Social Victorians/Timeline/1860s

Time Line

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1860

January

14 January 1860, Saturday, a "hurricane" hit London:

The Gale in London. — The fearful hurricane on Saturday morning did much damage in London, especially on the river. Many of the streets in Lambeth, Vauxhall, and Battersea, were flooded all day. There were several boat collisions, and persons drowned.

1863

April

5 April 1863: Easter. Arthur Collins seems to have left Marlborough College at the beginning of Midsummer term 1863, which might be a week to 11 days after Easter. (Easter date: http://www.assa.org.au/edm.html#List18)

1864

"In 1864, the first of the Contagious Diseases Acts introduced official brothels for the military."

November

November 1864: Albert Edward, Prince of Wales and Alexandra, Princess of Wales host a dinner at Marlborough House for General Tom Thumb, who was being promoted by P T. Barnum.

1865

Early 1865

Alexandra, Princess of Wales "asked Lady Ely to invite three of Baron de Rothschild's children, Natty (Nathaniel), Alfred and Evelina, and Evelina's husband Ferdinand, to a ball at Marlborough House."

March

March 1865: Albert Edward, Prince of Wales invited Natty (Nathaniel) and Alfred de Rothschild to a royal levée, where Lord Sydney mispronounced Rothschild, as if they were foreign; Bertie corrected his pronunciation in front of the Rothschilds, as if to reprimand Lord Sydney for his bad manners.

June

2 June 1865: "At the height of the social season, on 2 June 1865, Albert Edward, Prince of Wales and Alexandra, Princess of Wales went to a concert by Sir Charles Hallé's orchestra, after which Alix returned too fatigued to be hostess at a late supper party. She retired, and soon after midnight she gave birth to her second son, precipitating new conflicts with the Queen."

1867

The cost of a trousseau in 1867:

To a greater or lesser extent, fashion influenced the dress of all except the very poorest sections of society, but those who had the money and leisure to follow fashion most closely were the upper and upper-middle classes, at a time when class structure was still rigidly observed. Consider the fact that a lavish trousseau was advertised for £100 in 1867, while a survey made in the same year indicated that nearly 88 percent of the English population earned less than £100 a year.

In 1867, "Paris was playing host to the exotic splendors and technological wonders of the Exposition Universelle, or World’s Fair." The Exposition Universelle was built quickly for its opening in April. It attracted visitors from around the world, closing after the summer:

Just ten days before the April opening of the Exposition Universelle, the Champ de Mars had been a sea of mud. The situation was so bad that Napoleon III had been prevented from traveling in his coach to inspect the preparations. ... five hundred workmen cleared the area around the glass and filigreed ironwork dome—an enormous elliptical structure, fully sixteen hundred feet long—that was the fair’s central edifice. An even bigger workforce had brought in equipment, building materials, and exhibits transported in crates from all over the world.

In little more than a week, an astonishing transformation was wrought. Then for several summer months, more than 11 million people thronged to the fair. They streamed around the exhibition grounds and paraded through the main glass structure, which was surrounded by stalls and kiosks as well as mock Incan palaces and Egyptian temples, with men and women from dozens of countries dressed in elaborate national costumes, all speaking different languages. Among the dignitaries and heads of state who visited Paris that summer were the Prince of Wales, the Pasha of Egypt, the Tsar and Tsarina of Russia and the brother of the Mikado of Japan. King Wilhelm of Prussia came with his chancellor, Otto von Bismarck. From his perch in exile, Victor Hugo had contributed an introduction to an exhibition guide, in which he wrote of his hopes for peace and fraternity in a unified Europe, with Paris as its natural capital. The city had never seemed more indispensable or more interpenetrated with the world beyond its walls.

April

30 April 1867, Tuesday, meeting of the Society of Antiquaries of London "at their apartments in Somerset-house."

The anniversary of the Society of Antiquaries of London, St. George's Day, having fallen this year in Easter week, the Society met yesterday (Tuesday, 30th April), at their apartments in Somerset-house, in pursuance of their Statutes and Charter of Incorporation, to ELECT a PRESIDENT, Council, and Officers of the Society for the year ensuing, whereupon the Right Hon. Earl Stanhope, President; William Tite, Esq., M.P., Vice-President; Charles Wykeham Martin, Esq., M.P., Vice-President; Octavius Morgan, Esq., M.P., Vice-President and Auditor; Frederic Ouvry, Esq., Treasurer; Joseph Walter King Eyton, Esq., Augustus Wollaston Franks, Esq., Rev. Charles Old Goodford, D.D., Provost of Eton; Philip Charles Hardwick, Esq., Sir John Lubbock, Bart., Auditor; and William John Thoms, Esq., 11 members from the old Council, were chosen of the new Council; and Charles Spoencer Preceval, Esq., LL.D., Director and Auditor; John Winter Jones, Esq., Auditor; William Henry Black, Esq., the Earl of Dunraven, John Evans, Esq., Lieutenant-Colonel Augustus Henry Lane Fox, Thomas Lewin, Esq., Richard Henry Major, Esq., the Very Rev. Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, D.D., Dean of Westminster, and Captain Arthur ChilverTupper, ten of the other Fellows of the Society, were chosen of the new Council; and C. Knight Watson, Esq., was re-elected Secretary.

C. KNIGHT WATSON, Secretary.

May 1, 1867.