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Victorian

Roman bathhouse. Source: 4K_Heaven / Adobe Stock.

Keeping it Clean: A Look at Ancient Hygiene Practices (Video)

From the Sumerians and Egyptians to the Victorians and beyond, humans have been striving to keep their surroundings clean since they first settled down and built permanent homes. Before civilization...
Victorian children died from arsenic-laden wallpaper. Source: Olek / Adobe Stock

Victorian-Era Wallpaper Killed Countless Children

Wallpaper isn’t as popular as it once was, and perhaps the reason for its fall from fashion was its ability to kill! In the Victorian Era, a brilliant green-colored pigment proved popular in wall...
A gentleman and a moustache cup. Source: be free / Adobe Stock

British Gentlemen Drank From Moustache Cups that Protected Their Facial Hair

The attitude to facial hair throughout history has been exceptionally fickle, and the moustache is no exception. As fashions have come and gone, so too have the tools and accessories for grooming and...
Highway Project Unearths Post-Medieval Burial Ground in England

Highway Project Unearths Post-Medieval Burial Ground in England

Twelve months after a massive archaeological dig at the Trinity Burial Ground that forms part of a £355 million Highways England improvement and redevelopment project started in Hull in northern...
An antique Ouija board

More Than A Game: The True History Of Ouija Boards

Ouija boards—also called spirit boards or talking boards—have been part of various cultures long before the introduction of the "game" in the 19th century. "Ouija", in fact, is the name of the game...
The history of childhood and education in Western civilization has evolved significantly over the last 2000 years, from no education to child labor to formal schools, how exactly did it all change?     Pictured: Top left: The School of Athens, a famous fresco by the Italian Renaissance artist Raphael, with Plato and Aristotle as the central figures in the scene (Jorge Valenzuela A / CC BY-SA 3.0).         Bottom left: Group of child labor boys during the Industrial Revolution (Lewis Hine / Public domain).

“We Don't Need No Education!” – The History of Childhood

Over the last two millennia of Western civilization, the concept of ‘childhood’ has significantly evolved from one of a family-oriented perspective to that of the child-centered universe. Those of us...
Hundreds of bottles of poisonous beer have been found at the site in Leeds, England. Source: Archaeological Services WYAS

Hundreds of Toxic Beer Bottles Found Under Old English House

Digging at the site of an old Victorian brewery in the city of Leeds in the northern English county of Yorkshire, archaeologists discovered 19th-century bottles of beer neatly stacked under a...
Painting by Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant, Orientalism genre, representation of The Book of Exposition. Source: Jeangagnon / Public Domain.

The Book of Exposition and the Enigmatic English Bohemian

Though this title may make many an aspiring writer think it to be instructional for forbidding the writing of on the nose dialogue, The Book of Exposition is far from the case. The Kitab al-Izah Fi'...
The bed could be a possible English National Treasure.

Bed Bought Online for £2200 May be 15th Century Bridal Bed of King Henry VII

A bed bought online by an antiques dealer in Britain for just £2200 (US$ 2500) may actually be the only surviving example of royal furniture from the Tudor Era. It is believed that the ornately...
A supposed Victorian tear catcher. The real use of this type of glass vial is debatable.

Capturing Scents, Not Tears: Debunking the Myth of Tear Catchers

Victorians are often remembered for their obsession with death and mourning. It is not too surprising to discover that they had specific practices and even special objects created to further enhance...
Henry Wallis – Poet Thomas Chatterton’s death by arsenic.

Death by Wallpaper: When Arsenic in the Walls Was Killing Children

Wallpaper isn’t as popular as it once was, and perhaps the reason for this falling out of fashion was its ability to kill! In 1778, a Swedish Chemist named Carl Scheele created a brilliant green...
Paul Dominique Philippoteaux, Examen d'une momie - Une prêtresse d'Ammon, oil on canvas, Egypt, c.1895 - 1910.

Disrespect and Desecration at Victorian Mummy Unwrapping Parties

A ‘mummy unwrapping party’ was a social event most commonly associated with the elites of Victorian England. As its name suggests, these parties involved the unwrapping of Egyptian mummies in front...
Legends of Spring Heeled Jack, the Uncatchable Demon of Victorian England

Legends of Spring Heeled Jack, the Uncatchable Demon of Victorian England

Before Jack the Ripper began to kill, Victorian England was terrorized by another uncatchable demon: Spring Heeled Jack. It is not certain if Jack was a man or beast. Witnesses report him having long...
Albertine to See the Police Surgeon.

The Fallen Women: Were Victorian Prostitutes Really Fallen?

The Victorian era is notoriously known as an era of female repression: sex, drugs and rock and roll—or rather, their Victorian counterparts—were believed to be highly taboo topics of conversation,...
Portrait of Queen Victoria, 1859

Moments from the Life and Reign of Queen Victoria of Great Britain

The famous Queen Victoria set the tone for Britain’s era of industrial expansion and empire. Though often recalled as wearing black mourning clothes and having a strict code of morality, she was said...