Daily Graphic dated Saturday January 4th
1890
Click to Read
The Daily Graphic was the first daily
illustrated newspaper in England and evolved from the Graphic weekly illustrated
newspaper that was first appeared in 1869. In 1926 the Daily Graphic merged
with the Daily Sketch.
The Forest Gate Fire
The
fire had broken out on New Year’s Eve in the Forest Gate District Poor Law
Boarding School and 26 boys between 7 and 12 lost their lives. The incident
caused a great deal of distress and anger in the local community and beyond. A
Parliamentary inquiry criticised the management of the school. Three years
later 2 children were killed and hundreds made ill by food poisoning at the
same school.
Click to Read
The cast for this Jack and the Beanstalk pantomime
included the very popular Music Hall comedian Dan Leno who also specialised in
Panto dames. In 1903 he had a mental breakdown and was committed to the
Camberwell House Asylum for a few months, after which he tried to re-start his
career but died at the age of 43 in October 1904 of unknown causes.
Click to Read
The Czar whose health is commented on was Alexander
III. He died 4 years later of kidney failure and was succeeded by doomed the Czar Nicholas II.
Click to Read
The American showman, businessman, politician and sometimes
hoaxer Phineas Taylor Barnum created his first circus at the age of 61 in 1871.
He went on to run the Greatest Show on Earth – The Barnum and Bailey Circus,
which toured the USA and Europe. P T Barnum died in 1891 following a stroke.
Click to Read
The Prince of Wales' Sandringham Tennant’s Ball had a guest list straight out
of Burke’s Peerage and included Lord and Lady Randolph Churchill, parents of 16
year-old Winston.
Click to Read
Sarah Bernhardt was probably the most famous
stage actress of her day. Born in Paris in 1844, she started her stage career
in 1862 and became an International success. In 1915 her right leg was
amputated after an accident but she continued to perform on the stage right up
until she died of kidney failure in 1923. She also appeared in a dozen films and
has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Click to Read
Sport in the Highlands? I’m not sure the word
‘Sport’ should be applied to the butchering of 95 stags and thousands of
grouse.
Click to Read
Emmensite was a high explosive invented by Dr.
Stephen H. Emmens who, as well as filing patents for guns, shells,
refrigerants, a surf motor, a steam jacketed kettle and various manufacturing
processes also claimed to be able to turn silver into gold i.e. alchemy.
Click to Read
What a surprise – a contract for supplying the armed forces
with equipment going over the estimate. Then as now and always shall be.
Click to Read
Submarines had been around since the American
Civil War of the 1860’s but by 1890 the most advanced were electric-powered
(batteries) and sported torpedo tubes. The development of the periscope and
diesel-electric power made submarines practical for combat in time for World
War I.
Click to Read
This trial of Charles Johnson makes a pleasant change from
the murders and violent assaults that were so prevalent in late Victorian
newspapers.
Click to Read
This request for readers’ drawings and photos is rather like
today’s local TV news asking for viewers to send in their mobile phone videos.
“Excuse me Mr Bank Robber, but would you mind holding that pose while I do a
sketch for the Graphic?”
Click to Read
To guarantee Swaziland independence and sovereignty Britain
and the Boers of the South African Republic had signed the Conventions of
Pretoria in 1881 and of London in 1884, but by then almost all of the Swazi’s
mineral rights, transport networks and land rights had been signed over to
Europeans. From 1890 until 1894 Britain and the Boers effectively controlled
Swaziland jointly but then Britain withdrew until after the 2nd Boer
War (1899-1902). So the answer to the question posed is not just yet but then
yes for a while.
Click to Read
Created in the 1880’s to debunk
triskaidekaphobia, the Thirteen Club hosted dinners of 13 people to cock a
snoot at the superstition that one of the guests would die within a year. This
meeting in 1890 included P T Barnum who died (cue spooky music and pregnant
pause)… 16 months later! Ah well, it could have been a good story.
Click to Read
“Gawd bless her Majesty and all who sail in
her.“ Queen Victoria, the last of Hanoverian monarchs, came to the throne in
1837 at the age of 18 and stayed there until her death in January 1901. Who is
that lurking behind the tree in the Osborne garden drawing? He looks
suspiciously like her Majesty’s very good friend John Brown to me.
Click to Read
The writer of this proposal to build a Hall of City
Companies in London was H W Brewer who was famous for his architectural
illustrations that included aerial views of cities and imagined pictures of
cities as they were in times gone by. Worth a look on Google images.
Click to Read
Launched in 1874 the SS Britannic was the first
White Star Line ship with that name (the 2nd was the sister to a
certain Titanic). In 1881 it ran aground in fog off Ireland, and having been
re-floated, sprung a leak and was beached at Wexford Bay. In 1887 she collided
with the SS Celtic off New Jersey and 6 steerage passengers were killed
outright and another six were later found to be missing having been washed
overboard. The incident in this article followed 3 years later. In 1899 she was
taken over by the Royal Navy and used as a troopship for the Boer War at the
end of which she was condemned and scrapped.
Click to Read
These adverts for books include Mark Twain’s
latest ‘A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court’ and Wilkie Collins’ final
novel ‘Blind Love’ which the author left unfinished when he died the previous
September – it was completed by Walter Besant. Collins’ penultimate novel ‘The
Legacy of Cain’ (1889) is also offered. Jerome K Jerome’s Stage Land is
misrepresented as a travel book.
Click to Read
I hope this article about Jamaica’s so called
Dignity Ball doesn’t offend anyone. It is presented as an example of the
incredible racist and patronising attitude of British Victorians to their
colonial subjects, which, by the way, continued to a lesser degree to within my
living memory.
Click to Read
Click to Read
The Influenza Pandemic of 1889/1890 spread from China and
Siberia to most of Europe and the USA. It hit London in December 1889. This
pandemic was mild – only 1 million deaths compared to the estimated 20-50
million deaths in 1918/20.
Click to Read
It’s about time someone invented the ASBO!
Click to Read
The Bi-unial Magic Lantern was basically 2
lantern systems mounted vertically to allow the projectionist (or lanternist)
to superimpose or dissolve from one slide to another. A skilled lanternist
could create an illusion of movement similar to those pesky little repeating
‘gifs’ that crop up on some websites.
Click to Read
“By Gad, Sir! No more baggy trouser knees! Hurrah! The
greatest invention to grace mankind since the self-waxing moustache! Pass the
brandy!”
No comments:
Post a Comment