US History

Expansion and Reform (1801-1861)

The Development of the Industrial United States (1870-1900)

World History

Arts

This collection uses primary sources to explore the Victorian era, which lasted from 1837 to 1901 during the reign of Queen Victoria of England.

Teaching Guide: Exploring the Victorian Era

A photograph of a Victorian home interior in Kenosha, Wisconsin, ca. 1890.

A tortoiseshell calling card case from the mid-nineteenth century.

A chromolithograph print called “Making the Scrap Book,” 1868.

An African American family record chart, 1880.

An excerpt from *The Lady’s Guide to Perfect Gentility*, 1859.

A print depicting a Victorian couple in love, 1850s.

A photographic portrait of Queen Victoria.

A commemorative hair and yarn wreath from Wisconsin, ca. 1879.

A post-mortem photograph of Samuel Charles Stowe, son of Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1849.

A photograph of Victoria Terminus Railway Station in Mumbai (Bombay), India.

An excerpt from the London Exhibition’s “New Crystal Palace Polka,” 1851.

A dedication and poem from *Victoria Regia: a Volume of Original Contributions in Poetry and Prose*, 1861. 

A photograph of the University of Pennsylvania cricket team, 1887.

An advertisement for Dr. Scott’s Electric Corset, 1883.

Resources

1. [Victorian Britain](https://www.bl.uk/victorian-britain), British Library. 
2. [British Empire](http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/empire/), UK National Archives. 
3. [The Victorian Period](https://faculty.unlv.edu/kirschen/handouts/victorian.html), University of Nevada, Las Vegas. 

Overview

Queen Victoria of England reigned over a vast British empire from 1837 until her death in 1901. During her rule, England rapidly transformed into a modern, technologically-based economy exercising global military and cultural power, roiling with class and racial conflict. Victorianism extended far beyond the boundaries of Britain and informed international movements of the same period, including in the United States. 

Queen Victoria’s name signifies not only her era as a distinct time period in world history, but also a particular aesthetic sensibility in design, literature, manners, and morals. Victorian-era objects and buildings were often highly decorated and ornate. Victorian writers and intellectuals celebrated “sentiment”—feeling, emotion, affection, and passion—that found diverse expression in abolitionism, paternalistic colonialism, social reform, and celebrations of romantic love or mourning. Values defined as “Victorian” included moral responsibility and restraint as well as domestic propriety and gentility. At the same time, the Victorian era was marked by rigid gender and class hierarchies seen in elaborate codes of conduct, etiquette, and social rituals. Anxieties about science, religion, and race undermined many Victorians’ prosperity and moral certainty. 

The material objects, buildings, and texts arranged in this primary source set illustrate the variety of Victorian design while revealing some of the unique cultural characteristics of the period. 

English

Victorian Era

victorian-era_10_b5ff2086d91cf285e64e100e9aab3ff9.jpg

Courtesy of Washington University, St. Louis via ARTstor.

“Victoria Terminus, Mumbai,“ Digital Public Library of America, https://dp.la/item/b5ff2086d91cf285e64e100e9aab3ff9.

Built over ten years from 1878 to 1888 by architect Frederick William Stevens for the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, the Victoria Terminus is the finest example of Victorian Gothic architecture in India. At the time, Bombay (present-day Mumbai) was transitioning from a British colonial military post to India’s main international mercantile port. The building was named for Queen Victoria to commemorate her golden (fifty-year) jubilee and originally contained a statue of her beneath the main central dome. Victoria Terminus blended British high-Victorian style with ornate Indian palace architecture. It was Mumbai’s first truly public building, admitting all castes, religions, and classes. The entrance gate’s columns are crowned by figures of a lion (representing Great Britain) and a tiger (representing India). Other exterior statues represent Commerce, Agriculture, Engineering, Science, and Progress. The building embodies the progressive hopes of the British Empire and the expansion of Victorian values and style around the globe. It is now known as the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus and is a UNESCO World Heritage site. 

A photograph of Victoria Terminus Railway Station in Mumbai (Bombay), India.

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Tips for Students

Item 10 of 14 in the Primary Source Set Victorian Era