Victorian Web

'Miniature Worlds: Little Landscapes from Thomas Bewick to Beatrix Potter' (Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle until February 28 2026): Little Goes Large

John Martin died #OTD 1854, Victorian painter of epic drama but currently, paradoxically, on show at Newcastle's Laing's fascinating Miniature Worlds exh cmillerartlife.blogspot.com/2025/11/mini... www.northeastmuseums.org.uk/laing/whats-...

Curving viaduct with front of train seen crossing it, the locomotive emitting clouds of steam against the dark background of the mountains, but green and pleasant below....

The Jacobite Steam Train travelling along the Glenfinnan viaduct, the longest concrete viaduct in Scotland, constructed 1897-1901. Highly recommended trip! victorianweb.org/technology/b... #trains #railways #bridges #Scotland

Brilliant! Thanks so much for spotting it!

Ventilation column, street lamp, finger post. Tooting. The Victorians really had a go at street furniture.

Poem on a page framed by bible text with an illustration of a snowdrop at one side

"The Purification Snowdrop" — designed and chromolithographed by W R Tymms--beautiful illuminations discussed in an essay by Simon Cooke victorianweb.org/art/illustra...

Cartoon showing a woman posting a card, and heaps of other cards cascading out of the back of the pillar box, while a postman looks on, bemused....

So have you posted your #Valentine card? Too late now and anyway it may be safer to send an e-card! This is what might have happened in Victorian times: cartoon entitled "The Great Overflow of Affection"! victorianweb.org/victorian/pe...

Lovely nostalgic sunset scene in the countryside, glinting water beneath the gold of the setting sun....

Samuel Palmer's "The Golden Hour", 1865: "The bars of cirrus and the setting sun, the cottage (a memory of the Shoreham years), the stone bridge with a labourer, his dog and a wain passing across it, the ancient church, and the cattle contentedly paddling ..." victorianweb.org/painting/pal...

Children in old-fashioned clothing and bonnets follow a man playing a pipe in a red hat into a dark forest. The scene is tense and moody, with a sense of mystery.

Work of the Week! The Pied Piper of Hamelin by Elizabeth Adela Forbes

This wonderfully evocative image must have been inspired by Robert Browning’s poem about the legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin.

William Fox Talbot MP: the inventor of photography The inventor of photography William Fox Talbot died one hundred and thirty-five years ago today. A man of many talents, Talbot made distinguished contributions to maths, physics, botany, archaeolog…

Born #OnThisDay 1800 William Henry Fox Talbot. Best known as the pioneer of photography, he was also briefly MP for Chippenham, 1832-5, but stepped down to concentrate on his scientific interests. Read more about him here: victoriancommons.wordpress.com/2012/09/17/w...

Zandvoort Fishergirl (1884) by Elizabeth Adela Forbes – oil on canvas portrait of a young Dutch fisher girl standing indoors, holding a green basin with freshly caught fish. The girl wears a dark long-sleeve blouse and a light blue apron over a skirt, her hand resting on her hip. She has fair skin, brown hair parted at the centre and tied back, and a serious, contemplative expression. The background features a rustic interior with muted blue-grey tiled walls, soft natural window light, and warm terracotta floor tiles, creating a moody, realistic atmosphere: 19th-century European realism art, coastal life genre painting, traditional fishing culture portrait.

✨Making Her Mark: A Celebration of Women in Art✨
Discover a powerful new exhibition at Penlee House (30 April – 27 September 2026) celebrating the impact and legacy of women artists - over 50 remarkable works spanning from the 1850s to today.

Find out more: penleehouse.org.uk/exhibition/m...

Before the vote was won: women and politics, 1832-68 This month marks the 100th anniversary of the 1918 Representation of the People Act, which received royal assent on 6 February. For the first time, virtually all the adult male population received …

Next in our #1832AtoZ is W for Women. Our Victorian Commons website has several articles exploring women’s involvement in 19th century politics, from local government electors to political wives, and from petitioners to electoral patrons. For links, see victoriancommons.wordpress.com/2018/02/02/b...

The pair clasp hands in front of the altar rails in the Chapel Royal, St James's Palace as bridesmaids and others, and the Archbishop of Canterbury (officiating), look on.

Special day for us (or anyway for Queen Victoria!): #OnThisDay 1840 she got married to Prince Albert. Here she is, looking up at him adoringly, in this detail from George Hayter's painting of the ceremony victorianweb.org/painting/hay...

Charlotte Murchison, British geologist and palaeontologist, died #OTD 1869. The fossils collected by her were described in the “Mineral Conchology of Great Britain” wp.me/p3ihHu-3Eb
#histsci #womeninstem 🧪⚒️

Cover of Hewitt's book

Ever wondered what exactly constitutes a generation? Just one of the issues @dianejosefowicz.bsky.social looks at in her very discerning review of Martin Hewitt's "Darwinism's Generations: The Reception of Darwinian Evolution in Britain, 1859-1909"—do read! www.victorianweb.org/science/darw...

Ruskin with makeshift armour and sword slashing at a tangle of railway lines, signal points, etc. -- the beauty of nature in female form looking on anxiously.

#OnThisDay 1876, Punch caricatured John Ruskin, showing him battling against the incursion of railways into his beloved Lake District (glad to say it has some wonderful heritage steam trains now, so not too sympathetic!) victorianweb.org/authors/rusk...

Wintry trees on a bank with cottages on the other side, a girl playing and a boy sitting on the bank, sea in the distnace--all fresh and sunlit

"#February in the Isle of Wight," by John Brett, 1866--a little bit of mist pooling in the valley, but full of promise of the coming spring. Looking forward to that! victorianweb.org/painting/bre...
#painting #PreRaphaelites

A simple "wayfarers'" church with Townsend's distinctive arched entrance picked out in different coloured brick

Impressive barrel-vaulted nave with large gilded crosses and a top-lit altar

One of the radiant angels in the fresoes, holding the crown of thorns

A #church for Sunday, St Martin's in Blackheath, Surrey, by architect Charles Harrison Townsend with (the real surprise) frescoes inside of the Life of Christ, painted by the American artist Anna Lea-Merritt (1844-1930) (photos by Sarah Sullivan) victorianweb.org/art/architec...

Hexagonal Victorian pillar box designed by J.W. Penfold in 1866, known for its decorative acanthus leaves, balls, & finial. - Wikipedia

Kensington, #London

A #Victorian “Penfold” postbox, manufactured by Cochrane & Co, Dudley

#PostboxSaturday

It has a large marble bowl on a central shaft supported by four further shafts. The figures/angels represent the rivers of Paradise. Tall openwork cover of wrought iron was added in 1881.

St Mary Abbots Church, Kensington, #London

The #Victorian font is by Farmer & Brindley.
It has a large marble bowl on a central shaft supported by four further shafts. The figures/angels represent the rivers of Paradise.
Tall openwork cover of wrought iron was added in 1881.

#FontsOnFriday

Colby Book Prize Nomination - The Research Society for Victorian Periodicals (RSVP) Application portal

Last call! Colby Book Prize nominations are due TOMORROW, 31 January. This prize is awarded to a book published during the preceding year that most advances our understanding of the #19thC British press. If you recently read a book that fits that description, we want to know!

Title, bendy poppies and flying thistles all gilt against a dark background

Looking at this lovely anonymous design for the 1893 ed. of Rip Van Winkle, with its poppies/sleepiness disrupted by the winds of change blowing among them, and the thistles! Photo: Simon Cooke. victorianweb.org/art/design/b... #bookdesign

"Always Keep Turning the Page" – RSVP This is Part 2 of our conversation with Patrick Leary on "Getting Started in Periodicals Research," part of our ongoing Interview Series.

To round out your January, please enjoy Part 2 of "Getting Started in Periodicals Research," a conversation between @c19thnewshound.bsky.social and @patrickleary.bsky.social! In this installment, Patrick talks attributions research and digitization in periodical studies. rs4vp.org/getting-star...

Late for Monday, but have only just seen!

The British Library’s PhD placement scheme for 26/27 is now open. My team are offering an exciting placement aiming to raise the profile of our illustrated newspaper collection: www.bl.uk/services/res...

This is a brilliant post -- follow the thread for (spoiler alert!) work by Henry Wilson, and wonderful choir-stall carvings by Trask & Co.!

A young woman sits playing a stringed instrument, a man leaning close, listening, and two young children listening too. The figures are richly costmed against a background of rich fabrics and a sea view,

The artist Arthur Hughes was born #OnThisDay 1832. One of his paintings was of "A Music Party" (1862-4)— a popular subject in those days. William Michael Rossetti enjoyed its "dreamy charm" victorianweb.org/painting/hug... #paintings #PreRaphaelites

📢 The City of London Planning Sub-Committee will be considering Network Rail and Acme's plans for Liverpool Station on Tuesday 10th February.

🚂 The way to make your voice heard is to write an objection. Here's our helpful Guide: bit.ly/4jLWsim 🧵

a screenshot from some proofs reading "[who] can tell but a Baudruch, which is now only a luxury for the rich, may be so cheap and common as to be within the reach of every wayfaring man. It does not follow that they are always to be twelve shillings per dozen, nor is it requisite that they should continue to be made of the same skins as they are now:—the demand in that case could not be supplied;—but may not their manufacture, like others, be extended and improved? May we not at a future period have them woven of a fine silk gauze, stronger and safer than the present material? May there not be thousands of extensive factories spread over the new world, and millions of women and children employed in their texture, until there shall be a sufficient supply for every male capable of administering due benevolence to the object of his choice; and may we not, in that case, be able to purchase twelve dozen, or even twelve gross of these wonderful preservers, for the same amount of coin which it now requires to obtain a single Baudruch? Who then is to say that these invaluable articles are not calculated to come into general use?" — from William Dugdale's 1838 edition of Charles Knowlton's _Fruits of Philosophy_

"Dr. Griskin" imagines a future for condom manufacturing (from William Dugdale's 1838 ed. of Charles Knowlton's Fruits of Philosophy)

Beauty of the Earth: The Art of May, Jane & William Morris| The Arc Gallery The Gallery is proud to present a special exhibition by Hampshire Cultural Trust. William Morris longed to have a home with ‘green trees and flowering meadows and living waters outside’. In his patter...

Jane Morris died #OTD 1914 - last week of Winchester Arc's justly titled Beauty of the Earth exh curated by @suzannefagence.bsky.social about the Morris family as a creative collective. Fascinating and gorgeous www.arcwinchester.org.uk/event/beauty...

Blue lettering on a white background, decorated with flowers, explaining that Sarah was a pantomime artist and the fire took place at London theatre

This little ceramic plaque in Postman's Park in London, commemorates an act of heroism: #OnThisDay 1863, one Sarah Smith died in a fire, trying to save a friend: it was the artist GF Watts's idea to memorialise ordinary folk in this way. victorianweb.org/art/design/c...