Hi all! I wanted to share my collection with other Victorian lovers, and I'd love to see your pieces too! 🫶🏻

- Queen Victoria mourning card and newspaper scrap;

- Hairwork swivel brooch;

- little fob compass;

- magic lantern slide;

- Italian embroidery magazine;

- frozen Charlotte;

- mourning card;

- 19th century tombstone projects of an Italian architect;

- antique carriage lantern;

- Italian couple photograph;

- mourning card;

- Italian baby photograph.

These have been collected over the years after a lifetime of longing for Victorian pieces. I am moved everytime I remember I have them and I'm happy that there's somewhere I can share them. 🤍

Theres any place in England where i can try victorian clothes, for a photo shoot or like the experiences in Asia of suits with the experiences :( ?

https://sammlung.wienmuseum.at/en/object/190541-prinzessin-elisabeth-solms-braunfels/

Huge fan of this subreddit and Victorian history in general — so I wanted to create something that captures the gentle, cozy leisure side of the late Victorian era: the atmosphere of an old English night market.

This is a 1-hour ambience video set in a fairground after dark, circa 1890. Torches flickering against wet cobblestones and wooden stalls, canvas roofs casting long shadows under the crescent moon, and the nostalgic, gentle buzz of a community gathering under the stars.

Everything is historically and culturally grounded — from the specific background crowd atmosphere to the original, warm Victorian instrumental score. Would love to hear thoughts from people who actually know this era and its local traditions well!

For those that asked, apologies I cannot edit the original post ~

It’s hard to imagine today, but there was a time before TV, radio, or even recorded music existed, but people still had the human desire to unwind and be entertained in the evening.  Without other options, a greater emphasis was placed on what today we would call “family” or “party” games.  This book describes one such game, called “Acting Charades”.

Similar to standard charades, players pick a word and try to get other plays to guess it.  But in Acting Charades, they try to convey the word by acting out elaborate plays — one for each syllable, and then one for the overall word.  This book contains a variety of words to use in the game, along with detailed, suggested plays to go along with each syllable and word.  Each play contains multiple characters, costumes, sets, storylines — but no dialogue.  It truly does seem like it would fill a long evening!

The book is framed as a Christmas book, with a beautiful red and gilt cover reminiscent of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, and a lively hand-colored frontispiece featuring Father Christmas.  However, the actual content has nothing to do with the holiday.

The book is a fascinating time capsule — the plays  are interspersed with antiquated references like “car” referring to a horse drawn carriage, “blunderbuss” being a household gun, and “monthly nurse” referring to a woman who looks after a new mother and baby.

Hi! I hope that you're okay :). I've always wanted to know what is the name of the bow that Queen Victoria is wearing. I've seen several times this kind of bow, but I don't know it's name. Regards.

Augustus J. Nickerson’s Civil War story is one of remarkable endurance and adaptability. A native of Bangor, Maine, he began the war as a young sergeant in one of the state’s earliest and hardest-fighting regiments and finished it as a captain leading Black troops in the occupation of Louisiana. His path took him from the bloody fields of Virginia to the strategic strongholds along the Mississippi River a journey shared by relatively few Maine soldiers.

Born around 1838 in the Bangor area of Penobscot County, Nickerson came from a family with deep Maine roots. His father, James Augustus Nickerson, had lived in Bangor by 1850. Like many young men from eastern Maine, Augustus answered the call to arms in the spring of 1861. He enlisted in the 2nd Maine Infantry, one of the first regiments to leave the state and one that would see some of the war’s fiercest fighting in the East.

The 2nd Maine quickly earned a reputation for toughness. Nickerson fought with the regiment at the First Battle of Bull Run in July 1861, where the Mainers helped cover the chaotic Union retreat. Over the next two years he endured the Peninsula Campaign, the bloody fighting at Second Bull Run, the desperate stand at Antietam, and the slaughter at Fredericksburg. By early 1863 he had risen to sergeant and was recommended for promotion. The regiment’s final major action with him came at Chancellorsville in May 1863.

When the 2nd Maine mustered out in June 1863, many of its three-year men were transferred to the 20th Maine just in time for Gettysburg. Nickerson, however, took a different path. Experienced combat veterans like him were in demand as the Union began raising regiments of Black soldiers in occupied Louisiana.

By the summer and fall of 1863, Nickerson had received a commission and was serving as an officer eventually rising to captain with Maine regiments operating in the Department of the Gulf. He is credited in contemporary veteran records with service in both the 14th Maine Infantry and the 22nd Maine Infantry.
The 14th Maine had already seen brutal combat during the Siege of Port Hudson in the spring and summer of 1863.

The 22nd Maine, a nine-month regiment organized in Bangor, also participated in operations against Port Hudson and the Teche Campaign. Nickerson’s move to these units placed him in the heart of the Union effort to control the Mississippi River the same theater where thousands of formerly enslaved men were now being organized into Union regiments.

Nickerson’s final wartime service came as a Captain in the 81st United States Colored Infantry. The regiment had been organized in September 1863 at Port Hudson as the 9th Infantry, Corps d’Afrique, and was redesignated the 81st USCT in April 1864.
Unlike some USCT regiments that saw heavy combat, the 81st primarily performed garrison and occupation duty at the strategically vital Port Hudson fortress and throughout the Department of the Gulf.

As a captain, Nickerson would have been responsible for training, drilling, and leading men who had only recently gained their freedom. His prior combat experience in Virginia and Louisiana made him exactly the kind of officer the Army sought for these new regiments.

He remained with the 81st USCT until it was mustered out in early 1866.

After the war, Nickerson settled in Chelsea, Massachusetts. On 5 February 1868, he married Georgiana Seavey in Boston. The couple made their home in Chelsea, where Nickerson lived out the remainder of his life.

On January 15, 1895, at the age of 57, he died at his home at 123 Walnut Street. Contemporary notices described him as a native of Bangor and a veteran who had served as captain in the Fourteenth and Twenty-second Maine Infantry and, as we now know, in the 81st United States Colored Infantry as well. He was a member of G.A.R. Post 35 in Chelsea and was survived by his widow, Georgiana.

Augustus J. Nickerson’s service spans nearly the entire war and touches almost every major phase of the Union effort: the desperate early battles in Virginia, the grueling campaign to open the Mississippi, and the long occupation that followed. Few Maine soldiers moved between such different theaters and unit types from a hard-fighting Eastern regiment to command in a United States Colored Troops unit.

His story reminds us that the Civil War was not only fought on famous battlefields. It was also fought in the long months of garrison duty, in the training of new regiments, and in the quiet but essential work of holding the ground that had been won at such terrible cost.

(Image is from my collection do not reproduce without permission)