Victorian Era

The Victorian era of the United

Kingdom was the period of Queen
Victoria's reign from June 1837 until
her death on the 22nd of January
1901. The reign was a long period of
prosperity for the British people
The era was preceded by the
Georgian period and succeeded by
the Edwardian period.

Queen Victoria
(1837-1901)
The time of her reign was known as the
Victorian Era (a period of industrial, cultural,
political, scientific and military progress
within the UK.)
The young Princess Victoria was the only
legitimate child of the fourth son of George III
Her mother was overprotective and isolated
her from other children.
Victoria ascended the throne when she was
18.
When she became queen she banished her
mother and she never wanted to see her.

 She married her first cousin,

Prince Albert and had a
family of 9 children
The Victorian Britain became
the worlds richest nation
The Victorian Age covers
71years

 The Victorian era is often characterized as

a long period of peace, known as the Pax
Britannica (Pax Britannica was the period of
relative peace in Europe when the British
Empire controlled most of the key naval
trade routes and enjoyed unchallenged sea
power.)
The Crimean War (1854) was fought
between the Russian Empire. he war was
part of a long-running contest between the
major European powers for influence over
territories of the declining Ottoman Empire.

 the House of Commons was headed by the two parties,

the Whigs (Liberals) and the Tories (Conservatives)
1832 -Reform Act: introduced electoral changes
1851 -The Great Exhibition: the first World's Fair (was
held at the Crystal Palace)
Crystal Palace: iron and glass building , erected in Hyde
Park, London, England, was destroyed in 1941
1850
Restoration of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in Britain.
1859 -Charles Darwin published On the Origin of
Species
1901
The death of Victoria saw the end of this era, and the
ascension of her eldest son, Edward, began the
Edwardian era, another time of great change.

Technology and engineering

Communication links improoved.
Ships, railways, steams, canals allowed
goods,people to travel, rapidly faciliting
trade and industry.
Communication methods: cinema,
telegraph, telephones, cars
Photography was realized in 1839 by
Louis Daguerre.

Health and medicine

Joseph Lister:
instructed the hospital staff to
wear gloves and wash their
hands, instruments, and
dressings with a phenol solution
and, in 1869, he invented a
machine that would spray
carbolic acid in the operating
theatre during surgery.

Child Labour
The children of the poor were
expected to help towards the
family budget, often working
long hours in dangerous jobs for
low wages.
Charles Dickens, for example,
worked at the age of 12 in a
blacking factory, with his family
in a debtors' prison.

Fashion
biedermeier (1820-1840): In this period
fashionable women s clothing style had
distinctive large "leg of mutton", or "gigot
sleeves", above large full conical skirts.The
waist was intended to look more smaller than it
was.
dresses were narrow during this period.In the
very late 1890s the corset elongated the bodice
giving the women a slight S-curve silhouette

Szabadfordulo

Biedermeier

Historizmus

Famous people of the era:

Charles Dickens: David Copperfield,
Great Expectations, Hard Times, etc.
Bronte sisters: Emily, Charlotte and
Anne
The most famous of their books were Jane
Eyre and Wuthering Heights.
Oscar Wilde: The Picture of Dorian Gray,
Lady Windermeres Fan

Entertainment
Victorian Britain, like the periods before
it, was interested in theatre and the
arts, and music, drama, and opera
Gambling at cards in casinos
Hypnotism, communication with the
dead (by way of mediumship or
channelling), ghost were popular.
Natural history :study of birds,
butterflies, seashells, beetles and
wildflowers, etc.
Dancing
Galop, Polka, Mazurka, Waltz

Furthermore
Death photography
(postmortem photography)
People who could not afford
to have their photo taken, for
the first and the last time
was after death.

School
Dunce's Cap

Victorian teachers believed

that all children could learn at
the same speed, and if some
fell behind then they should
be punished for not trying
hard enough.
All Children had to attend
school.

Prostitution
the number of women working
the streets became increasingly
difficult to ignore.
They were called fallen women
It was legal for husbands to beat
their wife with a stick provided it
was no thicker than a thumb

Vibrators were

first invented by the

Victorians to treat
female hysteria and were
used by doctors starting
in 1870.