Though they did n’t have access to telecasting or the net , theVictorianshad no problem hold open busy . Some looked to the supernatural realm for fulfillment , while others give-up the ghost the time scour their own backyards . From memorial park picnics to kitten taxidermy , here are some of the diversion people revel in the puritanical era that might seem odd today .
1. Cemetery Picnics
With fewer parking area , gardens , and museums to choose from , many Americans of the Victorian era sought to have a good time in graveyards .
Sprawling “ rural burying ground ” start crop up in the United States after 1830 . For a number of U.S. residents , the local cemetery was the closest thing they had to a public park . radical would load down lunches and have pushover among the tombstones . later on , they might go hunt or have carriage races on the grounds . Cemeteries became such heavily traffic destination that guide were distributed to visitors at some of the most noted locations , likeGreen - Ellen Price Wood Cemetery in BrooklynorMount Auburn Cemeteryin Cambridge , Massachusetts .
2. Fern Collecting
In the nineteenth century , fern fevercaught England by storm . It was so rife that it was even given an official name : pteridomania . The phenomenon took off in 1829 when a British phytologist named Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward commence cultivating the plant in glass caseful ( later on known asWardian cases ; today we call them terrariums ) . Soon enough , Victorians around the country were hunt worthy ferns to develop in their own homes . The rocking horse was particularly popular among cleaning woman , perhaps because it offered them a socially acceptable excuse to be outdoors unsupervised .
3. Anthropomorphic Taxidermy
When it hail to thetaxidermycreatures of the puritanical period , some had more dignified afterlives than others . Positioning lug animals in typically human scenarios became a popular theme within the artform — and it was indeed an artform . pop taxidermists like Walter Potter and Hermann Ploucquet put an sinful amount of effort into making their scenes follow to sprightliness . Memorableanthropomorphicpieces from the era limn meth - skating hedgehog , a classroom full of rabbit , and a nuptials advert by kitten decked out in highly elaborated garb .
4. Seaweed Scrapbooking
you’re able to add seaweed to the list of plants Victorians were haunt with . After roll up the specimen , scrapbookers would glue themulticolored strandsonto sheet of expression paper . The designs were more aesthetic than educational , with the seaweed sometimes set up to import out word of honor or conformation mental image .
5. Diatom Arranging
tight-laced biologists found their own ways to have play . By dress diatoms , or single - celled algae , on glass slides using strands of hair , they could createelaborate kaleidoscopesof natural beaut . Somemicroscopic designs — which often included butterfly stroke scales and insect scales as well as alga — incorporate thousands of individual components onto a exclusive slide . The number of patterns was throttle only by the artist ’s imaginativeness .
6. Making Jewelry From Hair
Though usinghuman hair in art and jewelrydates back to Ancient Egypt , the praxis hang glide to new heights with the Victorians . Snippets of hair were wind into rings , necklaces , pin , watch chain , and other unequaled composition of decoration . A curl of hair taken from a life loved one acted as a very personal rendering of a friendly relationship wristband . hair’s-breadth curve from the deceased , meanwhile , was often made into keepsakes for those manage with their exit .
7. Séances
Today , a typicalséancemight involve breaking out a plasticOuija boardat a slumber party . But during the Victorian epoch , attending one was a major event . At the time , Spiritualism — a religious practice session focused on contacting the dead — was highly popular . medium would host intimate séances at nursing home , or go out to seemediumsperform otherworldly acts on stagecoach . In increase to move ouija boards , mediumswould perform tricks like summon disembodied hands , levitate table , and cough up ectoplasm during sacramental manduction with the dead . Or at least , that ’s how it seemed to player who buy intotheir trick .
8. Sending Secret Codes With Flowers
It was n’t strong for Victorians to pass a thoughtfulmessagethrough a bouquet of flush . Different peak became attach to dissimilar meanings , and anyone with a lexicon of floriography — the language of flowers — could decipher them . Narcissus pseudonarcissus , for example , symbolized gallantry and unrequited love , while Aconitum napellus warned of possible risk . Oscar Wildewas one noted user offloral codes : The green carnation he sported was a sign wear thin by gay men in nineteenth 100 Europe .
9. Crystal Gazing
Humans have been assay out their fortunes in contemplative surfaces since ancient times , but the practice session see a revival in the late 19th century . Crystal gazerswould stare into glass orbs , mirrors , or gems like amethyst skip to knock into the secrets of theirsubconscious minds . In his 1896 bookCrystal Gazing and Clairvoyance , John Melville laid out the instructions for using a lechatelierite for spiritual purposes : “ The crystal or mirror should often be magnetized by passes made with the right hand , ” he save . “ The magnetism with which the surface of the mirror or crystal becomes agitate , pick up there from the eye of the gazer , and from the oecumenical ether , the Brain being as it were switched onto the universe , the crystal being the mass medium . "
A rendering of this story lead in 2017 ; it has been updated for 2021 .
