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A Victorian Passage has published 152 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 November 16, 2009

Listing all the Edwardian Life 1901-1915 Articles

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

Advertising and Wrapping Paper

WRAPPING PAPER. The use of wrapping paper as store advertising is a practice that is very generally followed, though not as much since the advent of the roll wrapping paper, which, by the way, can be had printed just as well as the sheet paper can. Some stores make it a point to use in all instances a wrapping paper of a uniform color...Continue Reading

Edwardian Children's Winter Picnic

Margie Dean was a little girl who had been patient and good through a long illness, but now that she felt strong again it seemed hard to her that she could not run and play with the boys and girls she knew. One day she was standing at the window mournfully watching the children go by with their sleds and skates, when her mother...Continue Reading

Displaying Small Kitchen Wares

In many stores we have seen window displays of small kitchen wares, they being usually laid on the show window floor. It is a somewhat difficult method of display, as they do not stand out sufficiently prominent. Kieffer Brothers utilize the method indicated in the accompanying illustration. The boards are 8 feet high and 3 feet wide. Two are used in the large show...Continue Reading

Edwardian Pearline Soap Advertisements

The above Advertisements are from 1901 and show a similar style to today's marketing techniques. These are for Pearline Laundry Soap that was quite popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries....Continue Reading

Edwardian Hats - October 1902

Fashionable Edwardian Hats from October 1902. Here are the descriptions of the hats above, which are numbered: No. 1. -- This hat in the becoming toque shape is made of shaded Autumn foliage with berries intermingled, and a bow of velvet in a shade to harmonize with the predominating tone in the foliage is at the back against the brim. No. 2. -- A...Continue Reading

Edwardian Bath Accessories

1908 H & H Mfg Co. Advertisement for bath accessories. "One very great convenience in a bath room is a towel bar at a suitable height, placed against the wall all around the room, except where it would interfere with other stationary furniture. Bars of heavy glass or nickel plate are easiest kept clean. Every bath tub should be provided with a large sponge-holder...Continue Reading

An Edwardian House plan - 1905.

Exterior of Edwardian House in Ohio. Interior View of Parlor and Reception Hall Broad View of Alcove and Reception Hall Interior View of Staircase opening into the Alcove / Reception Area "The design here shown was planned for and built by a banker in Ohio. It is somewhat on the colonial order, as carried out by both the front and side porched and the...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

Cane Bottomed Chairs

Ladder-back chairs have gained a lot of attention in the collectors realm in the past few years. But this really isn't anything new. A book that was originally published in 1903 went on to describe these rush bottomed chairs as something that had up until then been quite overlooked. So in an effort to preserve it explained the process of how to make the...Continue Reading