Victorian Chronicles: 80 Fascinating Photos From The Victorian Era

From bizarre customs to strict social rules, the Victorians are famous for pulling off some of the wildest shenanigans. Women treated fasting for months like a sport. People took photos with the bodies of their late relatives. They had a strange obsession with aliens on Mars. Children were expected to work dangerous jobs for long hours.

The list of absurdities is endless, and it looked starkly different from today. An Instagram Page, “Victorian Chaps,” has a marvelous collection of photos that give a sneak peek into this peculiar era. We have compiled the most interesting ones, so you can sit back and enjoy them just as much as the Victorians enjoyed beer! 

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Daguerreotype of a woman holding a cat in the early 1850s: one of the earliest known portraits featuring a cat.

This photo from 1912 features the Gaudreau sisters of Stanbridge East, Quebec. Their faces and details are so intriguing, and each sister seems to have a unique personality shining through. The youngest sister is clearly the darling of the family, carefully dressed and posed.

Research shows that in March 1841, coal merchant Richard Beard opened Europe’s first public photographic studio at the Polytechnic Institute on Regent Street, London. He employed a science lecturer, John Frederick Goddard, to actually take the portraits. And this fellow became the first professional photographer.

Fast forward to the late 1860s, the boom in photography was such that almost every town in Britain had at least one photographic studio and most had several. Photography was also considered a “genteel” pastime for women, and it seems they went all in.

Women are also credited with producing some of the most durable portrait studies of the 19th century. By the 1890s, over 20% of professional photographers were women.

Quarter-plate tintype by an anonymous photographer. A lensman captured this Union officer giving the time-honored gesture of derision or disdain. His technique matches an instruction printed in an 1863 issue of the Semi-Weekly Wisconsin of Milwaukee: “Put thumb to nose, and gyrate the extended fingers for a moment.”

According to the humanities research center at The University of Texas at Austin, the Victorians didn’t shy away from making their photos look staged or dramatic. Today’s portraits often aim for realism. But Victorian photos didn’t hesitate to use costumes, props, and performances to create an identity. In fact, these photos sometimes told a story. 

Victorians were also masters at blending reality and imagination in these photos, as well as in their documents and art. That’s probably why their images feel more like a playful, intentional act rather than a simple captured moment.

This woman is shown using a brush and a bucket of paste to put up large posters on a wall in Paris, France. She was one of two women who took on this traditionally male occupation at the time. The photograph was taken by Maurice-Louis Branger and is held in the Roger-Viollet archives.
The image was published as a postcard in 1908 by Lévy fils et Compagnie (LL).

Their living rooms looked like art galleries, but the Victorians’ obsession with photos is quite understandable. However, they had a pretty horrifying tradition of taking pictures with their loved ones after their demise. 

News reports that epidemics such as diphtheria, typhus, and cholera scarred the country. Also, Victorian nurseries were plagued by measles, diphtheria, scarlet fever, and rubella - all of which could be fatal. That’s why post-mortem photography gained popularity.

A young bather’s nap is interrupted by a photographer, taken circa 1904 on Coney Island beach.

Also, it is believed that from 1861, the bereaved Queen Victoria made mourning “fashionable.” Memento mori trinkets (remember, you must leave this life) also became popular. This might have further fuelled mourning photography. After families lost someone, it was often the first time they thought to have a photograph taken. After all, it was the last chance to have a permanent record of a beloved relative. 

What’s more shocking is that, on some occasions, people painted eyes onto the photograph after it was developed. Apparently, it was meant to make the deceased seem more lifelike. 

Picture of a Bronx Zoo class trip, New York, taken circa 1899 by George Ehler Stonebridge.

Men and trailblazing women photographers during the Victorian age helped shape photography as we see it today. But it also became an art form and a means for us to communicate with that age. 

Henry Fox Talbot, a scientist and inventor, developed the calotype process. Julia Margaret Cameron is known for her portrait photography. Roger Fenton, one of the first war photographers, documented the Crimean War. Eadweard Muybridge is known for his motion studies and early cinematography. Peter Henry Emerson is known for his work in naturalistic photography. Many names stand out, and the world of photography owes a lot to these 19th-century photographers.

Vintage photographic postcard titled “Wish Winter Was Over”. It features a photograph of a cat wrapped in a crocheted shawl. It was published by The Rotograph Co. New York and is dated to around 1905-1907. Such postcards were a popular phenomenon, often featuring posed or anthropomorphized cats.
The card number “B 1194” is visible in the bottom right corner.

Anyway, dear pandas, that’s it from our end. Did you enjoy this quirky list and a peek into Victorian life? We would love to hear from you, so feel free to share your thoughts in the comments. Also, if you want to see more, check out these pictures that show life and style in the Victorian Era!

“Portrait of three ladies modelling the latest fashion by Jeanne Margaine-Lacroix,” captures a pivotal and scandalous moment in fashion history from circa May 1908. The three women are models attending the Longchamp racecourse in Paris to showcase revolutionary, figure-hugging designs.
These dresses caused a massive stir because they were corsetless and form-fitting, revealing the natural lines of the hips and thighs at a time when rigid, padded silhouettes were the norm.

“Music hath charms,” was taken in 1872 by British photographer Harry Pointer (also known as Henry Pointer). It is part of his famous “Brighton Cats” series, which featured around 200 humorous and staged photographs of cats mimicking human activities. Pointer was a pioneer of pet photography, specialising in arranging cats in unusual poses, such as riding tricycles or roller-skating.
The caption “Music hath charms” is likely inspired by a line from William Congreve’s 1697 play, The Mourning Bride. These images were sold as cartes de visite (calling cards) and served a purpose similar to modern-day cat memes.

A vintage Victorian photograph featuring a kitten famously known as One-Eyed Pete, a historical “ship’s kitty”. The image, often circulated as part of collections documenting the long history of human fascination with cats, is typically dated around 1890. The handwritten captions “TOUGH, I AM” and “ONE EYE PETE” highlight the kitten’s resilient appearance, likely due to its missing eye.

This vintage photograph captures the rear of the Black Gate, a fortified gatehouse that was the final addition to the medieval Newcastle Castle in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. Date and photograph er unknown but believed 1890s. The Black Gate was built between 1247 and 1250 during the reign of King Henry III to serve as the main gateway to the castle.
The woman in the foreground is often identified as leaning against a shop doorway in Castle Garth, an area once filled with dilapidated 17th-century timber-framed houses and shops. By the 1880s, the area had a reputation for “Dickensian squalor” before major restoration efforts began to save the historic structures from demolition. Today, the Black Gate has been restored and serves as an entrance to “Old Newcastle,” showcasing the city’s historic heart.

Portrait of Frieda Baars (Sangernebo) with three cats, taken circa 1907 by Estonian photographer Jaan Riet.

Portrait of Cléo de Mérode, a famous French ballerina and beauty icon of the Belle Époque aka Edwardianera. The photograph, taken around 1900, captures her widely admired and distinctive appearance. Born Cléopatra Diane de Mérode, she made her professional debut as a ballerina at the age of eleven. She was considered one of the most beautiful women in the world during the 1890s.
Her signature hairstyle, which covered both of her ears, was unique at the time and led to some harmless rumours.. She became an international celebrity after her 1892 debut at the Folies Bergère in Paris. Her fame led to her being depicted by many artists and becoming influential in Art Nouveau and other art movements.

“She was so devastatingly beautiful that I resented her. I resented her delicate, pouting lips, her regular white teeth, her adorable chin, her raven hair and dark brown eyes. But, oh God, she was beautiful! It was love at first sight. At the theatre I would time the moment that she left her dressing room so as to meet her on the stairs and gulp ‘good-evening.’ When I met Marie Doro again, it was like the second act of a romantic play. After we were introduced I said: ‘But we’ve met before. You broke my heart. I was silently in love with you.’ Marie, looking as beautiful as ever, said: ‘How thrilling.”
Charlie Chaplin on Marie Doro, american stage and screen actress circa 1900s. This was part of his autobiography, but he refers to the time he 1st spotted her in 1905 when she was touring the UK as part of Shakespeare production.

Portrait, titled ‘En Deshabille’, was taken by the renowned British photographer Herbert Ponting in 1910. It captures a rare, private moment of a geisha (or a maid, as per some sources) after washing her hair, before her elaborate coiffure and makeup were applied.

A vintage black and white photograph of a fluffy white kitten standing under a flowering bush.
The image originated as a postcard titled “Fairy puff!” that was part of a collection and was taken circa 1912.

Portrait of Charlie Rouse, one of London’s last night watchmen, standing outside his post on Brixton Road in 1850. Armed with a rattle tucked beneath his sash, a truncheon, a cutlass strapped to his waist, and carrying the traditional lantern, he represents the final era of an old city tradition.

This photograph is of two women brickworkers outside workshop at Cradley Heath, West Midlands in 1907. Brickworks were a key industry throughout the 19th and 20th centuries and brickmaking in the Black Country has long been a mainstay of female labour.

Jessica & Rosalie Wakefield. Jessica was born in Camden on January 16th 1891 and Rosalie at 47 Hamilton Buildings, Great Eastern St, Shoreditch on July 4th 1895. They were the second and last of four children born to William, a printer’s assistant, and Alice, a housewife. It seems likely they were living in Great Eastern St at the time Horace Warner photographed them, when Jessica was ten or eleven and Rosalie was five or six.
Jessica married Stanley Taylor in 1915 and they lived in Wandsworth, where she d**d in 1985, aged ninety-four. On July 31st 1918 at the age of twenty-three, Rosalie married Ewart Osborne, a typewriter d****r, who was also twenty-three years old, at St Mary, Balham. After five years of marriage, they had a son named Robert, in 1923, but Ewart left her and she was reported as being deaf. Eventually the couple divorced in 1927 and both married again. Rosalie d**d aged eighty-four in 1979, six years before her elder sister Jessica, in Waltham Forest. This picture was taken circa 1900 - 1 as partof a collection by Horace Warner: Spitalfields Nippers.

Cabinet card of 2 children with their cat sitting high and mighty atop a chair taken by D B Watts, Montrose, Missouri circa 1890s.

Two young girls, probably sisters, stand outside their large brick home, each holding their cherished doll while a wicker doll carriage rests between them. Taken by an unknown photographer in Michigan around 1910.

Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (1873-1954), French writer, at 15 in the garden of the family home in Saint-Sauveur-en-Puisaye (Yonne, France) circa 1888.

Harbour street-life scene at Tin Ghaut , Whitby, Yorkshire taken circa 1890s.

A woman and young girl working at a table outside their house assembling match boxes. Photographer John Galt came to London in 1890 to work as a missionary for the London City Mission. In the early 1900s he took a series of photographs, mainly of the East End, which he had made into lantern slides to illustrate lectures publicising the work of the Mission. Galt sought to show that though there was great poverty in the East End, the people were not sub-human, as was popularly imagined by the middle-classes, but ordinary folk trying to do their best under difficult circumstances.

A wedding procession scene, captured around 1860 and featured in a stereoscopic view, showcases a moment of celebration and tradition, somewhere in France. The intricate details of the ceremony and the elegant attire of the attendees are highlighted in this historic snapshot.

Old woman with a cow, sits on a bench. She was forced to flee the warzone. Taken during the First World War, in Amiens, France, 1918.

Fashionable young lady wearing a cordoning dress and pointed hat on streets of London, circa 1916.

Atmospheric Street-scene of a Hansom cab, Vanderbilt mansion, Date Created: circa 1885, New York City, 5th Av-E 59th St-E 60th.

Idyllic scene at At Shottery Brook, taken circa 1892 of Young women collecting water in buckets from a river which is near Stratford Upon Avon, Warwickshire. This is a Photogravure, a loose plate from the book “The Homes and Haunts of Shakespeare” published by Charles Scribner’s Sons.

Romantic photograph of Belle Epoque impressionist painters Jean-Louis Forain and Jeanne Bosc in a Venetian Gondola taken circa 1889 by Italian photographer Giuseppe Primoli.

This vintage countryside photograph, titled “Kletsende vrouwen” (Chatting Women), was taken by the Belgian photographer Léonard Misonne in circa 1906. The image depicts three rural women paused for a conversation on a country road set in a village in Belgium. Léonard Misonne (1870–1943) was a prominent Pictorialist photographer. He was known for his mastery of light and atmosphere, often using blurred effects and soft focus that earned him the nickname “the Corot of photography”.

A Young Woman Playing A Harp To A Large Crowd, Rock Of Cashel, Ireland, taken Ca. 1910.

A woman identified as Ma Rolinson making a mattress in the slums of Bethnal Green. taken circa 1890s.

Streetscene of Michelin House opening its doors in 1911 on Fulham Road,London as the British headquarters of the Michelin Tyre Company. It showcased a bold mix of functionality and artistic design. Its façade, decorated with stained glass and mosaics of racing cars, celebrated the company’s involvement in early motoring and endurance races. The building quickly became a landmark, admired for its Art Nouveau features and colourful detailing. Inside, offices and storage spaces supported the growing demand for tyres in the capital’s emerging motor industry. The showroom displayed tyres beside sleek motorcars under domed skylights. Michelin House combined business with beauty, capturing the energy of early 20th-century travel and innovation. In 1987 the building was converted to mixed-use, with a store, restaurant, bar and office space.

Daguerreotype of three unknown teenage girls by Southworth and Hawes, taken in Boston, USA c1850.

This 1855 portrait photograph by Nadar captures French writer Alexandre Dumas père, known for his literary works such as The Three Musketeers. The salted paper print provides a historical glimpse of the writer, reflecting his influence on French literature.

A boy from Tarvastu, Estonia photographed with a wooden bicycle that he built. Photograph taken by Johannes Pääsuke in 1912.

This vintage portrait depicts a Black dandy from the Victorian era, specifically a photograph titled “Young Dandy” (circa 1890) from the Hulton Archive.
The image represents the historical phenomenon of Black dandyism, a movement where people of African descent used sharp tailoring and sartorial elegance as a form of cultural defiance and an assertion of dignity against a backdrop of discrimination

Portrait of Miss Bessie Brewer, standing, facing front, wearing a dark dress with a high collar, a brooch and the most puffiest of sleeves Circa 1894.

Two Well-Dressed Gents And Their Equally Dapper Dog taken In Stockholm, Sweden, circa 1880s.

Silly portrait picture postcard of Edwardian era lady falling off her cycle, taken circa 1910s.

This historical vintage portrait from around 1900 features an unidentified African American Civil War veteran seated with two young children. He was a Union Army veteran of the American Civil War. He is dressed in a formal uniform representing the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR), a prominent fraternal organization for Union veterans. His attire includes distinctive sergeant chevrons on the sleeves, a membership medal pinned to his coat, and an official GAR insignia cap. The original photograph was taken by the studio Goodman & Springer in Mt. Pleasant, Pennsylvania.

Portrait of Nikola Tesla sitting in front of a spiral coil used in his wireless power experiments at his East Houston St. laboratory, NewYork, by celebrity photographer Napoleon Sarony taken circa 1896.

Knife grinders in Thiers, France circa 1902. These knife grinders had the nickname of ventres jaunes or ‘yellow stomachs’ referring to the yellow dust released by the grinding wheels. By laying face down, these yellow stomachs would save their backs from being hunched over all day. Workers were encourage to bring their dogs to not only keep them company but to act as heaters to keep them warm by having the dogs lie on their legs!
This is where the phrase ‘nose to the grindstone’ originated.

Quaint photo that shows the rear of an old premises on Old Town Street, with a woman peering out of window and man sat on flat roof having a cuppa.The image is a black and white photograph of an Old Town Street premises in the late 1890s in Plymouth, England.

Postcard of a group of people outside the extravagant Art Nouveau facade of the Elysee Palace in Vichy, France. Photographed and built in 1898 as the Alcazar Theater, the palace housed: a restaurant, a music hall, a casino, a café and a brewery. Unfortunately, the palace does not exist today.

Postcard of Teenage girl with very long hair holding kitten taken circa early 1900s.

Portrait of Fridtjof Nansen, a notable Norwegian polymath, taken circa 1890. He was an explorer, scientist, diplomat, and humanitarian, known for his pioneering work in Arctic exploration.
Nansen led the first expedition to cross the Greenland interior in 1888 and later attempted to reach the North Pole on the ship Fram.
He was a Nobel Peace Prize laureate in 1922 for his humanitarian efforts on behalf of war victims and refugees, which included the creation of the “Nansen passport” for stateless persons.
He held a professorship in zoology and later oceanography at the University of Oslo.

This photograph captures two women, identified in some historical records as Mrs. [butt] Thomas and her daughter Gertrude, standing outside their home named “Trilby” on Erlanger Road in New Cross, London. The photo dates to around 1905, just before World War I.

Poverty on the streets of Liverpool: a young girl walking the streets with no shoes on. Taken circa 1880s.

A photograph, taken c. 1900, by Sir Benjamin Stone, of two villagers at the Bidford Mop, an annual fair held at Michaelmas in the village of Bidford-on-Avon. A Mop Fair is a traditional English hiring fair, originally held in towns and villages after the harvest, where employers hired workers for the coming year. They date back to the 1300s, and were especially common from the 16th to 19th centuries.

This image is a vintage photograph titled “Portrait of Cat sleeping,” taken around 1865. The portrait is an albumen silver print, a common photographic process used in the 19th century. The classic photo features a sleeping tabby cat resting on a patterned textile. The original artifact is preserved in the permanent collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum.

Mina Turner and her cousin Elizabeth eating lollipops on the stairs in a house in Waban, Massachusetts. Photograph by Gertrude Kasebier, 1910.

An old portraiture which could have been taken yesterday. Cabinet card image of American model and actress Evelyn Nesbit (1884–1967) by Otto Sarony. Labeled “After the Bath’, 1901.

American postcard of a Man relaxing in a rocker with baby burro or small donkey, taken circa 1895. Card states ‘rock a bye baby’.

Joseph Chaplin took this photo of his grandson, Charles Joseph Chaplin (1912-1987) playing with his cat in South Portland, and styled in a World War I-era uniform. Joseph Chaplin worked as an engineer for his family’s ice company and was a prolific amateur photographer. He used a large format view camera that he built himself.
This photo was taken in 1916 and the lad is obviously not to be confused with the famous Charlie Chaplin.

Vintage image depicting a young girl smiling in a soiled dress while walking barefoot on a cobbled street. This classic photograph is part of a series taken by Horace Warner in Spitalfields, London, at the turn of the 20th century. The girl has been identified as Adelaide Springett, seen here in 1901. Images from this collection document the poverty and street life of children in East London during the late Victorian and Edwardian eras. The original photograph is a magic lantern slide, which was a popular form of photographic projection during this period.

This vintage photograph depicts Eleanor Morland, Gertrude Cope, and Alice Hutchings, who were among the first female gardeners employed at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in 1896. They were trailblazers who broke gender barriers in horticulture, working alongside men decades before women gained the vote. To maintain professional decorum, they were required to wear the same attire as male gardeners, which included brown woolen bloomers.
Despite the societal expectations of the time, they were employed on equal pay to their male counterparts. The group trained at Swanley Horticultural College before beginning their employment at Kew Gardens.

Aboard a sailing vessel in 1910, a sailor gently holds a cat and kitten. Shipboard felines provided companionship and rodent control during long voyages across open waters. Photographer Samuel J Hood Studio (Australian, 1899 - 1953). Sydney harbour.

Happy family life of U.S. singer and Vaudeville star Arthur Fields with his wife and child, posed in swimwear with hose washing their Stutz automobile, ca. 1919.

New Zealand circa 1905. “Group of unidentified young women outdoors, probably Christchurch district.” An interesting variety of countenances and coifs. Glass negative by Adam Maclay.

Cabinet Card of Scottish American opera singer Mary Garden as Méĺisande in Debussy’s “Pelléas et Méĺisande”, Act III, Scene 1 taken 4th April circa 1908.

Paper Negative by Charles Negre, printed by Andre Jammes. Black and white image of a man standing next to a gargoyle on a balcony very high above a city. Verso: sentence written in French, but mostly illegible. Also, titled and “neg papier, charles negre, c 1860” taken Île-de-France, Paris, France.

Artists Paul-Cèsar Helleu and Giovanni Boldini with Luisa Casati wearing an Indo-Persian costume in the garden of Palazzo de’ Leoni, house of Peggy Guggenheim in Venice. Photograph by Mariano Fortuny, circa 1913
Marchesa Luisa Casati was renowned for her unique and haunting image, one that she carefully cultivated in order to become a “living work of art.”

Vintage Edwardian era scene which captures a fashionable moment at the Longchamp racecourse in Paris, circa 1911. Spectating at the races was a glamorous event and a major social occasion for the Parisian elite in the early 20th century.
The event at the Hippodrome de Longchamp was a key place to see and be seen, effectively serving as an early form of fashion week. The woman in the foreground is wearing a dress with a narrow hem, a style known as a “hobble skirt” which was a short-lived trend that impeded stride.
Attendees to the races included women who were not necessarily accompanied by a gentleman, a new trend for the upper classes at the time.

Portrait of William Foden, a gardener eating some nammet at Quarry Bank Mill, Styal in Cheshire taken circa 1904.

Picture showing Spanish painter Joaquín Sorolla at work, painting a portrait of his wife and primary muse, Clotilde García del Castill circa 1905.

”Promenade walk” by Harold Nicolson, V. Sackville-West, Rosamond Grosvenor, Lionel Sackville-West taken in London Circa 1913, not long after a marriage of convenience.

Street photo of Public disinfectors sanitising the streets of London after an outbreak of smallpox, taken circa 1877. This was part of a collection of rare historical photographs which were taken from 1873 to 1877 and are part of “Street Life in London”, a book that was one of the first examples of social documentary photography.
The authors, photographer John Thomson and journalist Adolphe Smith, aimed to reveal by the innovative use of photography and essays the conditions of a life of poverty in London.

One of the earliest pictures taken in the county of Bedfordshire. Taken in 1854, it shows the Toddington Manor gamekeeper, Norman Snoxell (on the left), with a poacher he had apprehended.

A woman staring at the sea in front of Cliff House, San Francisco. 1900.

Conditions inside a New York tenement apartment with a mother and her two children, taken circa 1910 by American photographer Lewis Hine. These buildings often lacked basic amenities like indoor plumbing, natural light, and sanitation. Families squeezed into small, dark rooms, and several households might share a single toilet in the hallway or backyard.

Portrait of Kaw-u-tz, a Caddo Nation Native American in Oklahoma circa 1906.

A group of boys and girls in cloth caps and dresses pose for a picture in the East End taken c. 1890.

Portrait of a Filipino American family during the US occupation of the Philippines taken circa 1912. The father appears to be carrying all 6 children and wife.

A photograph dated 1890 of Castle Garth in Newcastle On Tyne. The photographer was Lyddell Sawyer. Born in North Shields on the River Tyne, and later moved to London. His early life in Tyneside had a lasting effect on his work, his Geordie roots shaping many of his photographs.

Vintage image featuring a portrait of an Edwardian-era girl posing with her two pet kittens, dating from approximately 1900s. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, studio photography became widely popular, and pet owners frequently brought their animal companions along for formalised family portraits. Getting two energetic kittens to sit completely still, one calmly balanced on the girl’s shoulder and the other resting securely in her lap, makes this photograph an exceptionally well-timed and rare candid keepsake from the era.

A street in Bow in 1914 where the Estelle Sylvia Pankhurst Collection took care of children during the first world war. Women’s rights activist Norah Smyth documented children in Bow through a series of intimate street photographs.

This historic photograph is titled “Vieille cour, 56 rue de la Verrerie” (Old Courtyard, 56 rue de la Verrerie) in Paris, captured in 1908 by the pioneering French documentary photographer Eugène Atget.

A signwriter at work in his studio taken circa 1877. This was part of a collection of rare historical photographs which were taken from 1873 to 1877 and are part of “Street Life in London”, a book that was one of the first examples of social documentary photography.
The authors, photographer John Thomson and journalist Adolphe Smith, aimed to reveal by the innovative use of photography and essays the conditions of a life in London.

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