victorian era | The Museum of Ridiculously Interesting Things

Illustration of a map of a woman's heart, published in the nineteenth century.

A Map of a Woman’s Heart, 1833-1842

2 May 2012 by Chelsea Nichols

Published by D.W. Kellog between 1833-1842, this amusing Map of the Open Country of Woman’s Heart paints the “fairer sex” in a rather unflattering light. From the mole traps in the Province of Deception, to the city of Moi-meme in the Land of Selfishness, to the Plains of Susceptibility in the Region of Sentimentality, this ever-so-charming illustration certainly demonstrates this Victorian gentleman’s equal taste for maps and disdain for women. I suspect this fellow must have had a recent broken […]

Categories: Curiosities, history • Tags: anatomy, art, humor, love, map, victorian era

Group of Victorian women facing backward.

Those backward Victorians

23 January 2012 by Chelsea Nichols

This image puzzled me for days when I first saw it on Pinterest. Why would a Victorian photographer take a picture of this group facing the wrong way? Was it an accident? A modern photoshopped joke? A symbol of mourning? Some sort of feminist statement? Documentation of a photography studio? In classic academic fashion, I was over thinking it. I’ve done some research on the image and the answer turned out to be deceptively simple. It is not a modern […]

Categories: Curiosities, history • Tags: backwards, images, mystery, photography, victorian era

Victorian photograph of three children with mother hidden under draped fabric.

Hidden mothers in Victorian portraits

5 January 2012 by Chelsea Nichols

The first photographic images in the late 1820s had to be exposed for hours in order to capture them on film. Improvements in the technology led to this exposure time being drastically cut down to minutes, then seconds, throughout the 19th century. But in the meantime, the long exposures gave us a few unmistakable Victorian photography conventions, such as the stiff postures and unsmiling faces of people trying to remain perfectly still while their photograph was being taken. Seems children […]

Categories: history • Tags: art, children, hidden mothers, history, humor, images, photography, victorian era

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Illustration of Liston surgiccal knives.

GUEST POST: Mike Crump on Robert Liston and the Spectacle of Surgical Amputation

4 October 2011 by Chelsea Nichols

Today’s post comes from Mike Crump, a brilliant young neuroscientist doing impressive brain research at Oxford (which is far too complicated for my humble art historical mind to fully understand, let alone articulate to you, so I won’t embarrass myself trying). When not discovering awesome brain things, Mike is interested in the dark corners of the history of science and medicine. He’s written a great article for the blog about a ridiculously interesting Victorian surgeon, Robert Liston, who was one […]

Categories: Guest Post, history • Tags: guest post, history, medicine, science, surgeon, victorian era

Mug shot of Mary Spanger, 19th century New Zealand criminal

19th Century Mug Shots from New Zealand

14 September 2011 by Chelsea Nichols

This slideshow displays a sample of the amazing 19th century mug shots that formed part of a show I curated at the New Zealand Police Museum last year, Suspicious Looking (available here as an online exhibition). Until then, these incredible images had never before been shown to the public. What is it about old mug shots that is so utterly compelling? When we look at them, do we try to see evidence of their criminal nature written in their expression? […]

Categories: history, Museums • Tags: criminal, history, mug shot, museum, new zealand, photography, police, victorian era

The Museum of Ridiculously Interesting Things

a collection of ridiculously interesting art, objects, ideas, and history

Tag: victorian era

A Map of a Woman’s Heart, 1833-1842

Those backward Victorians

Hidden mothers in Victorian portraits

GUEST POST: Mike Crump on Robert Liston and the Spectacle of Surgical Amputation

19th Century Mug Shots from New Zealand