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A Victorian Passage has published 172 articles on a diverse range of subjects. Most of our growing archive of Victorian Era subjects are taken directly from 19th century sources to achieve a closer look into how our ancestors really lived. We have also been expanding our historical eras to include Early American from 1790-1839 and the Edwardian period of the early 20th century. Latest article added April 22, 2010

Listing all the 1880 Articles

Ring Holder

This open pocket is intended to be hung on the toilet glass -- rather a novelty in its way. The cardboard shape is covered with peacock blue plush, on which a branch of eglantine is embroidered in floss silks. The flowers and buds are in shaded pinks, the stems green, and the French knots in gold color. The small, white flowers are slightly shaded...Continue Reading

The Story of a Doll-House

Every house has a story - even a doll's house. This nostalgic story of a doll-house owned by a little girl named Ann, which was built around 1814, gets told in an article found in the St.Nicholas magazine published 1889. The author of the story was a woman named Katherine Pyle. Seventy-five years ago, a little brother and sister had a play-house in a...Continue Reading

The Baby Carriage and its Appointments

I found this article from Babyhood published in the November 1888 issue which gives us a closer look at the Victorian baby carriage from the 1880's and 1890's. The article gives us details from how they are made, how comfortable they are, how to furnish a carriage to dangers like brass nails and arsenic poisoning. WHEN we remember that Baby takes most of his...Continue Reading

What Is Bluing?

If you open any cookbook or other domestic book for house keepers you will usually find instructions on how to do laundry. Inevitably you will come upon the rinsing of clothes to be done by putting into bluing. This is what was commonly used to brighten whites. In it's earliest forms it was used by having indigo tied in a thin muslin bag and...Continue Reading

Unfolding the Mysteries of Sealing Wax and Wafers

Introduction To Sealing Wax and Wafers In the 19th century, sealing wax was a material made by the melting of lac or rosin with turpentine and pigments. In it's earliest forms it would have been made of beeswax and resin. The sealing wax was used to "seal" the letters or envelopes, with or without a wafer. During the early to mid 19th century the...Continue Reading

The Linen Press

To those who love housekeeping or who feel an interest in it for duty's sake, the charge of linen and the great care it requires is one of equal importance with the store-closet. It is a pity to trust to finding a linen-closet in any house. If you do find one in a house that has been occupied it forms part of that delightful...Continue Reading

Victorian Shoes in the Making

Different regions were known for wanting different characteristics in shoes. For example in the United States the Northerner liked shoes that were comfortable, neat but also stylish. The southerner was known to desire a pair that were fancy and handsome. Then the westerners would demand a shoe that had solidity and fullness to deal with the rough terrain. There were many resources were put...Continue Reading

Bridal Gift Ideas For Housekeeping

Bed and Table Linen for Young Housekeepers. I notice a call in GOOD HOUSEKEEPING, from St. Louis, for information concerning Bed and Table Linen, and such other articles of the kind needful for the "going to housekeeping " of the young couple. Those of us who recall the hours spent in making preparations for that event, anticipated perhaps for months, and associated with the...Continue Reading

Two Old Fashioned Dolls.

One of them, as you see,is a boy-doll.He is made of wood, and has joints at the elbows, the thighs, and the knees. The features of the face are painted. He wears a coat cut in style of sixty years ago, and the coat and trousers both are of black silk. The vest is short-waisted, and made of some white material. An old-fashioned "stock"...Continue Reading

A Kind Hearted Puss.

This is no fancy picture. It is taken from a photograph of a real cat with her adopted family of chickens. The lady who made the photograph, and kindly sent it to St.Nicholas, tells this story in an accompanying letter: "The owner of our good-hearted puss raised a great many chickens; and out of each brood of fifteen or twenty, when but a few...Continue Reading

The Children's Toys and a Pleasant Place for the Little Ones

Having two boys myself and the problem of toys always being spread all over creation I could really appreciate this article. It's dated November 1887 - It is the first rainy days of autumn that bring the children -- happily occupied out of doors during the summer -- into the house, with their hands full of clay to be baked, their pockets full of...Continue Reading

Wrapping Parcels Without String

IT will surprise the reader to learn that tying up parcels is so expensive that the busiest storekeepers are endeavoring to do without it as far as possible. Have you noticed how of late years, in the great shopping stores in New York, parcels are no longer fastened with string, unless they happen to be very large or unhandy? Whatever you purchase now is...Continue Reading

Time Line of the Sand Box.

Baby's Sand Pile {1904} In a great wooden box, Nice and smooth to save her frocks, Is the baby's sand-pile, where all day she plays; And the things she thinks and makes, From a house and barn to cakes, Would keep, I think, her family all their days. Once she said she'd make a pie, - Or, at least, she'd like to try, -...Continue Reading

The Dawn of the Egg Beater

AN advertisement in 1899 showing the coveted family size Dover Egg Beater. In the last half of the 19th century a new kind of egg beater came on the scene with the intent of reducing the time a cook needed to beat, whip or froth eggs. At first many of these devices were cumbersome, difficult and most didn't even live up to the claims...Continue Reading

Free 1887 Almanac Ebook

We have scanned in the 1887 Agricultural Almanac so you can download it for free! This e-book contains helpful hints and tips, funny stories, recipes of the time and more. Here are just a few of the titles found in this issue. * Calendar on Your Fingers * When to Have Chickens Hatched * How to Purify Cisterns * Health Hints * Care of...Continue Reading

Calendar on Your Fingers

I couldn't resist publishing the following little "lingo", as it's called, from an 1887 Almanac. Someone long ago devised a special way to find the first day of the month. This dates before 1837 according to the narrative, so it is quite old and very interesting. I haven't run across this one before. So once again its published so it may not be "lost". "This...Continue Reading

19th Century Diaries

Many of our 19th century ancestors kept diaries, scrapbooks or even autograph books. The reasons varied from person to person, but one article on the subject noted that it would be a wise idea to keep a diary of the events that played out. This was true even in the common man [or woman's] life, since after all "every man's life is of importance...Continue Reading

The Correct Thing In Good Society

In Shopping The Correct Thing For employees to be patient, cheerful, and obliging. For employees to remember that it is their business to wait upon customers, and to be civil to them. For a salesman to prove that he respects himself by showing due respect to others. For a salesman to advise a customer, or assist her in making a choice, if asked to do...Continue Reading

The Correct Thing In Good Society

At The Writing-Desk The Correct Thing To use good jet black ink. To use handsome, thick, plain white paper. To fold and direct a letter neatly, and to put on the stamp evenly, and in the proper corner. To put on as many stamps as the weight of the letter or parcel demands. For the autograph fiend to enclose a stamped and directed envelope when...Continue Reading

Improved Porcelain Bath Closets.

For a number of years past there has been a steadily growing demand among the well-to-do class for a higher grade of sanitary appliances for the household, and the demand has extended not merely to the comparatively unimportant features of greater elegance of form or better taste in decoration, but also to the quality of the appliances and their adaptation for their intended uses. As...Continue Reading

Decline of the Paper Collar.

It is hardly twenty-five years since the advent of the paper collar. Prior to that time the average man wore neck-gear made from linen fabric, or was content to go without collars, except on Sundays and legal holidays. Then the collar was frequently built in with the shirt and worn with a loose, limp and decidedly comfortable manner. The mechanic going to his daily work...Continue Reading

Sanitary Science and Domestic Architecture.

By John Crowell, M.D., in the Popular Science News. NO. IV. Nearly every well-appointed dwelling has a room called the library, and it is quite apt to be located in some obscure and dark coiner or angle of the house, shut out from the light and air of street or courtyard. Many city libraries are so dark that it is difficult to read or write...Continue Reading

Improved Window-Screen Frame.

The Stuart window-screen frame herewith illustrated, is manufactured by E. C. Stearns & Co., of Syracuse, N. Y., and has become an article in the leading wholesale and retail hardware trade. The unique appearance of this frame, and the ease with which it can be made or put together, are specially notable features. The moldings are furnished 36 inches long, and coped on one...Continue Reading

Bathroom Decor - Soap Dish & Faucet

Examples of Soap Dish and Bathroom Sink Faucet - Taken from Manufacturer and Builder Nov 1880...Continue Reading

Improved Sanitary Appliances. (Water-Closet)

We exhibit in the accompanying illustration one of the recent improvements in water-closets manufactured by the J. L. Mott Iron Works, of 88 and 90 Beekman street, New York, one of the leading houses in this country in this branch of manufacture. The closet shown is of the wash-out pattern, with back outlet, and is provided with simple and effective water-seal, and patented improvements...Continue Reading

The Modern Bath-Room. (1885)

Click Image for a Larger View We have pleasure in being able to lay before our readers, from advance sheets of a new catalogue about to be issued by the J. L. Mott Iron Works, of 88 and 90 Beckman street, New York, the accompanying beautiful illustration representing the appointments of a modern?and, we might add, model -bath-room, the whole making a most harmonious...Continue Reading

A Modern Bath-Room Interior. (1884)

Click Image for a Larger View The accompanying illustration, which represents a bath-room interior fitted with the latest and most approved modern conveniences and sanitary appliances, forces directly upon the mind a realization of the great progress that has been made in all that relates to household sanitation during the past ten years. The revolution that has been made within this brief period is...Continue Reading

Bath-Room Interior, with Approved Modern (1883)

Click Image for a Larger View The attention that of late years has been bestowed upon all matters relating to public and domestic sanitation, has given us not only healtheir towns and dwellings, but has had the incidental advantage of educating the public up to a better appreciation of the character and importance of sanitary measures and appliances. The result is that public buildings...Continue Reading

Improved Sanitary Appliances. (Kitchen Sink)

We have had occasion in former articles to describe some of the admirable novelties in sanitary appliances for the household made by the J. L. Mott Iron Works, of this city. Of the several improved appliances of this nature which received favorable notice at our hands, the Imperial porcelain bath tubs will doubtless be recalled by our readers; and we have the pleasure now...Continue Reading

Decoration of a Dining-Room.

The following suggestions applied to a breakfast or dining-room may be of service: The flat of ceiling a vellum tint, cornice of the same, but deeper in tone, in pleasing contrast with the ceiling. The prominent members of the cornice may be picked out in color to harmonize with the wall - paper. Ornamental cornices, with breaks and connecting-lines in color, may be put upon...Continue Reading

A Little About Calling Cards

I love the form of etiquette used by the Victorians. One way they kept social graces was by calling cards. I have a book on etiquette and when I ran across the chapter on Making Calls I was rather surprised to read the following: "It is the correct thing to use perfectly plain visiting cards, of fine pasteboard, engraved in plain script." Example below: Very...Continue Reading