Penny Dreadfuls

PENNY DREADFULS

John Adcock's blog shines a wondrous light onto the Victorian penny dreadful, amongst other things, although the pages he puts up simply leave one wanting to read more! The man is clearly an expert on his subject, and it's great to see people publishing stuff on the web simply for the love of their field. And any illustration entitled "The Feast of Death" is worth your time, no?

Millais

MILLAIS

You probably know this already, but Millais is at the Tate. A whole exhibition, mind you, devoted to the Pre-Raphaelite who gave us the likes of 'Ophelia' and 'Bubbles'. Also includes, a little oddly, events such as a 'Victorian Evening' of popular music (one suspects not music hall sing-a-longs) in Smith Square.

Arsenic

ARSENIC

Research on Victorian crime brings me to poisoning, a topic I know little about. An excellent academic article, however, is available for free, courtesy of the Wellcome Trust, on the Arsenic Act of 1851, which unfortunately did little to stop a string of Victorian arsenic-ists throughout the century ... click here for a famous example.

Illustrated London News

ILLUSTRATED LONDON VIEWS

It's been a while since the blog was updated, but real life unfortunately takes priority. However, I have been going through the archives of the Illustrated London News online, and adding occasional links to my website. I've already mentioned the Albert Palace (see below) and now I've found a picture of the so-called floating swimming baths that was moored by Charing Cross in the 1870s. I've come across brief references to it before, but fascinating to see it and get a more detailed explanation of what it was!

Archives

ARCHIVES

The discovery of a new picture archive online (or new to me, at least) called Viewfinder, architecturally-orientated, courtesy of English Heritage ... "The Picture Gallery contains illustrations of the industrial age, social history, architecture and archaeology, dating from the 1840s to the present day. The Stories set the photographs in a wider context." See my Links page for other libraries.