THE REIGN OF QUEEN VICTORIA
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and seven months was longer than that of any previous British monarch and is known as the Victorian era. It was a period of industrial, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire.
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and seven months was longer than that of any previous British monarch and is known as the Victorian era. It was a period of industrial, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire.
During the reign of Victoria, from 1837-1901, Britain was like a novel by Charles Dickens: funny, strange, sad, dramatic, and terrifying in equal measure
Let’s learn some interesting facts about the life of British people those years.
Let’s learn some interesting facts about the life of British people those years.
Christmas tree
The practice of putting up a Christmas tree is in part thanks to Albert, the husband of famous Queen Victoria. Born and raised in Germany, where the Christmas tree was common, Albert brought the iconic Christmas symbol to the English population by decorating Windsor castle in 1840.
Child labor
Child labor
Yes, child labor was common in the Victorian age, largely because poor families didn’t earn enough for food without it. One job that had a high demand for children was work in the coal mines. A child’s small size could maneuver in tight spaces, and they required far less pay than adult workers.
In the Victorian era, kids would work for 12 to 18 hours in air saturated with coal dust, and there was constant danger. Other jobs included chimney sweeping (where children could start working as young as 3) and working in factories or textile mills. In 1891, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children was formed, offering some protection to child laborers.
No public schools
No public schools
It’s hard to imagine, but there were no public schools during the Victorian era. As long as lower-income families, like the kind in novels by Charles Dickens, sent their children to work, they just weren’t needed. Some free church-run schools existed, but many poor families needed their kids to earn money, not learn to read.
In rich Victorian era families, boys went to expensive schools where they read Latin and Greek, with some even attending Oxford. By the end of the 19th century, the government finally realized that working people needed education. As Victorian times ended, the prime minister decreed that school was mandatory for all children until 13.
Electrotherapy or shock therapy
Electrotherapy or shock therapy
Across the United Kingdom, electrotherapy, or shock therapy, was used to treat multiple medical problems, including muscle pain, rheumatism (arthritis), and liver problems. What was the complicated medical scientific explanation behind this?
Essentially, the hope was that applying electricity would shock the problem out of the patient.
Great inventions
Great inventions
The Victorian era was a great time of invention and, of course, the famous Industrial Revolution. Guglielmo Marconi came up with the radio in 1895. In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. Other notable inventions made in Victorian Britain included the camera, the television, the vacuum, the train, the stamp, and most importantly: the toilet.
Egyptian artifacts
Egyptian artifacts
We have the Victorians to thank for those huge museum wings filled with Egyptian artifacts. In the early 1900s, Egyptology was the most popular branch of the new field of archaeology. The Victorians were absolutely obsessed with artifacts, dug-up tombs, and mummies.
Spiritualism
Spiritualism
Victorians subscribed to the ideas of hypnotism, divination, and spiritualism. It really sounds like London women just needed hobbies, honestly. Events where attendees could be hypnotized, speak to the dead, or have their palms read were extremely popular, and hucksters would make huge money off of bored Victorians.
London Fog
London Fog
It’s not just your favorite Starbucks drink! Due to a lack of regulations on industrial pollution, smoke from the factories, coal pollution, and moisture from the Thames river combined to create a thick, toxic smog which spread over the city. Anyone and anything would spend any time out and about in London would inevitably be covered with the sooty by-product of the city’s fog.
Not a Good Time to Get Sick
Not a Good Time to Get Sick
Tuberculosis was the leading cause of death from sickness in the Victorian era. Even so, instead of being treated in hospital with medication, the only treatment to be had was in workhouses. If you were lucky enough to have an illness that could be treated in hospital by surgery, you would have to go into the operation completely awake and fully present, as there was no such thing as anesthesia or painkillers.
Strange Side-Shows
Strange Side-Shows
Another common form of entertainment in Victorian England was the freak show. Fuelled by the Victorian interest in physical oddities and death, attractive, exotic touring freak shows often visited London and rural towns. Showmen worked hard to make a name for themselves
Seen and Not Heard
Seen and Not Heard
The expression “children should be seen and not heard” originated in the Victorian period, referring to the way that the upper-class kids were expected to behave. Affluent toddlers were rarely in contact with their parents, and were mostly raised by a nanny. They were expected to be proper and polite, and they were not allowed to be loud.
Corsets
Corsets
Corsets made from whalebone, and sometimes even iron or steel, helped women achieve the impossibly tiny waists that were fashionable at the time. But an ugly side effect of these binding garments was that circulation would be cut off, and women would have trouble breathing.
The Victorians thought that women were prone to fainting from excitement, but they were wrong. Really, Victorian era ladies would momentarily pass out because their midsections were bound so tightly.
