STRANGE TIMES
Strange Times offers a treasure trove of outlandish, funny, sometimes shocking stories from Victorian Era. Explore Victorian ideas, customs, holidays, clothing, architecture, art, women, men, businesses, leisure activities and more.
Nineteenth-Century Thanksgiving Day Maskers Paraded Door-To-Door Begging For Treats
Nineteenth-Century Thanksgiving Day Maskers Paraded Door-To-Door Begging For Treats
Like most holidays, Thanksgiving experienced growing pains to become the event we know today. George Washington proclaimed Tuesday, November 26 Read More>...
Catrina Skull Embodies Modern Day of the Dead Celebrations
Catrina Skull Embodies Modern Day of the Dead Celebrations
Catrina Skull (la Calavera Catrina) celebrates life on the Day of the Dead. Jose Guadalupe Posada’s elegant figure with her Read More>...
Montmartre Cabaret Of Hell And Heaven Guaranteed Victorian Era Guests Good Times
Montmartre Cabaret Of Hell And Heaven Guaranteed Victorian Era Guests Good Times
For a good time, Victorian Era revelers entered the gaping, toothy mouth of the monstrous Leviathan. Once inside, they descended Read More>...
The Thomas Moran Yellowstone Paintings Stopped Public Auction Of The World’s First National Park
The Thomas Moran Yellowstone Paintings Stopped Public Auction Of The World’s First National Park
The Hayden Geological Survey of 1871 was a game changer for Yellowstone. Prior to that, some Americans considered it ripe Read More>...
American County Fairs Lured Crowds With Sizzling Hot Victorian Era Sideshows
American County Fairs Lured Crowds With Sizzling Hot Victorian Era Sideshows
American County Fairs emerged in the early 1800s as a way for farmers to strut everything from vegetables to livestock. Read More>...
Outlandish Victorian Era Bicycles Liberated The New Woman With Solo Transportation And Athletic Bloomers
Outlandish Victorian Era Bicycles Liberated The New Woman With Solo Transportation And Athletic Bloomers
Yes, women were traveling on wheels long before bicycles. They blazed west in covered wagons, lugging their kin and piles Read More>...
The Great Farini Tight Roped Across Niagara Falls And Walked Across Kalahari Desert
The Great Farini Tight Roped Across Niagara Falls And Walked Across Kalahari Desert
Great Farini, or William Leonard Hunt (1838-1929) disappointed his parents who wanted him to become a doctor. Fascinated by the Read More>...
Harald Slott-Moller Spearheaded Danish Version Of The French Exhibition of Rejects
Harald Slott-Moller Spearheaded Danish Version Of The French Exhibition of Rejects
Danish painter and ceramicist Harald Slott-Moller (August 17, 1864 to October 20, 1937) was born in Copenhagen. He was formally Read More>...
Nellie Bly Articles Provided Powerful Ammunition In Pulitzer’s Battle For Readers
Nellie Bly Articles Provided Powerful Ammunition In Pulitzer’s Battle For Readers
Competition between newspapers was fierce in the 1890s. Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World and William Randolph Hearst’s New York Journal Read More>...
San Antonio Battle Of Flowers Parade First Launched During Victorian Era
San Antonio Battle Of Flowers Parade First Launched During Victorian Era
It all started as a patriotic celebration. The San Antonio Battle Of Flowers Parade was first launched during the Victorian Read More>...
Cascarones Confetti Eggs Showered Celebrations Since The Victorian Era
Cascarones Confetti Eggs Showered Celebrations Since The Victorian Era
Easter eggs symbolize life, renewal and cartons of fun by the dozens. People have decorated, rolled, hidden, hunted, tapped and Read More>...
Esther Howland Valentines Launched A Lucrative Business
Esther Howland Valentines Launched A Lucrative Business
Esther Howland (1828-1904) was not the first person to make commercial Valentines in America. She wasn’t even the first to Read More>...
Mary Cassatt Paved Way For The New Woman In Life And Art
Mary Cassatt Paved Way For The New Woman In Life And Art
In Mary Cassatt’s time(1844-1926) , artwork created by females was largely considered inferior. Few women were allowed to attend important Read More>...
Let Them Eat Twelfth Cake Or King Cake On 12th Day Of Christmas
Let Them Eat Twelfth Cake Or King Cake On 12th Day Of Christmas
Queen Victoria banned Twelfth Night celebrations from British holidays. Fortunately she continued to let them eat King Cake (a.k.a. Twelfth Read More>...
The Christmas Pickle Launched Holiday Dreams And Woolworth’s Dynasty
The Christmas Pickle Launched Holiday Dreams And Woolworth’s Dynasty
According to legend, the Christmas Pickle was a time-honored German tradition that found its way to America in the Victorian Read More>...
