Recommended Victorian Resources on the Web

The following websites provide extensive research links for a variety of subjects pertaining to the Victorian era. This is an invaluable collection of legitimate, informative, and educational tools; and it is where I expect you to begin your research into your assigned Victorian topic. Please do not insult me and yourself by “googling” for resources. There’s plenty of balderdash and piffle out on the web. You can – and should – avoid that by browsing these sources and using the information available here – you have thousands of pages of research at your fingertips with these resources alone. Recommendation: Start with the first entry – “The Victorian Web.”

The Victorian WebThe Victorian Web provides a comprehensive general overview of 19th century British history and literature. The site is divided into sections on political, social and economic history. There are also sections on philosophy, religion, science, technology, literature, theater, entertainment, authors, visual arts and Victorian design. Within each section commentaries are provided on individual themes. These commentaries present a useful introduction to the topics covered. As well as providing commentaries The Victorian Web has a section on links to other web resources and a bibliography. The Victorian Web was created under the direction of George Landow, Professor of English and Art History at Brown University. The site was originally designed as a resource to aid in the teaching of courses in Victorian literature. (N.B. Dr. Landow was my professor when I was in grad school at Brown, and I helped get this site and others like it started.) The site is easy to browse and a search facility is provided.

The Victorian Dictionary: Exploring Victorian LondonThis website is a collection of resources pertaining to – you guessed it – Victorian London, edited by London native Lee Jackson, author of at least seven historical novels and a two works of non-fiction: Victorian London and A Dictionary of Victorian London. The site provides hundreds of pages of valuable information on Victorian, architecture, advertising, lifestyles, charities, clothing, fashion, literature, art, and just about any other conceivable topic related to Victorian, including a cool collection of Victorian advertisements, London maps, and PDF versions

of Victorian books.

Victorian EraThe Victorian Era website holds an extensive collection of pictures taken during the latter part

of Queen Victoria’s rule, between 1890 to 1900. While the advent of color photography remained in its infancy, these color photochrome depictions of Great Britain were the result

of transferring an original photographic negative onto litho and chromographic printing plates.

Britain Express: Victorian EnglandThese articles provide insight into daily life in Victorian England. Especially of note are the resources pertaining to Victorian art and architecture. It features entries on Gothic revival architecture, Pugin, John Nash, Victorian railways, Regency architecture, and William Morris. Also includes a “Victorian London” section focusing especially on the capital.

Victoriana Magazine OnlineThis online magazine is devoted to articles and resources devoted to Victorian daily life, and especially the fashion, art, architecture, and decorating aspect of the era. Looks a little girlie, but don’t let that put you off.

1 Victorian Web Resources Mr. Rose

BBC History Trails: Victorian BritainThis website from the British Broadcasting Corporation includes articles, activities, and quizzes, on a variety of topics including the impact of the Industrial Revolution, women's rights, urban living and a “Reading the past” section, which includes Victorian cartoons, recipes and school reports.

The Waterloo Directory“The Waterloo Directory of English Newspapers and Periodicals from 1800-1900” provides an extensive collection of 19th century English periodicals along with background information on English newspapers, serial publications, and related issues.

English Heritage: Victorian Images CollectionEnglish Heritage provides more than 200 images of Victorian England – buildings, monuments, city life, markets, works of art, famous people, etc. This is an excellent resource for getting images for your Powerpoint presentations. The only drawback: The images will have a watermark. (No big deal.)

British Library: Aspects of the Victorian BookThis is an online exhibition from the British Library providing an introduction to printing technology, formats (including yellowbacks, “three-deckers,” and penny dreadfuls), illustration techniques, and more.

The Charles Dickens PageThis is an extensive collection of resources dedicated to everything you ever could want to know about Charles Dickens, including excellent entries on Dickens’s London, his characters, his life, and original illustrations of his novels.

Learning Dickens in ContextThese resources will allow you to investigate the key themes of Dickens's novels alongside original source material from the British Library. Literary manuscripts, newspapers, letters, workhouse menus and many more fascinating collection items gives an excellent idea of the social, cultural and political context in which Dickens was writing. Includes entries on poverty and wealth, prisons and crime, literature and social campaigning, the pleasures and pains of Victorian childhood, and industrialization.

British National Archives: Victorian BritainThis website is presented as an “exhibition” that is divided into eight sections. The first is an introduction, which focuses upon London’s Great Exhibition of 1851. There then follow six galleries, each of which focuses upon an area of public life during the Victorian period. Each of these galleries investigates an aspect of Victorian life by considering a key question. Were the rich just as likely to catch cholera as the poor? How safe was it to work in Victorian Britain? Were the streets safe in Victorian Britain? How did the railways change the lives of people in Victorian Britain? Did the treatment of the poor improve after the Poor Law Amendment Act in 1834?

Mostly Victorian.comThis site offers thousands of pages from Victorian periodicals and books. Some up-close, personal looks at how Victorians lived and worked, as well as the problems they faced. Catch a glimpse of Victorian weddings, fetes, holidays, and celebrations; view some of the oddities received by the Royal Mail! The majority of the articles on this site come from The Strand (of Sherlock Holmes fame) and The Girl's Own Paper, and pieces from a variety of other publications, including Chatterbox, Ladies' Realm, Woman's Own, Little Folks, Leisure Hour, and many more.

Crime and the VictoriansThis webpage from the BBC includes an overview of crime during the Victorian era, including entries on sensational crimes (like the Jack the Ripper murders), criminal classes, penal policies, the Victorian detectives, and Sherlock Holmes.

2 Victorian Web Resources Mr. Rose

The Old Bailey OnlineBeautifully organized and fully searchable collection of the digitized images and electronic text of the proceedings of more than 197,745 criminal trials held at the Old Bailey, London’s Central Criminal Court, from 1674 to 1913. Also includes maps, images, and other supplementary material. This is a great resource for anyone researching crime and punishment in Britain during this time period.

Victorian Crime and PunishmentThis website is all about crime and punishment in England during the 19th Century. In addition to dozens of informative articles on the justice systems, Scotland Yard, “catching the criminal,” jails, and the hangman’s noose, it includes a prisoner database with actual prisoner records and case studies for a more in-depth view of the crimes and trials of some of the inmates.

Fictional Cities: 19 th Century London in Literature Novels have been set in London since novels have been written, and there's barely a British novelist who hasn’t set at least one book here. The author of Fictional Cities has put together a huge collection of excerpts and summaries of books and stories set in 19th-century London

Industry: the Industrial Revolution and the Railway SystemThis site, created by students at Mount Holyoke College, presents a wide variety of information on the railway system of 19th century England and Wales. The web site includes primary source material in the form of extracts from six prominent Victorians voicing their opinions on the railways and articles from the Illustrated London News. The newspaper articles are divided into different categories relating to the railways, such as accidents and disasters, stations, personalities, and politics and economics. The images section of the site contains a large number of Victorian images portraying the period as a whole and not just the railways. Other features of the site include student research projects and a section of links.

Casebook: Jack the RipperThis website is dedicated to everything you ever wanted to know (and more) about Victorian London’s most famous criminal case – the unsolved Jack the Ripper murders. "Jack the Ripper" is the popular name given to a serial killer who killed a number of women in the East End of London in 1888. The name originates from a letter written by someone who claimed to be the killer. The killings took place within a mile area and involved the districts of Whitechapel, Spitalfields, Aldgate, and the City of London proper. He was also called the Whitechapel Murderer and Leather Apron.

The Literary GothicThis website’s greatest asset is its list of links to resources pertaining to the Gothic revival in English literature – definition, aspects of the genres, examples, etc. provides an outstanding introduction to and overview of Gothic literature.

The Gothic ExperienceThis website from the City University of New York, Booklyn, provides a broad overview of the Gothic genre in literature, art, architecture, etc. It’s scope is broader than Victorian Gothic, but much of it applies.

Recommended Blogs

3 Victorian Web Resources Mr. Rose

Some of these blogs may have to be accessed at home rather than at school due to the fact that most blogspot.com websites are blocked on the Moeller system at school. The blogs are the “best of the best” when it comes to Victorian Studies. They are definitely worth a look and usually have dozens of great links beyond the information they have on their own blogs. Many contain hundreds of Victorian images. Use them!

The Cat’s MeatshopThis is the blog written by Lee Jackson, the author and editor of The Victorian Dictionary website. The Cat’s Meatshop includes great photos and videos pertaining to Victoriana.

The Victorian PeeperAmong many dozens of resources on every conceivable Victorian topic, the Victorian Peeper includes entries on 138 Victorian places to visit. Blog is written by a Kristan Tetens, an American historian of 19th-century Britain. "[One of] the most sophisticated and useful resource blogs to start any search for information . . . chock full of nineteenth-century sources."

Highlights from The Girl’s Own Paper The Girl's Own Paper was a British magazine for girls and young women published by the Religious Tracts Society. This blog archives article transcripts and scans of fashion plates and illustrations from volumes dating from the Victorian era. The blog provides an insight into the daily life of middle- and upper-class Victorians.

4 Victorian Web Resources Mr. Rose