Victorian Web

Cover of the book, with title and author imposed on a picture of Wilde's "selfish giant" in the background, as the giant reaches up to the child sitting in the tree, and the two look at each other....

The engraving of the same picture, with the same figures seen more clearly. The giant's hand supports the foot of the little trusting child.

Illuminating review of a study in this important area—Joti Bilkhu's thorough and discriminating reading of Chris Foss's book on disability in Wilde's fairytales. Heads up! You'll want to get the book! www.victorianweb.org/authors/wild...

It's in a private collection and much treasured! It is wonderful, isn't it?!

Romany travellers
John Thomson
1877

Sexualities in Victorian Britain "This book promises to lay to rest, once and for all, the early 20th-century truism that Victorians' primary relationship to sexuality turned on repression." —Mary L. Poovey, Johns Hopkins University ...

This 1996 collection of essays about Victorian sexuality is now open access, thanks to the Big Ten Academic Alliance www.fulcrum.org/concern/mono...

The Colossus of Roads: Thomas Telford, distinguished Scottish civil engineer, born #OTD 1757, known for roads, bridges, canals & aqueducts such as Menai Suspension Bridge & Pontcysyllte Aqueduct; first President Institution Civil Engineers Portrait 1822 Sam. Lane, ICE | Pontcysyllte, 1826, G. Arnald

The Colossus of Roads: Thomas Telford, distinguished Scottish civil engineer, born #OTD 1757, known for roads, bridges, canals & aqueducts such as Menai Suspension Bridge & Pontcysyllte Aqueduct; first President Institution Civil Engineers Portrait 1822 Sam. Lane, ICE | Pontcysyllte, 1826, G. Arnald

The Colossus of Roads: Thomas Telford, distinguished Scottish civil engineer, born #OTD 1757, known for roads, bridges, canals & aqueducts including Menai Suspension Bridge & Pontcysyllte Aqueduct; first President Institution Civil Engineers
Portrait 1822 by Lane, ICE | Pontcysyllte, 1826, G. Arnald

Colorized etched portrait of Margaret Oliphant, a white elderly woman in lace cap sitting at a three-quarter profile

A CFP has recently come across our digital desk that is sure to be of interest. /Women's Writing/ is celebrating 200 years of Margaret Oliphant with a special issue! Abstracts (300 words) are due 1 December 2025. Thanks for #SharingYourNews! More info here: think.taylorandfrancis.com/special_issu...

Joseph Locke, respected English civil engineer & railway pioneer, born #OTD 1805, master of challenging terrain, known for direct ‘up and over’ routes with steep gradients & no tunnels. Portrait Sir F Grant 1860 | View of railway across Chat Moss TT Bury 1831 Library of Institution of Civil Engineers

Joseph Locke, respected English civil engineer & railway pioneer, born #OTD 1805, master of challenging terrain, known for direct ‘up and over’ routes with steep gradients & no tunnels. Portrait Sir F Grant 1860 | View of railway across Chat Moss TT Bury 1831 Library of Institution of Civil Engineers

Joseph Locke, respected English civil engineer & railway pioneer, born #OTD 1805, master of challenging terrain, known for direct ‘up and over’ routes with steep gradients & no tunnels.
Portrait Sir F Grant 1860 | View of railway across Chat Moss TT Bury 1831
Library, Institution of Civil Engineers

That image, incidentally, is taken from @victorianweb.bsky.social‬’s fascinating page ‘Victorian Cryptozoology: The Great Sea-Serpent and its Cultural Representations’, which is a good place to find out more about that aspect of the serpent phenomenon

Profile bas-relief of the artist with wavy hair and bushy but neat beard, in an attractive circular gilt-rimmed and dark wood frame

So many good things in this month already! This is John Lucas Tupper's portrait medallion of William Holman Hunt -- he's quite young here. Photo and info. (as so often) from Dennis T. Lanigan victorianweb.org/sculpture/tu...
#sculpture #PreRaphaelite

Lots of timber on the exterior, and decorative bargeboards, mullioned windows and barley-sugar chimney pots--vernacular revival with a vengeance!

Wooden flooors, Morris wall coverings, and the Morris tapestry "The Forest" along one wall, with a few people admiring the furniture and decor.

Glimpses of #WightwickManor (National Trust) in the Midlands, designed by Edward Ould (1852-1909). Lots of lovely artwork here, in the architecture itself and on show inside: can you spot the #Morris tapestry in the parlour here? victorianweb.org/art/architec...
(Photos by @oldpanks.bsky.social)

A quick shout out to the Digital Victorian Periodical Poetry site dvpp.uvic.ca which I'm once again using today on the track of a Chambers's Journal poem. It's a great resource if you don't already know of it.

Happy publication day for my 2nd book! It examines the growth of charity in C19th through the lens of the philanthropic activities of the banker Lord Overstone in the period 1843-83. #philanthropy #charity
www.bloomsbury.com/uk/charitabl...

Cut of the exterior of the baths building showing the main frontage on Quinsborough Road and entrance to one of the sets of baths; men and women entered at different ends.

Those interested in #TurkishBaths & wondering if the VICTORIAN TURKISH BATHS website is still alive will, I hope, be pleased to hear that despite being partially flooded during the recent rains, & the noise of a new flat roof being fitted, an article on the baths at #Bray in #Ireland is now online.

Folks, give @victoria.ca a follow on this platform.

Our comms team is facing the reality of going from 40,000 X followers to 978 Bluesky followers. We’re doing the right thing by ditching the toxic platform, but we need those followers back.

bsky.app/profile/vict...

Conference Announcement: Tennyson 2026: Ecology, Landscape, Environment - cfp and details attached. Victorians scholars please circulate @lindakhughes.bsky.social @victorianreview.bsky.social @victorianpoetry.bsky.social @thevicsoc.bsky.social @victorianmasc.bsky.social @jofvictculture.bsky.social

Just a little colour but the main effect of the two figures is whimsical, fairy-tale-ish. The maiden looks bashful, with bowed head.

"The Sixth was August . . ".— an illustration by Jessie M. King (1875-1949) for Spenser's "Mutabilitie". The month is richly dressed & leads a maiden carrying stalks of corn, all in this Scottish artist's typically graceful dotted lines and distinctive style. victorianweb.org/art/design/k...

A pretty country church with porch and transept and central, crenellated tower

Stone corbel, with acorns in the middle of large swirling oak leaves

Acorns are starting to fall already! This is one of the beautifully carved corbels, with oak leaves and acorns, at St Remigius, Long Clawson, Leicestershire—part of the Victorian restoration completed in 1893 . Photos by the Revd. Simon Shouler. victorianweb.org/art/architec...

Little owls among foliage in a pattern of muted yellows, brown and green

Spot the owls for #InternationalOwlAwarenessDay! An 1898 design in Jacquard woven wool by Charles Francis Annesley Voysey, 1857-1841, sold by Liberty's (it was also produced as a wallpaper)
victorianweb.org/art/design/t...

New Book on Victorian Girls' Manuscript Magazines – RSVP Lois Burke announces her latest open access monograph on mid-late Victorian girls' manuscript magazines!

Congrats to Lois Burke on the publication of her new book, Late-Victorian Girls and Their Manuscript Magazines! 🎉 The book examines how girls' manuscript magazine cultures shaped children's journalism + early feminist discourse. Thanks for #SharingYourNews, Lois! rs4vp.org/new-book-vic...

Check out this beautiful illustration! The DH team is always thrilled to collaborate with @exeterunispeccoll.bsky.social - especially when it allows more people to enjoy fantastic watercolours such as this!

#DHLab #Digitisation #Digital #Humanities #watercolour #owls #19thcentury #archives #art #dh

Monochrome photo of an open carriage on the beach, curtained, full of passengers (must be VIPs), with many people watching, all the men in hats!

#OTD 1883, opening of Volks Electric Railway on the Brighton seafront (the oldest electricity-powered railway anywhere!): Magnus Volk stands on the footboard at the left, the mayor in his frock-coat on the right. victorianweb.org/technology/r...

Really enjoying the colourful Victorian station at Great Malvern. @victorianlondon.bsky.social I thought of you!

color book plate in landscape orientation, illustration from a vintage mosaic glass company catalog, design for a “Japanese window” featuring a pair of large brown bats flying in a nocturnal tropical landscape with dark blue sky, swirly clouds, mountain, bamboo, leafy vegetation, red flowering bushes, yellow flowers, brick ground title, designer name, catalog number written in bottom margin

#Baturday 🦇:
“Design for a Japanese Window” by W. H. Day (No. 753), from the Belcher Mosaic Glass Co. Catalogue, New York, USA, 1886.
Winterthur Museum Library archive.org/details/cata...
#Bats

The Victorian Society's latest Newsletter is out now, you can read it here: bit.ly/4l3Wktt
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Image: The Kursaal, Southend-on-Sea Photo: Morgan-Ellis Leah

#freenewsletter

Not one, but two early editions of Dombey and Son arrived in the post. Both published in Dickens's lifetime, they tell a story of his branding and marketing which contributed to his success. 1/

Thank you for gathering this overview together: such an informative post!

View of the church with its tall spire (as mentioned by Dickens) and red west door

"O lift one thought in prayer for STC"! Coleridge's memorial stone in the church's central aisle, with its inscription, and his family's memorial too.

Spacious interior of the nave looking towards the chancel and the impressive stained glass E Window.

Just one of the new pieces this past month: St Michael's Church, Highgate, by Lewis Vulliamy—the last resting place of Coleridge (photos by @churchcrawler) victorianweb.org/art/architec... #church #Coleridge
(but do look at our What's New page for July, before it slips down a rung!)

A typical Du Maurier society scene, with a man introuducing a bevy of young women, and an older one, to another man, who is accompanying him. The man might be a father introducing his daughters, one of whom is bowing demurely. The older woman might be the mother. Hard to see--so many fine lines in the wooden surface.

Just for a change: a discussion of an engraved wood-block by George du Maurier—apparently lots of these examples of 19c tech survive—the process of reproduction has got somewhat easier now! victorianweb.org/art/illustra...

A wan-looking governess in a long dark dress with a dark cloak and bonnet is surrounded by little vignettes, including figures of men ready to take advantage of her vulnerability,

"Fun" magazine strikes a serious note with a poem about the Victorian governess's lot:
My lady in silks and satins,
My lady in pearls and lace,
Be kind to that governess-girl of yours,
With pale and careful face.
#history #society #Victorian
victorianweb.org/periodicals/...

#BOTD Born on this day Beatrix Potter (28 July 1866 – 1943) English writer, illustrator, natural scientist, and conservationist #WomensArt