#1880s history

[daywalkers-fic]

12. why the 1880s?

something about this decade really sings to me. I find in particular, nearing the end of the nineteenth century, so much was happening on around the world in terms of arts, politics, technology, colonization. world events and global news don’t personally reach the day-to-day lives of the everyday folk, but they are an important part in gauging what life, thought, and society was about—what things were important then and now?

basically for myself, reminding me of notable things that occured during the 1880s—some thematic, some of relevance to context and characters, and the rest just ?? interesting and/or wild?

cocaine is a hot new cure for everything and anything. perscribed, sold in foods and more. heroine introduced as a lesser-addictive substitute for morphine…

lots of developments in fields of psychology; many experiments and happenings; Freud starts his work 1886.

1880-1914 had +twenty million immigrants to the United States: Germany, Ireland, England, China had the most arrivals.

William Dorsey Swann, the first self-proclaimed drag queen, organizes a series of drag balls in Washington, D.C. 1880-1890s.

Jack the Ripper claims his “first” victim in 1888 White Chapel, London. big scare.

Sherlock Holmes first appears in Arthur Conan Doyle’s A Study In Scarlet as part of the British magazine’s Beeton’s Christmas Annual in 1887.

Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson is published in 1886. Gothic fiction, drawing from emerging fields of science and psychology. & Treasure Island was published earlier in 1883 by him too!

Mark Twain drops The Prince and the Pauper (1881), Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889).

Bel-Ami, Guy de Maupassant’s second novel is published in 1885. about a man who seduces and manipulates high society French women in the French colonies for power and wealth. MOVIE WAS ADAPTED IN 2012 STARTING ROBERT PATTINSON LOL

western European art movements very romantic and swirly and pretty: Monet, Debussy xoxo.

meanwhile, African American ragtime music becomes the “pop” music across the pond here.

North Dakota (1889), South Dakota (1889), Montana (1889), Washington (1889) become states.

train segregation laws flag beginning of Jim Crow; Civil Rights Movement of 1875 voided, making discrimination in private is not illegal, and prohibiting state intervention to personal or commercial segregation. l*nching continues throughout the south. slavery may be over on paper, but indentured labour is legal.

1882 infamous O.K Corral gunfight.

Gold Rush continues, all over the world—South Africa, to British Columbia, to California, to Argentina, to Russia-China borders.

centuries of American “Indian” wars continue.

American Dawes Act of 1887 granted American government authorization to regulate indigenous lands, including creating and assigning and enforcing reservations.

Sitting Bull’s 1883 speech of the atrocities experienced at the hands of white American settler colonists.

Canadian Pacific Railway 1881-1885. foreign labourers were hired to do a lot of heavy, dangerous, unwanted work. in America, more than 100,000km of tracks were laid by majority Chinese, Irish, Scandinavian workers.

America’s Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and Canada’s Chinese Immigration Act of 1885 was officiated, enforcing law of a Head Tax to be paid for every Chinese person entering North America. over the course of the next couple of decades, the fee of $1,500 was doubled to $5,000 was increased 500% to $25,000 in today’s currency—per person. this had devastating and lasting impacts on generations and societies of Chinese living both overseas and already in North America. propaganda at this time created many racist myths that persist today: there are too many Asians, they are taking our jobs, (the men) are gross and effeminate and a threat to (white) women, they shady and scheming people. these were the first and only major federal legislation to explicitly suspend immigration for a specific nationality in American and Canadian history. (I study Asian Canadian history, I can go on about this all day)

Tong Wars (1883-1913) had Chinatown gangs and factions in violent street wars across America, San Fransisco to New York.

large, targeted, and repeated anti-Jewish rioting (pogorm) and antisemitism rampant throughout Imperial Russia, 1881-1882 had more than two hundred anti-Jewish events alone. Jews continue to be racialized and othered.

fuck ton of colonization happening in Africa and the Middle East, Southeast Asia. Berlin conference 1884-1885 literally chopped up Africa to distribute to European powers.

Irish nationalist efforts to push forth Home Rule bill of sovereignty is defeated in British Parliament. Irish are not “white”, they are “othered” in Europe and in Americas.

use of photographic film pioneered by George Eastman, who started manufacturing film. his first camera (Kodak) was ready for sale in 1888.

Thomas Edison gets lit in New York 1883 with first electrical power station. next several year sees major cities being lit up with street lamps and public lighting with the science and works of a Nikolas Tesla (1886-1893).

hell of a lot more inventions in the works and patents being claimed. Hertz and radiowaves, Bell for telephone services.

“Between the years of 1850–1900, women were placed in mental institutions for behaving in ways the male society did not agree with”

way too much history to cram, obviously. here are some keywords for further research oki

prison industry / spiritualism / opium epidemic / irregular and uneven “modernizations” in rural vs. urban areas / class and poverty gaps / morality scares, checks, comparisons, gaps / new businesses and gadgets, products, tech to help with anything / fascination of the (colonial) Other; side shows, “freak shows” and other human zoos

[frostedmagnolias]

Green Hostess Dress

c. 1889

Label: A. Félix Breveté / 15. Faub. St. Honoré Paris

Albany Institute of History & Art

[yesterdaysprint]

The Kansas Newspaper Union, Topeka, November 26, 1887

[edwardian-girl-next-door]

Some belated photos from the "Fashioned by Sargent" exhibit at the MFA Boston. My pictures just don't do it justice! I'm not one for hyperbolics, but it literally took my breath away, even with the crowds of people everywhere.

evening dress by the House of Worth (c.1880); owned by Sarah Choate Sears, who Sargent painted in another dress in 1889

reflection of Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth (1889); costume designed by Alice Comyns Carr and created by Ada Nettleship

evening dress with matching shoes by the House of Worth (c.1895)

Mrs. Charles E. Inches (Louise Pomeroy) (1887); dress made in 1887 and likely altered 1902. Louise was pregnant at the time of her portrait, and if you look very closely, you can see the dress skirt has adjustable panels to accommodate a changing body.

photos by me (@edwardian-girl-next-door)

[daguerreotyping]

Tintype of what appears to be a light-hearted spot of stabbing between friends, circa 1880

[eirene]

The Planet Venus, 1882 Luis Ricardo Falero

[yeoldenews]

This was from a selection of Dear Santa letters received by the post office in Washington DC in 1885.

Wonderful little kid logic. I don't know where Santa lives, but probably the same place the president does.

(source: The DC Evening Star, December 18, 1885.)

[fashionsfromhistory]

Dress

Emile Pingat

Paris, France

c.1880

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Accession Number: 2017.4153.1-2)

[dozydawn]

1887-89.

[historical-fashion-polls]

submitted by @frogteeth64 💚🩷💜

[lookingbackatfashionhistory]

• Ensemble.

Date: 1840–1880

Culture: Slovak

Medium: wool, cotton, silk

[frostedmagnolias]

A black and gold silk brocade gown

late 1880s

Kerry Taylor Auctions

[wyntersart]

The Youth of Bacchus by William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1884)

[edwardian-girl-next-door]

~ Władisław Bakałowicz, Portrait of Józefina Amszyńska née Guzowska (c.1882) (detail)

via National Museum in Warsaw

[eirene]

The Lady of Shalott, 1888-1905

William Holman Hunt

[yeoldenews]

I am now determined to find a way to use "ice cream freezer" as an insult again.

(source: The Troy Messenger, July 13, 1882.)