The Repository

useful links, intriguing people and research leads

This is as it says a repository for information. Lots of information.

This is my attempt to catalogue fascinating tidbits about the people, places and times of Victorians. It is a jumping off point and a delving point for other Victorian enthusiasts.

You may note the distinctly female bias, that’s because I’m an 1880s’ GIRL not an 1880s Boy, as such I have a strong leaning towards women’s stories. As a fiction writer, my protagonists are mainly women and girls so my research focuses on them.

Information and ideas are for sharing so have a look around and enjoy. If you have any useful links or suggestions I would really love to hear them, so drop me a line.

General Women’s History

  • The Governess by Sarah fielding 1749
  • Vindication of the Rights of Women by Mary Wollstonecraft 1792
  • Thoughts on the Education of Daughters by Mary Wollstonecraft
  • The wrongs of Women by Mary Wollstonecraft
  • The private governess Literary Souvenir 1826
  • Women Physiologically Considered as to Mind, Morals, Mairrage, Matrimonial Slavery, Fidelity and Divorce by Alexander Walker 1839
  • Women and Work by Barbara Bodichon 1859
  • On the Subjection of Women by John Stuart Mill 1869
  • Pioneer Work for Women by Elizabeth Blackwell 1895
  • Prosperity and parenthood: a study of family planning amoung the Victorian middle classes by J.A. Banks 1954
  • Feminism and Family planning in Victorian England J.A. & Olive Banks 1965

In Their own Words

These are the journals and personal accounts of women themselves. Some of these were published in the authors lifetime others were published posthumously.

  • Winter Studies and Summer Rambles in Canada by Anna Jameson 1837
  • Harem life in Egypt and Constantinople by Emmeline Lott
  • The English governess in Egypt and Turkey 2vol by Emmeline Lott 1866
  • A Memoir of Maria Edgeworth by Frances Edgeworth 1867
  • The English Governess at the Siamese Court by Leonowens 1870
  • At Home With the Gentry: a Victorian English lady’s diary of Russian country life–Amelia Lyons edited by John McNair 1998
  •  Tale of Truth as well as of Sorrow, a memoir by Hannah Robertson, 1791.

 

Intriguing People

The only known daguerreotype of Margaret Fuller (by John Plumbe, 1846)

The only known daguerreotype of Margaret Fuller (by John Plumbe, 1846)

I have grouped these fascinating women into areas of interest.

Writers

  • Mary Shelley
  • Mary Wollstonecraft
  • Anna Jameson
  • Louisa May Alcott
  • Abigail Alcott
  • Margret Fuller
  • Harriet Martineau

Governess

  • Mary Wollstonecraft
  • Anna Jameson
  • Claire Clairmont
  • Anna Leonowens
  • Nelly Weeton
  • Emmeline Lott

Journalists

  • Bessie Rayner-Parkes
  • Barbara Bodichon
  • Alice Cornwell Robinson-geologist, miner, newspaper owner, business woman
  • Rachel Beer– owner and editor of the Sunday Times (London)
  • Nellie Bly– Reporter for The World
  • Elizabeth Jordan-Reporter for The World

women of Art and Science

  • Georgiana Molloy-West Australian Botanist
  • Elizabeth Gould-Artist who painted the birds of John Gould and Charles Darwin

Women of Medicine and Education

  • Florence Nightengale
  • Emily Davies-The force behind Girton College
  • Elizabeth Blackwell first qualified female doctor
  • Girton College (Ok not a person but the first College for women at Cambridge)

    Social Reformers 

  • Hannah More
  • Josephine Butler

    Victorian Periodicals

  • The English Women’s Journal
  • Fraser’s Magazine
  • Ladies Home Journal (US)
  • Punch
  • People’s Medical Journal

 19th Century Medical references

  • Beach’s Family Physician by Dr Wooster Beach, 1861
  • Insanity and its Treatment by Dr G. Fielding Blandford, 1871
  • Clinical Medicine by Dr Austin Flint, 1879
  •  A Treatise on Baths by Dr John Bell, 1859
  • Diseases of Men, Women and Children on Reform Principles.  Cincinnati: Moore, Wilstach, Keys & Co., 1861.
  • Flint, Austin. Clinical Medicine: A Systematic Treatise on the Diagnosis and Treatment of Diseases.  Philadelphia: Henry C. Lea, 1879.
  • Maudsley, Henry.  The Physiology and Pathology of the Mind.  New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1872.
  • Yeoman, Thomas Harrison.  The People’s Medical Journal, and Family Physician, Vol. L.  London: George Vickers, Strand, 1850.

19th century References

  • Encyclopaedia of Domestic Economy, 1855
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