Social Victorians/Timeline/1890s

Time Line

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

1892

Arnold Dolmetsch performed in public quite a bit.

1892 April 5, Arnold Dolmetsch's consort performed at Lady Ashburton's home, and she wrote to thank him on the fifth. He wrote Horne that the audience was "very distinguished" (Campbell 46).

1893

George Bernard Shaw and Arnold Dolmetsch meet, and Shaw writes about Dolmetsch.

Annie Besant makes her first trip to India.

1894

19 October 1894, Russian Emperor Alexander III died, to be replaced by Tsar Nicholas II.

1895

Oscar Wilde had two plays running in the West End, The Importance of Being Earnest (at the St. James) and An Ideal Husband (at the Haymarket Theatre).

Arthur Wing Pinero's The Notorious Mrs. Ebbsmith was running at the Garrick.

Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel moved to the Gaiety from Daly's.

1896

February

Lecture at the Westminster Town Hall reported by The Literary World on 14 February 1896: "'The transmission of personality is the creed of literature as it is of religion,' said Mr. Birrell in the course of a lecture on Dr. Johnson, at Westminster Town Hall, and the ober dictum is worthy of all acceptation. Mr. Asquith presided, and the audience including 'all the talents,' Lord Roseberry, Mr. Arthur Balfour, Mr. Thomas Hardy, Mr. Henry James, and Mr. Herbert Paul occupying chairs in the front row. / Mr. Asquith uttered the usual orthodoxies concerning the author 'who lived so little by his writings and so much by his personality.' That is a view which we confess we do not share. ..." "Table Talk," The Literary World, 14 February 1896, vol. 53, p. 149, col. 1. (Accessed 9 October 2009 in Google Books.)

The annual meeting of the Authors' Society, reported on in the 21 February 1896 Literary World: "The annual meeting of the Authors' Society passed off pleasantly, in spite of the minatory motion that stood in the name of Mr. W. H. Wilkins regarding the unfortunate 'Address' to the authors of America, a motion that was gracefully withdrawn in view of the committee's resoluton that the 'Address' had no official character. We congratulate the Society on the access of 14 new members during the year and on the evidence of practical work afforded by the fact that two-thirds of the members had applied for advice and assistance, to say nothing of the MSS. submitted for the same purpose. The printed report, of which a copy has reached us, is full of exceedingly sound advice, of especial value to young or inexperienced authors." "Table Talk," The Literary World, 14 February 1896, vol. 53, p. 172, col. 3. (Accessed 9 October 2009 in Google Books.)

July

Arthur Conan Doyle feted by the Author's Club.

August

Lady Gregory and William Butler Yeats meet.

The steamer the Norse King to take scientists and tourists to the Varanger Fjord to view the solar eclipse. At least in the planning, as reported in January 1896, "The official observers of the joint committee of the Royal Society and the Royal Astronomical Society have arranged to go by the Norse King. Among those on board will be Dr. A. Common, president of the Royal Astronomical Society, and Sir Robert Ball, who has consented to deliver a series of three lecture on the eclipse while the steamer is in the Varanger Fjord." (From a "special announcement," quoted in "Table Talk," The Literary World (3 Januray 1896), vol. 53, p. 13 [accessed 10 October 2009 in Google Books].)

December

December, Annie Horniman's name removed from the rolls of the Golden Dawn.

1897

February

February, William Poel's production of Twelfth Night, to a glittering audience.

October

William Morris dies.

1898

Local Government Act passed.