Victorian Literature and Material Culture Gallery

"All outdoor boots and shoes were made from leather in the 19th century, and as such needed polishing to keep them clean. Until the end of the century, shoes were generally made to measure, and the expense involved in having shoes made meant that they had to be kept in very good condition. When not being worn they were filled with paper to preserve their shape, and linseed oil was often rubbed into the leather to keep it smooth."

Close up image of a Threshing Tool and Cowbell

This is a lovely scene focussing on three farmhands of different ages doing the hard work of threshing with their angled implements. Two have loosened their braces, while the third wears a waistcoat, also undone. In the left foreground is a fourth figure, a boy stooping to gather some more of the newly harvested grain to place on the threshing floor. At the back, in the centre, sits a little girl in a pink dress with a white smock, watching the men. She has a basket on one arm, perhaps with their lunch, and a dog sitting beside her and watching her. She may be the sister of the boy in the…

One of the more basic models of the Threshing machine was designed to be "labor-saving" by making the process of threshing require as little manual labor as possible. This one was equipped with a series of belts that were driven by a hand crank that would help move the pulse to the different sections of the machine that would vibrate, roll, and slap the stock that would essentially remove the wheat, barley, oat chaff from the pulse.

One of the more basic models of the Threshing machine was designed to be "labor-saving" by making the process of threshing require as little manual labor as possible. This one was equipped with a series of belts that were driven by a hand crank that would help move the pulse to the different sections of the machine that would vibrate, roll, and slap the stock that would essentially remove the wheat, barley, oat chaff from the pulse.

"...for not to me appertained that suit of wedding raiment; the pearl-coloured robe, the vapoury veil pendent from the usurped portmanteau" (Project Gutenberg, 250)

"As head of state, with business on her mind, she [Queen Victoria] wanted to support and stimulate Britian's lace industry. Skilled artisans were facing poverty due to the invention of machine textiles, so she chose a large piece of handmade Honiton lace, and white was the best colour to showcase this." (The Victoria Connection, 3)

"Snuff, or powdered tobacco, was widely popular throughout Europe from the 17th century. Sniffed from the back of the hand, from pinched fingers or from a spoon, snuff was enjoyed on social occasions and would be placed on the table or passed around a group. Thousands of small portable boxes to contain the powder were made as personal accessories, often in novel designs, to be given as gifts."

"Shoe- and boot-shaped snuff boxes were made throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. Shoes have long been associated with love and marriage and were often given for good luck. This finely…

This book was written by Benson E. Hill published in London 1840. A pinch-of snuff : composed of curious particulars and original anecdotes of snuff taking; as well as a review of snuff, snuff-boxes, snuff-shops, snuff-takers, and snuff-papers; with the moral and physical effects of snuff / By Dean Snift, of Brazen-nose. There is a particular chapter all about Snuff Boxes and people comparing the worth and manufacturement of their boxes of value. Many thieves would be able to just lift it from coat pockets. 

Although we associate treadmills with fitness and gym culture today, the treadmill was used as a form of punishment in the nineteenth century. Invented in 1818 by William Cubitt (1785-1861), the treadmill was designed as a human powered device for grinding corn, and was not initially intended as a mode of punishment. It did not take long, however, for major prisons to adopt the device as a mode of "hard labor" that would render inmates productive to society. As the British Library explains, "The Society for the Improvement of Prison Discipline considered it a form of 'preventative…

"Warren’s Blacking was a leading manufacturer of shoe-black (shoe-polish) in the 19th century. Available as a liquid in bottles or as a paste in pots, the blacking was ‘sold in every town in the kingdom’ as this advertisement boasts. Notoriously, Charles Dickens worked at Warren's Blacking Factory when he was 12 years old, during the period his father was imprisoned for debt. His job was to paste labels onto the blacking pots.

This small printed advertisement is cut from a newspaper. As typical of all of Warren’s advertisements, its header illustration is comic in tone and…

"This small printed advertisement is cut from a newspaper. As typical of all of Warren’s advertisements, its header illustration is comic in tone and emphasises the blacking’s high quality: a cockerel peers at a boot, observing its own reflection in the newly shined and blacked shoe."

"Full title:  Double page advertisement for Warren's Blacking Warehouse. Featuring 'Humorous Twelfth-Night Characters'. [from the author's presentation copy of The Life of Dickens, 1872-74]

Warren’s Blacking was a leading manufacturer of shoe-black (shoe-polish) in the 19th century. Available as a liquid in bottles or as a paste in pots, the blacking was ‘sold in every Town in the Kingdom’ as this advertisement boasts. Notoriously, Charles Dickens worked at Warren's Blacking Factory when he was 12…

"Lant Street was part of one of London’s many notorious slum areas. Charles Dickens lodged here alone as a child during his father’s imprisonment in the Marshalsea debtor’s prison, which was located just a few streets away. To help the family bring in an income, each day the 12 year old Dickens made the journey by foot to work at Robert Warren’s boot-blacking factory on the Strand. Dickens only revealed these difficult early experiences in the 1860s when his close friend John Forster was working on his biography, The…

Frank Holl, 1878 Artwork depicting Newgate Prison

http://www.victorianweb.org/painting/holl/index.html

Plans for Newgate Prisions reconstructed form. Dated to 1800

https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/building-plan-of-newgate-prison

This is an image of a treadmill from the British Library. 

https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details/collection_image_gallery.aspx?assetId=833313001&objectId=3291162&partId=1#more-views

Although we associate treadmills with fitness and gym culture today, the treadmill was used as a form of punishment in the nineteenth century. Invented in 1818 by William Cubitt (1785-1861), the treadmill was designed as a human powered device for grinding corn, and was not initially intended as a mode of punishment. It did not take long, however, for major prisons to adopt the device as a mode of "hard labor" that would render inmates productive to society. As the British Library explains, "The Society for the Improvement of Prison Discipline considered it a form of 'preventative…