Victorian Britain

Topic description and stories

The forgotten poet of Fordham

10 Dec 2019

Handwritten verses from a nineteenth-century Cambridgeshire poet – who died destitute despite royal patronage – have been saved by Cambridge...

Early childhood mortality rates in 1851 (left) and 1911 (right). The highest rates are in red and the lowest in blue., Credit: Populations Past

Online atlas explores north-south divide in childbirth and child mortality during Victorian era

15 May 2018

A new interactive online atlas, which illustrates when, where and possibly how fertility rates began to fall in England and Wales during the...

Dinner time in St Pancras Workhouse, London, 1911. Workhouses, established under the Poor Law Amendment Act, were part of a Victorian programme that cut universal welfare support and stigmatised many poor people as “unproductive”.

Cutting welfare to protect the economy ignores lessons of history, researchers claim

02 Dec 2016

Amid ongoing welfare cuts, researchers argue that investment in health and social care have been integral to British economic success since 1600.

Dissected foetal skull dating from the 1800s, originally held in the University of Cambridge Anatomy Museum

Infant bodies were ‘prized’ by 19th century anatomists, study suggests

01 Jul 2016

A study of the University of Cambridge anatomy collection dating from the 1700s and 1800s shows how the bodies of stillborn foetuses and babies were...

The archaeology of childhood

30 Jan 2016

A sledge made from a horse’s jaw, the remains of a medieval puppet, the coffin of a one-year-old Roman child, and the skeleton of an Anglo-Saxon girl...

'The March of Intellect', etching c.1828. Robert Seymour ('Shortshanks')

Driving a harpoon deep into the floating carcass of Humbug

17 Apr 2014

In his latest book, Professor Jim Secord explores seven scientific books that made a lasting historical impact. Visions of Science concentrates on...

From Illustrated London News, September 16, 1845

Past versus present in an age of progress: the Victorians

14 Oct 2011

Interdisciplinary research has to be the answer when it comes to understanding the Victorians, writes Professor Simon Goldhill, one of the...

‘What have the Victorians ever done for us?’

01 Feb 2007

Modern Britain was invented sometime between 1830 and 1900. It's not just a question of industrialization, compulsory education, the right to vote (...