Newspaper cutting showing the results in more detail; including votes for Gladstone (403), Disraeli (337), George Stephenson (342), Garibaldi (322), Walter Raleigh (284), Pitt the Younger (279), Frederick the Great (257), Duke of Marlborough (255), Lord Bacon (254), Livingstone (241).
When in 1886 the Victorians were asked to vote for the twenty greatest men born since 1500: Shakespeare is outvoted by Napoleon; next 4 Wellington, Nelson, Cromwell and George Washington. Only Newton and Milton get more votes than Peter the Great and Bismarck. Late Victorian militarism in full flow?
04.03.2026 11:11 —
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Book Prize – BAVS
The BAVS/Rosemary Mitchell Prize for a Second Monograph 2026 is now open! If you published your second scholarly monograph in Victorian studies between 17 February 2025 and 17 February 2026, please do consider submitting! You can find more information here: bavs.ac.uk/book-prize-2/
25.02.2026 17:02 —
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Mitchell Prize Submission Guidelines – RSVP
Eligible applicants for the Sally Mitchell Dissertation Prize will have successfully defended their dissertation within the previous calendar year (i.e., the 2025 prize winner defended in 2024). Proje...
🔔 Attention ECRs! Just a reminder that March 1 (next Sunday) is the last day to get your applications in for our annual Mitchell Dissertation Prize! Winners receive $1,000 USD + a 2-yr. membership to RSVP. We look forward to reading your work! rs4vp.org/awards/mitch...
23.02.2026 19:56 —
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New VPFA Study Day Announcement 📢: 'Out of this World: Science Fiction in the Victorian Period'.
Read the CfP on our website: victorianpopularfiction.org/out-of-this-....
@bavs-uk.bsky.social @rs4vp.org @thevicsoc.bsky.social @global19c.bsky.social
05.02.2026 18:21 —
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Annual lecture | The Centre for Victorian Studies | University of Leicester
Find out more about our latest annual public lecture, hosted by the Centre for Victorian Studies at the University of Leicester
I'm giving the Leicester Victorian Studies Annual Lecture next week!
Come along and explore fame, race, and disability in the 19th c
@bavs-uk.bsky.social @ukdishisthub.bsky.social @bars.bsky.social @leverhulmetrust.bsky.social @yalebooks.bsky.social @araukie.bsky.social
le.ac.uk/victorian-st...
10.02.2026 20:03 —
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I've been skeeting the results of a Pall Mall Gazette readers' poll in 1885 for 'the greatest living Englishman' [sic] in 10 categories. Check out the results. The final category was 'Humbug'. So, any thoughts on who you would vote for having been the greatest Victorian 'humbug' living in 1885?
23.02.2026 07:46 —
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The final category in the Pall Mall Gazette's vote for the 10 greatest living Englishmen was 'Humbug'. So here's your chance; who gets your vote as the greatest humbug alive in Victorian Britain in 1885?? There's a wide field to choose from....
21.02.2026 10:31 —
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List of votes for painters, 814 for Millais, 448 for Leighton; Alma Tadema next with 34.
List of votes for men of science. Huxley 866, Tyndall 440, Owen 37.
Down to the less exciting categories of the PMG's 10 greatests. Men of Science an entirely predictable two-horse race, with Huxley the clear winner. Painters hardly more distributed, with Leighton a distant second to Millais. One solitary vote for Kate Greenaway is the only woman in either list.
21.02.2026 10:29 —
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Don't forget to join us next week for an exciting discussion about the transnational press of the long #19thC. As a reminder, all of our #RSVPDigiEvents are free and open to all, but you must register to receive the Zoom link. buff.ly/rD2BgEG
20.02.2026 20:38 —
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The British Newspaper Archive reaches 100 million pages
We celebrate this milestone and our long partnership with Find My Past by picking a few highlights from the BNA.
To celebrate the BNA reaching 100 million pages, my colleague Claire O'Halloran has written a blog sharing some of our highlights. A huge achievement-well done to everyone involved at @britishlibrary.bsky.social & @findmypast.bsky.social Here’s to the next 100 million! www.bl.uk/stories/blog...
19.02.2026 20:57 —
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A more interesting figure than Eric might initially suggest. And grandfather of Field Marshall Montgomery of Alamein!
15.02.2026 16:56 —
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Full table of votes cast, with Liddon top (659) and Spurgeon second (528); next on the list is F.E. Farrer with 100.
Greatest preacher in the PMG's 10 Greatest living Englishmen poll, 1885? A 2-horse race between Charles Spurgeon, the fiery Baptist, and Canon Henry Liddon, whose afternoon sermons at St Pauls reputedly regularly attracted 3-4000. For a sermon-tasting culture, a surprising concentration of votes.
14.02.2026 07:58 —
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The guide to micro-periodisation we've all been waiting for. (And works a treat for the Victorian period altogether. Swinburne's Poems and Ballads as late Victorian, anyone?)
14.02.2026 07:18 —
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Well, I'm always open to a commission to write up the story of the twentieth century recuperation of the Greshams.
14.02.2026 06:42 —
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Image of cover of Transforming Orality book
Image of Chapter opening of my essay on the Gresham lectures.
Really enjoyed this conference at Regensburg in 2023. And very glad to see versions of the papers now published. Mine delves into the sad and sorry tale of the c19 Gresham Lectures. @greshamcollege.bsky.social
13.02.2026 12:26 —
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That feeling when you've already asked your readers to work their way through 500 pages of crowded analysis, and a reviewer suggests that perhaps as well as Britain you should also have covered Darwin's reception in the rest of the world...
11.02.2026 11:24 —
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Shocking, but true. Actors, artists, men of science, even soldiers, still to come. But no category for historians.
07.02.2026 14:17 —
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Photo of article recommending Dickens's Four Sisters, Butler's Erewhon, Trollope's The Fixed Period Wilkie Collins' The Law and the Lady, and Oliphant's Hester.
Very interesting set of recommended Victorian novels from the cellist Steven Isserlis in *The Week* this week.
07.02.2026 13:56 —
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It's a shame the 'living' qualification means we didn't get a Carlyle vs Ruskin shoot out. Though Carlyle's stock was in a slump at this point.
07.02.2026 13:38 —
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He did write quite a lot for the reviews and also newspaper leaders. But I guess there's no accounting for political partisanship!
07.02.2026 13:04 —
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An extract showing the full table of votes for Best Living Writer in the Pall Mall Gazette.
Best (living) writer in the PMG's 1885 poll? Ruskin of course (given that the novelist and journalists had their own category). Followed by Tennyson and a surprising ragbag of critics, reporters, and intellectuals. Spencer showing surprisingly strongly. Lecky, Mallock, Stephens, & Smiles also rans.
07.02.2026 09:28 —
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Congratulations are in order to our 2026 Peterson Fellowship winner, Clare Clark! The committee notes that her project "promises a new angle on a familiar figure by applying a lens of periodical literature" to it. Read more here: rs4vp.org/awards/peter... We can't wait to read the finished product!
04.02.2026 22:07 —
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Seems have come back just this minute. Phew! Hopefully we'll get to hear what the problem was....
03.02.2026 19:28 —
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Fingers crossed!
03.02.2026 19:23 —
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Trying again @newsfromgoogle.bsky.social Anything to say to reassure us all that this is just a glitch??
03.02.2026 17:05 —
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