Victorian Timeline
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1830
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Culture
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Liverpool & Manchester Railway
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Britain's first passenger railway was a huge commercial success,
triggering the construction of hundreds of other railway lines over
the next several decades. Some Victorians, like Fanny Kemble,
marveled at the speed of railway travel and the power of the steam
engine. Others, like Charles Dickens, criticized the environmental
damage and social havoc wreaked by the railway's increasingly rapid
expansion.
In the Anthology:
- Kemble, Record of a Girlhood
- Dickens, Dombey and Son
On the Web:
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1832
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Politics
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1st Reform Act
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With the memory of the French Revolution still fresh, Parliament
passed the First Reform Act in order to ease escalating class
tensions in Britain. The Act extended the right to vote to men with
households worth 10 pounds; it also granted fairer representation
in Parliament to the growing northern cities of industry. With the
passage of the Act, the Victorian middle classes began to exert a
political influence to match their growing social and cultural
power.
On the Web:
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1833
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Politics
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Factory Act
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Following the revelations of the Parliamentary "Blue Books," the
Factory Act of 1833 prohibited children under the age of nine from
working in textile mills. Children under 12 could be employed no
more than nine hours per day; children under 18, no more than 12
hours. Over the next 70 years, Parliament would pass other measures
to improve the industrial working conditions described so grimly by
Dickens, but not until 1901 were children under 12 entirely
prohibited from working in factories.
In the Anthology:
- Parliamentary Papers ("Blue Books")
- Dickens, Hard Times
On the Web:
In Images:
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1834
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Politics
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Poor Law Amendment
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The New Poor Law, as the Poor Law Amendment Act was commonly
called, offered relief to the poor through a system of workhouses.
To discourage the able-bodied from seeking parish welfare, the
workhouse maintained a standard of living below that of the
lowest-paid worker. As both Henry Mayhew and Friedrich Engels
attested, that standard was already very low indeed. Charles
Dickens believed the squalid conditions of the workhouse therefore
punished precisely those—impoverished children, the sick, the
elderly—who most genuinely needed relief.
In the Anthology:
- Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor
- Engels, The Condition of the Working Class in England in
1844
- Dickens, A Walk in a Workhouse
On the Web:
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1837
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Politics
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Queen Victoria Crowned
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On the death of King William IV, his 18 year-old niece
Alexandrina Victoria became queen. She ruled for the next 64 years,
the longest reign of any British monarch. She oversaw the rapid
expansion of the British empire during this time. In 1877, she
assumed the title of empress of India; by the end of the century,
her empire included one quarter of the world's population.
In the Anthology:
- Queen Victoria, Letters and Journal Entries on the Position
of Women
On the Web:
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1838
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Politics
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People's Charter; Anti-Corn Law League
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In 1838, the London Working Men's Association drafted the
People's Charter, a list of demands for social justice and
political reform to be presented to Parliament the following year.
Chartism refers loosely to the various working-class movements of
the 1830s and 1840s that arose in response to the class conflict
and economic hardship decried by Thomas Carlyle and Benjamin
Disraeli. Over the next decade, Parliament rejected several
versions of the Charter, until the movement finally died in
1848.
The Corn Laws imposed a tax on the import of grain (not just
corn) into Britain, protecting domestic agriculture but keeping
prices artificially high. The League, founded by manufacturers in
Manchester, protested the Laws and promoted free trade and
laissez-faire economics. Carlyle called the Corn Laws
"indefensible"; by 1846 they had become just that, and were
repealed.
In the Anthology:
- Carlyle, Past and Present
- Disraeli, Sybil
On the Web:
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1842
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Literature
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Browning's Dramatic Lyrics
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Robert Browning's Dramatic Lyrics introduced the world to
Browning's gallery of rogues and grotesques, including an
embittered Spanish monk and a menacing, possibly murderous duke.
Browning's speakers threaten, cajole, confess, and apologize by
turns; their complex characters emerge gradually out of the subtle
contradictions and unspoken ironies of their monologues.
In the Anthology:
- Browning, "Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister," and "My Last
Duchess"
On the Web:
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1843
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Culture
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Ruskin's Modern Painters
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Published in five volumes between 1843 and 1860, John Ruskin's
Modern Painters championed the impressionism of Ruskin's
favorite J. M. W. Turner over the realism of the Dutch masters.
Ruskin argued that painters should strive to capture not just the
external forms of the natural world, but also the energies that
infuse and animate that world. In later volumes Ruskin turned his
attention to architecture and social criticism in order to develop
more fully his ideas about aesthetics and the moral function of the
artist.
In the Anthology:
On the Web:
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1843
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Literature
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Dickens' A Christmas Carol
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Published in the same year as the first Christmas card, Charles
Dickens' wildly popular A Christmas Carol helped to
institutionalize the holiday as a festive celebration of home and
family. Ironically, the commercial values that Dickens' morality
tale rejects would soon saturate the holiday itself: by the end of
the century, Christmas had become big business.
In the Anthology:
- Dickens, A Christmas Carol
On the Web:
In Images:
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1847
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Literature
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Bronte's Jane Eyre
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Charlotte Bronte's complex portrait of
Jane—self-reliant, intelligent, passionate,
rebellious—contradicts the Victorian ideal of the woman as an
"angel in the house." Jane Eyre also critiques patriarchal power in Victorian
England, as Jane questions and resists the presumptive authority of
the men—hypocrites and egoists—in her life.
In the Anthology:
On the Web:
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1848
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Culture
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Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood Founded
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Led by the artists Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais,
and William Holman Hunt, the Pre-Raphaelites embraced the values
and aesthetics of medieval artists, rejecting those of the
Renaissance masters favored by the Royal Academy. Emphasizing
natural detail and bright color in their paintings of medieval and
religious subjects, the Pre-Raphaelites influenced artists such as
Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris, themselves leaders of both
the aesthetic and the arts and crafts movements later in the
century.
In the Anthology:
- Dante Gabriel Rossetti
- William Morris
- Rossetti, "In an Artist's Studio"
On the Web:
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1849
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Culture
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Bedford College for Women
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Early in the century, as Frances Power Cobbe describes,
Victorian women had no access to higher education. Bedford College
for Women was established in 1849, one year after lectures for
women at King's College evolved into, appropriately enough, Queen's
College. By the end of the century, there were women's colleges at
both Oxford and Cambridge.
In the Anthology:
On the Web:
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1850
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Literature
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Wordsworth Dies; Tennyson New Poet Laureate
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The official mantle of English poetry finally passed from
Romantic to Victorian hands in 1850, when Tennyson succeeded
Wordsworth as poet laureate. In that year, Wordsworth's
masterpiece, The Prelude, was published posthumously; and
Tennyson's masterpiece, In Memoriam, was published
anonymously.
In the Anthology:
On the Web:
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1850
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Politics
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Roman Catholic Hierarchy Restoration
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The steady growth of Roman Catholicism in Britain accelerated in
the 1840s with the conversion of a number of High Church Anglicans,
including John Henry Newman. By 1850, English Catholicism was
strong enough to warrant the so-called "restoration" of a new
Catholic hierarchy in England, denounced as "papal aggression" by
the Protestant majority. Within this new hierarchy, Newman became
cardinal in 1879.
In the Anthology:
- Newman, Apologia Pro Vita Sua
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1851
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Culture
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Great Exhibition
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For five months in the spring and summer of 1851, London hosted
the Great Exhibition, a world's fair of industrial and
technological accomplishments. Queen Victoria's husband, Prince
Albert, was a chief organizer of what became (despite some foreign
exhibits) a celebration of British industry, culture, and empire.
The main exhibit was the exhibition hall itself: the Crystal
Palace, a glass and metal structure covering 18 acres of Hyde
Park.
On the Web:
In Images:
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1854
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Politics
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Crimean War
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As hostilities between Russia and Turkey escalated, Britain and
France declared war on Russia in order to check its westward
advance. The allies did win the war in 1856, but only after a
series of military errors, described most famously by Tennyson's
"Charge of the Light Brigade." Some 20,000 British soldiers died in
the Crimea, most of them from disease, despite the heroic efforts
of Florence Nightingale and her fellow nurses.
In the Anthology:
- Tennyson, "The Charge of the Light Brigade"
- Nightingale, Cassandra
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1855
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Culture
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Victoria Falls Discovered
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The explorer and missionary David Livingstone made several
important excursions into the heart of Africa, but his most famous
accomplishment is the discovery and naming of Victoria Falls. A
national celebrity, Livingstone went missing and was reported dead
on a later expedition to central Africa. His fellow explorer Henry
Morton Stanley found him in 1871; Stanley greeted him with the
immortal line, "Dr. Livingstone, I presume."
In the Anthology:
- Stanley, Through the Dark Continent
On the Web:
In Images:
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1857
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Literature
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E.B. Browning's Aurora Leigh
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Elizabeth Barrett Browning's epic poem treats a subject not
considered worthy of an epic in her time: the intellectual
development, artistic growth, and social struggle of a woman.
Despite her progressive political opinions, which distressed some
Victorian readers, she enjoyed greater popularity than her poet
husband, Robert.
In the Anthology:
On the Web:
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1857
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Politics
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Indian Mutiny
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On behalf of the Crown, the East India Company had governed
first trade and then policy in India since 1600. In 1857, Indian
soldiers ("sepoys") in the Company's army rebelled against their
British officers; the rebellion soon spread throughout northern
India. The British suppressed the "mutiny," as they called it,
through terrible violence of their own. Not even Rudyard Kipling's
later stories of amicable Anglo-Indian relations—such as
Kim (1901) or his poem "Gunga Din"—could erase the
specter of that violence.
In the Anthology:
- Macaulay, The Minute on Indian Education
- Kipling, "Gunga Din"
On the Web:
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1857
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Culture
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Divorce & Matrimonial Causes Act
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Prior to 1857, only Parliament could grant a civil divorce, and
only for a high price—well beyond the reach of most people.
The Act instituted a civil divorce court in London and provided
women as well as men legal grounds for divorce and judicial
separation. Thanks in large part to the arguments of Caroline
Norton, the new Act gave women greater—if still not
equal—protection under the law.
In the Anthology:
- Norton, A Letter to the Queen
On the Web:
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1859
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Culture
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Darwin's Origin of Species
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Voyaging on the H.M.S. Beagle from 1831-36, Charles
Darwin began to collect the raw data that informs his most famous
work, The Origin of Species. Although he was careful not to
discuss the origins of humanity, Darwin's theories of evolution and
natural selection were deeply threatening to Victorian religious
beliefs. The ensuing conflict between science and religion, seen
also in the biblical criticism of John William Colenso, became
central to Victorian culture in the second half of the century.
In the Anthology:
- Darwin, Origin of Species
- Colenso, The Pentateuch and Book of Joshua Critical
Examined
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1859-1869
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Culture
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J.S. Mill
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John Stuart Mill's reputation as the most important philosopher
of his age rests squarely upon the classic On Liberty, an
exploration of the proper relations between society and the
individual. In a culture governed by complex and strict social
norms, overseen by an increasingly bureaucratic state, Mill
celebrated individuality over conformity. He argued that the
freedoms of thought and expression are absolute, so long as their
exercise does not cause harm to others. Mill's arguments constitute
the foundation of 19th century liberalism.
Having championed the rights of the individual in On
Liberty, Mill turned his attention in 1869 to the rights of
women in particular. The Subjection of Women is a radical
critique of the social injustices and legal inequities suffered by
Victorian women. Mill's arguments set the stage for the female
suffrage and women's rights movements in the last quarter of the
century.
In the Anthology:
- Mill, On Liberty; The Subjection of Women
On the Web:
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1860
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Culture
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Huxley-Wilberforce Debate
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The conflict between scientific knowledge and religious belief
escalated at the Oxford debate between Darwin's defender, T. H.
Huxley, and his attacker, Bishop Wilberforce. The debate was
sponsored by the British Association for the Advancement of
Science, but attended mostly by clergy hostile to Darwin's ideas.
Huxley's moral and intellectual seriousness triumphed over
Wilberforce's sarcastic quipping.
In the Anthology:
- Huxley, Evolution and Ethics
On the Web:
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1865
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Literature
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Carroll's Alice in Wonderland
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Lewis Carroll (pseudonym of Charles Dodgson, an Oxford
mathematician) originally entitled his classic children's tale
Alice's Adventures Under Ground. The full title he settled
on was Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. He wrote the story
for his young friend Alice Liddell, the model for the book's
heroine. A sequel, Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice
Found There, appeared in 1871. Dodgson's stories refuse to
teach either moral lessons or social etiquette and thus reject the
didacticism of much Victorian children's literature.
In the Anthology:
- Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
On the Web:
In Images:
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1867
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Politics
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2nd Reform Act
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Pushed through Parliament by Benjamin Disraeli (who became Prime
Minister the following year), the Second Reform Act extended voting
rights to urban householders. The resulting enfranchisement of much
of the urban working class—35 years after the promise of the
First Reform Act—was a watershed moment in Victorian
society.
On the Web:
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1869
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Culture
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Arnold's Culture and Anarchy
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Matthew Arnold's Culture and Anarchy may be understood as
a conservative response to Mill's On Liberty. Arnold feared
that the democratic and pluralist ideals championed by Mill would
lead to the anarchy of everyone "doing as one likes," rather than
acting for the social good. Arnold promoted the classical ideal of
"sweetness and light" (beauty and intellect) as a means of rescuing
Victorian society from a self-serving and destructive
philistinism.
In the Anthology:
- Arnold, Culture and Anarchy
On the Web:
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1870
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Politics
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Forster Education Act
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Devised by William Edward Forster, the Education Act of 1870
established a national system of free and compulsory education for
all elementary-age children. However, secondary education remained
expensive at private boarding schools such as Rugby, the setting of
Tom Brown's School Days. Thirty years later, the Balfour Act
of 1902 instituted public secondary education.
In the Anthology:
- Hughes, Tom Brown's School Days
On the Web:
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1871
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Culture
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Darwin's The Descent of Man
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Whereas in the Origin of Species Charles Darwin avoided
discussing the origins of humanity, The Descent of Man makes
explicit what was implicit in his earlier argument: man is an
animal, subject to the same laws of evolution and natural selection
as any other animal. The Descent of Man also develops
Darwin's theory of sexual selection, an evolutionary process in
tandem with natural selection.
In the Anthology:
- Darwin, The Descent of Man
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1873
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Culture
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Pater's History of the Renaissance
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Walter Pater's most influential work, Studies in the History
of the Renaissance, insisted on appreciating "art for art's
sake"—divorced from moral or social purpose. Pater valued the
power of art to heighten the senses, allowing the spectator to
"burn" with a "hard, gemlike flame." Studies in the History of
the Renaissance inspired the fin-de-sicle generation of
aesthetes and decadents, such as Oscar Wilde, who carried these
ideas to extremes not endorsed by Pater himself.
In the Anthology:
- Pater, Studies in the History of the Renaissance
On the Web:
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1877
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Literature
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Hopkins Ordained a Jesuit priest
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After reading John Henry Newman's Apologia Pro Vita Sua
and talking with the man himself, Gerard Manley Hopkins converted
from Anglicanism to Catholicism in 1866. Two years later, he became
a Jesuit and began studying for the priesthood, which he entered in
1877. Hopkins's poetry fuses the deep religious feeling
characteristic of Victorian poetry with the radical forms of poetic
composition associated with modernism.
In the Anthology:
On the Web:
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1880
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Culture
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Morris' Beauty of Life
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Whether working as a poet, artist, or craftsman, William Morris
rejected Victorian England in favor of the medieval world. Like the
Pre-Raphaelites before him, Morris idealized the art and society of
the Middle Ages; he spent his eclectic career striving to resurrect
the beauty and values of that period within his own. The Beauty
of Life, for example, indicts the prevailing Victorian taste
for useless and excessive ornamentation: "Have nothing in your
houses," says Morris, "which you do not know to be useful or
believe to be beautiful."
In the Anthology:
- Morris, The Beauty of Life
On the Web:
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1882
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Politics
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Married Women's Property Act
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The Married Women's Property Act gave a woman the right to hold
property in her own name, independent of her husband. Until the
Act, English law dictated that a woman's personal property became
her husband's upon marriage. There were still some legal
constraints imposed upon married women (for example, they could not
yet maintain a separate residence), but the 1882 Act was a major
step toward Caroline Norton's dream of equality under the law.
In the Anthology:
- Norton, A Letter to the Queen
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1884
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Politics
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3rd Reform Act
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The Third Reform Act extended voting rights to county
householders, enfranchising the rural working class, 17 years after
the urban working class. Voting rights continued to be tied to
property ownership until the 1918 enfranchisement of all men over
21 and women over 30. The age difference was abolished in 1928.
On the Web:
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1887
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Literature
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Doyle's A Study in Scarlet
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Master detective Sherlock Holmes first appeared in the pages of
A Study in Scarlet, accompanied by his sidekick Dr. Watson.
Four novels and 56 stories later, Holmes and Watson had transcended
their origins in popular literature and entered the realm of
legend, where they have since taken on a life independent of their
author. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Holmes never actually says,
"Elementary, my dear Watson"—but this hardly matters, as
Holmes no longer belongs to Doyle, but to us.
In the Anthology:
- Doyle, A Scandal in Bohemia
On the Web:
In Images:
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1888
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Culture
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Ripper Murders
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"Jack the Ripper," as he signed his notes to the police,
savagely murdered five prostitutes in the autumn of 1888,
disemboweling them with surgical precision. He was never caught, or
even identified, and theories about his identity and motives abound
to this day. Although written two years before the murders, Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde explores the dark sides of both London and
human nature that Jack the Ripper brought to light.
In the Anthology:
- Stevenson, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
On the Web:
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1895
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Culture
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Oscar Wilde's Trial
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The Importance of Being Earnest had just made Wilde the
most celebrated man in London; however, he shortly became the most
persecuted. Wilde's libel case against the father of his lover,
Lord Alfred Douglas, backfired when his private affairs were made
public; Wilde was subsequently prosecuted for committing indecent
acts (homosexuality) and sentenced to two years of hard labor.
Prison shattered Wilde's health, and he wrote only one more poem
before dying destitute in 1900.
In the Anthology:
- Wilde, De Profundis
- Douglas, "In Praise of Shame," and "Two Loves"
- Hyde, The Trials of Oscar Wilde
On the Web:
In Images:
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1899
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Politics
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Boer War
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Hostilities in colonial South Africa between the Boers (white
Afrikaners) and the British escalated until war was declared in
1899. Britain expected an easy victory, but the Boer guerillas
managed to hold their own against the much larger British army. The
British built concentration camps for Boer women and children,
thousands of whom died of disease. Mary Kingsley, among others in
England and abroad, criticized the increasingly dirty war; she died
nursing Boer prisoners. Like the Crimean War, the Boer War was a
military embarrassment for the British, despite their eventual
victory in 1902.
In the Anthology:
- Kingsley, Travels in West Africa
On the Web:
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1901
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Politics
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Queen Victoria Dies
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Queen Victoria died on January 22, 1901; Edward VII faced the
unenviable task of succeeding not just a beloved monarch, but also
an enduring icon of British culture. Despite having wielded
enormous political and economic power during her lifetime, Victoria
maintained very conservative and traditional ideas about a woman's
proper role, as her letters and diaries make clear.
In the Anthology:
- Queen Victoria, Letters and Journal Entries on the Position
of Women
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