Victoriana Explained

Victoriana is a term used to refer to material culture related to the Victorian period (1837–1901).[1] It often refers to decorative objects, but can also describe a variety of artifacts from the era including graphic design, publications, photography, machinery, architecture, fashion, and Victorian collections of natural specimens.[2] The term can also refer to Victorian-inspired designs, nostalgic representations, or references to Victorian-era aesthetics or culture appropriated for use in new contexts [3]

The term "Victoriana" was coined in 1918, just before a wave of interest in Victorian objects and artifacts began in the 1920s. Another increased period of collecting of Victoriana emerged in the 1950s.[4] In 1951, the Festival of Britain commemorated the centenary of the Victorian era's first world's fair, the 1851 Great Exhibition held at the Crystal Palace.[5]

In the 1960s and 1970s, the eclectic character of Victorian era wood type inspired graphic designers like Seymour Chwast and Push Pin Studios.[6] Items such as Stevengraphs were popular collectable items during the revival of interest in Victoriana in the 1960s and 1970s.[7]

In the 1980s, Margaret Thatcher, then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, promoted an interest in Victoriana by emphasizing "Victorian family values"[8] as part of a roadmap to cultural, moral, and economic improvement.[9]

Popular culture

In science fiction circles (especially in genres like steampunk), Victoriana is used loosely to describe mock-Victorian worlds, where visual references to the machinery of the Industrial Revolution are incorporated into urban, romanticized pastiches with fantastic creatures and imagined mechanical contraptions.[10] [11] [12]

See also

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Definition of VICTORIANA . 2022-12-17 . www.merriam-webster.com . en.
  2. Web site: Stevens . Matthes . 18 January 2021 . John Gould: The age of collecting . 2022-12-17 . The Australian Museum . en.
  3. Book: Kaplan, Cora . Victoriana: Histories, Fictions, Criticism . 2007 . Columbia University Press . 978-0-231-14217-5 . 3 . en.
  4. Book: Gardiner, John . The Victorians: An Age in Retrospect . 2006-10-27 . A&C Black . 978-1-85285-560-4 . 91–2 . en.
  5. Book: Taylor . Miles . The Victorians Since 1901: Histories, Representations and Revisions . Wolff . Michael . 2004-09-04 . Manchester University Press . 978-0-7190-6725-9 . 138 . en.
  6. Book: Chwast, Seymour . The Push Pin Graphic: A Quarter Century of Innovative Design and Illustration . 2004-09-09 . Chronicle Books . 978-0-8118-4103-0 . 67 . en.
  7. Thorncroft, Antony. Memories are made of this FT.com 29 November 2008
  8. Web site: TV Interview for London Weekend Television Weekend World ("Victorian Values") Margaret Thatcher Foundation . 2022-12-17 . www.margaretthatcher.org.
  9. News: 2013-04-09 . What is Thatcherism? . en-GB . BBC News . 2022-12-17.
  10. Book: Albrecht, Kathe Hicks . The Machine Anxieties of Steampunk: Contemporary Philosophy, Victorian Aesthetics, and the Future . 2021-11-04 . Bloomsbury Publishing USA . 978-1-5013-4934-8 . 223 . en.
  11. Book: McAllister, Robbie . Steampunk Film: A Critical Introduction . 2019-03-07 . Bloomsbury Publishing USA . 978-1-5013-3122-0 . en.
  12. Book: Whitson, Roger . Steampunk and Nineteenth-Century Digital Humanities: Literary Retrofuturisms, Media Archaeologies, Alternate Histories . 2016-12-01 . Routledge . 978-1-317-50910-3 . en.

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