An Ode to The Victorian Era; A Short Summarization

This speech was delivered on April 27th 2013 at Maple Grove Cemetery in front of an audience commemorating and remembering Old Victorian Times;


                 The Victorian Era is one of the proudest era’s in the history of mankind, with it being one of the more recent ones, we can relate to it quite easily. You see The Victorian era every day, from the clothes you wear to the computers you work with, Well at least I do, I am surrounded by the marvelous artifacts of Victorian grandeur each passing day, I can praise endlessly how I am marveled at how people that some would dare to call primitive, have excelled at crafting ingenious breakthroughs in technologies, advanced remarkably into new political reforms, and gave birth to some of the most endearing novelists of our times, such as the great Gustav Flaubert and the marvelous Victor Hugo. It was a turning point where we would shy from the sought after rationality and endear closer to our sensibilities. Poets would arise to write some of the most touching of verses, to which we recite to ourselves in the light of our reading lamps, and art would capture the emotions and feelings of a landscape, Romanticism would see its rise and the world would meet such artists as Monet, Turner, Toulouse, and so much more
                The Victorian period was birth to some of the most inspiring inventions, as some can be seen on display in this very room. It gave birth to the jacquard loom, the ancestor of the computer. The loom would read hole punched cards and knit clothing with pre-determined patterns. This would eventually become more complex with the evolution of circuitry later on in the 20th century as this would evolve to perform much more complicated tasks. The first sewing machines were being invented by Thimonnier and the infamous Singer company saw its rise during this period. The blueprint was also invented during this period. Makes you wonder how contractors of the past tried building cohesively and coherently. The iconic stethoscope, the first revolver, the telegraph, the postage stamp, Morse code, photography, rubber, the safety pin, the glider, the process of pasteurization, the washing machine, the machine gun, the bicycle, the cylinder lock, plastic, dynamite, air brakes, tungsten, steel, the typewriter, barbed wire, windmill, carpetsweeper, phonograph, metal detector, and even Cola, bless you Pemberton!
Even those tin cans with the key opener, you can thank Ostenhouder for not having to fight with tuna cans
Seriously, where have we been for the last 1800 years?  It’s quite amazing what the Industrial revolution during the Victorian era gave birth to. Things we take for granted in our day to day lives. I actually kept the list of inventions quite short.
                With the strong breakthroughs of mechanization, and industrialization, the world would react with Romanticism, reaching its peak in midcentury. As well Realism would rise and the views would combat each other for the rest of the period. From realism We would see landscapes resembling true and common vision almost photographic in nature from , and we would see from Romanticism, awe inspiring landscapes with phenomenon scattered about to invoke or represent the emotions and feelings we develop from the wonders of the world.
                The Victorian era had some very interesting choices of clothing. The corsets for one, would force their bodies to take unnaturally thin waists as curves were strong in the Victorian era. These corsets were so tight that they would restrict blood flow and this led to the belief of the reason fainting couches were made, the other reason being female hysteria. You can quite clearly see this was a male dominated era. While men would eventually give up their fancy adornments of costume in the Great Male Renunciation, Women would eventually follow suit but not before indulging in some of the most outlandish and quite stylish outfits of the time. Petticoats were quite popular, and with the use of crinoline in the 1840’s, petticoats would have much more flexibility. Skirts became puffier by the day and necklines drooped at nighttime, although morality was once again strengthened due to the ideals of Victorian Morality.
                Feminists of the era blame fashion as man’s way of imprisoning a woman, and that it was an obstinate desire and a rather sexist indulgence while others saw the fashion as a praise of wealth and beauty.  Some believe the fashion of the day was to show how wealthy the husbands were, that they could lavish their wives and daughters with the mobility restricting adornments, that they could support their families with ease.
                Men were expected to wear three piece suits, which involved a jacket and a vest and hats were quite popular as well, in the form of top hat, bowlers, derbies, and straw boaters. Trousers were usually striped and simple patterned as well as were more flat than creased. Belts were very uncommon and instead suspenders were more in fashion, quite the opposite today. Cravats, walking sticks, gloves and bowties were among the more common accessories. Although wristwatches were around, Men were bearing the famous words “ I’d rather wear a skirt than a wristwatch” mind you their opinion not mines, I quite like these pants.  Some even wore reversible bibs to hide stains on their shirt, why did this invention not last, I do not know.
                But it was the Victorian mourning customs that rose during the era that are quite fascinating!  The Victorian era began a fashion of mourning clothing and strong traditions of customary rituals followed in the passing of a dear one. The people of the era took to Queen Victoria’s example, by holding expensive and costly funeral processions, erecting large stone or elaborate structures to commemorate the life and death of the deceased, and the well-known custom of Victorian Mourning Dress. Mourning would depend on your relation to your loved one, with Widows having to mourn for two whole years. This however is quite shadowed when compared to Queen Victoria’s devotion of wearing black to mourn her husband from 1861 till the end of her days in 1901. Due to her long period of mourning many fashions and styles developed during the period. This saw a huge rise in the use of Jet Glass which was found in great quantity in Whitby. Some of the poorer people during the era even had most of their wardrobe composed of black as it was quite costly to have clothing made.  A woman was not even permitted to leave the house without being dressed in black attire and a weeping veil.
                There was a huge quantity of variations of mourning jewelry. Hair of the deceased were kept in lockets , or even made into jewelry as to become mementos of loved ones that have passed into the void. You can see such unique pieces such as earing and necklaces made of twisted strands of hair, resembling the horsehair crinoline they wore to form their dresses. Jet as mentioned before became popular as the “black amber” was worn by Queen Victoria as part of her mourning attire, this was actually the only form of jewelry allowed in the first period. Yes this is where Jet black phrase comes from. Not fighter pilots! We even see the rise of Cameos in this period, as many new variations of shells were being brought in from different coastal areas allowing for interesting and beautiful Cameo designs, with some even being incorporated into Victorian mourning dress.
Black was the color to go to. It resembled an absence of light, it was darkness. It represented the missing of a loved one, the missing of the resemblance of a person that once existed. There is as well a belief that it culminated from a Roman idea, that it was worn to prevent the loved one from coming to haunt them. In later stages of the mourning, some colors closely resembling black such as grey, mauve, purple, lavender, lilac, and even dark shades of red such as burgundy were also acceptable. In some more tropical areas it was even acceptable to be fully clothed in white as black was too hot to wear.
Alas most of Victorian mourning customs died with Victoria in 1901, with the rise of the Edwardian period taking over. In America where many widows of the civil war were dressed in black only further depressed the nation and the notion of wearing black attire for extended periods of time was dropped as this further depressed the broken nation. With America becoming the next successive leader of the world, other nations would follow suit. But Victoria did not only give birth to ideas of mourning but she gave birth to the wedding dress. White wedding dress was popularized by Queen Victoria’s white wedding dress. The nation that idolized its Queen followed suit after her wedding day to wear just as she had, the innocent white she wore all dressed with lace, and so many of us today still follow this tradition.
I could talk for hours about the wonders of the Victorian era, it truly is one of the most inspiring and beautiful times of history, but with history we must not live in it but rather cherish it. Today we celebrate the Victorian ideals, but revel in the beauty of what it brought us to in the modern society we live in today. Let us celebrate the well devoted queen Victoria and her age of beauty and usher in a new era which the people of the future may celebrate as well.

If there is a specific topic you would like me to write about please email me at antiquesfrombeyond@yahoo.com and I as well do free appraisals!
Thank you for reading! -Gavriel Maman