many to understand.

Small towns were overtaken by growing industries to become uncoordinated and sprawling industrial dwelling areas. Rail towns such as Crewe soon developed as

main rail junctions. These towns were close to other industrial towns like Stoke On Trent which became densely urban,

spreading to make six joined towns.By 1870 Britain had grown from 10 million at

the start of the century to over 26 million.

The lives of millions were changed as suddenly the masses were able to travel further than ten miles in one direction. Now all could manage rare day trips to

the new coastal seaside.

 The faith that science and its objective methods could solve all human problems

was not novel. The idea of human progress had been gradually maturing. The world was truly progressing at break-neck speed, with new inventions, ideas, and advancements - scientific, literary, and social - developing.

The middle class became self-made men and women who reaped of profits. Prosperity

brought a large number of art consumers, with money to spend on art.

Victorian Art

When most people think of the Victorian era, high fashion, gilded age, rich with

elegance, splendor, and romance, strict etiquette, and plush or eclectic

decorating styles come to mind - but it was so much more than that. Victorian era covers Classicism, Neoclassicism,

Romanticism, Impressionism, and Post-Impressionism.

Classicism, with the accurate and apparently objective description of the ordinary, observable world, was specially viewed as the opposite of

Romanticism. Paintings of the Romantic school were focused on

spontaneous expression of emotion over reason and often depicted

dramatic events in brilliant color

Victorian art was shown in the full range of artistic developments, from the development of photography to the application of new technologies in architecture.

Music, Theatre, Popular Entertainment, and the

Visual Arts•Music was a main part of the

victorian culture many Composers in the Music in the Era of Queen Victoria like Michael W. Balfe and Sir Edward Elgar and Edward German had huge fans .

• Drama, also had an enormous part in the victorian culture , many Dramatists like Dion Boucicault and Oscar Wilde And Sir William S.Gilbert were widly demanded moreover the most watched Genres of plays were :

• Melodrama• Burlesque • The Drawing-room Ballad or Parlour Song• Fairy Plays • Middle Class Satire• The Music Hall• Opera • Pantomime• Tragedy • Dramatic adaptations of Victorian Fiction

And themes were mostly about : • Politics in Theater • Religion and the Church • Mocking Society

Examples of Selected Works:• Salome by Oscar Wilde • Patience by Gilbert and Sullivan • The Frozen Deep by Charles Dickens

Victorian dancesA typical victorian dance night

Typically, the dance began around sundown on Saturday, after the chores were all done, with the Grand March and the first waltz. Music would continue until around

midnight when the revelers would break for supper. After eating a sumptuous meal,

followed by sweets, and washed down with the libation of choice, it was back to the

dance floor until dawn. Finally, the strains of the last waltz would echo into the hills just in time for folks to pack up the buggy and

get to the Sunday morning church meeting.

Dancers, both ladies and gentlemen, were issued a dance card that had a list of all the scheduled dances for the evening The card was a convenience, not only to display a handy agenda of the dances, but which was used to record the names of partners to whom one had committed each dance. It was considered bad form to promise a dance to a partner and then renege for any reason other than medical emergency, such as the "vapors." It was also common, however, for the dancemaster to add unscheduled dances during the evening..

Ladies and gentlemen welcome to ourVictorian pride dance

Tonight the first dance shall be the waltz , the Following partners will be dancing :

Lady Mary daughter of sir Liegh and Sir Gorge theThird Son of sir Teabing

Lady Margert daughter of Sir Garnnet

and Sir Andrew Son of SirJames Du le rue

Made by shahd hamouri

13 – 12 - 2009