This exhibition explores the co-productive relationship between technology and culture in the 19th century. With a focus on the cultural processes and products of invention, it highlights the contributions of women and their navigation of the patent system; examines the cutlery industry as a prime example of how technological innovation, mass-production, international trade and advertising aligned with class-led social aspirations and growing consumerism; and considers how new media technologies affected ideas about the dead and the ways Victorians sought connection with deceased loved ones.

Images in this Exhibit

Mothers of Invention: Overlooked Female Inventors of the Nineteenth Century

A wooden framed machine shaped like a cradle. The front of the machine is shaped like a printer tray and has very little below it. The back is a mess of gears and levers in bronze affixed to a more solid wooden chassis. , A bronze and gold machine. The inner workings are exposed in columns of bronze and connected with long threads of metal across the top. In between these columns of bronze are columns of metal that house the mathematical units to run calculations. Beneath are a series of gears that move the middle columns. , , , , , ,

An exhibition showcasing the inventions of women from a variety of fields, covering everything from computing and domesticity, both on land and under water.  The women foregrounded in this exhibition overcame significant difficulties, and the restrictions of a patriarchal society, in their quest to both patent and design their inventions.  The mother of modern computing Ada Lovelace showed true force of character to work in a predominantly male sphere, Margaret Knight rose through the ranks from lowly factory work to engineering insight that is still relevant today (although she…

Cutlery and Victorian Dining Culture

Illustration of grand dinner party , Illustration of dining table with cutlery, chinaware and decoration , Illustration of an electroplating factory , Photograph of men with stacks of elephant tusks , Ivory handled fork and carving knife , Newspaper advertisement for cutlery canteen available for monthly payments , Photograph of young woman wearing a dress covered with cutlery , Photo of knife cleaning machine , Sample of differerent absinthe spoon designs with insert photograph showing how spoon was used , Moustache spoon with inset of Victorian man with a large moustache and beard , Decorated silver fish knife and fork in presentation box , Edward Lear's illustration of a duck with a runcible spoon

‘Dining is the privilege of civilization. The rank which a people occupy … may be measured by their way of taking their meals’.  Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management, 1861

Taking this view to heart, the upper and middle classes in the 19th century sought to demonstrate their social standing and cultural values through the rituals of the dining room. A well-laid table was the sign of a well-ordered household. Entertaining guests required serving the correct food and following the correct etiquette. It also required the correct array and quality of…

Keeping the Dead Alive: Victorian Technology, Culture, and the Afterlife

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This gallery has been created to explore how the Victorian relationship with the dead evolved with the emergence of new technologies.  It will explore how culture expanded to include developments in photography, telegraphy and sound, which brought new ways for the Victorians to keep their loved ones 'alive'. Photographic images and sound recordings of the dead are included, along with examples of ‘automatic writing’ to illustrate how technology affected Victorians’ ideas about the dead and the ways that they sought connection with deceased loved ones. The gallery also reviews the…

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media technology culture
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Digital Victorians: 19th-century media, technology & culture