victoriandigitalart
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Victorian Arthouse Cinema Stills Collection #1
Today we present some fascinating stills from an early example of arthouse cinema. The movie is called Witch House and was released in the underground theatre and cinema network in 1899. Photograph #9 is of the visionary director and producer Conrad Pitt who inspired a huge shift towards avant-garde narratives and techniques. The Victorian movies…
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The Siblings of Saint Rupert Collection #1
On this day, precisely 150 years ago, a secret society known as The Siblings of Saint Rupert held its first ritual. Precious nothing was known about the siblings until an anonymous collector sent us these images which were rigorously analysed and verified by numerous experts. You will notice that on each of the photographs there’s…
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The ‘Birds’ of Victorian England Collection #1
At the Fellowship of the Victorian Underground Project, we have looked at various subcultures and are set to explore many more in the coming months. This particular subculture we share with you today is one of the most interesting and beautiful in our archives, yet is largely absent from the history books. The women in…
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Photographs of Interesting Victorians Collection #2
Today we bring you some more photographs of interesting Victorians straight from our archives. Unfortunately we have virtually no background information for photograph #2, #3, #4 and #7. However, we do believe the person in photograph #1 is likely to be Lady Malcolm Barlow of Ulverston. She was named after her father which was an…
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The Kafka Controversy
You may remember us mentioning ‘insect hatting’ in earlier posts; an unusual sport whereby gentlemen make a hat to the theme of insects. The makers then annually compete in a painstaking point scoring system to see who has the greatest hat. Today we aren’t concerned with insect hatting. Rather we want to share a somewhat…
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Victorian Haute Cuisine Collection #1
Today we take a look at Victorian fine dining. Photograph #1 is of the head chef, Mick Rathbone. Mr Rathbone (who slapped anyone saying French words in his kitchen including French people) worked at The Pig’s Ear in Kensington. He served a different set meal every night using the rarest ingredients available at the time.…
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The Victorian Slop House Collection #1
This is the first in a series of images that celebrate the infamous Victorian slop house. These shoestring eateries were so hideous that they are rarely featured in the newspapers of the day except for mentioning mass outbreaks of food poisoning. Only the seriously hungry would dare to visit these places, unaware that they were…
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Psychedelic Art in Victorian England Collection #1
Many people still believe that psychedelia grew out of various counterculture movements of the 1960s. Today we hope to correct this misconception once and for all. We know that psychedelic drugs such as psilocybin and DMT have been used for thousands of years all over the world. Here in England, magic mushrooms grow in the…
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Photographs of Interesting Victorians Collection #1
These striking photographs were submitted to the project only recently and were received in almost immaculate condition. Unfortunately the collector didn’t have much additional information on the photographers, subjects or locations. Our own research suggests that photograph #1 is likely to be a portrait of Mavis Cragg. She is referenced several times in a doctor’s…
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