How People In The Victorian Era Spent Their Free Time

During the Victorian era, there was no radio, television, movies, or video games

But people obviously still had free time, and they needed ways to spend it

The Victorians were remarkably creative in finding ways to spend their free time

some of which would definitely seem strange to modern sensibilities. Sure, there were books by the likes of H.G. Wells, Charles Dickens, and Charlotte Bronte to read

but few could survive on reading alone. So today, we're going to take a look at how people in the Victorian era spent their free time

Today, we tend to see cemeteries as quiet, somber, and creepy places

But the Victorians saw them as the choice spot to enjoy a picnic

The trend of picnicking in cemeteries became so popular that by the end of the 19th century

they actually had to create regulations to prohibit refreshments on the grounds

The cemetery picnic fad came about for a few reasons. For one thing, there was a tragically high mortality rate

among women and children during the Victorian era, meaning cemeteries were a place for family members

to be close to a loved one that had unexpectedly or recently passed. For another, there was also a lack of public parks

making cemeteries one of the few spaces with plenty of lawn to spread out on

In Victorian times, public cemeteries were designed to look like gardens, unlike the more solemn church cemeteries

that are almost ubiquitous today. The Victorian obsession with the afterlife also spilled over into other areas of their lives

As interest grew in the study of science and nature, Victorians became increasingly into taxidermy

Stuffing a dead animal? Yeah, Friday night fun time. Taxidermy had been invented only a century before the Victorian era

and early examples usually just left the animals looking pretty bad. But at the first World's Fair in London, German taxidermist Hermann Plucchi displayed his massive

collection of lifelike anthropomorphized taxidermy to eager crowds. The various tableaus he created

included a schoolhouse full of rabbits, singing cats, and ice-skating hedgehogs. If you're thinking

those sound like the Victorian equivalent of a Disney movie, then you'll probably find it

interesting to note that author Lewis Carroll studied Plucchi's exhibits prior to publishing

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in 1865. Plukki's taxidermy was one of the most visited exhibitions

at the 1851 World's Fair, and it was even a favorite of Queen Victoria herself

With loved ones often perishing unexpectedly, Victorians developed different ways to keep the memories of their dearly departed alive

One example of this was the trend of turning the hair of a deceased person into jewelry A husband might have a lock of his wife hair who had passed in childbirth turned into a watch fob Women regularly wore rings necklaces and brooches

containing the hair of a child or close relative who had passed

The Victorians even collected locks of hair for scrapbooks. Although turning hair into jewelry

fell out of fashion by the mid-1920s, the Morbid Anatomy Museum in Brooklyn

offered a hair-making class within the last decade. There's even a Victorian hair museum in Missouri

that's open to the public. Victorians were enthralled with physical and medical anomalies

While freak shows had existed since the 1600s, the industry grew in the mid-19th century and

spawned stars with outlandish names like Jojo the Dogface Boy and Alice Bounds. P.T. Barnum was

perhaps the most successful at commercializing the freak show. He blew the whole thing up by

crafting elaborate, typically exaggerated, stories about the stars in his show. Despite the strong class distinctions

of the Victorian era, people from all walks of life attended freak shows as a form of entertainment

One of the most famous freak show stars, General Tom Thumb, even performed for Queen Victoria and Abraham Lincoln

However, the demand for these shows drastically declined after the Victorian era

Journalists broke countless stories about the mistreatment of freak show performers, and the public moved on to other forms of entertainment

Family outings in the 21st century typically involved trips to places like the beach or Cedar Point

But for Victorians, nothing beat a morgue when it came to sheer entertainment

Spurred on by newspaper accounts that graphically described unidentified cadavers and obsessed with the great beyond, people would rush to the morgue to view them

The Paris Morgue was particularly popular throughout the Victorian era, and one of the city's greatest tourist attractions at the time

The building was designed to accommodate large groups of people in order to quickly identify

cadavers, which resulted in hordes of people gathering to view them. When a child's remains were discovered in Paris with just a bruise on her hand

over 150,000 people came to view her after the story was sensationalized by local papers

In some way, this trend can be seen as an early version of the true crime entertainment genre

that seemingly everybody in America is currently watching on Netflix or a podcast they're listening to

The Victorians were the first, and they were definitely into some dark subject matter

Keeping on the dark theme, despite the grandeur of the Victorian era

everyday life was often consumed by disease and death. Without modern medicine, a woman could easily perish in childbirth

and a child could succumb to illnesses like scarlet fever and rubella Some children passed at such a young age that they never even had their photograph taken at least not while they were alive For these reasons death photography

became popular as a way to hold onto the memory of a loved one taken too soon

In some cases, the person would be photographed lying in bed so that they appeared to be sleeping

Some photographers even went as far as to paint eyes onto the deceased eyelids to make them appear awake

In the case of a young child's passing, the parents often took a family portrait that included the child and their living siblings

As it became cheaper and more accessible to take photographs, and as medical care improved

the art of postmortem photography was left behind. Many such photos still exist

and you can find them with an internet search, though we advise caution if you're easily creeped

out. As if these Victorians didn't consume the macabre enough, early in the Victorian era

spiritualism became a popular movement for those dealing with the grief of departed family members

As you might expect, this led to an increasing number of people claiming to be mediums who could

help the living communicate directly with the departed through seances. Spiritualism was

embraced by the upper class, including prominent members of society, such as Queen Victoria

Mary Todd Lincoln, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. During seances, mediums would go into trances

and even appear to levitate while communicating with the spirits. Participants would also witness furniture moving and hear phantom rappings

which are the alleged sounds of ghosts banging on things and not the spirits of dead hip-hop stars dropping rhymes

Perhaps the most famous spiritualists of the time were the Fox sisters. When they were adolescents, Maggie and Katie Fox claimed to contact the spirit of a man

who had died in their home in upstate New York. After going to live with their older sister, Leah

the three foxes all showed psychic abilities and began touring the country as mediums

The sisters were incredibly successful until Maggie publicly confessed that their seances were a hoax

She demonstrated to an audience how she could make phantom wrappings with her toes, knuckles, and other joints

She also said that the atmosphere created during seances caused many people to experience things that did not actually exist

While Maggie later recanted her statement, it was a permanent stain on the spiritualist movement

Victorians were limited in the types of entertainment available to them, and most of it was pretty creepy. But they were as eager to escape the turmoil of daily life

as many people today. To help give themselves that feeling of freedom

many enjoyed dressing in costume and posing in vignettes for friends and family

Derived from tableau vivant, or living picture, these vignettes would depict famous works of art

or events in history If the family had money they would pay to have the vignette professionally photographed As technology advanced vignettes could be recorded and then played back using a series of slides music and live narration

They were essentially the precursor to motion pictures. Vignettes gave the Victorians a place to express their creative sides, as well as embrace their love of art, history, and fairy tales

It's kind of like cosplay before Comic-Con. The Victorians combined their interests in science and art

through the creation of miniature artworks known as diatom arrangements that were invisible to the unaided eye

Diatoms are microscopic pieces of algae that can be arranged on glass slides

in an endless variety of intricate geometric patterns. Diatom art pieces had to be magnified in order to be appreciated

as they could easily fit inside the period at the end of the sentence. Due to the time and expertise needed to create these strange pieces of art, they were generally only owned by members of the upper class, who had an interest in the naturalist movement

Other variations of diatom art included microscopic arrangements of butterfly and insect scales

Despite the very public way that Victorians dealt with passing on, they were still Victorians, so they were extremely reserved about showing emotions

In many cases, especially in romantic endeavors, Victorians used flowers as an elaborate way to send messages of affection, disdain, and even danger

The practice grew so popular that books were published on the language of flowers

so people would know the right flower to send depending on the occasion or message

A red rose signified romantic desire, while yellow roses were given or worn as a sign of friendship

Mix up the two, and you could have an awkward situation on your hands. We've all been there

If a man gave a woman a red rose, she could then respond by sending back a yellow carnation

to indicate she was not interested in the suitor, or, for some reason, straw to indicate

mutual feelings. Flowers also held significant meaning outside of courtship. For example, rosemary was given in remembrance of a loved one, while rhododendrons were sent

to warn of impending danger. Wealthy Victorians loved to bring the natural world into their homes

though perhaps in less than natural ways. Scrapbooking was a common hobby for women

who spent much of their times indoors, and some used seaweed as a focal point in the scrapbook

Apparently, the rich greens and reds of the seaweed could be quite striking

and it became a popular trend. It's reported that even Queen Victoria had her own seaweed

scrapbook during childhood. In some cases, seaweed was displayed on top of a decorative

lace doily, but some women went as far as writing their name in seaweed on the front

page of the scrapbook. Someone might even write a poem from the seaweed's perspective