Interesting Facts About the Victorian Era

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I enjoy Victorian architecture very much. I have a large file of pictures of Victorian houses. I have been doing research on this time in history for quite a while and decided to share some of the things I have found. It was a time of religious and social change, new inventions, and economic change in the country. Below is a list of things that interested people back in that time: * People wore dark dark colors, a lot of blacks. It was because of the pollution caused by coal burning. If light colors were worn the clouds of grey smoke would permeate clothing and it was expensive to have them cleaned. * Corsets were fashionable during the Victorian Era. A waist could be sinched in so tightly as bring it down to a mere 16 inches around. This warping of the body causes many medical problems. Breathing and trouble-bearing children were just a few. They thought at the time that this practice was the possible cause of tuberculosis. * Taxidermy was in its Golden Age then. A favorite pass time and houses were full of stuffed animals. John Hancock, an English ornithologist, was an avid collector of birds even to the point of casting them in plaster or modeling them with clay. * Freak Shows were a curiosity many had to see when they came to town. These were popular exhibitions the general public could go to observe individuals with deformities and physical abnormalities. Exploitive institutions used these to make money for those less fortunate. * Hypnosis became popular and even Queen Victoria participated in spiritualistic seances. Such practices as mesmerism, electro-biology, clairvoyance, thought-reading, and crystal gazing were all crazes of this period.