The Victorian Age

Introduction The Victorian era of Great Britain is considered the height of the British industrial revolution and the apex of the British Empire. It is often defined as the years from 1837 to 1901, when Queen Victoria reigned, though many historians believe that the passage of
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the Reform Act 1832 marks the true inception of a new cultural era. The Victorian era was preceded by the Regency era and came before the Edwardian period. The Victorian era refers to Queen Victoria's rule which began in 1837 and concluded in 1901. Under her rule, the British people enjoyed a long period of prosperity. Profits gained from the overseas British Empire, as well as from industrial improvements at home, allowed a large, educated middle class to develop. It was a tremendously exciting period when many artistic styles, literary schools, as well as, social, political and religious movements flourished. It was a time of prosperity, broad imperial expansion, and great political reform. It was also a time, which today we associate with "prudishness" and "repression". Without a doubt, it was an extraordinarily complex age, that has sometimes been called the Second English Renaissance. It is, however, also the beginning of Modern Times. The Victorian era was a period of dramatic change that brought England to its highest point of development as a world power. The rapid growth of London, from a population of 2 million when Victoria came to the throne to one of 6.5 million by the time of Victoria's death, indicates the dramatic transition from a way of life based on the ownership of land to a modern urban economy. '...the Victorian era of Great Britain is considered the height of the British industrial revolution and the apex of the British Empire...' This flourishing age was also a time of tremendous scientific progress and ideas. Darwin took his Voyage of the Beagle, and posited the Theory of Evolution. The Great Exhibition of 1851 took place in London, lauding the technical and industrial advances of the age, and strides in medicine and the physical sciences continued throughout the century. The radical thought associated with modern psychiatry began with men like Sigmund Feud toward the end of the era, and radical economic theory, developed by Karl Marx and his associates, began a second age of revolution in mid-century. The ideas of Marxism, socialism, feminism churned and bubbled along with all else that happened. An art movement indicative of this period was the Pre-Raphaelites, which included William Holman Hunt, Christina Rossetti, and John Everett Millais. Also during this period were the Impressionists, the Realists, and the Fauves, though the Pre-Raphaelites were distinctive for being a completely English movement. As stated in the beginning, the Victorian Age was an extremely diverse and complex period. It was, indeed, the precursor of the modern era. If one wishes to understand the world today in terms of society, culture, science, and ideas, it is imperative to study this era. The social classes of England were newly reforming, and fomenting. There was a churning upheaval of the old hierarchical order, and the middle classes were steadily growing. Added to that, the upper classes' composition was changing from simply hereditary aristocracy to a combination of nobility and an emerging wealthy commercial class. The definition of what made someone a gentleman or a lady was, therefore, changing at what some thought was an alarming rate. These major changes in all fields of life had made a major contribution in Englands future history.
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I have chosen to write about this period because I consider the Victorian Age a time of challenges, reforms, significant changes and prosperity, but also it is a magic period that hasnt been exploited by each of us. Because the Victorian Age is a very comprehensive topic, I mainly focused on womens issues and family aspects. I think that women in that period were a simbol of purity but also they were surrounded by mistery. So, please take a few minutes now to step back in history. Slow your clock to Victorian time, measured by the soft flutter of a lady's feathered fan, the gentle billow of lace curtains lifted by the welcome breeze, the drowsy hum of insects on a hot summer afternoon...

The life of a Victorian Woman

During the reign of Queen Victoria, a woman's place was considered to be in the home. Then the mood changed, as charitable missions began to extend the female role of service, and Victorian feminism began to emerge as a potent political force.

Ideals of Womanhood in Victorian Britain

During the reign of Queen Victoria, a woman's place was in the home, as domesticity and motherhood were considered by society at large to be a sufficient emotional fulfilment for females. These constructs kept women far away from the public sphere in most ways, but during the 19th century charitable missions did begin to extend the female role of service, and Victorian feminism emerged as a potent political force. The transformation of Britain into an industrial nation had profound consequences for the ways in which women were to be idealised in Victorian times. New kinds of work and new kinds of urban living prompted a change in the ways in which appropriate male and female roles were perceived. In particular, the notion of separate spheres - woman in the private sphere of the home and hearth, man in the public sphere of business, politics and sociability - came to influence the choices and experiences of all women, at home, at work, in the streets. ' ... Victoria became an icon of late-19th-century middle-class femininity and domesticity. ' The Victorian era, 1837-1901, is characterised as the domestic age par excellence, epitomised by Queen Victoria, who came to represent a kind of femininity which was centred on the family, motherhood and respectability. Accompanied by her beloved husband Albert, and surrounded by her many children in the sumptuous but homely surroundings of Balmoral Castle, Victoria became an icon of late-19th-century middleclass femininity and domesticity. Indeed, Victoria came to be seen as the very model of marital stability and domestic virtue. Her marriage to Albert represented the ideal of marital harmony. She was described as 'the mother of the nation', and she came to embody the idea of home as a cosy, domestic space. When Albert died in 1861 she retreated to her home and family in preference to public political engagements. The Ideal Woman Apart from the queen - who was the ideal Victorian woman? She may have resembled Mrs Frances Goodby, the wife of the Reverend J Goodby of Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire, of whom it was said at her death that she carried out her duties as mistress of a small family with 'piety, patience, frugality and industry'. Moreover, '... her ardent and unceasing flow of spirits, extreme activity and diligence, her punctuality, uprightness and remarkable frugality, combined with a firm reliance on God ... carried her through the severest times of pressure, both with credit and respectability ...' (The General Baptist Repository and Missionary Observer , 1840). Mrs Goodby exemplified the good and virtuous woman whose life revolved around the domestic sphere of the home and family. She was pious, respectable and busy - no life of leisure for her. Her diligence and evident constant devotion to her husband, as well as to
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her God, identifies Frances Goodby as an example to other women. She accepted her place in the sexual hierarchy. Her role was that of helpmeet and domestic manager. '... domesticity was trumpeted as a female domain.' By the time that the industrial era was well advanced in Britain, the ideology that assigned the private sphere to the woman and the public sphere of business, commerce and politics to the man had been widely dispersed. In popular advice literature and domestic novels, as well as in the advertisement columns of magazines and newspapers, domesticity was trumpeted as a female domain. The increasing physical separation of the home and the workplace, for many amongst the professional and commercial classes, meant that these women lost touch with production, and came to fashion an identity solely within the domestic sphere. It was through their duties within the home that women were offered a moral duty, towards their families, especially their husbands, and towards society as a whole. However, as the example of Frances Goodby shows, the ideal woman at this time was not the weak, passive creature of romantic fiction. Rather she was a busy, able and upright figure who drew strength from her moral superiority and whose virtue was manifested in the service of others. Thus the notion of separate spheres - as lived in the industrial period - was not a blind adherence to a set of imposed values. Rather it was a way of living and working based on evangelical beliefs about the importance of the family, the constancy of marriage and woman's innate moral goodness. At Home

The home was regarded as a haven from the busy and chaotic public world of politics and business, and from the grubby world of the factory. Those who could afford to, created cosy domestic interiors with plush fabrics, heavy curtains and fussy furnishings which effectively cocooned the inhabitants from the world outside. The middle-class household contained concrete expressions of domesticity in the form of servants, homely dcor, comfortable furnishings, home entertainment, and clothing. 'The female body was dressed to emphasise a woman's separation from the world of work.'

Women's clothes began to mirror women's function. In the 19th century women's fashions became more sexual - the hips, buttocks and breasts were exaggerated with crinolines, hoopskirts and corsets which nipped in the waist and thrust out the breasts. The female body was dressed to emphasise a woman's separation from the world of work. By wearing dresses that resembled their interior furnishings, women became walking symbols of their social function - wife, mother, domestic manager. The fashion for constricting corsets and large skirts served to underline not only a woman's prime function, but also the physical constraints on her activities. It was difficult to move freely wearing corsets that made it hard to breathe, and heavy fabrics that impeded movement. No wonder that those women who could afford to keep up with the latest fashions were prone to fainting, headaches and what was termed 'hysteria'.

Wife and Mother

At the heart of the domestic ideal was the mother and her children. Since early in the 19th century the role of mother had been idealised. Motherhood was no longer simply a reproductive function, but was imbued with symbolic meaning. Domesticity and motherhood were portrayed as sufficient emotional fulfilment for women and many middle-class women regarded motherhood and domestic life as a 'sweet vocation', a substitute for women's productive role. '... the childless single woman was a figure to be pitied.' Women of the middle classes spent more time with their children than their predecessors. They were more likely to breast-feed, to play with and educate their children, and to incorporate them in the day-to-day life of the home. Middle-class women who, by mid century, were giving birth 'confined' within the home, now achieved true womanhood if they responded emotionally to their infants and bonded with them through breast-feeding and constant attendance. Motherhood was seen as an affirmation of their identity.
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Marriage signified a woman's maturity and respectability, but motherhood was confirmation that she had entered the world of womanly virtue and female fulfilment. For a woman not to become a mother meant she was liable to be labelled inadequate, a failure or in some way abnormal. Motherhood was expected of a married woman and the childless single woman was a figure to be pitied. She was often encouraged to find work caring for children - as a governess or a nursery maid - presumably to compensate her for her loss. Social Responsibility The message that motherhood was woman's highest achievement, albeit within marriage, never weakened through the course of the century. Indeed, it was in this period that motherhood was idealised as the zenith of a woman's emotional and spiritual fulfilment. At the same time, however, motherhood was becoming a social responsibility, a duty to the state and thus a full-time job, which could not easily be combined with paid work. And mothering became something that was no longer natural but which had to be learned. In the new industrial cities such as Manchester, Bradford and Glasgow, infant mortality rates were high. Responsibility for the appalling death rate amongst infants was roundly placed on the shoulders of mothers. Middle-class philanthropists, government inspectors and medical men united in their condemnation of the infant-care methods of poor women. Infant deaths, it was believed, could be prevented if poor mothers breast-fed their babies and were taught baby care. '... the ideal of true motherhood demanded women be constantly present for their children ...' In reality, the high infant mortality rate in the industrial cities was just as much to do with poor sanitation, dirty water, overcrowding and the pervasiveness of disease, but these were more difficult problems to solve. Yet the ideal of true motherhood demanded women be constantly present for their children - it implied a commitment to domesticity and was therefore seen as incompatible with the demands of the labour market. Working-class mothers were therefore more likely to be labelled irresponsible and neglectful, when in truth they were struggling to combine the demands of childcare and putting a meal on the table. 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.
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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. Fashion plates were hugely successful in this era giving ladies supposed to women visual clues on how to dress for their new found status. 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.

Victorian Delicacy

Women in the 19th century liked to be thought of as fragile ladies. They compared themselves to delicate flowers and emphasised their delicacy and femininity. They aimed always to look pale and interesting. Paleness could be induced by drinking vinegar and avoiding fresh air. Sometimes ladies discreetly used a little rouge on the cheeks, but make-up was frowned upon in general especially during the 1870s when social etiquette became more rigid. Actresses however were allowed to use make up and famous beauties such as Sarah Bernhardt and Lillie Langtry famous beauties of the 1880s could be powdered. Most cosmetic products available were still either chemically dubious, or found in the kitchen amid food colourings, berries and beetroot. A pale skin was a mark of gentility. It meant that a lady could afford to not work outdoors getting suntanned which was then considered vulgar and coarse. Continuous work in sun and harsh weather coarsened the skin then, as it does now. Parasols were de rigueur and used to protect the complexion. Rooms were shuttered with dark heavy velvet curtains to keep out the sun's rays. Some effort was made keep the dcollet neckline in good condition as it was often exposed in evening dress. Fine blue lines would be painted on the skin to increase the appearance of delicate translucent skin showing veins. During this time it was thought that a woman's crowning glory was her hair. It was rarely cut, usually only in severe illness. It was also supplemented by false hair depending on the current fashion.

Women and Urban Life in Victorian Britain

The idea of femininity in the Victorian era was encapsulated in the idea of the 'woman's mission', but this passive role could not be tolerated for long. Women soon began to seek a more independent life.

Woman's Mission Queen Victoria's reign (1837-1901) was a period of intensive industrialisation, urbanisation, and social change. Whereas in previous centuries generations had stayed in the same communities and remained close to the parental home, in the 19th century there was considerable mobility within the population. Within the span of two generations, a family might move from the country to the city, then to the suburbs. For the new members of industrialised middle classes, social identity was created around sets of values which marked them out as separate and different from the aristocracy above them and the working classes below them. Broadly speaking, middle-class identity was built on a platform of moral respectability and domesticity. '... the moral health of the nation ... depended on the moral purity of its women.'

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Women played a central role in all this, and the ideal of femininity was encapsulated in the idea of a 'woman's mission', which was that of playing a model mother, wife and daughter. Women were also seen as moral and spiritual guardians - as Samuel Smiles declared in Self-Help, 'The nation comes from the nursery.' In other words, the moral health of the nation and its empire depended on the moral purity of its women. Domestic Sphere

The pure woman was closely associated with the shelter of the private sphere, of the home. Her purity guaranteed the home as a haven and a source of social stability and, in turn, feminine purity itself was ensured through the protection of the domestic sanctuary. Within this interlocking set of beliefs, the classification of deviant forms of female behaviour was as critical as the definition and promotion of female respectability. The image of the prostitute thus became a symbol of the danger and disorder of the city streets. Domestic values were also partly defined in relation to a debate concerning the country and the city. Within popular accounts, the countryside was seen as the opposite of the disease-ridden and potentially revolutionary city. It was healthy, moral and peaceful, and its homes were imagined as happy, timeless and natural. Ideas concerning the countryside, the home and the family came together in the construction of a rural ideal. According to middle-class values, the family was a 'natural' and stable unit which should ideally be located in a rural setting, or at least a suburban version of the rural. The City

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Modern urban life presented the Victorian middle classes with many complex social and moral problems. The public sphere of the city was regarded as dangerous and corrupting.It was the location of crime and poverty and anyone could succumb to diseases generated in the slums and carried on the air by an invisible smell, or 'miasma'. Women played a particular role in this image of city life. Respectable women, it was claimed, could not be part of the public sphere of city life. If women left the safety of the home and were on the streets, it was claimed, they became corrupted by the transgressive values of the city. They would be thought to be either prostitutes or vulnerable working women - with both groups the victims of a hostile and threatening environment. '... as soon as she paused she could become a victim of this hostile urban world.' Victorian artists often turned to the image of the endangered working woman for modern life subjects. Charles Hunt's painting, A Coffee Stall, Westminster (c.1860, Museum of London) shows a number of urban types who have stopped at a refreshment stall in the centre of the metropolis. Attention is focused on the two figures on the right. One is a young milliner's apprentice with her hat-box, and the other is an ominous, top-hatted 'swell', the seducer, who will inevitably turn the woman into another of his sexual victims. The woman would have been thought to be vulnerable, because her work took her through the city streets alone to deliver goods to clients and, as soon as she paused, she could become a victim of this hostile urban world. Ordinary Women

Current views concerning Victorian femininity continue to be dominated by the 19thcentury concept of domestic purity and the associated figure of the ideal woman, the 'angel in the house', carrying out her mission as wife, mother and daughter. But we should not allow this particular conception of Victorian femininity to blind us to the existence of different, sometimes conflicting, versions of female respectability in this period. Are we really to believe that upstanding women of the Victorian middle classes did not travel alone in the city? That they did not walk to visit friends and relatives, or travel on the omnibus or underground railway? 'Respectability was not as clear-cut as Victorian domestic values would suggest.' It is time to take the angel out of the house and place her back on the pavements of the city - not as a victim, but as a confident pedestrian. Evidence of the everyday presence of

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ordinary women on the city streets can be found in many historical sources from the period. Women were evidently quick to exploit the new opportunities offered by technology and industrialisation. One lithograph from the 1860s (London Transport Museum) depicts King's Cross, one of the original stations of the underground railway. The focus is on the architecture and the engine, but the incidental details of the figures on the platform show women of respectable dress and appearance, on their own, travelling independently across the city. Indeed, female use of the underground was so extensive that the Illustrated London News welcomed the publication, in 1868, of a new railway map which 'appears to be exactly that for which the British matrons are urgent'. But respectability was not as clear-cut as Victorian domestic values would suggest. The urban crowd brought together strangers of all classes in greater numbers than ever before and offered unprecedented opportunities for social interaction. So we can begin to imagine women as far more active and independent participants in the social and economic world of Victorian cities. Certainly there were dangers in the city but there were also immense possibilities and sources of pleasure and excitement.

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Famous Victorian Women

Queen Victoria

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Early Years One of the most memorable and endearing of English monarchs, Queen Victoria was born on 24th May 1819, at Kensington Palace, London. She was the daughter of Edward, Duke of Kent (the fourth son of George III) and Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfield. Her parent's marriage was one of a series of arranged marriages amongst the sons of George III, to produce an heir in the next generation after the untimely death of George IV's daughter, the popular Princess Charlotte. Victoria's christening took place at Kensington Palace and was the cause of much friction within the family. The Prince Regent detested his brother the Duke of Kent and the thought of a child of the Duke's inheriting the throne was anathema to him. Although he was asked to stand as godfather at the ceremony, he would allow no uniforms or foreign dignitaries to attend to add splendour to the occasion. He totally forbade the use of the names Charlotte, Elizabeth, Georgina or Augusta, which the baby's parents had chosen. It was clear that the Regent would not allow the child to be given any of the names which were then used in the royal family. When the Archbishop enquired what name he should therefore give the child, the Regent abruptly snapped 'Alexandrina', which was after the Russian Emperor, who stood as godfather by proxy. The child was christened Alexandrina Victoria. During her first years, the Princess was often called 'Drina' but Victoria was the name she herself preferred. Eight months after his daughter's birth, the Duke of Kent died when a heavy cold turned to pneumonia whilst the family were staying at Sidmouth in Devon. By the 1830's it had become obvious that Queen Adelaide was not going to produce a living child and therefore Victoria would succeed her ageing uncle, William IV, to the throne. Her mother's ambitious Comptroller, the Irishman John Conroy, envisaged himself as the power behind the throne during the Princesses minority. He devised the Kensington System, under which she spent, to use her own words, her "rather melancholy childhood" . The system was devised to bring up the Princess entirely dependent on her mother. A lonely and unhappy child, she was alternately bullied by Conroy and cajoled by her mother. Her only support came from her governess, Baroness Lehzen, whom Victoria became very attached to. Reign

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Conroy eagerly anticipated a regency, but his plans came to nothing, as on the death of William IV, Victoria had just passed her eighteenth birthday. She was awoken in the early morning of 20th June, 1837, to hear the momentous news that she was now Queen. She later attended the first of many cabinet meetings, to use her own words 'Quite alone'. Most of those present were impressed by the gravity and dignity with which the new Queen conducted herself, despite her youth. Since Hanover was governed by the salic law, which forbade the accession of a female, Victoria's uncle, Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, was to succeed as Elector of the province. Ernest Augustus was an unpopular and unsavoury figure who was rumoured to have murdered his own valet. The new Queen could hardly be described as pretty, she was short, dumpy and plain, with the receeding chin of George III and typically Hanoverian features. She got off to a good start, guided by her first Prime Minister, the experienced Lord Melbourne, who saw himself as a surrogate father figure to the young Victoria. The propriety, decorum and dignity that Queen Victoria early displayed was in marked contrast to that of her profligate Hanoverian uncles. At the outset of her reign, Victoria lost some of her initial popularity by her behaviour in 'the Bedchamber Crisis'. Understandably harbouring resentment to her mother for her sufferings under the Kensington System, she allowed this to affect her judgement and handling of the affair of one of her mother's ladies, Lady Flora Hastings. When Lady Flora became ill and swollen about the stomach, the Queen was all too ready to believe gossip about pregnancy and Conroy. Lady Flora's reputation was besmirched and she had to submit to an embarrassing examination to clear her name. It transpired that the unfortunate woman had cancer. When she died shortly after, Victoria's own reputation was at an all time low.

Marriage to Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha

It was expected that the new Queen would soon marry and produce an heir to the throne. Victoria was aware of the schemes of her maternal uncle Leopold of Saxe-Coburg for her to marry her first cousin Albert, the younger son of Ernest, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and Louise of Saxe-Altenburg. Leopold, the widower of George IV's daughter Charlotte
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and now King of the Belgians, was intent on building up Coburg influence in Europe, through a series of advantageous marriages. Although Victoria was not over keen to marry in a hurry, she was excessively fond of her "dear Uncle Leopold" who had visited her frequently as a child and had helped with her financial support. She agreed that Albert and his brother Ernest could come over to visit. She promptly fell for the "quite charming and excessively handsome" Albert, who accepted Victoria's proposal. The young couple were married on 10th May, 1840. The marriage did not get off to a very auspicious start. The Queen's new husband was disliked in England as a foreigner and generally disapproved of, arhyme circulating at the time 'He comes to take, for better or for worse, England's fat Queen and England's fatter purse' aptly captured the public mood. In addition to this, Albert had to cope with his wife's emotionalism and the relentless interference in their marriage of Victoria's old governess, Baroness Lehzen, whom he grew to thoroughly detest. Victoria was reluctant to share power with her husband and it seemed that the only position she was prepared to allow him was that of blotting her signature on state papers. These 'teething troubles' were eventually addressed when Albert, a highly intelligent young man, quickly mastered the English language and increased his influence in state affairs. The Queen came to depend on his considerable abilities and became devoted to him. To Albert's delight, the despised Lehzen was soon packed off back to Germany. Albert's influence became considerable. He applied himself and took an abiding interest in the exploitation of child labour and in the housing conditions of the working classes. The Queen herself had little knowledge of the social problems that industrialization had created for the majority of her subjects and Albert did his utmost to draw such matters to his wife's attention. Lytton Strachey chronicled her last days with the sentimentality that had developed by the end of her reign, in the biography, Queen Victoria: " By the end of the year the last remains of her ebbing strength had almost deserted her; and through the early days of the opening century it was clear that her dwindling forces were kept together only by an effort of will. On January 14, she had at Osbourne an hour's interview with Lord Roberts, who had returned victorious from South Africa a few days before. She inquired with acute anxiety into all the details of the war; she appeared to sustain the exertion successfully; but, when the audience was over, there was a collapse. On the following day her medical attendants recognised that her state was hopeless; and yet, for two days more, the indomitable spirit fought on; for two days more she discharged the duties of a Queen of England. But after that there was an end of working; and then, and not till then, did the last optimism of those about her break down. The brain was failing and life was gently slipping away. Her family gathered round her; for a little more she lingered, speechless and apparently insensible; and, on January 22, 1901, she died." Victoria's was the longest reign in English history.

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Florence Nightingale

The English nurse Florence Nightingale was the founder of modern nursing and made outstanding contributions to the knowledge and improvement of public health. Florence Nightingale was born in Florence, Italy, on May 12, 1820; she was named after the city of her birth. Her father, William E. Nightingale, was a wealthy landowner who had inherited an estate in Derbyshire, England. Like many members of the wealthy class, he and Florence's mother, Fanny, dedicated themselves to the pursuit of active social lives. Florence and her sister, Parthenope, were tutored by their father in languages, mathematics, and history. Though Florence was tempted by the idea of a brilliant social life and marriage, she also wanted to achieve independence, importance in some field of activity, and obedience to God through service to society. In 1844 Nightingale decided that she wanted to work in hospitals. Her family objected strongly to her plan; hospital conditions at that time were known to be terrible, and nurses were untrained and thought to be of questionable morals. Ignoring all resistance,
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Nightingale managed to visit some hospitals and health facilities. She then received permission from her parents to spend a few months at Kaiserworth, a German training school for nurses and female teachers. In 1853 she became superintendent of the London charity-supported Institution for Sick Gentlewomen in Distressed Circumstances. This opportunity allowed her to become independent from her family and also to try out new ideas in organizing and managing an institution, conducted in a scientific, nonreligious setting. In October of 1854 Nightingale organized a party of thirty-eight nurses, mostly from different religious orders, for service in the Crimean War (185356), in which Great Britain, France, and Sardinia fought against Russian expansion in Europe. The nurses arrived at Constantinople in November. Conditions at the British base hospital at Scutari were awful and grew steadily worse as the number of sick and wounded soldiers rapidly increased. The British army did not have enough medical services and used what it did have poorlya confusing and complicated supply system actually cut off deliveries to the patients. The Barrack Hospital, where Nightingale and her nurses worked and lived, was built on a massive cesspool (an underground area into which liquid waste flows), which poisoned the water and even the building itself. The general attitude was that the common soldier was a drunken brute on whom all comforts would be wasted. Nightingale saw that her first task was to get the military doctors to accept her and the other nurses. Her determined personality, combined with the continuing arrival of the newly sick and wounded, soon brought this about. She also had a large fund of private moneymuch of it raised by the London Timeswith which she could obtain badly needed supplies. By the end of 1854, some order had been created and the hospital was cleanernot only through Nightingale's efforts but also through improvements made by a governmental sanitary commission. The death rate among patients fell by two-thirds. But with improvement came new problems, including anger from officials who were found at fault for the poor hospital conditions and rising disputes among the nurses. Florence Nightingale left Scutari in the summer of 1856, soon after the war ended. By then she was famous among the troops and the public as the "Lady with the Lamp" and the "Nightingale in the East." This popular image is not quite accurate. Although she did some active nursing in the wards, Nightingale's real work lay outside the expression of tenderness and concern. It began with her refusal to respond to public praise and with her use of her influence in high places, including with the queen, to fight for effective reform of the entire system of military hospitals and medical care. In Notes on Matters Affecting the Health, Efficiency and Hospital Administration of the British Army (1857) Nightingale used the experiences of the war to prove that a new system was necessary. Within five years this effort led to the reconstruction of the administrative structure of the War Office. Nightingale's Notes on Hospitals (1859) detailed the proper arrangements for civilian institutions (places that were not a part of the military). In the next year she presided over the founding of the Nightingale School for the training of nurses at St. Thomas's Hospital in London, England. After 1858 she was recognized as the leading expert on military and civilian sanitation (the removal of watertransported waste) in India. She also believed that irrigation (the supplying of water to an area using artificial methods) was the solution to the problem of famine. In 1907 Nightingale was the first woman to be awarded the Order of Merit.
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Nightingale's personality is well documented. She rebelled against the idle, sheltered existence of her family her entire life. She achieved a leading position in a world dominated by men, driving and directing her male coworkers as hard as she did herself. She often complained that women were selfish, and she had no time for the growing women's rights movement. But she also developed an idea of spiritual (relating to or affecting the spirit) motherhood and saw herself as the mother of the men of the British army"my children"whom she had saved. Florence Nightingale never really recovered from the physical strain of the Crimean War. After 1861 she rarely left her home and was confined to her bed much of the time. She died on August 13, 1910, in London, England.

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Elizabeth Garrett Anderson

Anderson was a pioneering physician and political campaigner, the first Englishwoman to qualify as a doctor. Elizabeth Garrett was born in Whitechapel, east London, one of the 12 children of a pawnbroker. During her childhood her father became a successful businessman, enabling him to send his children to good schools. After school she was expected to marry well and live the life of a lady. However meetings with the feminist Emily Davies and Elizabeth Blackwell, the first American woman physician, convinced Elizabeth Garrett that she should become a doctor. This was unheard of in 19th century Britain and her attempts to study at a number of medical schools were denied. She enrolled as a nursing student at Middlesex Hospital and attended classes intended for male doctors, but was barred after complaints from other students. As the Society of Apothecaries did not specifically forbid women from taking their examinations, in 1865 she passed their exams and gained a certificate which enabled her to become a doctor. The Society then changed its rules to prevent other women entering the profession this way. With her father's backing, in 1866 she established a dispensary for women in London and in 1870 was made a visiting physician to the East London Hospital. Her she met James Anderson, a successful businessman, who she married in 1871 and with whom she had three children. She remained determined to obtain a medical degree, so she taught herself French and went to the University of Paris, where she successfully earned her degree. The British Medical Register refused to recognise her qualification. In 1872, Anderson founded the New Hospital for Women in London (later renamed after its founder), staffed entirely by women. Anderson appointed her mentor, Elizabeth Blackwell, as the professor of gynaecology there. Anderson's determination paved the way for other women, and in 1876 an act was passed permitting women to enter the medical professions. In 1883 Anderson was appointed dean of the London School of Medicine for Women, which she had helped to found in 1874, and oversaw its expansion. In 1902, Anderson retires to Aldeburgh on the Suffolk coast. In 1908, she became the mayor of the town, the first female mayor in England. She was a member of the suffragette movement and her daughter Louisa was also a prominent suffragette. Anderson herself died on 17 December 1917.
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Kate Greenaway

The English illustrator Kate Greenaway (1846-1901) dramatically changed the art of the picture book. For many modern critics, her work represents the essence of a Victorian childhood. For over a hundred years, Kate Greenaway's works have been honored as representing the essence of illustrations for children. Her relatively simple line drawings and colored pictures of young boys and girls at play influenced generations of writers and illustrators for children. Her seminal role in creating the form of the modern child's picture book was recognized in 1955, when the Library Association of Great Britain established the Kate Greenaway Medal. The award is given annually to the British artist who has produced the most distinguished illustrations in works of literature for children. Kate Greenaway's romantic conception of childhood was based in part on her own experiences. She was born on March 17, 1846, in Hoxton, a community in what is now Greater London, England. "She was the second daughter of John Greenaway, a draughtsman and engraver, " writes Bryan Holme in The Kate Greenaway Book, "and of Elizabeth Greenaway, a Miss Jones before the marriage." "I had such a very happy time when I was a child, " Greenaway is reported as saying in M. H. Spielmann and G. S. Lanyard's 1905 biography Kate Greenaway, "and, curiously, was so very much happier then than my brother and sister, with exactly the same surroundings. I suppose my imaginary life made me one long continuous joy-filled everything with a strange wonder and beauty. Living in that childish wonder is a most beautiful feeling-I can so well remember it. There was always something more-behind and beyond everything-to me. The golden spectacles were very very big." Her earliest artistic desires found their expression in drawing and in dressing up her dolls. "A strong bond existed between father and daughter, " Holme reports. "He had nicknamed her 'Knocker' because when she cried her face used to look like one-or so he had teasingly
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told her. As soon as Kate's fingers had strength enough to hold pencil, John Greenaway had encouraged her to draw-and this he continued to do up to and through her student years." Some of these pictures were of contemporary events, including the Great Indian War in 1857, in which many English women and children were killed. "At the time of the Indian Mutiny I was always drawing people escaping, " Greenaway revealed in Kate Greenaway. "I could sit and think of the sepoys till I could be wild with terror, and I used sometimes to dream of them. But I was always drawing the ladies, nurses, and children escaping. Mine always escaped and were never taken." Other inspirations for her art work were the family vacations taken in rural Rolleston, Nottinghamshire. "Here Greenaway was touched by the commonplace sights of old-fashioned England, " states Lundin: "villagers in their antiquated eighteenth-century dress; men working in the fields in embroidered smocks dyed blue; women wearing their Sunday best of frilly lace and large poke bonnets; and roads edged with primroses or fields filled with poppies." Greenaway's doll-dressing talents may have had their origins in Elizabeth Greenaway's occupation. "Her mother was a seamstress and milliner, who opened a shop in Islington when her husband's business waned, " explains Anne H. Lundin in the Dictionary of Literary Biography. "Certainly Kate Greenaway's taste for 'dressing up' found its major expression at the drawing, [but] in her childhood it had through her love of dolls, " states Holme. Even after she had been sent to school at what would become the Royal Academy of Art in 1858, and after she had won local and national awards for her work in 1861 and 1864, she continued to work with dolls and fabric. In 1868, at the age of 22, she had an exhibition of her watercolors at the Dudley Gallery in Piccadilly. She created these pictures by first making the clothing, then dressing model in the clothes. The significance of the pictures in terms of her career, however, was that they "caught the eye of an editor and led to a commission for illustrations for People's magazine and later for Christmas cards and valentines for Marcus Ward, " declares Lundin. "In 1870 she received a commission to illustrate an edition of Madame D'Aulney's Fairy Tales. She also began contributing to Little Folks, the Illustrated London News, and Cassell's magazine, and she exhibited for the first time at the Royal Academy in 1877." Greenaway's largest influence on her art work at this time came from the artists of the PreRaphaelite Brotherhood, which was formed in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. "This trio of artists, " writes Holme, "protested the ravages of modern industry, but their plea for a return to simplicity, sincerity, and respect for nature had no bearing beyond the immediate world of British art. Yet in that world, within a decade, they became gods." Many of her early cards and valentines, such as those that appeared in The Quiver of Love: A Collection of Valentines (1876) show the Pre-Raphaelite influence on her work. John Ruskin, the first British art critic to recognize the contributions of the Pre-Raphaelites, later became a close friend of Greenaway. Their correspondence continued until the critic's death in 1900. Much of Greenaway's earliest work appeared in the publications of Marcus Ward & Company, which published her art work on their cards, calendars, and books. "Over the years, " writes Holme, "hitherto unknown books containing one or more Greenaway illustrations have turned up in the rare-book market." Her "earliest free-lance work also included odd jobs for Messrs. Kronheim and Company, the giant color printers of Shoe Lane, " the critic continues. The Kronheim connection led to the publication of her first illustrated book: Diamonds and Toads (1871). "This slim paper-bound volume, a popular
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little tale pointing to the moral that 'cross words are as bad dropped from the mouth as toads and vipers, while gentle words are better than roses and diamonds' was printed by Kronheim, " Holme concludes, "and destined to number in Aunt Louisa's London Toy Book Series under the imprint of Frederick Warne and Company." Other books featuring Greenaway illustrations published in the early 1870s included The Children of the Parsonage, Fairy Gifts; or, A Wallet of Wonders, and Topo.

The artist's aspirations, however, went beyond simply illustrating books written by other people. "Greenaway's ambition was to publish a book of her own verses and drawings based on her memories of Rolleston, street rhymes, and favorite childhood stories, " explains Lundin. "She dressed her characters in the old-fashioned clothing so common in Rolleston: high-waisted gowns, smocks, and mobcaps. She accompanied these drawings with her own verse, based on nursery-rhyme morals and make-believe." Her father, John Greenaway, shared the unfinished manuscript with a colleague named Edmund Evans. Evans was "a pioneer color printer who had already created successful productions of Walter Crane's toy books and had recently engaged Randolph Caldecott for a similar series, " states Lundin. The volume that Evans published became the first and most popular of Greenaway's books, Under the Window: Pictures and Rhymes for Children. Evans's original printing of 20, 000 copies quickly sold out and Evans had to print another 50, 000 to satisfy the demand for the book. One-third of the profits went to Greenaway. The sales made her comfortably well-off, if not wealthy, and her name became familiar in households throughout the British Empire and the United States. "Throughout the 1890s Under the Window was listed as a perennial seller, " says Lundin, "along with Greenaway's three other most popular works: Kate Greenaway's Birthday Book for Children (1880), Mother Goose; or, The Old Nursery Rhymes (1881), and A Painting Book (1884)." These four books marked the pinnacle of Greenaway's critical and commercial success. However, her reputation was further spread by a series of yearly almanacs, published first by Routledge and later by Dent. "The almanacs were booklets with variant bindings that contained monthly calendars and in which the surprise from year to year was in Greenaway's choice of decorations for the seasons, " writes Lundin. Their sales were more erratic than those of Greenaway's major books-except in the United States, Lundin says, where "the almanacs had a greater following with sales often twice that of the British market." The Almanack for 1883, the best-selling of her collection, sold 90, 000 copies throughout Great Britain, the United States, France, and Germany. The almanacs appeared yearly from 1882 to 1895; the publisher skipped 1896, and the last of Greenaway's almanacs was published in 1897.
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Christina Rossetti

Christina Georgina Rossetti, one of the most important women poets writing in nineteenth-century England, was born in London December 5, 1830, to Gabriele and Frances (Polidori) Rossetti. Although, her fundamentally religious temperament was closer to her mother's, this youngest member of a remarkable family of poets, artists, and critics inherited many of her artistic tendencies from her father. Judging from somewhat idealized sketches made by her brother Dante, Christina as a teenager seems to have been quite attractive if not beautiful. In 1848, she became engaged to James Collinson, one of the minor Pre-Raphaelite brethren, but the engagement ended after he reverted to Roman Catholicism. When Professor Rossetti's failing health and eyesight forced him into retirement in 1853, Christina and her mother attempted to support the family by starting a day school, but had
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to give it up after a year or so. Thereafter, she led a very retiring life, interrupted by a recurring illness which was sometimes diagnosed as angina and sometimes tuberculosis. From the early '60s on she was in love with Charles Cayley, but according to her brother William, refused to marry him because "she enquired into his creed and found he was not a Christian." Milk-and-water Anglicanism was not to her taste. Lona Mosk Packer argues that her poems conceal a love for the painter William Bell Scott, but there is no other evidence for this theory, and the most respected scholar of the Pre-Raphaelite movement disputes the dates on which Packer thinks some of the more revealing poems were written. All three Rossetti women, at first devout members of the evangelical branch of the Church of England, were drawn toward the Tractarians in the 1840s. They nevertheless retained their evangelical seriousness: Maria eventually became an Anglican nun, and Christina's religious scruples remind one of Dorothea Brooke in George Eliot's Middlemarch : as Eliot's heroine looked forward to giving up riding because she enjoyed it so much, so Christina gave up chess because she found she enjoyed winning; pasted paper strips over the antireligious parts of Swinburne's Atalanta in Calydon (which allowed her to enjoy the poem very much); objected to nudity in painting, especially if the artist was a woman; and refused even to go see Wagner's Parsifal, because it celebrated a pagan mythology. After rejecting Cayley in 1866, according one biographer, Christina (like many Victorian spinsters) lived vicariously in the lives of other people. Although pretty much a stay-athome, her circle included her brothers' friends, like Whistler, Swinburne, F.M. Brown, and Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll). She continued to write and in the 1870s to work for the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. She was troubled physically by neuralgia and emotionally by Dante's breakdown in 1872. The last 12 years of her life, after his death in 1882, were quiet ones. She died of cancer December 29, 1894.

The Victorian Weeding

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The Wedding Day has arrived, the most important event in a Victorian girl's life. It is the day her mother has prepared her for from the moment she was born. The Victorian girl knew no other ambition. She would marry, and she would marry well.

Naming the Day The wedding itself and the events leading up to the ceremony are steeped in ancient traditions still evident in Victorian customs. One of the first to influence a young girl is choosing the month and day of her wedding. June has always been the most popular month, for it is named after Juno, Roman goddess of marriage. She would bring prosperity and happiness to all who wed in her month. Practicality played a part in this logic also. If married in June, the bride was likely to birth her first child in Spring, allowing her enough time to recover before the fall harvest. June also signified the end of Lent and the arrival of warmer weather. That meant it was time to remove winter clothing and partake in one's annual bath. April, November and December were favored also, so as not to conflict with peak farm work months. October was an auspicious month, signifying a bountiful harvest. May, however, was considered
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unlucky. "Marry in May and rue the day," an old proverb goes. But "Marry in September's shine, your living will be rich and fine." Brides were just as superstitious about days of the week. A popular rhyme goes: Marry on Monday for health, Tuesday for wealth, Wednesday the best day of all, Tuesday for crosses, Friday for losses, and Saturday for no luck at all. The Wedding Ensemble Once the bride chose her wedding day, a prerogative conferred upon her by the groom, she could begin planning her trousseau, the most important item of which was her wedding dress. Brides have not always worn white for the marriage ceremony. In the 16 th and 17th centuries for example, girls in their teens married in pale green, a sign of fertility. A mature girl in her twenties wore a brown dress, and older women even wore black. From early Saxon times to the 18th century, only poorer brides came to their wedding dressed in white--a public statement that she brought nothing with her to the marriage. Color of the gown was thought to influence one's future life: White--chosen right Blue--love will be true Yellow--ashamed of her fellow Red--wish herself dead Black--wish herself back Grey--travel far away Pink--of you he'll always think Green-ashamed to be seen

Ever since Queen Victoria wed in 1840, however, white has remained the traditional color for wedding gowns and bouquets. A woman then used her dress for Court Presentation after marriage, usually with a different bodice.
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The early Victorian wedding dress had a fitted bodice, small waist, and full skirt (over hoops and petticoats.) It was made of organdy, tulle, lace, gauze, silk, linen or cashmere. The veil was a fine gauze, sheer cotton or lace. The reasonable cost of a wedding gown in 1850 was $500, according to Godey's, with $125 for a veil. By 1861, more elaborate gowns cost as much as $1500 if constructed with lace. Formal weddings during this period were all white, including the bridesmaid's dresses and veils. Veils were attached to a coronet of flowers, usually orange blossoms for the bride and roses or other in-season flowers for the attendants. The bride's accessories included: short white kid gloves, hanky embroidered with her maiden name initials, silk stockings embroidered up the front, and flat shoes decorated with bows or ribbons at the instep. For the widow who remarried in the early and mid-Victorian eras, she did not wear white, had no bridesmaids, no veil and no orange blossoms, (a sign of purity.) She usually wore a pearl or lavender satin gown trimmed with ostrich feathers. In the later decades, she was allowed attendants as well as pages, but no veil or orange blossoms. She could wear a shade or two away from white, preferring rose, salmon, ivory or violet. As for jewelry, diamonds have always been popular. When white dresses were in vogue, pearl and diamond combinations were fashionable. The mid-Victorians had a more extravagant display of wealth, often a diamond tiara for the ceremony. Combination pieces of diamond jewelry that could be separated later as individual pieces were popular. Traditionally, the jewelry worn by the bride was a gift from her husband. The earlier in the day the wedding, the less jewelry. Finally, for the bride, you may recall the English rhyme: "Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue, and a lucky sixpence in your shoe." Something old was often a family heirloom and the bride's link with the past. Something new could be her dress or a gift from the groom. Something borrowed was of real value like a veil or headpiece, and returned to the owner. Something blue was often the garter or an embroidered handkerchief. The touch of blue symbolized faithfulness, while the sixpence ensured future wealth. A Groom's Attire The grooms, too, were concerned with fashion on their wedding day, and turned to magazines for advice on how best to be turned out. In the early Victorian era, the bridegroom wore a frock coat of blue, mulberry or claret, and a flower favor in his lapel. By 1865, men's coats were tailored with a special "flower-hole" for this purpose. His waistcoat was white, and his trousers of lavender doeskin. Black was out of the question. The best man and groomsmen wore frock coats also, but in a more subdued tone. The American frontier groom wore a flower on the lapel of his best suit, using whatever was in the bride's bouquet. By the mid-Victorian era, frock coats were seldom worn, the morning coat being preferable because of its smarter appearance. Some grooms still wore frock coats, however, and did so with a vest of black cloth, dark gray trousers, a folded cravat of medium color, and lavender gloves stitched in black.

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Fashions changed rapidly in the late Victorian years, from no need for gloves in 1885, to a must for gloves in 1886. By now, however, men wore pearl colored gloves with black embroidery. By 1899, the frock coat was back in style along with a double-breasted, lightcolored waistcoat, dark tie, gray striped cashmere trousers, patent-leather button boots and pale tan kid gloves. Throughout the Victorian era, a black top hat was a necessity. By the end of the Victorian era, boutonnieres were large--a bunch of lilies, a gardenia or stephanotis sprig. If the wedding was in the evening, as now allowed by English law, full dress tailcoats were in order, with white gloves and white waistcoat. The father of the bride dressed like the groom and groomsmen, and according to the time of day for the wedding. Attendants, Children and Family Gowns for the bridesmaids had to be both practical and beautiful, for they became a part of the girl's wardrobe after the ceremony. Some generous brides provided the dresses for their attendants. During the early Victorian years, skirts were full and bodices tiny. Tradition called for an all white wedding, but color could be added for an accent if the overall effect remained white. Bridesmaids covered their heads with short white veils falling from a coronet to just below the hip. Weddings at home did not require a veil, and often headpieces of flowers and ribbons were worn. By the mid-Victorian era, bustles were the height of fashion. White was no longer the color, but was still worn at some weddings, often in combination with another color. By the 1890s, the Victorians were more willing to try innovative new fashions, closely following fashions from Paris. Large sleeves were in style, emphasizing the shoulders. Grey, violet and lilac were popular in England. By 1898, fashion dictated that the bridesmaids' dresses be in direct contrast to the bride's, so as not to distract from the beauty of her gown. That custom is still in practice today. Children were a symbolic part of the Victorian wedding and had their own dress etiquette. Little girls could be flower girls or ring bearers. If older, they could be junior bridesmaids or maids of honor. Regardless of their role, their dresses were of white muslin tied with a ribbon sash that matched their shoes and stockings. The dresses were either long or short depending upon the prevailing styles and ages of the girls. The boys had the important role of holding the bride's train. They dressed as court pages in velvet jackets, short trousers and round linen collars fastened by large bows of white crepe de chine or surah. Their laced shoes were black, unless it was a formal wedding, in which case they wore white silk hose, and buckles on their shoes. Their velvet suits could be black, blue, green or red, with a matching hat, which was optional. The hat was removed for a church ceremony. Social customs dictated what the mothers and female guests wore, also, the difference subtle yet present. At a daytime wedding, guests wore walking or visiting costumes. The mothers, and other female family members, wore reception toilettes, being more elegant than daytime costumes, but less formal than evening dress. All women had to wear bonnets in church, but they were optional for at-home ceremonies. Bonnets were not worn for evening receptions. In the late Victorian era, black was suggested as an appropriate color for the mother of the bride. These were never made of black crepe, however, which
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signified mourning. If the mother was in mourning, she could put aside her crepe for the ceremony and wear cardinal red. Queen Victoria, the mother figure at many weddings, always wore black and white because she was in mourning for her "dearest Albert."

The Marriage Ceremony The Marriage ceremony varies with the fortunes and wishes of those interested. In regard to the form of the rite, no specific directions are necessary; for those who are to be married by ministers, will study the form of their particular church - the Methodists their "Book of Discipline," the Episcopalians their "Book of Common Prayer," the Catholics their Ritual, etc., etc. In most cases a rehearsal of the ceremony is made in private, that the pair may the more perfectly understand the necessary forms. If the parties are to be wedded by a magistrate, the ceremony is almost nominal - it is a mere repetition of a vow. The Catholic and Episcopal forms have the most ceremony, and doubtless are the most impressive, though no more effectually marrying than the simplest form. Congratulations after the Ceremony If it is an evening wedding, at home immediately after "these twain are made one," they are congratulated: first by the relatives, then by the friends, receiving the good wishes of all; after which, they are at liberty to leave their formal position, and mingle with the company. The dresses, supper, etc., are usually more festive and gay than for a morning wedding and reception, where the friends stop for a few moments only, to congratulate the newly-married pair, taste the cake and wine and hurry away. Let Joy be Unconfined On such festive occasions, all appear in their best attire, and assume their best manners. Peculiarities that pertain to past days, or have been unwarily adopted, should be guarded
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against; mysteries concerning knives, forks, and plates, or throwing 'an old shoe' after the bride, are highly reprehensible, and have long been exploded. Such practices may seem immaterial, but they are not so. Stranger guests often meet at a wedding breakfast; and the good breeding of the family may be somewhat compromised by neglect in small things.

The Wedding Breakfast If the lady appears at breakfast, which is certainly desirable, she occupies, with her husband, the center of the table, and sits by his side - her father and mother taking the top and bottom, and showing all honor to their guests. When the cake has been cut, and every one is helped - when, too, the health of the bride and bridegroom has been drunk, and every compliment and kind wish has been duly proffered and acknowledged - the bride, attended by her friends, withdraws; and when ready for her departure the newly-married couple start off on their wedding journey, generally about two or three o'clock, and the rest of the company shortly afterward take their leave. Sending Cards In some circles it is customary to send cards almost immediately to friends and relations, mentioning at what time and hour the newly-married couple expect to be called upon. Some little inconvenience occasionally attends this custom, as young people may with to extend their wedding tour beyond the time first mentioned, or, if they go abroad, delays may unavoidably occur. It is therefore better to postpone sending cards, for a short time at least. Returning Wedding Visits Wedding visits must be returned during the course of a few days, and parties are generally made for the newly-married couple, which they are expected to return. This does not, however, necessarily entail much visiting; neither is it expected from young people,

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whose resources may be somewhat limited, or when the husband has to make his way in the world. Then comes the honeymoon The bridal couple usually left for their honeymoon after the wedding breakfast. The honeymoon originated with early man when marriages were by capture, not by choice. The man carried his bride off to a secret place where her parents or relatives couldn't find her. While the moon went through all its phases-about 30 days-they hid from searchers and drank a brew made from mead and honey. Thus, the word, honeymoon. The honeymoon is now considered a time to relax. The early 19th century, it was customary for the bride to take a female companion along on the honeymoon. The bride wore a traveling dress, which may have been her wedding dress, especially if the wedding had been an intimate affair with few family and friends, or they were traveling by train or steamer immediately after the reception. Colors for the dress were becoming and practical--brown or black for mid-Victorian. But whatever she chose, the bride was advised not to wear something conspicuously new out of respect to the sensitivity of her husband who might not want people to know he was just married. If the bride was married in her traveling dress, she often wore a bonnet with it instead of a veil. If changing into the traveling costumes, the bride and groom did so immediately after the cake was cut. Bridesmaids went with the bride to help her, at which time she gave them each a flower from her bouquet. By the time the couple was ready to depart, only family and intimate friends were present. As the couple drove off in a carriage pulled by white horses, the remaining party-goers threw satin slippers and rice after the couple. If a slipper landed in the carriage, it was considered good luck forever. If it was a left slipper, all the better. Finally, upon their return from their travels, one final custom required that the groom carry the bride over the threshold to their new house. This was done to protect the bride from any evil spirits which may be hiding beneath the threshold. This would also ensure that the bride did not stumble, which would bring bad luck. The groom would carry his beautiful bride to safety and happiness so they could start their new lives together.

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The Victorian Family

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Families were very important to Victorians. They were usually large, in 1870 the average family had five or six children. Most upper and middle class families lived in big, comfortable houses. Each member of the family had its own place and children were taught to "know their place".

The Victorian Parents

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Believing that their sons and daughters could rely on a rosy future, and wanting to equip them to drive its maximum benefits, Victorian parents subscribed to ST. NICHOLAS, and other children's magazines. A mainstay for two generations, ST. NICHOLAS serialized works by some of the nation's foremost writers - among them Louisa May Alcott (EIGHT COUSINS), Frances Hodgson Burnett (LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY), Mark Twain (TOM SAWYER ABROAD) and Rudyard Kipling (THE JUNGLE BOOK). Such celebrated poets as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Robert Louis Stevenson also were commissioned to write verse specifically tailored to its young audience. In this exploding periodicals market, competition was fierce for both circulation and advertising. Dress patterns and other innovative promotions such as CHROMOS, the nineteenthcentury version of posters, were offered as subscription inducements. Picking blackberries, dabbling toes in a sleepy brook, playing cat's cradle and rolling hoops, weaving clover necklaces and blowing a wish on a dandelion - such were the pleasure of Victorian childhood. And no one caught the gossamer threads of this innocent world, its simplicities and solemnities, like Kate Greenaway, artist, author, illustrator, fashion designer. Her enchanting poems and wide-eyed children in Empire-style gowns, wide sashes and breeches were the JEUNE MODE of two generations. Reading aloud was a national pastime. Poetry, nonsense rhymes, limericks, mysteries, adventure stories were read to and by old and young alike, Picture books - the sentimental, poignant, dewy-eyed children of artist Maud Humphrey, the whimsical, detailed calligraphic illustrations of Walter Crane - were read again and again. BABES OF THE YEAR, a lavish picture book of winsome toddlers, was an instant success when published in 1888. It's author was Maud Humphrey, and for the next twenty years her fat-cheeked children would peer with sweet innocence from advertisements, children's books, calendars and greeting cards. In the 1880s publishers generally preferred women illustrators, believing that they understood children best and had childlike minds themselves. Maud Humphrey certainly did not have a childlike mind, nor was she particularly close to her three children. She was strong-willed and determined - more respected than loved, according to her son, Humphrey Bogart.
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Parents took their children seriously, sparing neither rod nor love. Rules were clear-cut, infractions punished swiftly, but Victorian children were also doted on by an entire world of nannies and nursemaids, a retinue of aunties, cousins and grannies. They were dressed in Lord Fauntleroy velvet breeches and Alice-in-Wonderland pinafores; given elaborate parties; smothered with too many toys; petted, fawned over, adored. Children's parties were often as elaborate as the ones their elders gave for themselves. Tea parties for as many as fifty guests were not unusual. After dancing, games and magic lantern show, children dined at tables set with white linen and silver. Tea, sweet cakes, ices, and fresh fruit in season were served on the family's best china. While Victorians passionately espoused education, they were less passionate about paying for it. Teachers had to make do on meager incomes; even governesses were paid a pittance, their annual salary roughly equaling the cost of a mistress's daytime frock. In the little red school-houses, education was often primitive. Slates, hornbooks and learning by rote were the teacher's tools, and pen and paper if the school district was rich enough to provide them. For rewards, pupils received merits of excellence in punctuality, diligence and deportment - attributes that were highly valued by the new industrial economy. Schoolhouses were built every six square miles, the distance a child could comfortably walk round-trip in one day. The school year was pegged to farm work: children got out of school in May for spring planting and did not return until after fall harvest. School marms came and went with rapidity. Often boarding with a local family, a teacher had little privacy, but sufficiently good visibility to meet a suitor well beyond the six-square-mile range. She was expected to be in good health, neat in dress but not fancy; gentlemannered and resourceful in the face of discomfort, which could include snowstorms, poison ivy or chilblains. On sunny days there were picnics, games of hide-and-seek, marbles and skipping rope in the schoolyard, declamation contests and box suppers to raise money. In its small way, the schoolhouse was a minor hub of life for the families who lived within its nesting area.

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The Victorian Children(home life)

Victorian homes offered children a large network of various caregivers built in to the family structure. Each married couple had an average of six children, but the average household was considerably larger. Rarely would one find the nuclear family living alone. Only thirty-six per cent of families consisted simply of a set of parents and their children. Extended families were also rare. Only 10 per cent of families had three or more generations under one roof. The average household would more likely be a conglomeration of a nuclear family along with any number of random outsiders. The stragglers could include any combination of lodgers, distant relatives, apprentices and/or servants. The composition of the home constantly changed: older children married or went off to work, while babies were born and died. Babies and young children were extremely susceptible to illness. In the worst and poorest districts, two out of ten babies died in the first year. One fourth of them would die by age five. Life expectancy varied greatly depending upon the quality of the area in which people lived. In industrial towns, like Liverpool, the average life expectancy was twenty-six years. In a better area, like Okehampton in Devon, it was fifty-seven years. The national average of England and Wales was forty years at mid century. Therefore as a child grew older, he was likely to lose one or more siblings as well as one or both parents. Children usually enjoyed the benefit of their mothers presence on a daily basis. The mothers place was considered to be in the home. Common thought dictated that a woman
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should be available at all times to care for her husband and children. She would supervise the staff, servants and/or nannies, if her family could afford them. The idea of a working mother was considered highly improper and thought to result in neglect of husband, children and home. Supposedly, illness or even death might arise in the children. An absent wife would also find an unhappy and strained relationship with her husband. Reporting on Birmingham, in Chadwicks 1842 Report on Sanitary Conditions, The Committee of Physicians and Surgeons declares that: The habit of a manufacturing life being once established in a woman, she continues it and leaves her home and children to the care of a neighbor, or of a hired child, whose services cost her probably as much as she obtains by her labor. To this neglect on the part of their parents is traced the death of many children; they are left in the house with a fire before they are old enough to know the danger to which they are exposed, and are often dreadfully burnt... To the habit of married women working in manufactories may also often be traced those jealousies and heart-burnings, those quarrels and that discontent which embitter the home of the poor man. (Hopkins 103) It was simply considered natural for a woman to stay home. In Preston, a mill town, twenty-six per cent of married women and fifteen per cent of wives who also had children worked outside of the home. In the poorer districts, figures might reach as high as thirty per cent. More commonly women would take in work that they could do at home, such as sewing or washing. They might even work part time cleaning homes or doing other such domestic work. So, the majority of children had the support of their mother at homeunless, of course, she had died. Women had a higher mortality rate than men. They frequently ate less than the men, making them more susceptible to illness. Many died in childbirth. Poor hygiene and their frequent exposure to illness through their duties of nursing the sick would make them more likely to contract infection.

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Bibliography Greenberg, Hope Godey's Lady's Book, 1855 Wellman, Sam. Florence Nightingale: Lady with the Lamp. Uhrichsville, 1999. M. A. Elston, "Anderson, Elizabeth Garrett (18361917)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004 Butler, Josephine E., The Education and Employment of Women,1883 Braddon, M.E. Mary Elizabeth, Lady Audley's Secret, Vol. 1, 1862 Ellis, Sarah Stickney, The Women of England, Their Social Duties, and Domestic Habits,1839

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 http://www.bbc.co.uk/history.html http://www.victoriaspast.com http://www.fashion-era.com/victorians.html

Table of contents Introduction...........................................................................................1 The Life of a Victorian Woman...........................................................2 Ideals of Womanhood in Victorian Britain...............................................3 The Ideal Woman......................................................................................4 At Home....................................................................................................4 Wife and Mother........................................................................................5 Social Responsability..................................................................................5 Social diffenrences between Classes of Woman...........................................6 Victorian Delicacy......................................................................................7 Woman and Urban Life in Victorian Britain.....................................7 Womans Mission.......................................................................................9 Domestic Sphere.........................................................................................9 The City.....................................................................................................10 Ordinary Women......................................................................................10
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Famous Victorian Women..................................................................12 Queen Victoria...........................................................................................13 Florance Nightingale................................................................................16 Elisabeth Garrett Anderson.....................................................................18 Kate Greenaway........................................................................................19 Christina Rosetti........................................................................................22 The Victorian Wedding......................................................................23 The Victorian Family.........................................................................30 The Victorian Parents..............................................................................31 The Victorian Children............................................................................33 Bibliography........................................................................................35

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