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 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 were 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.

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
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * Jubilee Week, made up of a number of related events, including
 * 20 June 1897, Accession Day
 * 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.
 * Later that day, perhaps, Alfred Austin (appointed Poet Laureate after William Morris had turned it down) presented his "Victoria," composed for the occasion.
 * 22 June 1897, Diamond Jubilee Day,
 * The procession to St. Paul's
 * The "thanksgiving service" at St. Paul's
 * Ceremony at Mansion House with the Lord Mayor of the City of London
 * Driving around London for the crowds.
 * Evening at Windsor, boys from Eton sang for the Queen in the Quadrangle.
 * "Jubilee Night," later that evening
 * 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 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

Some 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

 * Ball at Marlborough House, 21 July 1886.
 * Duchess of Devonshire's Fancy-dress Ball, 2 July 1897.

Dinner Parties

 * 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.

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

 * Funeral of Alfred, Lord Tennyson at Westminster Abbey, 12 October 1892.
 * Wedding of Hon. Rosa Penelope Hood and W. Herbert Evans, 31 July 1894.
 * 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.

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

A list of Victorian Places

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

Resources for Studying the Aristocracy and Individual Social Events

 * 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

A list of 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 Victoria and Albert Museum, Paintings and Photographs, Ruth Hibbard, curator
 * 4) The National Portrait Gallery, Photographs and Permissions, London, Curators
 * 5) 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.
 * 6) Julie Codell, Ph.D., School of Art, Arizona State (who, without realizing it, taught me actually to look at the Victorians)
 * 7) Wikiversity, a project of Wikimedia Foundation, for providing a home for this open-research project
 * 8) 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) It would 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) It might be worth it to make a list of everybody known to have been invited to social events during the 1897 season as well.