EN316: Revolution and Empire: British Literature from 1660-1900

This timeline presents important dates and events from the Restoration up through the end of the Victorian period, with special reference to authors and their works we read in class.

Timeline

Charles II restored to English throne


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by Stacey Kikendall

Requires all officeholders to swear allegiance to Anglicanism


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by Stacey Kikendall

Charles II dissolves Parliament


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by Stacey Kikendall

James II was Charles II's Catholic brother


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by Stacey Kikendall

James II exiled and succeeded by his Protestant daughter, Mary, and her husband William of Orange


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by Stacey Kikendall

Written by John Locke


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by Stacey Kikendall

Written by John Locke


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by Stacey Kikendall

Written by Mary Astell


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No places have been associated with this event

by Stacey Kikendall

Anne was the other Protestant daughter of James II


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No places have been associated with this event

by Stacey Kikendall

Written by Mary Astell


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No places have been associated with this event

by Stacey Kikendall

Scotland becomes part of Great Britain


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No places have been associated with this event

by Stacey Kikendall

George I was the great-grandson of James I. He is the first Hanoverian king. Tory government replaced by Whigs.


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No places have been associated with this event

by Stacey Kikendall

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu writes her letters from Turkey


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by Stacey Kikendall

Written by Alexander Pope - final version


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by Stacey Kikendall

George II was George I's son.


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by Stacey Kikendall

Written by Jonathan Swift


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No places have been associated with this event

by Stacey Kikendall

Marriage A-la-Mode

1743 to 1745

Pained by William Hogarth


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No places have been associated with this event

by Stacey Kikendall

Charles Edward Stuart ("Bonnie Prince Charlie)'s defeat at Culloden ends the last Jacobite rebellion


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No places have been associated with this event

by Stacey Kikendall

Written by Samuel Johnson


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No places have been associated with this event

by Stacey Kikendall

George II dies, his son take the throne


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No places have been associated with this event

by Stacey Kikendall

Written by Anna Letitia Barbauld around 1771, published in 1773


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No places have been associated with this event

by Stacey Kikendall

American colonies rebel against British rule


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No places have been associated with this event

by Stacey Kikendall

In 1781, passage of what is commonly known as the Sunday Observance Law. Discussion of the bill in the House of Commons started on May 3, 1781. Image: The Rt. Revd. Beilby Porteus, Bishop of London, printed by Fisher, Son & Co., London, 1833. Print of engraving by H. Meyer after J. Hoppner R. A.. This is a faithful photographic reproduction of an original two-dimensional work of art, and, so, is public domain, following U.S. case of Bridgeman v. Corel (1999).

Passage of this Act, formally titled “Act for Preventing Certain Abuses and Profanations on the Lord’s Day, Called Sunday,” had a powerful, repressive effect on British society and culture for more than a century-and-a-half, as noted by both its proponent (Bishop Beilby Porteus) and its many Victorian critics, among them John Stuart Mill in On Liberty.

Articles

Christopher Lane, "On the Victorian Afterlife of the 1781 Sunday Observance Act"


Associated Places

Palace of Westminster

by David Rettenmaier

Free Slaves in Sierra LeoneOn 9 April 1787, 451 people set sail to establish a “Province of Freedom” in Africa, later to become Sierra Leone. Image: An illustration of liberated slaves arriving in Sierra Leone, from the 1835 book, A System of School Geography Chiefly Derived from Malte-Brun, by Samuel Griswold Goodrich. This image is in the public domain in the United States as its copyright has expired.

Articles

Isaac Land, “On the Foundings of Sierra Leone, 1787-1808″


Associated Places

Vasto, Italy
Sierra Leone

by David Rettenmaier

Written by Charlotte Smith, included in her collection Elegiac Sonnets


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No places have been associated with this event

by Stacey Kikendall

engraving for Equiano's Interesting Life1789 saw the publication of Olaudah Equiano’s Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African. Exact month of publication unknown; if you have information about the correct date, please email felluga@purdue.edu with this information. The book describes Equiano's time as a slave and his life after achieving his freedom. Image: Engraving for Equiano's Interesting Narrative. This image is in the public domain in the United States as its copyright has expired.

Articles

Isaac Land, “On the Foundings of Sierra Leone, 1787-1808″


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No places have been associated with this event

by David Rettenmaier

French Revolution

5 May 1789 to 10 Nov 1799

Representation of the Declaration of the Rights of ManThe French Revolution occurred from 5 May 1789 to 9-10 November 1799. Image: Jean-Jacques-François Le Barbier, Representation of The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 26 August 1789 (c. 1789). This work is in the public domain in the United States.

On 5 May 1789, the Estates-General, representing the nobility, the clergy, and the common people, held a meeting at the request of the King to address France’s financial difficulties. At this meeting, the Third Estate (the commoners) protested the merely symbolic double representation that they had been granted by the King. This protest resulted in a fracture among the three estates and precipitated the French Revolution. On 17 June, members of the Third Estate designated themselves the National Assembly and claimed to represent the people of the nation, thus preparing the way for the foundation of the republic. Several pivotal events followed in quick succession: the storming of the Bastille (14 July), the approval of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (26 August), and the march on Versailles that led to the enforced relocation of the royal family to Paris (5-6 October). These revolutionary acts fired the imagination of many regarding the political future of France, and, indeed, all of Europe. The republican period of the revolution continued in various phases until 9-10 November 1799 when Napoleon Bonaparte supplanted the government.

Articles

Diane Piccitto, "On 1793 and the Aftermath of the French Revolution"


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Paris

by David Rettenmaier

Written by Anna Letitia Barbauld


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No places have been associated with this event

by Stacey Kikendall

In January 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft published A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, which laid out the tenets of what today we call ‘equality’ or ‘liberal’ feminist theory. She further promoted a new model of the nation grounded on a family politics produced by egalitarian marriages. Image: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman title page from the first American edition, 1792 (Library of Congress).  This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Articles

Anne K. Mellor, "On the Publication of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman"

Related Articles

Ghislaine McDayter, "On the Publication of William Godwin’s Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, 1798"


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No places have been associated with this event

by David Rettenmaier

Reign of Terror

5 Sep 1793 to 27 Jul 1794

Portrait of RobespierreA period of violence that occurred a few years after the start of the French Revolution. Image: Anonymous, Portrait of Maximilien de Robespierre (c. 1790), Carnavalet Museum. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

On 5 September 1793, the National Convention, France’s ruling body from 1793 to 1795, officially put into effect terror measures in order to subdue opposition to and punish insufficient support for the revolution and the new regime. From the autumn of 1793 until the summer of 1794, thousands of people across the country were imprisoned and executed (including the Queen) under the ruthless leadership of Maximilien Robespierre. The guillotine, particularly the one in Paris’s Place de la Révolution, served as the bloody emblem of the fear tactics that began to manifest themselves first in the formation of the Committee of Public Safety (6 April 1793) and subsequently in the implementation of the Law of Suspects (17 September 1793). The Terror ended on 27 July 1794 with the overthrow of Robespierre, who was guillotined the next day.

Articles

Diane Piccitto, "On 1793 and the Aftermath of the French Revolution"


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Paris

by David Rettenmaier

Written by William Blake

The Songs of Innocence was originally etched in 1789, but was combined with additional poems in 1794 as Songs of Innocence and of Experience


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by Stacey Kikendall

Uprising against British rule in Ireland, had help of French but were eventually defeated


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No places have been associated with this event

by Stacey Kikendall

Parliamentary Union of Ireland and Great Britain. Act of Union passed in 1800, took effect in 1801


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by Stacey Kikendall

Inclosure Act

Jan 1801

Detail from Rubens, Het SteenIn 1801, the Consolidation (Inclosure Act) was passed: Parliament thus formalized procedures for enclosing common land, removing previously existing rights of the people to carry out certain activities in these "common" lands. Exact month of passing unknown; if you have information about the correct date, please email felluga@purdue.edu with this information. Image: Detail from Peter Paul Rubens, A View of Het Steen in the Early Morning, c. 1636 (National Gallery, London), illustrating a pre-Enclosure landscape. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Articles

Carolyn Lesjak, "1750 to the Present: Acts of Enclosure and Their Afterlife" (forthcoming)

Ellen Rosenman, “On Enclosure Acts and the Commons”


Associated Places

Palace of Westminster

by David Rettenmaier

Cover Image of Wordsworth's Lyrical Ballads

William Wordsworth's Lyrical Ballads, 3rd edition, containing the expanded and final version of the famous "Preface," one of the founding theoretical statements of the Romantic poetical movement.

This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright is expired. www.abebooks.com/first-edition…...

Articles

Jules Law, “Victorian Virtual Reality”


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No places have been associated with this event

by David Rettenmaier

On 26 May 1805, Napoleon crowns himself King of Italy in Milan Cathedral, with the iron crown of Lombardy. Image: The Iron Crown of Lombardy, from Cesare Cantù Grande illustrazione del Lombardo-Veneto ossia storia delle città, dei borghi, comuni, castelli, ecc. fino ai tempi moderni Milano, Corona e Caimi Editori, 1858. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

In a flamboyant and highly theatrical gesture, Napoleon Bonaparte signifies his political and military dominance over the Italian peninsula with a ceremony in Milan Cathedral, where he crowned himself King of Italy with the ancient, iconic iron crown of Lombardy. This crowning of Napoleon as King is a result of the French conquest of Italy. His full title was "Emperor of the French and King of Italy."

Articles

Alison Chapman, "On Il Risorgimento"

Related Articles

Erik Simpson, “On Corinne, Or Italy


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Benjamin Robert Haydon, Napoléon Bonaparte (based on a version of 1830)
Umbria
Florence, Italy
Ravenna
The Kingdom of the Two Sicilies
Calabria
Naples
Gaeta
Emilia-Romagna
Lombardy
Turin
Piedmont-Sardinia

by David Rettenmaier

Slave trade outlawed (but not slavery itself)


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by Stacey Kikendall

The Regency

1811 to 1820

George, Prince of Wales, acts as regent for George III, who has been declared incurably insane


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by Stacey Kikendall

On 16 October 1811, the National Society for the Education of Poor Children in the Principles of the Established Church (the Church of England) was founded to establish “National Schools.” According to their founders, poor children were to be taught to avoid vice and behave in an orderly manner within their station. To limit costs, the monitorial system was employed, by which more advanced pupils taught younger ones.

Related Articles

Florence S. Boos, “The Education Act of 1870: Before and After”


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No places have been associated with this event

by David Rettenmaier

1812 War

1812 to 1815

War between Britain and United States


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No places have been associated with this event

by Stacey Kikendall

Written by Jane Austen


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No places have been associated with this event

by Stacey Kikendall

Napoleon exiled to Elba

6 Apr 1814 to 26 Feb 1815

Napoleon was exiled to Elba, an island in the Meditteranean, after he abdicated on 6 April 1814. He spent nine months and 21 days on the island, then attempted to retake his empire, leaving the island on 26 February 1815.  Napoleon was definitively defeated at the Battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815.


Associated Places

Elba
Benjamin Robert Haydon, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1839)
Benjamin Robert Haydon, Napoléon Bonaparte (based on a version of 1830)

by Dino Franco Felluga

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Corn Law Act

2 Mar 1815

On 23 March 1815, parliament passed the Corn Law Act of 1815. Image: the Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The Corn Law Act of 1815 prohibited the importation of grain when the prices in the domestic market were high. The Act was repealed on 25 June 1846.

Articles

Ayse Çelikkol, "On the Repeal of the Corn Laws, 1846"


Associated Places

Palace of Westminster

by David Rettenmaier

Emma

Dec 1815

title page of Austen's _Emma_Dec 1815 publication of Jane Austen's Emma. Austen's fourth published novel, Emma, was in press when the Prince Regent sent word that she had his permission to dedicate this or any later work to him, a permission of which she never availed herself. Image: Title page from Jane Austen's first edition of Emma, 1816 (Lilly Library, Indiana U). This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Articles

Anne Wallace, “On the Deceased Wife’s Sister Controversy, 1835-1907″


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No places have been associated with this event

by David Rettenmaier

cover of Blackwood'sOn 1 April 1817, the first number of Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine was published. Founded by Scottish bookseller and publisher William Blackwood, the monthly literary magazine targeted a growing middle-class readership. Image: Paper cover for issue of Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine (Nov. 1866). This image is in the public domain in the United States as its copyright has expired.

Articles

Michelle Allen-Emerson, “On Magazine Day”

Related Articles

Ina Ferris, “The Debut of The Edinburgh Review, 1802″


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Edinburgh

by David Rettenmaier

Blundell's GravitatorOn Saturday, 26 September 1818, James Blundell conducted the first medical blood transfusion between human subjects. During the course of the century, transfusion was applied as a remedy to different kinds of sicknesses and injuries, and performed at different times with various fluids. Image: James Blundell’s Gravitator, from “Observations on the Transfusion of Blood, with a Description of his Gravitator.” This image is in the public domain in the United States as its copyright has expired.

Articles

Matthew Rowlinson, “On the First Medical Blood Transfusion Between Human Subjects, 1818″


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No places have been associated with this event

by David Rettenmaier

On 12 July 1819, the British government approved £50,000 for a settlement scheme to South Africa's eastern Cape.

Articles

Timothy Johns, “The 1820 Settlement Scheme to South Africa”


Associated Places

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by David Rettenmaier

Peterloo massacre

16 Aug 1819

print depicting the Peterloo MassacreOn 16 August 1819, at St. Peter’s Field, Manchester, more than 60,000 workers gathered to demonstrate in favor of an expansion of suffrage in England. In an attempt to disperse the crowd and arrest the organizers of the demonstration, local cavalry and members of the 15th Hussars and 88th Foot attacked the crowd, killing a dozen protestors and injuring as many as 600. Though Wellington was not involved, the incident was dubbed “Peterloo” because of his persistent opposition to reform in the House of Lords. Image: Richard Carlisle, To Henry Hunt, Esq., as chairman of the emeeting assembled in St. Peter's Field, Manchester, sixteenth day of August, 1819, and to the female Reformers of Manchester and the adjacent towns who were exposed to and suffered from the wanton and fiendish attack made on them by that brutal armed force, the Manchester and Cheshire Yeomanry Cavalry, this plate is dedicated by their fellow labourer, Richard Carlile: a coloured engraving that depicts the Peterloo Massacre (1 October 1819), Manchester Library Services. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Related Articles

James Chandler, “On Peterloo, 16 August 1819″

Sean Grass, “On the Death of the Duke of Wellington, 14 September 1852″


Associated Places

St. Peter's Field in Manchester
Cato Street
St Peter's Field, Manchester, England

by David Rettenmaier

On 1 November 1819, simultaneous meetings were held, by prior agreement, at Newcastle, Carlisle, Leeds Halifax, Manchester, Bolton, Nottingham, Leicester, Coventry, and elsewhere in England and Scotland.

Articles

James Chandler, “On Peterloo, 16 August 1819″


Associated Places

Newcastle
Cato Street
Halifax

by David Rettenmaier

On 15 November 1819, simultaneous radical meetings occurred at Paisley, Glasgow, and other locations across Scotland.

Articles

James Chandler, “On Peterloo, 16 August 1819″


Associated Places

Paisley
Glasgow
Cato Street

by David Rettenmaier

Gag Acts

30 Dec 1819

British Coat of ArmsOn 30 December 1819, the British parliament passed the Six Acts (or Gag Acts), which labeled any meeting for radical reform as “an overt act of treasonable conspiracy.” The acts were aimed at gagging radical newspapers (the Blasphemous and Seditious Libels Act, the Newspaper and Stamp Duties Act, and the Misdemeanors Act), preventing large meetings (the Seditious Meetings Prevention Act), and reducing what the government saw as the possibility of armed insurrection (the Training Prevention Act and the Seizure of Arms Act). Image: The Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Articles

James Chandler, “On Peterloo, 16 August 1819″


Associated Places

Cato Street

by David Rettenmaier

Written by John Keats


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No places have been associated with this event

by Stacey Kikendall

After serving as Regent for years, he eventually becomes King when his father dies.


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No places have been associated with this event

by Stacey Kikendall

On 16 June 1824, founding of the Society for the Protection of Animals (SPCA) in London. The Society became the Royal Society in 1840, when it was granted a royal charter by Queen Victoria, herself strongly opposed to vivisection.

Articles

Ivan Kreilkamp, “The Ass Got a Verdict: Martin’s Act and the Founding of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, 1822″

Related Articles

Susan Hamilton (U Alberta), “On the Cruelty to Animals Act, 15 August 1876″

Philip Howell, “June 1859/December 1860: The Dog Show and the Dogs’ Home”

Mario Ortiz-Robles, “Animal Acts: 1822, 1835, 1849, 1850, 1854, 1876, 1900″


Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

by David Rettenmaier

On April 1825, the British stock market began to crash. After the speculative bubble reached its peak, falling Bank of England gold reserves and a collapse in stock prices lead to panic by the end of the year.

Related Articles

Angela Esterhammer, “1824: Improvisation, Speculation, and Identity-Construction”


Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

by David Rettenmaier

Bank of EnglandOn December 1825, bank failures began in London. The collapse of important City banks lead to further bank failures across Britain and brought financial crisis to the point where the Bank of England must take extreme measures. Image: The main Bank of England façade, c. 1980. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.

Articles

Alexander J. Dick, “On the Financial Crisis, 1825-26″

Related Articles

Angela Esterhammer, “1824: Improvisation, Speculation, and Identity-Construction”

Lana L. Dalley, “On Martineau’s Illustrations of Political Economy, 1832-34″


Associated Places

Bank of England

by David Rettenmaier

Parliamentary repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts excluding Dissenters from state offices


Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

by Stacey Kikendall

British Coat of ArmsRoman Catholic Relief Act received the Royal Assent on 13 April 1829 (sometimes called the Catholic Emancipation Act). Image: the Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The Catholic Relief Act of 1829 allowed Catholics to become Members of Parliament and to hold public offices, but it also raised the property qualifications that allowed individuals in Ireland to vote. The passage of the Catholic Relief Act marked a shift in English political power from the House of Lords to the House of Commons. The Act was led by the Duke of Wellington and passed despite initially serious opposition from both the House of Lords and King George IV.

Articles

Elsie B. Michie, "On the Sacramental Test Act, the Catholic Relief Act, the Slavery Abolition Act, and the Factory Act"

Related Articles

Carolyn Vellenga Berman, “On the Reform Act of 1832″

Sean Grass, “On the Death of the Duke of Wellington, 14 September 1852″


Associated Places

Palace of Westminster

by David Rettenmaier

Brother of George IV, son of George III


Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

by Stacey Kikendall

Portrait of Charles LyellJanuary 1830 saw the publication of the first volume (of three) of Charles Lyell’s Principles of Geology (January 1830). Image: G. J. Stodart (engraver), Portrait of Charles Lyell (unknown date).

Lyell’s work, though contested, establishes the preeminence of Uniformitarian principles in the interpretation of Geological phenomena, and allows vast temporal scope for Charles Darwin’s subsequent model of evolutionary development.

Articles

Martin Meisel, "On the Age of the Universe"

Related Articles

Nancy Armstrong, “On Charles Darwin’s The Descent of Man, 24 February 1871″

Ian Duncan, “On Charles Darwin and the Voyage of the Beagle

Anna Henchman, “Charles Darwin’s Final Book on Earthworms, 1881”

Cannon Schmitt, “On the Publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, 1859″


Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

by David Rettenmaier

King George IVOn 26 June 1830, King George IV died, prompting a dissolution of Parliament which brought the Whigs to power in a coalition government; he was succeeded by King William IV. Image: 1798 Engraving of King George IV (by Salomon Jomtob Bennett, after Sir William Beechey). This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Related Articles

Carolyn Vellenga Berman, “On the Reform Act of 1832″


Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

by David Rettenmaier

Swing Riots

Aug 1830 to Dec 1830

Henry Heath printThe Swing Riots, which occurred from August 1830 to December 1830, were a series of riots by agricultural workers that resulted from the Enclosure Acts, in general, and the introduction of threshing machines in East Kent, more specifically. The Swing Riots are named after the fictitious “Captain Swing,” the figurehead for the movement. Image: Print by Henry Heath entitled “Swing!” (1830). Reproduced with permission from The British Museum.

Related Articles

Carolyn Lesjak, "1750 to the Present: Acts of Enclosure and Their Afterlife" (forthcoming)


Associated Places

Kent

by David Rettenmaier

Stephenson's RocketOn 15 September 1830, the world’s first major passenger railway opened with a huge celebration—and an unforgettable tragedy. The Liverpool and Manchester Railway stages a grand public opening with dignitaries including then-prime-minster Duke of Wellington. But, before the inaugural trains reach their destination, a fatal accident occurs to MP William Huskisson and, in Manchester, the cheering crowds give way to angry political protests. Image: The Remains of Stephenson's 'Rocket', 1829. Used with permission. Copyright (c) National Railway Museum / Science & Society Picture Library.

Articles


Paul Fyfe, “On the Opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, 1830″


Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

by David Rettenmaier

Story by Mary Prince, transcribed by Suzanna Strickland, edited by Thomas Pringle


Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

by Stacey Kikendall

Cholera Epidemic

Sep 1831 to Dec 1832

The first major cholera pandemic to cross the Channel began in Sunderland in September 1831, spread throughout the country, and was not determined to be over until more than a year later, in December of 1832.

Articles

Pamela Gilbert, "On Cholera in Nineteenth-Century England"


Associated Places

Soho
Sunderland
Limehouse District

by David Rettenmaier

British Coat of ArmsThe Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 received the Royal Assent (which means it became law) on 29 August 1833. The Act outlawed slavery throughout the British Empire; Britain’s colonial slaves were officially emancipated on 1 August 1834 when the law came into force, although most entered a form of obligatory apprenticeship that ended in 1840. Image: The Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Image: the Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Articles

Elsie B. Michie, "On the Sacramental Test Act, the Catholic Relief Act, the Slavery Abolition Act, and the Factory Act"

Sarah Winter, “On the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica and the Governor Eyre-George William Gordon Controversy, 1865-70″


Associated Places

Palace of Westminster
Kingston
National Heroes Park
Morant Bay, Jamaica
Spanish Town
St. Ann Parish
Old Harbour
Porus
Mississippi Delta
New Orleans

by David Rettenmaier

Factory Act

29 Aug 1833

British Coat of ArmsAct to Regulate the Labour of Children and Young Persons in the Mills and Factories of the United Kingdom passed on 29 August 1833. Image: the Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Articles

Elsie B. Michie, "On the Sacramental Test Act, the Catholic Relief Act, the Slavery Abolition Act, and the Factory Act"

Related Articles

Peter Capuano, “On Sir Charles Bell’s The Hand, 1833″


Associated Places

Palace of Westminster

by David Rettenmaier

On 28 May 1836, Elizabeth Barrett Browning met William Wordsworth at a literary dinner in London; EBB's cousin, John Kenyon, was the host and the event most likely occurred at Kenyon's main residence at the time:  39 Devonshire Place, London, which is right around the corner from EBB's residence at the time:  50 Wimpole Street.  See the associated map.  


Associated Places

Home of John Kenyon
Benjamin Robert Haydon, Wordsworth on Helvellyn (1842)

by Dino Franco Felluga

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Newspaper Act

1 Aug 1836

British Coat of ArmsOn 13 August 1836, the Newspaper Act was passed, an Act to Consolidate and Amend the Laws relating to the Conveyance of Newspapers by the Post. The bill reduced the stamp duty on newspapers to 1d, thus allowing the channels for communication to increase dramatically. Image: The Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Related Articles

Elaine Hadley, “On Opinion Politics and the Ballot Act of 1872″


Associated Places

Palace of Westminster

by David Rettenmaier

Oliver Twist

Feb 1837 to Apr 1839

Photo of Charles DickensFrom February 1837 to April 1839, Charles Dickens published Oliver Twist. Image: Photograph of Charles Dickens by Jeremiah Gurney, c. 1867-1868 (at the Heritage Auction Gallery). This image is in the public domain in the United States as its copyright has expired.

Related Articles

Heidi Kaufman, “1800-1900: Inside and Outside the Nineteenth-Century East End”

Michelle Allen-Emerson, “On Magazine Day”


Associated Places

East End
Fagin in the Condemned Cell, Illustration for Oliver Twist

by David Rettenmaier

British Coat of ArmsOn 17 August 1839, passage of an Act to Amend the Law Relating to the Custody of Infants. The Act allowed a separated wife to petition the court for custody of her children under the age of seven. Image: The Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Related Articles

Rachel Ablow, “‘One Flesh,’ One Person, and the 1870 Married Women’s Property Act”

Kelly Hager, “Chipping Away at Coverture: The Matrimonial Causes Act of 1857″

Jill Rappoport, “Wives and Sons: Coverture, Primogeniture, and Married Women’s Property”


Associated Places

Palace of Westminster

by David Rettenmaier

With a fellow reformer, E. Carleton Tuftnell, Kay-Shuttleworth established in February 1840 the first pupil-teacher training school in Battersea. This system was later extended to schools administered by the National and British Societies.

Articles

Florence S. Boos, “The Education Act of 1870: Before and After”


Associated Places

Battersea

by David Rettenmaier

Punch launched

17 Jul 1841

On July 17 1841, Punch, a mass-circulation periodical, was launched.

Articles

Lorraine Janzen Kooistra, “The Moxon Tennyson as Textual Event: 1857, Wood Engraving, and Visual Culture”


Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

by David Rettenmaier

Masthead, Illustrated London NewsOn May 14 1842, The Illustrated London News, a mass-circulation periodical, was launched. Image: Masthead of the Illustrated London News. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Articles

Lorraine Janzen Kooistra, “The Moxon Tennyson as Textual Event: 1857, Wood Engraving, and Visual Culture”


Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

by David Rettenmaier

photo of DG RossettiIn September 1848, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was founded by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The brotherhood reacts, in part, against the use of bitumen, a transparent brown used for depicting exaggerated shadows, aiming instead to reproduce the sharp, brilliant colors found in fifteenth-century art. Image: Portrait of Dante Gabriel Rossetti: albumen print. This photograph, from 7 October 1863, was reproduced as the frontispiece of: Rossetti, William Michael, Dante Gabriel Rossetti as Designer and Writer. London: Cassell and Company, 1898.

Related Articles

Elizabeth Helsinger, “Lyric Poetry and the Event of Poems, 1870″

Lorraine Janzen Kooistra, “The Moxon Tennyson as Textual Event: 1857, Wood Engraving, and Visual Culture”

Morna O’Neill, “On Walter Crane and the Aims of Decorative Art”

Linda M. Shires, "On Color Theory, 1835: George Field’s Chromatography"

Linda M. Shires, “Color Theory—Charles Lock Eastlake’s 1840 Translation of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Zur Farbenlehre (Theory of Colours)”


Associated Places

Leighton House
Middleton Cheney
Selsley
Goblin Market and Other Poems, Cover Design
The Prisoner of Chillon, Illustration in Poets of the Nineteenth Century
Dante Gabriel Rossetti's Illustrations for Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market (1862)
Dante Gabriel Rossetti's Interpretation of "The Lady of Shalott"

by David Rettenmaier

Cholera Epidemic

Oct 1848 to Dec 1849

The second major cholera epidemic in the UK began in Scotland in October 1848 and is generally agreed to have largely subsided in the UK by the end of 1849.

Articles

Pamela Gilbert, "On Cholera in Nineteenth-Century England"


Associated Places

Soho
Sunderland
Limehouse District

by David Rettenmaier

In Memoriam

Jun 1850

Carbon print of TennysonIn June 1850, publication of Alfred Tennyson’s In Memoriam A.H.H. Image: Julia Margaret Cameron, Carbon print of Alfred Lord Tennyson, 1869, printed 1875/79 (The Art Institute of Chicago). This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Related Articles

Jill Galvan, “Tennyson’s Ghosts: The Psychical Research Case of the Cross-Correspondences, 1901-c.1936″


Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

by David Rettenmaier

On 29 September 1850, Pius IX restored England’s ecclesiastical hierarchy; the post-seventeenth-century system of Vicars Apostolic was replaced with a hierarchy in line with the system still in place in Ireland. This change contributed to the so-called Papal Aggression over the years 1850-52, a campaign against Roman Catholocism.

Articles

Miriam Burstein, “The ‘Papal Aggression’ Controversy, 1850-52″

Related Articles

Barbara Charlesworth Gelpi (Stanford), “14 July 1833: John Keble’s Assize Sermon, National Apostasy”

Laura Mooneyham White (U Nebraska, Lincoln), “On Pusey’s Oxford Sermon on the Eucharist, 24 May 1843″


Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

by David Rettenmaier

Engraving of Henry Mayhew1851 saw the publication of Henry Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor. London Labour appeared as a series of articles in the Morning Chronicle throughout the 1840s, before being compiled into three volumes in 1851. Exact month of publication unknown; if you have information about the correct date, please email felluga@purdue.edu with this information. The articles were innovative in the way they articulated the voices of the poorer classes of London. As an ethnographic study, Mayhew’s work explores the multicultural textures of Britain’s center, drawing attention to the ethnic diversity within a nation determined to maintain a stable national and cultural identity. Image: Henry Mayhew, taken from the 1861 edition of London Labour and the London Poor. This image is in the public domain in the United States as its copyright has expired.

Articles

Lesa Scholl, “Irish Migration to London During the c.1845-52 Famine: Henry Mayhew’s Representation in London Labour and the London Poor

Heidi Kaufman, “1800-1900: Inside and Outside the Nineteenth-Century East End”


Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

by David Rettenmaier

ON 5 Sept 1852, the Manchester Public Library opened. This was Britain’s first free public lending library, opened under the 1850 Public Libraries Act.

Related Articles

Amy Woodson-Boulton, “The City Art Museum Movement and the Social Role of Art”


Associated Places

Manchester Free Library

by David Rettenmaier

Illustration of the Crimean War

On 28 March 1854, Britain declares war against Russia, thus entering the Crimean War. Image: Russo-British skirmish during Crimean War (anonymous plate). This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

In 1854, in defense of the Turks and of British access to eastern trade routes, Britain entered into war in the Crimea. The two-year campaign represented the nation’s first major military engagement since the end of the Napoleonic wars. It thus sheds light on mid-Victorian attitudes towards national identity, offering a counter-narrative to views of the 1850s dominated by responses to the Great Exhibition of 1851. As literary and visual representations of the war reveal, reactions to this conflict were both more nuanced and more ambivalent than our preconceptions about Victorian jingoism might anticipate.

Articles

Stefanie Markovits, "On the Crimean War and the Charge of the Light Brigade"


Associated Places

Balaklava
St. Petersburg
Crimea

by David Rettenmaier

Sydenham Crystal Palace on Fire

Opening of the Crystal Palace at Sydenham on 10 June 1854. Image: The Crystal Palace on fire (30 November 1936; author unknown). This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

The resurrection of the Crystal Palace of 1851 in its new setting at Sydenham, with an expanded architectural complex and enhanced functional brief, embodies the Victorian emphasis upon visuality as a means of acquiring and conveying knowledge. In addition, the new Crystal Palace was shaped by prevailing concepts of rational recreation and beneficial commerce that insisted that private and public interests could be simultaneously satisfied and lead to a stronger nation and even Empire.

Articles

Anne Helmreich, "On the Opening of the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, 10 June 1854"

Related Articles

Audrey Jaffe, "On the Great Exhibition"

Aviva Briefel, "On the 1886 Colonial and Indian Exhibition"

Anne Clendinning, “On The British Empire Exhibition, 1924-25″


Associated Places

Crystal Palace, Sydenham
Crystal Palace, Hyde Park

by David Rettenmaier

On 14 March 1856, presentation of the Petition for Reform of the Married Women’s Property Law, 1856. The petition began the joint effort by lawmakers and public women to grant married women control of their own wealth.

Articles

Jill Rappoport, “Wives and Sons: Coverture, Primogeniture, and Married Women’s Property”

Related Articles

Rachel Ablow, “‘One Flesh,’ One Person, and the 1870 Married Women’s Property Act”

Anne D. Wallace, “On the Deceased Wife’s Sister Controversy, 1835-1907″


Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

by David Rettenmaier

Treaty of Paris

30 Mar 1856

Illustration of the Treaty of Paris

On 30 March 1856, signing of the Treaty of Paris, ending the Crimean War. Image: Treaty of Paris, the participants (Contemporary woodcut, published in Magazin Istoric, 1856). This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Articles

Stefanie Markovits, "On the Crimean War and the Charge of the Light Brigade"


Associated Places

Crimea
Paris
Malta

by David Rettenmaier

Aurora Leigh

15 Nov 1856

Engraving of a photo of BrowningOn 15 November 1856, Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Aurora Leigh was published by Chapman and Hall in Great Britain. Aurora Leigh—a verse-novel and modern epic—set off literary, social, and political reverberations in Britain, North America, and Europe up to the end of the century. Given its innovative, generically mixed form and its controversial contemporary subject matter, it figured in debates over poetry and poetics, the nature of the realist novel, class divisions and social reform, women’s rights, religion, and the politics of nations. Image: An 1871 engraving of an 1859 photograph of Elizabeth Barrett Browning (photograph by Macaire Havre, engraving by T. O. Barlow). This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Articles

Marjorie Stone, “The ‘Advent’ of Aurora Leigh: Critical Myths and Periodical Debates”


Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

by David Rettenmaier

Indian Uprising

10 May 1857 to 20 Jun 1858

print of the hanging of two rebelsThe Indian Rebellion or Uprising, also known as the Sepoy Mutiny, began as a mutiny of sepoys of the British East India Company's army on 10 May 1857, in the town of Meerut, and soon escalated into other mutinies and civilian rebellions. It was not contained until the fall of Gwalior on 20 June 1858. Image: Felice Beato, Print of the hanging of two rebels, 1858 (albumen silver print). This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Articles

Priti Joshi, “1857; or, Can the Indian ‘Mutiny’ Be Fixed?”

Related Articles

Julie Codell, “On the Delhi Coronation Durbars, 1877, 1903, 1911″

Lorraine Janzen Kooistra, “The Moxon Tennyson as Textual Event: 1857, Wood Engraving, and Visual Culture”

Sarah Winter, “On the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica and the Governor Eyre-George William Gordon Controversy, 1865-70″


Associated Places

Meerut
Gwalior
Lucknow
Jhansi
Oude/Awadh
Bundelkhand
Indo-Gangetic Plain
Allahabad
Aligarh
Delhi
Mumbai
Agra
Kolkata
Jaipur
Ahmedabad
Bengal
Mysuru
Pune
Ahmednagar
Chennai
Odisha
Deccan Plateau
Cachar
Darjeeling
Kangra
Dehradun
Kumaon

by David Rettenmaier

Pre-Raphaelite Art Exhibit

25 May 1857 to 25 Jun 1857

photo of DG RossettiPre-Raphaelite Art Exhibit, Russell Square, London, from 25 May to 25 June 1857. This was the first exhibition devoted solely to the work of the Pre-Raphaelites. Image: Portrait of Dante Gabriel Rossetti: albumen print. This photograph, from 7 October 1863, was reproduced as the frontispiece of: Rossetti, William Michael, Dante Gabriel Rossetti as Designer and Writer. London: Cassell and Company, 1898. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Related Articles

Lorraine Janzen Kooistra, “The Moxon Tennyson as Textual Event: 1857, Wood Engraving, and Visual Culture”


Associated Places

Russell Square, London
Leighton House
Dante Gabriel Rossetti's Interpretation of "The Lady of Shalott"

by David Rettenmaier

British Coat of ArmsOn 28 August 1857, passage of the Matrimonial Causes Act of 1857. The Act legalized divorce and protected a divorced woman’s property and future earnings. The grounds for divorce for men was adultery (in legal terms, criminal conversation), for women adultery combined with bigamy, incest, bestiality, sodomy, desertion, cruelty, or rape. Image: The Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Articles

Kelly Hager, “Chipping Away at Coverture: The Matrimonial Causes Act of 1857″

Related Articles

Rachel Ablow, “‘One Flesh,’ One Person, and the 1870 Married Women’s Property Act”

Lorraine Janzen Kooistra, “The Moxon Tennyson as Textual Event: 1857, Wood Engraving, and Visual Culture”

Jill Rappoport, “Wives and Sons: Coverture, Primogeniture, and Married Women’s Property”


Associated Places

Palace of Westminster

by David Rettenmaier

photo of ParkesMarch 1858 saw the first issue of England’s first feminist monthly magazine, the English Woman's Journal. Aimed primarily at a middle-class audience, the magazine promoted new employment and educational opportunities for women, and featured a mix of political and social commentary, reportage of current events, poetry, book reviews, and a correspondence column. Image: Photograph of Bessie Rayner Parkes Belloc (date unknown). This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Articles

Janice Schroeder, “On the English Woman’s Journal, 1858-62″


Associated Places

Langham Place

by David Rettenmaier

Photograph of Charles DarwinOn 24 November 1859, Charles Darwin publishes his On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. Image: Henry Maull and John Fox, Photograph of Charles Darwin (c. 1854). This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Articles

Nancy Armstrong, “On Charles Darwin’s The Descent of Man, 24 February 1871″

Ian Duncan, “On Charles Darwin and the Voyage of the Beagle”

Anna Henchman, “Charles Darwin’s Final Book on Earthworms, 1881”

Martin Meisel, "On the Age of the Universe"

Cannon Schmitt, “On the Publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, 1859″

Related Articles

Daniel Bivona, “On W. K. Clifford and ‘The Ethics of Belief,’ 11 April 1876″


Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

by David Rettenmaier

Goblin Market is a Victorian narrative poem written by Christina Rossetti and illustrated by her brother Dante Gabriel. Rossetti felt that the collaboration with her brother was crucial to her overall work, that she deliberately delayed the publication until Dante Garbiel’s illustrations were ready for press. He designed a total of two illustrations, the frontispiece and title page, for The Goblin Market. Both images were pressed using wood engravings, evoking the pre-raphaelite designs popular during the 1860’s. The passages appeal to the senses through vivid descriptions of colours, textures, aromas and taste. Critics assigned the poem to various general categories over the following decades and throughout the twentieth century. It was first viewed as a fairytale but was later viewed as an allegorical piece. Feminist critics often analyzed the poem’s social commentary on gender relations and the relationship between two sisters. Later in the nineteenth century, readers, reviewers, illustrators, and composers began to focus on the poem’s powerful aesthetic qualities. Its sensuous patterns, religious images, and social implications inspired the focus of school studies and as well as musical settings and performances. The power of its visual images, and the two wood-engraved designs by Dante Gabriel Rossetti in the poem’s first publication, turned to evoke numerous artistic interpretations, ranging from stained glass windows to gift books.

Curated by Kisha Rendon, Joseph Pereira, and Payton Flood

Public Domain; source: COVE Goblin Market edition by Lorraine Janzen Kooistra, Antony Harrison


Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

by Payton Flood

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In July 1866, in the aftermath of the Civil War, a permanent transatlantic cable was re-established after a failed attempt in 1858.

Articles

John M. Picker, “Threads across the Ocean: The Transatlantic Telegraph Cable, July 1858, August 1866″


Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

by David Rettenmaier

Second Reform Act

15 Aug 1867

British Coat of ArmsOn 15 August 1867, the Representation of the People Act, 1867 (also known as the Second Reform Act), received the royal assent. This act increased the electorate of England and Wales to approximately one man in three, theoretically including substantial numbers of working-class men. Image: The Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Articles

Janice Carlisle, "On the Second Reform Act, 1867"

Related Articles

Carolyn Vellenga Berman, “On the Reform Act of 1832″

Elaine Hadley, “On Opinion Politics and the Ballot Act of 1872″

Herbert F. Tucker, "On Event"

Sarah Winter, “On the Morant Bay Rebellion in Jamaica and the Governor Eyre-George William Gordon Controversy, 1865-70″


Associated Places

Palace of Westminster

by David Rettenmaier

British Coat of ArmsOn 26 July 1869, the Poor Rate Assessment and Collection Act, 1869, received the royal assent. This act reinstated compounding, the collection of tenants’ poor rates along with their rent, a practice that had been eliminated by the passage of the Second Reform Act Image: The Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Articles

Janice Carlisle, "On the Second Reform Act, 1867"


Associated Places

Palace of Westminster

by David Rettenmaier

British Coat of ArmsIn February 1870, passage of the Elementary Education Act Parliament provides for universal, nonsectarian education of British children at public expense and with public oversight. Image: The Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Related Articles

Herbert F. Tucker, "On Event"


Associated Places

Palace of Westminster

by David Rettenmaier

photo of DG RossettiIn April 1870, Dante Gabriel Rossetti published his first volume of original poetry, marking the start of several decades of renewed lyric experimentation by younger poets like Algernon Charles Swinburne, William Morris, Christina Rossetti, George Meredith, and Gerard Manly Hopkins. Image: Portrait of Dante Gabriel Rossetti: albumen print, 7 October 1863. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Articles

Elizabeth Helsinger, “Lyric Poetry and the Event of Poems, 1870″


Associated Places

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Sibylla Palmifera (painting), 1866-70
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Lady Lilith (painting), 1868

by David Rettenmaier

British Coat of ArmsOn 9 August 1870, the Married Women’s Property Act was passed. Image: The Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

This Act established limited protections for some separate property for married women, including the right to retain up to £200 of any earning or inheritance. Before this all of a woman's property owned before her marriage, as well as all acquired after the marriage, automatically became her husband's alone. Only women whose families negotiated different terms in a marriage contract were able to retain control of some portion of their property.

Articles

Rachel Ablow, "On the Married Woman's Property Act, 1870"

Related Articles

Kelly Hager, “Chipping Away at Coverture: The Matrimonial Causes Act of 1857″

Jill Rappoport, “Wives and Sons: Coverture, Primogeniture, and Married Women’s Property”

Anne Wallace, “On the Deceased Wife’s Sister Controversy, 1835-1907″


Associated Places

Palace of Westminster

by David Rettenmaier

The Irish Church Act of 1869, passed under the administration of William Gladstone (1809-1898), called for the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland. It was formally implemented on 1 January 1871. Image: Logo of the Church of Ireland, Fair use under United States copyright law

Articles

Kimberly J. Stern, "The Publication of John Pentland Mahaffy's The Decay of Modern Preaching (1882)"


Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

by David Rettenmaier

Lewis Carroll publishes Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There,(1871) the sequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865). In this novel, Alice finds another world of nonsense and fantasy, this time by climbing through a mirror.

Articles

Jean Little, “Algebraic Logic in Through the Looking Glass


Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

by David Rettenmaier

Jay CookeSeptember 1873 saw the beginning of the "panic of 1873," a financial crisis brought on in part by speculation in railroads. The crisis included the fall of American banking house Jay Cook & Company, which was precipitated by the failure of Northern Pacific Railway shares. The panic triggered a depression in Europe and North America that lasted from 1873 until 1879. Image: Portrait, Jay Cooke, founder of Jay Cooke & Company. This image is in the public domain in the United States as its copyright has expired.

Related Articles

Joshua Gooch, “On ‘Black Friday,’ 11 May 1866″

Deborah Denenholz Morse, “The Way He Thought Then: Modernity and the Retreat of the Public Liberal in Anthony Trollope’s The Way We Live Now, 1873”


Associated Places

Lombard Street

by David Rettenmaier

Anglo-Afghan War

Nov 1878 to 2 May 1881

Battle of KandaharThe Second Anglo-Afghan War grew out of longstanding tensions between Russia and Britain over Britain’s prized colonial possession of India. It lasted from November 1878 to May 1881. Image: Battle of Kandahar, 1880, by W. Skeoch Cumming. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Articles

Zarena Aslami, “The Second Anglo-Afghan War, or The Return of the Uninvited”

Related Articles

Antoinette Burton, “On the First Anglo-Afghan War, 1839-42: Spectacle of Disaster”


Associated Places

Jalalabad
Maiwand
Afghanistan
Herat
Durand Line
Gandamak

by David Rettenmaier

Fog event

Jan 1880 to Jan 1880

In January 1880, a four-day fog event in London killed some 1,100 people. Image. Photograph of Widnes (north west England in the late nineteenth century, from D. W. F. Hardie, A History of the Chemical Industry in Widnes. 1950. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons:upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia….

Articles

Nathan K. Hensley and John Patrick James, “Sooth Moth: Biston Betularia and the Victorian End of Nature.


Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

by David Rettenmaier

British Coat of Arms1882 Married Women's Property Act passed on 1 Jan 1883. Referred to as the 1882 MWPA, the Act came into effect at the beginning of 1883. Although still identifying some married women's property as "separate," this Act significantly increased the scope and protections for married women's acquisition and retention of property separate from their husbands. Image: The Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Articles

Jill Rappoport, “Wives and Sons: Coverture, Primogeniture, and Married Women’s Property”

Anne Wallace, “On the Deceased Wife’s Sister Controversy, 1835-1907″

Related Articles

Rachel Ablow, “‘One Flesh,’ One Person, and the 1870 Married Women’s Property Act”


Associated Places

Palace of Westminster

by David Rettenmaier

British Coat of ArmsCriminal Law Amendment Act passed on 14 August 1885. The Act raised the age of consent for girls from 13 to 16 and introduced the misdemeanor of “gross indecency” to criminalize sexual acts between men in public or private. Image: The Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Related Articles

Mary Jean Corbett, “On Crawford v. Crawford and Dilke, 1886″

Andrew Elfenbein, “On the Trials of Oscar Wilde: Myths and Realities”


Associated Places

Palace of Westminster
Clark Memorial Library
The Dancer's Reward, Illustration for Salome

by David Rettenmaier

Year of Jubilee

1 Jan 1887

Portrait of Queen VictoriaThe 1887 Year of Jubilee was a celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the reign of Queen Victoria. Image: George Hayter, State portrait of Queen Victoria, 1860 (oil on canvas), from the Government Art Collection of the United Kingdom. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Related Articles

Erika Rappaport, “Object Lessons and Colonial Histories: Inventing the Jubilee of Indian Tea”


Associated Places

Buckingham Palace

by David Rettenmaier

Bloody Sunday

1 Nov 1887

engraving, Bloody SundayOn 13 November 1887, “Bloody Sunday” occurred. Police charged against socialists after a Trafalgar Square protest against unemployment and the Irish Coercion Acts; 75 were wounded. At another Trafalgar Square protest on November 20, a bystander, Alfred Linnell, was trampled by a police horse and later died of wounds. Image: Bloody Sunday, 1887. This engraving from the The Illustrated London News depicts a policeman being clubbed by a demonstrator as he wrests a banner from a female protester.

Articles

Florence Boos, “The Socialist League, founded 30 December 1884″


Associated Places

Trafalgar Square, London

by David Rettenmaier

In July 1888, the London Matchgirls' Strike occurred.

Related Articles

Heidi Kaufman, “1800-1900: Inside and Outside the Nineteenth-Century East End”


Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

by David Rettenmaier

Jack the Ripper murders

Aug 1888 to Sep 1889

From August 1888 to September 1889, the serial killer known as the Whitechapel Murderer or Jack the Ripper stalked women living in the East End of London.

Related Articles

Heidi Kaufman, “1800-1900: Inside and Outside the Nineteenth-Century East End”

Marlene Tromp, “A Priori: Harriet Buswell and Unsolved Murder Before Jack the Ripper, 24-25 December 1872″


Associated Places

Whitechapel

by David Rettenmaier

The Yellow Peril was a term originated in Imperial Germany in the 1890s. This term was a color-metaphor referred to Western fears that Asians, particularly the Chinese, would invade their lands and disrupt Western values, such as democracy, Christianity, and technological innovation. The term of the Yellow Peril spread through Britain with the rise of Chinese populations in the aftermath of the Boxer Rebellion (Nov 2, 1899 – Sep 7, 1901). The Boxer Rebellion was an uprising movement against foreigners that occurred at the end of the Qing dynasty in northern China. The Boxer did experienced suppression by allied forces in China; however, the Western anxieties continually increased, which turned into the fears of the “Yellow Peril”. The most recognizable character of “Yellow Peril” was Dr. Fu Manchu, a villain from the series of novels written by a British author Sax Rohmer. Image: A 1913 cover of Sax Rohmer’s The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Macnhu

Articles:

Shanyn Fiske, “Modeling Masculinity: Engendering the Yellow Peril in Fu-Manchu and Thomas Burke’s Limehouse Nights”


Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

by Shiqi Deng

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photo of MitchellIn January 1892, Charlotte Perkins Gilman published her semi-autobiographical short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” in the New England Magazine. The tale’s heroine is a depressed new mother who goes mad while enduring a modified Rest Cure. Gilman herself underwent the Rest Cure in 1887 at the hands of Philadelphia neurologist Silas Weir Mitchell, who is briefly mentioned in the story. Image: Photograph of Silas Weir Mitchell, 1881. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Articles

Anne Stiles, “The Rest Cure, 1873-1925″


Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

by David Rettenmaier

Carbon print of TennysonOn 6 October 1892, the Poet Laureate, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, died, beginning a heated debate about who should succeed him as Poet Laureate. Image: Julia Margaret Cameron, Carbon print of Alfred Lord Tennyson, 1869, printed 1875/79 (The Art Institute of Chicago). This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Articles

Linda Peterson, “On the Appointment of the ‘Poet Laureate to Her Majesty,’ 1892-1896”


Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

by David Rettenmaier

In March 1894, Sarah Grand's “The New Aspect of the Woman Question” was published. The essay in North American Review, vol.158, no.448, March 1894, pp.270–6 has been credited with identifying the "New Woman."

Articles

Meaghan Clarke, “1894: The Year of the New Woman Art Critic”


Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

by David Rettenmaier

"Going to Mudie's"On 27 June 1894, Mudie’s Select Library and W. H. Smith’s, the largest of the private circulating libraries that provided many Victorians with their reading material, issued simultaneous announcements specifying the new terms on which they would buy novels from publishers, beginning in the next calendar year. This change spelled the effective end of the 3-volume system; whereas 112 three-volume works were published in 1894, only two were published in 1897. Image: "Going to Mudie's," London Society v.16, no. 95, Nov. 1869. This image is in the public domain in the United States as its copyright has expired.

Articles

Richard Menke, “The End of the Three-Volume Novel System, 27 June 1894″


Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

by David Rettenmaier

Trials of Oscar Wilde

Apr 1895 to May 1895

photo of WildeThe trials of Oscar Wilde, which occurred in April and May of 1895, have become legendary as a turning-point in the history of public awareness of homosexuality. By their close, Wilde had gone from being a triumphantly successful playwright to a ruined man, condemned to two years of hard labor for gross indecency. They garnered extensive coverage first in the London press and then in newspapers around the world; the story of the trials continues to be retold in ways that have persistent relevance for contemporary queer culture. Image: Photograph of Oscar Wilde, by Napoleon Sarony. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Articles

Andrew Elfenbein, “On the Trials of Oscar Wilde: Myths and Realities”


Associated Places

Tite Street
Cimetière de Bagneux
Hôtel d’Alsace
Clark Memorial Library
The Dancer's Reward, Illustration for Salome

by David Rettenmaier

Second Boer War

11 Oct 1899 to 31 May 1902

Crane, Stop the WarOn 11 Oct 1899, war was declared between Britain and the Transvaal Republic and Orange Free State, two independent Boer nations in southern Africa. The Treaty of Vereeniging concluded the Second Boer War on 31 May 1902. The fighting had resulted in c. 45,000 British military casualties and around 40,000 combined military and civilian casualties among the Boers. Eight years later in 1910, the Union of South Africa made the region a dominion of the British Empire. Image: Walter Crane, “Stop the War,” page 297, The War Against War in South Africa, 23 February 1900, wood engraving, courtesy of Yale University.

Articles

Jo Briggs, “The Second Boer War, 1899-1902: Anti-Imperialism and European Visual Culture”


Associated Places

South Africa
KwaZulu Natal Province

by David Rettenmaier

coat of arms of Australia4 April 1906 saw the royal assent to the Aborigines Act 1905 (5 Edw. VII No. 14), in which Section 70 (which sought to protect and support the welfare of Aboriginal people) was repealed for a second time. Image: Coat of Arms of Australia. This image is in the public domain in the United States as its copyright has expired.

Articles

Ann Curthoys, “Settler Self-Government versus Aboriginal Rights, 1883 – 2001: The Shocking History of Section 70 of the Western Australian Constitution”


Associated Places

Palace of Westminster
Western Australia
Rottnest Island
Perth
New South Wales
Victoria
Queensland
Meekatharra
Adelaide

by David Rettenmaier

Restoration

Test Act

Dissolution of Parliament

Death of Charles II, James II becomes King

The Glorious Revolution

Two Treatises on Government

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

Some Reflections upon Marriage

Death of William III, Anne becomes Queen

A Preface, in Answer to Some Objections to Reflections upon Marriage

Act of Union with Scotland

Death of Anne, George I becomes King

Turkish Embassy Letters

The Rape of the Lock

George I dies, George II becomes king

A Modest Proposal

Marriage A-la-Mode

Jacobite Rebellion ends

Dictionary of the English Language

George III becomes king

A Mouse's Petition

American Revolution

Sunday Observance Act

First settlers depart for Sierra Leone

Written in the Church-Yard at Middleton in Sussex

Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano

French Revolution

Epistle to William Wilberforce, Esq. on the Rejection of the Bill for Abolishing the Slave Trade

Vindication of the Rights of Woman

Reign of Terror

Songs of Innocence and of Experience

Rebellion in Ireland

1801 Ireland joins Great Britain

Inclosure Act

William Wordsworth's Lyrical Ballads

Napoleon made king of Italy

British slave trade outlawed

The Regency

National Society for the Education of Poor Children founded

1812 War

Pride and Prejudice

Napoleon exiled to Elba

Corn Law Act

Emma

First number of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine

First medical blood transfusion between humans

Britain approves settlement scheme to South Africa

Peterloo massacre

Simultaneous radical meetings

Simultaneous Scottish radical meetings

Gag Acts

Ode on a Grecian Urn

George IV becomes King

Death of Napoleon

Society for Protection of Animals founded

Stock market crash

Bank failures in London

Test Act Repealed

Roman Catholic Relief Act

Death of George IV, William IV becomes King

Principles of Geology

Death of King George IV

Swing Riots

Opening of Liverpool & Manchester Railway

A History of Mary Prince

Cholera Epidemic

Darwin's voyage on the Beagle

Slavery Abolition Act

Factory Act

Elizabeth Barrett Browning dinner with Wordsworth

Newspaper Act

Oliver Twist

Act on Custody of Infants

First pupil-teacher training school, Battersea, established

Punch launched

The Illustrated London News launched

Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood founded

Cholera Epidemic

In Memoriam

Pius IX restores England’s ecclesiastical hierarchy

London Labour and the London Poor

Manchester Public Library opens

Britain declares war against Russia

Sydenham Crystal Palace opens

Petition for Reform of Married Women’s Property Law

Treaty of Paris

Aurora Leigh

Indian Uprising

Pre-Raphaelite Art Exhibit

Start of 1857 financial crisis in the US

Matrimonial Causes Act of 1857

Start of the 1857 financial crisis in England

English Woman’s Journal first published

On the Origin of Species

Goblin Market and Other Poems Published

Permanent transatlantic cable established

Second Reform Act

Poor Rate Assessment and Collection Act

Elementary Education Act

Rossetti, Poems

1870 Married Women's Property Act

Disestablishment of the Irish Church

Publication of Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass

Financial panic of 1873 begins

Anglo-Afghan War

Fog event

1882 Married Women's Property Act

Criminal Law Amendment Act

Year of Jubilee

Bloody Sunday

London Matchgirls' Strike

Jack the Ripper murders

The Yellow Peril

"The Yellow Wallpaper"

Death of Tennyson

"New Aspect of the Woman Question"

End of the 3-Volume Novel

Trials of Oscar Wilde

Second Boer War

Aborigines Act 1905

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Chronological table

Displaying 1 - 50 of 121
Date Event Created by Associated Places
1851

Crystal Palace opens

In 1851, the Crystal Palace opens, housing the Great Exhibition of 1851. This monumental glass and iron structure was simultaneously a building, an event, and a phenomenon:  a department store, a world's fair, an anthropological museum, and a trade exhibition.

Articles

Jules Law, “The Victorian Stereoscope”

Related Articles

Anne Helmreich, "On the Opening of the Crystal Palace at Sydenham, 1854"

David Rettenmaier
1660

Restoration

Charles II restored to English throne

Stacey Kikendall
1673

Test Act

Requires all officeholders to swear allegiance to Anglicanism

Stacey Kikendall
1681

Dissolution of Parliament

Charles II dissolves Parliament

Stacey Kikendall
1685

Death of Charles II, James II becomes King

James II was Charles II's Catholic brother

Stacey Kikendall
1688 to 1689

The Glorious Revolution

James II exiled and succeeded by his Protestant daughter, Mary, and her husband William of Orange

Stacey Kikendall
1690

Two Treatises on Government

Written by John Locke

Stacey Kikendall
1690

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

Written by John Locke

Stacey Kikendall
1700

Some Reflections upon Marriage

Written by Mary Astell

Stacey Kikendall
1702

Death of William III, Anne becomes Queen

Anne was the other Protestant daughter of James II

Stacey Kikendall
1706

A Preface, in Answer to Some Objections to Reflections upon Marriage

Written by Mary Astell

Stacey Kikendall
1707

Act of Union with Scotland

Scotland becomes part of Great Britain

Stacey Kikendall
1714

Death of Anne, George I becomes King

George I was the great-grandson of James I. He is the first Hanoverian king. Tory government replaced by Whigs.

Stacey Kikendall
1716 to 1718

Turkish Embassy Letters

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu writes her letters from Turkey

Stacey Kikendall
1717

The Rape of the Lock

Written by Alexander Pope - final version

Stacey Kikendall
1727

George I dies, George II becomes king

George II was George I's son.

Stacey Kikendall
1729

A Modest Proposal

Written by Jonathan Swift

Stacey Kikendall
1743 to 1745

Marriage A-la-Mode

Pained by William Hogarth

Stacey Kikendall
1746

Jacobite Rebellion ends

Charles Edward Stuart ("Bonnie Prince Charlie)'s defeat at Culloden ends the last Jacobite rebellion

Stacey Kikendall
1755

Dictionary of the English Language

Written by Samuel Johnson

Stacey Kikendall
1760

George III becomes king

George II dies, his son take the throne

Stacey Kikendall
1773

A Mouse's Petition

Written by Anna Letitia Barbauld around 1771, published in 1773

Stacey Kikendall
1775 to 1783

American Revolution

American colonies rebel against British rule

Stacey Kikendall
May 1781

Sunday Observance Act

In 1781, passage of what is commonly known as the Sunday Observance Law. Discussion of the bill in the House of Commons started on May 3, 1781. Image: The Rt. Revd. Beilby Porteus, Bishop of London, printed by Fisher, Son & Co., London, 1833. Print of engraving by H. Meyer after J. Hoppner R. A.. This is a faithful photographic reproduction of an original two-dimensional work of art, and, so, is public domain, following U.S. case of Bridgeman v. Corel (1999).

Passage of this Act, formally titled “Act for Preventing Certain Abuses and Profanations on the Lord’s Day, Called Sunday,” had a powerful, repressive effect on British society and culture for more than a century-and-a-half, as noted by both its proponent (Bishop Beilby Porteus) and its many Victorian critics, among them John Stuart Mill in On Liberty.

Articles

Christopher Lane, "On the Victorian Afterlife of the 1781 Sunday Observance Act"

David Rettenmaier
9 Apr 1787

First settlers depart for Sierra Leone

Free Slaves in Sierra LeoneOn 9 April 1787, 451 people set sail to establish a “Province of Freedom” in Africa, later to become Sierra Leone. Image: An illustration of liberated slaves arriving in Sierra Leone, from the 1835 book, A System of School Geography Chiefly Derived from Malte-Brun, by Samuel Griswold Goodrich. This image is in the public domain in the United States as its copyright has expired.

Articles

Isaac Land, “On the Foundings of Sierra Leone, 1787-1808″

David Rettenmaier
Jan 1789

Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano

engraving for Equiano's Interesting Life1789 saw the publication of Olaudah Equiano’s Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African. Exact month of publication unknown; if you have information about the correct date, please email felluga@purdue.edu with this information. The book describes Equiano's time as a slave and his life after achieving his freedom. Image: Engraving for Equiano's Interesting Narrative. This image is in the public domain in the United States as its copyright has expired.

Articles

Isaac Land, “On the Foundings of Sierra Leone, 1787-1808″

David Rettenmaier
1789

Written in the Church-Yard at Middleton in Sussex

Written by Charlotte Smith, included in her collection Elegiac Sonnets

Stacey Kikendall
5 May 1789 to 10 Nov 1799

French Revolution

Representation of the Declaration of the Rights of ManThe French Revolution occurred from 5 May 1789 to 9-10 November 1799. Image: Jean-Jacques-François Le Barbier, Representation of The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 26 August 1789 (c. 1789). This work is in the public domain in the United States.

On 5 May 1789, the Estates-General, representing the nobility, the clergy, and the common people, held a meeting at the request of the King to address France’s financial difficulties. At this meeting, the Third Estate (the commoners) protested the merely symbolic double representation that they had been granted by the King. This protest resulted in a fracture among the three estates and precipitated the French Revolution. On 17 June, members of the Third Estate designated themselves the National Assembly and claimed to represent the people of the nation, thus preparing the way for the foundation of the republic. Several pivotal events followed in quick succession: the storming of the Bastille (14 July), the approval of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (26 August), and the march on Versailles that led to the enforced relocation of the royal family to Paris (5-6 October). These revolutionary acts fired the imagination of many regarding the political future of France, and, indeed, all of Europe. The republican period of the revolution continued in various phases until 9-10 November 1799 when Napoleon Bonaparte supplanted the government.

Articles

Diane Piccitto, "On 1793 and the Aftermath of the French Revolution"

David Rettenmaier
1791

Epistle to William Wilberforce, Esq. on the Rejection of the Bill for Abolishing the Slave Trade

Written by Anna Letitia Barbauld

Stacey Kikendall
1 Jan 1792

Vindication of the Rights of Woman

In January 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft published A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, which laid out the tenets of what today we call ‘equality’ or ‘liberal’ feminist theory. She further promoted a new model of the nation grounded on a family politics produced by egalitarian marriages. Image: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman title page from the first American edition, 1792 (Library of Congress).  This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Articles

Anne K. Mellor, "On the Publication of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman"

Related Articles

Ghislaine McDayter, "On the Publication of William Godwin’s Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, 1798"

David Rettenmaier
5 Sep 1793 to 27 Jul 1794

Reign of Terror

Portrait of RobespierreA period of violence that occurred a few years after the start of the French Revolution. Image: Anonymous, Portrait of Maximilien de Robespierre (c. 1790), Carnavalet Museum. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

On 5 September 1793, the National Convention, France’s ruling body from 1793 to 1795, officially put into effect terror measures in order to subdue opposition to and punish insufficient support for the revolution and the new regime. From the autumn of 1793 until the summer of 1794, thousands of people across the country were imprisoned and executed (including the Queen) under the ruthless leadership of Maximilien Robespierre. The guillotine, particularly the one in Paris’s Place de la Révolution, served as the bloody emblem of the fear tactics that began to manifest themselves first in the formation of the Committee of Public Safety (6 April 1793) and subsequently in the implementation of the Law of Suspects (17 September 1793). The Terror ended on 27 July 1794 with the overthrow of Robespierre, who was guillotined the next day.

Articles

Diane Piccitto, "On 1793 and the Aftermath of the French Revolution"

David Rettenmaier
1794

Songs of Innocence and of Experience

Written by William Blake

The Songs of Innocence was originally etched in 1789, but was combined with additional poems in 1794 as Songs of Innocence and of Experience

Stacey Kikendall
1798

Rebellion in Ireland

Uprising against British rule in Ireland, had help of French but were eventually defeated

Stacey Kikendall
1801

1801 Ireland joins Great Britain

Parliamentary Union of Ireland and Great Britain. Act of Union passed in 1800, took effect in 1801

Stacey Kikendall
Jan 1801

Inclosure Act

Detail from Rubens, Het SteenIn 1801, the Consolidation (Inclosure Act) was passed: Parliament thus formalized procedures for enclosing common land, removing previously existing rights of the people to carry out certain activities in these "common" lands. Exact month of passing unknown; if you have information about the correct date, please email felluga@purdue.edu with this information. Image: Detail from Peter Paul Rubens, A View of Het Steen in the Early Morning, c. 1636 (National Gallery, London), illustrating a pre-Enclosure landscape. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Articles

Carolyn Lesjak, "1750 to the Present: Acts of Enclosure and Their Afterlife" (forthcoming)

Ellen Rosenman, “On Enclosure Acts and the Commons”

David Rettenmaier
1802

William Wordsworth's Lyrical Ballads

Cover Image of Wordsworth's Lyrical Ballads

William Wordsworth's Lyrical Ballads, 3rd edition, containing the expanded and final version of the famous "Preface," one of the founding theoretical statements of the Romantic poetical movement.

This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright is expired. https://www.abebooks.com/first-edition/Lyrical-Ballads-Pastoral-Poems-Vo...

Articles

Jules Law, “Victorian Virtual Reality”

David Rettenmaier
26 May 1805

Napoleon made king of Italy

On 26 May 1805, Napoleon crowns himself King of Italy in Milan Cathedral, with the iron crown of Lombardy. Image: The Iron Crown of Lombardy, from Cesare Cantù Grande illustrazione del Lombardo-Veneto ossia storia delle città, dei borghi, comuni, castelli, ecc. fino ai tempi moderni Milano, Corona e Caimi Editori, 1858. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

In a flamboyant and highly theatrical gesture, Napoleon Bonaparte signifies his political and military dominance over the Italian peninsula with a ceremony in Milan Cathedral, where he crowned himself King of Italy with the ancient, iconic iron crown of Lombardy. This crowning of Napoleon as King is a result of the French conquest of Italy. His full title was "Emperor of the French and King of Italy."

Articles

Alison Chapman, "On Il Risorgimento"

Related Articles

Erik Simpson, “On Corinne, Or Italy

David Rettenmaier
1807

British slave trade outlawed

Slave trade outlawed (but not slavery itself)

Stacey Kikendall
1811 to 1820

The Regency

George, Prince of Wales, acts as regent for George III, who has been declared incurably insane

Stacey Kikendall
16 Oct 1811

National Society for the Education of Poor Children founded

On 16 October 1811, the National Society for the Education of Poor Children in the Principles of the Established Church (the Church of England) was founded to establish “National Schools.” According to their founders, poor children were to be taught to avoid vice and behave in an orderly manner within their station. To limit costs, the monitorial system was employed, by which more advanced pupils taught younger ones.

Related Articles

Florence S. Boos, “The Education Act of 1870: Before and After”

David Rettenmaier
1812 to 1815

1812 War

War between Britain and United States

Stacey Kikendall
1813

Pride and Prejudice

Written by Jane Austen

Stacey Kikendall
6 Apr 1814 to 26 Feb 1815

Napoleon exiled to Elba

Haydon portrait of Napoleon
Benjamin Robert Haydon, Napoleon Musing at St Helena

Napoleon was exiled to Elba, an island in the Meditteranean, after he abdicated on 6 April 1814. He spent nine months and 21 days on the island, then attempted to retake his empire, leaving the island on 26 February 1815.  Napoleon was definitively defeated at the Battle of Waterloo on 18 June 1815.

Dino Franco Felluga
2 Mar 1815

Corn Law Act

On 23 March 1815, parliament passed the Corn Law Act of 1815. Image: the Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The Corn Law Act of 1815 prohibited the importation of grain when the prices in the domestic market were high. The Act was repealed on 25 June 1846.

Articles

Ayse Çelikkol, "On the Repeal of the Corn Laws, 1846"

David Rettenmaier
Dec 1815

Emma

title page of Austen's _Emma_Dec 1815 publication of Jane Austen's Emma. Austen's fourth published novel, Emma, was in press when the Prince Regent sent word that she had his permission to dedicate this or any later work to him, a permission of which she never availed herself. Image: Title page from Jane Austen's first edition of Emma, 1816 (Lilly Library, Indiana U). This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Articles

Anne Wallace, “On the Deceased Wife’s Sister Controversy, 1835-1907″

David Rettenmaier
1 Apr 1817

First number of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine

cover of Blackwood'sOn 1 April 1817, the first number of Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine was published. Founded by Scottish bookseller and publisher William Blackwood, the monthly literary magazine targeted a growing middle-class readership. Image: Paper cover for issue of Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine (Nov. 1866). This image is in the public domain in the United States as its copyright has expired.

Articles

Michelle Allen-Emerson, “On Magazine Day”

Related Articles

Ina Ferris, “The Debut of The Edinburgh Review, 1802″

David Rettenmaier
26 Sep 1818

First medical blood transfusion between humans

Blundell's GravitatorOn Saturday, 26 September 1818, James Blundell conducted the first medical blood transfusion between human subjects. During the course of the century, transfusion was applied as a remedy to different kinds of sicknesses and injuries, and performed at different times with various fluids. Image: James Blundell’s Gravitator, from “Observations on the Transfusion of Blood, with a Description of his Gravitator.” This image is in the public domain in the United States as its copyright has expired.

Articles

Matthew Rowlinson, “On the First Medical Blood Transfusion Between Human Subjects, 1818″

David Rettenmaier
12 Jul 1819

Britain approves settlement scheme to South Africa

On 12 July 1819, the British government approved £50,000 for a settlement scheme to South Africa's eastern Cape.

Articles

Timothy Johns, “The 1820 Settlement Scheme to South Africa”

David Rettenmaier
16 Aug 1819

Peterloo massacre

print depicting the Peterloo MassacreOn 16 August 1819, at St. Peter’s Field, Manchester, more than 60,000 workers gathered to demonstrate in favor of an expansion of suffrage in England. In an attempt to disperse the crowd and arrest the organizers of the demonstration, local cavalry and members of the 15th Hussars and 88th Foot attacked the crowd, killing a dozen protestors and injuring as many as 600. Though Wellington was not involved, the incident was dubbed “Peterloo” because of his persistent opposition to reform in the House of Lords. Image: Richard Carlisle, To Henry Hunt, Esq., as chairman of the emeeting assembled in St. Peter's Field, Manchester, sixteenth day of August, 1819, and to the female Reformers of Manchester and the adjacent towns who were exposed to and suffered from the wanton and fiendish attack made on them by that brutal armed force, the Manchester and Cheshire Yeomanry Cavalry, this plate is dedicated by their fellow labourer, Richard Carlile: a coloured engraving that depicts the Peterloo Massacre (1 October 1819), Manchester Library Services. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Related Articles

James Chandler, “On Peterloo, 16 August 1819″

Sean Grass, “On the Death of the Duke of Wellington, 14 September 1852″

David Rettenmaier
1 Nov 1819

Simultaneous radical meetings

On 1 November 1819, simultaneous meetings were held, by prior agreement, at Newcastle, Carlisle, Leeds Halifax, Manchester, Bolton, Nottingham, Leicester, Coventry, and elsewhere in England and Scotland.

Articles

James Chandler, “On Peterloo, 16 August 1819″

David Rettenmaier

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