Victorian Vignette
Adolphe Sax and his invention: the saxophone
As the musical era of vaudeville and jazz evolved into the early 20th century, the saxophone came to America and took its place in big-band jazz music and as a solo instrument.
Victorian Vignette
Victorian Vignette
Tattoos: Modern Expression & Ancient Art
“A sailor without a tattoo is like a ship without grog: not seaworthy.” -Samuel O’Reilly, tattooist, 1854–1909 For millennia, humans have tattooed their bodies to express their individuality, chronicling loves, losses, beliefs, victories, affiliations, hopes, and dreams. The oldest human discovered—5,300 years old— had 60 tattoos, and his contemporaries, from […]
Victorian Vignette
The Great Arctic Outbreak of February 1899
From February 11 to February 14, 1899, Cape May, Wildwood, the state of New Jersey, the rest of the continental United States—and Cuba—suffered through what came to be called The Great Valentine’s Day Blizzard of 1899 and the Great Arctic Outbreak of February 1899, among other names. According to the […]
Victorian Vignette
Victorian Christmas Gifts
Christmas gift-giving for Victorians was not entirely different from today’s holiday gift-giving — it was easily the most exciting part of celebrating Christmas, certainly for children, but also for adults. What Victorian ladies and gentlemen and children gave to each other at Christmas has changed a lot since the late […]
Victorian Vignette
How Victorians Celebrated July 4
Beginning on Decoration Day and ending on Labor Day, everyone in Victorian America in the late 1800s held picnics. It was summertime, and getting outside, spreading a cloth or blanket, and enjoying the fresh air, fresh food, and sunshine was good for the mind and body. Family and group picnics […]
Victorian Vignette
Victorian Slang & Other Flummadiddle
Whether it’s 1870 or 2024, the English language evolves. Words and phrases come into popular use and stay a while, living their lives in conversation on the streets, in houses and theaters, written in books and newspapers, shared on Instagram or TikTok. Others disappear along with their usefulness. Some expressions […]
Victorian Vignette
Victorians Adored Ice Cream!
Victorians adored ice cream. At the beginning of the 1800s, ice cream was an elite and expensive dish, in flavors like Parmigiano and asparagus. I have tasted homemade ice cream in such flavors as asparagus, spinach, and orange blossom, and I can tell you with 21st-century experience that these flavors […]
Victorian Vignette
The evolution of the bathroom during Victorian times
American Victorian bathroom facilities were modernizing as the 19th century turned into the first decades of the 20th, and they also reflected a clear divide in comfort and convenience between the rich and the less well off. Most Americans of the 19th century did not have a dedicated bathroom and […]
Victorian Vignette
Victorians and Christmas Music
Many popular carols sung at Christmas in America were first published during the Victorian era (1837-1901), marked by the reign of Queen Victoria of England. This period in America, of course, included the Civil War (1861-1865), the Emancipation Proclamation (1863), and the passage of the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery (1865). […]
Victorian Vignette
Victorian Spiritualism
The average life expectancy in 1900 was just 47 years. Is it any wonder Victorians were obsessed with the passage from life to death (or, on another topic entirely, with productivity)? Spiritualism—a religion that attempted to bridge the gap between the living and the dead—rose to prominence during the Victorian […]
Victorian Vignette
Victorian Air Conditioning
In Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice, a debate occurs in Elizabeth’s family parlor between her younger sister, Kitty, and her mother and father, Mr. and Mrs. Bennett. It’s summer, the handsome young soldiers have moved on, and Kitty, as precocious as her name suggests, is bored. She wants to go […]
Victorian Vignette
Victorian Medicine: Advances and Retreats in Health
I find it delightful that men of the Cape May and Philadelphia Physick family were doctors, including Cape May’s Victorian gentleman, Dr. Emlen Physick, Jr., whose legacy is the 1879 Emlen Physick Estate in Cape May. It’s like meeting or knowing an artist named Art. Or a chef named Cook. […]
Victorian Vignette
How Victorians stayed warm indoors
When winter temperatures fall into the teens, it’s a good time to appreciate the modern heating systems in today’s homes that work hard keeping inhabitants warm and to learn a bit about how most homes were heated during the Victorian era.
Victorian Vignette
The Victorians’ version of Cosmopolitan
Personal Beauty by Philadelphia doctors D.G. Brinton, M.D. and G.H. Napheys, M.D., was published in 1870, under the title, The Laws of Health in Relation to the Human Form. The book is an interesting window into the Victorian mind and attitudes toward beauty and sex roles. Perhaps not surprisingly, despite […]