Social Victorians

Parties, Performances, Weddings and Funerals, Threads and Knots Made Up of Eminent and Less-than-Eminent Victorians

This project collects information about social events in London toward the end of the reign of Queen Victoria. The Victorians were supremely social people and the aristocracy were no exception. Little research has been done on their social lives and social networks, mostly because we haven't really decided, I think, what those kinds of information would tell us about them. For the Victorians, that question was easier to answer than it has been for us: they'd find out about social events in the newspapers, and they'd track their own presence in the social world by their presence in newspaper accounts.

Once the British Newspaper Archive, from holdings at the British Library, began to digitize their newspaper collections, it became much easier to see what the Victorians themselves were reading about their social events. Because these newspaper articles had been accessible to so few scholars until then, the information about Victorian social lives is all still new. It matters also that we have not considered social events to be sufficiently substantial for study: the disciplines associated with the arts have studied the art and the individual lives of artists; very occasionally a prosopography would look at a circle of people. Political Science and History have not taken social events very seriously either. To focus on social events broadens what we are paying attention to — away from the big political and historical events and the men at their center to include most obviously social networks and women. It also can complexify our understanding of many of the important Victorian ideas about respectability, sex, the public sphere, power, class, race and gender.

Further consideration would also benefit our understandings of what events are and how they interrelate.

Some Social Events

This site begins with events, some of which are listed below. An event might be a party of some kind, a funeral, a performance of a play or show, or even the run of an exhibition. The closer we look at any of these events, the clearer it is that every event is made up of other events: prior events, sub-events, subsequent events, related events.

• 2 July 1897 Fancy Dress Ball hosted by the Duchess of Devonshire at Devonshire House
  1. Prior event: The Bradley-Martin costume ball, 10 February 1897, in New York City at the Waldorf Hotel decorated to be Versailles, hosted by Cornelia Bradley Martin for 800 guests dressed as figures, often royalty, from the 16th through the 18th centuries. Bradley Martin had a marketing campaign that ran for the 3 weeks before the ball; she gave the people invited only 3 weeks to get their costumes as well, it was said in order to force people to use local dressmakers. Three days before the ball, a list of the people invited was published in the New York Times, along with descriptions of their costumes. It was controversial because of the expense of the ball and the costumes people wore. The Bradley Martin ball seems likely to have influenced Louisa, Duchess of Devonshire in some of her decisions about her ball; it was intended to surpass a ball hosted by Alva Vanderbilt in 1883, and the Duchess of Devonshire may have thought to surpass the Bradley Martin ball.
  2. Related event: Friday, 1 July 1897, the night before the ball, Lord and Lady Tweedmouth hosted a dinner party for the members of the Queen Elizabeth procession.
• The events celebrating Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee could be considered as interrelated events, as the people who attended would have grouped them mentally.
  1. Jubilee Week, made up of a number of related events, including
     1. 20 June 1897, Saturday, Accession Day
        1. Thanksgiving ceremony for the Queen and her family at St. George's Chapel, Windsor. The official Jubilee Hymn (music by Arthur Sullivan and lyrics by William Waltham How, Bishop of Wakefield) was performed at this ceremony. Emma Albani performed "Hymn of Praise" by Felix Mendelssohn.
        2. Later that day, perhaps, Alfred Austin (appointed Poet Laureate after William Morris had turned it down) presented his "Victoria," composed for the occasion.
     2. 22 June 1897, Monday, Diamond Jubilee Day,
        1. The procession to St. Paul's
        2. The "thanksgiving service" at St. Paul's
        3. Ceremony at Mansion House with the Lord Mayor of the City of London
        4. Driving around London for the crowds.
        5. Evening at Windsor, boys from Eton sang for the Queen in the Quadrangle.
        6. "Jubilee Night," later that evening
     3. 27 June 1897, Saturday, "Three thousand old people, all above 68 years of age, were entertained at dinner at Bingley Hall, Birmingham, on Saturday, in connection with the Jubilee festivities. The oldest guest was 91 years of age."
     4. 29 June 1897, Monday, the Queen's Garden Party at Buckingham Palace
  2. From 8 July 1897 until the end of the run in December 1897, Sullivan's ballet Victoria and Merrie England at the Alhambra Theatre, Leicester Square, "included a cinematograph film of the Jubilee procession."
• The Funeral of Benjamin Disraeli, Lord Beaconsfield
• The 1887 American Exhibition in London, one of the events of the Golden Jubilee

Some Threads and Knots

Some Social Networks

• "Aristocratic Lady Journalists"
• The Marlborough House Set
• The Duchess of Devonshire's Fancy-dress Ball: Networks Present
• The Souls
• The Lovely Five
• The Bedford Park Set
• Bloomsbury Set
• The Authors Cricket Club (1891–1912) and the Allahakberries (1890–1913)

Some Categories of People Containing Social Networks

• Actors and Theatre Professionals
• Musicians
• Artists
• The British Aristocracy
• The "Royal Mob," Victoria's Children and Grandchildren
• Non-English Diplomats, Ambassadors and Ministers Who Attended Events in London at the End of the Century
• Members of the Armed Forces Who Attended Royal Functions
• People Invited to Events Hosted by the Prince and Princess of Wales
• People Whose Photographs Are in the Album Given as a Gift to the Duchess of Devonshire for Her 1897 Fancy Dress Ball
• People Working in Publishing and Journalism
• LGBTQ People Who Moved around in "Society"
• Jews in the Aristocracy
• American Heiresses Who Married British Peers
• Haslemere
• The Golden Dawn
• Some notable people

Types of Victorian Social Events

• 2 July 1897 Fancy Dress Ball hosted by the Duchess of Devonshire at Devonshire House
  • Related event: Friday, 1 July 1897, the night before the ball, Lord and Lady Tweedmouth hosted a dinner party for the members of the Queen Elizabeth procession (Exeter and Plymouth 1897-07-05).
• The Funeral of Benjamin Disraeli, Lord Beaconsfield
• The 1887 American Exhibition in London
• Marlborough House Party, evening party, Friday, 22 July 1881.
• Founding of the General Gordon League, 19 May 1885.
• Marlborough House Party, 27 July 1889.
• Derby Day at Epsom Downs, an event that reoccurred annually.

Balls

Because it was the official London residence of the Prince and Princess of Wales, events at Marlborough House usually had an official purpose or focus. An invitation list would have formal characteristics suggesting that it was more than a listing of people in the social networks of the Prince and Princess of Wales, and it would have been released to the press formally. Also, a ball had fewer invités than an event like a garden party.

The invitation list for this ball at Marlborough House in July 1885 has those typical formal characteristics. The names are in general order of precedence, beginning with royals both of the U.K. and of other countries, followed by dukes and duchesses, earls and countesses, and so on down to Mr., Mesdames and the Misses. In the ranks by title, names are typically alphabetized with couples listed together. The children of these were listed by their own title, if they had one, or with their parents if not. At the end of this list — and the article — are those who are "in attendance" on someone else who was there, typically one of the royals.

This list always has the proviso that it is a list of people who were invited, and "some among them were unavoidably prevented from attending."

Other people hosted balls as well, of course. The Morning Post reliably published articles about this kind of social event because their readers were of the class often invited and may have looked to see their names in the articles as well as — at least for some of the women — the always-complimentary descriptions of what they wore. The reporters typically did not attempt to identify everyone who came to an event at Marlborough House the way they did for a high-profile but private function like the Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball.

Dinner Parties

A dinner party at Marlborough House that had an official purpose might have the fewest number of people invited. Often a dinner party was followed by a reception or concert or some other event that had a much larger list of people invited.

• Marlborough House dinner party, Saturday, 18 March 1882.
• Lippincott Dinner at the Langham, 30 August 1889.
• Dinner and Small Concert Hosted by Mrs. Mackay, 3 July 1891.
• Small Dinner and Concert Hosted by Mrs. Mackay, 8 July 1893.
• Dinner Party at Marlborough House, 6 May 1896.
• Earl of Pembroke's State Dinner, 26 May 1897.
• State Dinner hosted by the Lord Chamberlain, Lord Hopetoun, 3 June 1899.
• Dinner Party for Members of the Queen Elizabeth Procession for the 2 July 1897 Duchess of Devonshire's fancy-dress ball.

Garden Parties

• Marlborough House Garden Party, 13 July 1880, 13 July 1880.
• Marlborough House Garden Party, 14 July 1881, 14 July 1881.
• Garden Party at Marlborough House for Queen Victoria, 13 July 1882.
• Garden Party at Marlborough House, Friday, 25 July 1884.
• Garden Party at Marlborough House, Thursday, 4 July 1889.
• Garden Party at Marlborough House, 15 July 1890.
• Garden Party at Marlborough House, 9 July 1891.
• Garden Party at Marlborough House, 5 July 1893.
• The last event of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in London, the Queen's Garden Party, 28 June 1897, Monday.

Receptions

• The Marquis of Hartington's Reception for the Duke of Cambridge, 2 July 1884.
• Count Münster's Reception at the German Embassy, 3 July 1884.
• Reception, or Evening Party, hosted by the Duchess of Bedford, 17 March 1885.
• Dinner and Reception at the Russian Embassy, 9 March 1886.
• Dinner and Reception at the French Embassy, 13 March 1886.
• Dinner and Reception at the German Embassy, 6 April 1886.
• Elizabeth Russell, Duchess of Bedford's reception, 19 February 1887.
• Marchioness of Salisbury's Reception, 23 March 1887.

Weddings and Funerals

Weddings

As social events weddings, especially those among the aristocracy and oligarchy, were different from what we are accustomed to nowadays. These details come from newspaper accounts of weddings attended by people who attended the Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball, especially those individuals not written about yet, without even a Wikipedia page.

• They might be held in the morning or very early afternoon, with even a breakfast or luncheon following.
• A local newspaper might publish the story as reportage rather than news, even when the Prime Minister attended.
• When the couple returned to the country home, there might be speeches and proclamations by local town officials and tradesmen, which the groom was expected to answer in a speech of his own, constructed on the spot.
• Some newspaper accounts seem to have been written from an "official list" of people invited and gifts, but not all.
• Sometimes the large number of bridesmaids includes perhaps 5 little girls and several adult women who were sisters of the bride and groom, or cousins, and then occasionally some friends of the bride.
• Clothing and Fashion
  • The women's clothing is treated as fashion journalism would treat it, and sometimes the reporters appear to know technical terms of dressmaking and jewelry.
  • Women and girls occasionally wore red to weddings, and bridesmaids' accessories could also be red.
  • In the winter, fur appeared on many of the women's garments, including those of brides and bridesmaids. Satin and velvet, which would have been made from silk, would be warm as well and were used in many garments at winter weddings.
• Gifts
  • The newspaper accounts published a list of the gifts and the names of the people who gave them. Sometimes the list seems to have been released by the families, but at other times, it seems constructed by the reporter.
  • Sometimes the gifts included large pieces of furniture and carriages. One couple received so many antique Louis XV pieces of furniture that it looks organized, as if someone suggested it.
  • If the Queen or the Prince and Princes of Wales sent a gift, it is listed first, regardless of its relative value. They did not seem to compete with the other gifts and never sent the most valuable.
  • Laborers on the estates and servants went in together to buy gifts for the couple, accompanied sometimes with engravings on the piece or a letter, the contents of which might be released to the papers. The employees of industries or mines might also collectively give a gift, often silver and sometimes engraved.
  • Most gift lists include few if indeed any books, so when a bride gets complete bound sets of George Eliot, Charles Kingsley, Goethe, and Schiller, and five volumes of Jane Austen's novels and a volume of Wordsworth's (like the wedding of Lady Eleanor Lambton and Lord Robert Cecil), it's notable. (Books were often given by women to other women.) Another couple (Lady Edith Ward and Frederick Glyn, Lord Wolverton) got 3 volumes of Percy Bysshe Shelley's poems and some unnamed books as well as several pieces of furniture for holding books.
  • Sometimes the groom's gifts included the bouquets of the bridesmaids as well as some jewelry they wear during the ceremony.

Some Weddings

• The wedding of Hon. Rosa Penelope Hood and W. Herbert Evans, 31 July 1894.

Funerals

• The Funeral of Benjamin Disraeli, Lord Beaconsfield, April 1881
• Funeral of Alfred, Lord Tennyson at Westminster Abbey, 12 October 1892.
• Funeral of Arthur Cecil Blunt, 21 April 1896.
• Funeral of William Baliol Brett, Lord Esher, 29 May 1899.

Events Associated with the Arts

• The 100th Performance of the Merchant of Venice at the Lyceum and the Centenary Celebration Dinner Hosted by Henry Irving, 14 February 1880.
• The Founding of the Royal College of Music
• Dinner Honoring the Kendals, 16 July 1887.
• Dolmetsch Lecture and Concert at 20 Fitzroy Street, 19 December 1891.
• Opening Night at the Garrick Theatre, 18 February 1893.
• Concert Honoring Joachim and Piatti at the Grafton Galleries, 22 March 1893.
• Concert by the Amsterdam a Cappella Choir at the Goltsteins' At Home, 21 May 1894.
• Celebration Honoring Charles Wyndham at the Lyceum, Criterion and Hotel Cecil, 1 May 1896.
• Henry Irving's Performance and Reception for the Colonial Premiers at the Lyceum, 28 June 1897.

A list of dates

Timeline

• 1850s
• 1860s
• 1870s
• 1880s
• 1890s
• 1900s
• 1910s
• 1920s-30s

Victorian Material History

Victorian Things and People and Everyday Objects

• Newspapers

• Victorian Conduct and Behavior

Some Victorian Places

• The Reading Room at the British Library
• Bedford Park
• Haslemere
• Rothschild Row
• Schools

The Social Aristocracy

• The British Aristocracy
• Courtiers' appointments, requirements, and lives
• Check Also the Big Undifferentiated List of People Invited to Social Events by the Prince and Princess of Wales for a lot of their names
• Everybody known to have been invited to social events during Jubilee Week
• Everybody known to have been invited to social events during the 1897 season

Some Organizations, Businesses, and Concerns

• London Clubs
  • The Men and Women's Club
• Newspapers
• General Gordon League
• Todd, Dennes and Lamb, solicitors: 22 Chancery Lane, London, WC
• John M. Watkins, booksellers and publishers

Spiritual Organizations and People

• The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
• Theosophical Society
• 19th-century Freemasonry
• The Anthroposophical Society
• Less-Famous People Involved in Spiritualism in Various Ways But Not in the Golden Dawn

Major Contributors

• Sharon Cogdill, Ph.D.
• Brenda Wentworth, Ph.D.

Acknowledgments

This project began as the work of Sharon Cogdill and over time has benefitted enormously from the help of the following:

1. The Archives of the Duke of Devonshire, Chatsworth House, Derbyshire, Aiden Hailey, curator
2. The Derby Collection, Knowsley Hall, Prescot, Merseyside, Dr. Stephen Lloyd, curator
3. The Archives, Corpus Christi College Library, Cambridge University
4. The Victoria and Albert Museum, Paintings and Photographs, Ruth Hibbard, curator
5. The National Portrait Gallery, Photographs and Permissions, London, Curators
6. Brenda Wentworth, Ph.D., costumer and costume history, for the analysis of the costumes at the Duchess of Devonshire's 1897 fancy-dress ball at Devonshire House.
7. Julie Codell, Ph.D., School of Art, Arizona State (who, without realizing it, taught me actually to look at the Victorians)
8. Wikiversity, a project of Wikimedia Foundation, for providing a home for this open-research project
9. The College of Liberal Arts, St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, Minnesota, especially Dr. Roland Specht-Jarvis, Dean; Dr. Mark Springer, Dean; and Mario Felix (for technological support for this research project)

Questions and Notes

1. Would if be worth it to make a list of everybody known to have been invited to social events during Jubilee Week? It might help identify dignitaries from India as well as other individuals who have been difficult to identify.
2. Would if be worth it to make a list of everybody known to have been invited to social events during the 1897 season as well?