Victorians 1850-1901

The British Empire, crime, punishment, leisure and advertising are all brought to life in our resources which are based on records from the second half of Queen Victoria’s reign.

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19th century mining disaster

What happened at the Trimdon Grange Mining Disaster?
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19th century people

What can we tell from this photograph?
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4099 is my name (SEND)

How can we share the experiences of someone who lived in the past?
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A ‘right’ to relief?

In what ways did paupers hold the Poor Law to account?

A Great Christmas Inconvenience

What can we learn from the documents about how some Victorians celebrated Christmas?
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A Victorian prison

Why were Victorian Prisons so tough?
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All on board!

What can we learn from old board games?
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Black Victorians

How much can documents reveal about the lives of Black people in Victorian Britain?

Census Detectives

What does the census reveal about families in the past?
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Child migration

Why were children sent to Canada in 1869-1913?
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Children’s Clothing in the Workhouse

What do the letters tell us about pauper children's clothing in the workhouse?
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Coping with Cholera

How did the authorities react in 19th century?
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Coronations: Ceremony and Change

How can we find out about Coronations in the past? How far have Coronations changed over time?
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Criminal petitions

What do they reveal about the justice system?
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Dr James Barry

Why was he significant in 19th century medicine?
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Empire Windrush: Early Black Presence

What do the sources reveal about an early Black presence in Britain?
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Food Glorious Food

What was food like for a child in the Victorian workhouse?
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Four days’ hard labour

What was life like for a Victorian child criminal?

Fun in the Files

What can our documents reveal about how people had fun in the past?
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Going to School in the Workhouse

How was school for pauper children different, and what was the same?
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Have we underestimated the Victorian Poor?

To what extent did the Victorian Poor accept their fate in the workhouse?
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Health and the Poor Law

To what degree did the Poor Law make an important contribution to Public Health?
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LGBTQ+ Rights in Britain

How have changes in laws and attitudes affected LGBTQ+ people in Britain?
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Mapping London

How and why does an area change over time?
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Mental Health on Record

What do the documents reveal about the understanding of mental health in the past?
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Past pleasures

How did the Victorians have fun?
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Punishment in the workhouse – Lesson One

What can ‘pauper voices’ reveal about punishments for workhouse children?
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Punishment in the workhouse – Lesson Two

What can ‘pauper voices’ reveal about attitudes towards punishments in the workhouse?
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Rebels in the records

What can we learn from documents that show how people ‘rebelled’ in the past?
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Rob Roy

A Victorian railway accident
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Selling the Victorians

Victorians for sale! Has advertising changed from Victorian times?
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The Boxers of Whitechapel

What do the documents reveal about the inhabitants?
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The South African War

How did the British conduct war in 1899-1902?
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Travel smart through time (SEND)

How and why have people travelled around in the past and how have they done it safely?
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Trimdon

What was it like living in a late 19th century mining town?
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Uncovering LGBTQ+ lives in the archive

What types of sources might be useful to find out about the lives of LGBTQ+ people in the past?
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Uncovering the past

How can we use photographs to find out about the past?
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Victorian family history

How can we find out about the life of a Victorian child?
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Victorian Health Reform

How did the Victorians view compulsory vaccination?
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Victorian homes

Was there much difference between rich and poor homes?
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Victorian lives

How was life different in Victorian times?
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What is a Jubilee?

What can we find out about Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee?
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What was Chartism?

Political and social reform in 19th century Britain
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Whitechapel

How can we find out about what Whitechapel was like in 1888?
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Workhouse Women

How were women treated in the Victorian workhouse?