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You are here: Home / Archives for Victoriana

Victoriana

How a Woman Changed Hospitals From a Place to Die to a Place to Live

August 24, 2017 by kelly mcclymer Leave a Comment

Do you remember when hospitals were the place people went to die?

Me neither. But my dad did.

My father was born in the early ’30s, and hospitals had actually improved quite a bit (thanks to the Victorian heroine you will meet in this post). But his parents, and myriad aunts and uncles had been born in a time when you would rather cut your own gangrenous arm off at home than go to the hospital and die. The reality began to change in Victorian times, but it was a slow revolution until medical science matured around the time my father was born.

Last year, I fell down the stairs. I broke my wrist and needed surgery. I did not want to go to the hosital, but I didn’t have major concerns that I was going to die there. I just wanted to wish away the whole broken wrist (you know I write fantasy as well as historical romance, right?).

Everytime I go into the hospital, I remember my father’s attitude toward hospitals – that they were places people went to die. He said it often enough. He knew better, but the lessons he had learned as a young boy in the ’30s stuck with him underneath his modern understanding that a hospital saved his life (twice).

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For the Victorians, hospitals were not places of healing, as we know them today.

They were teeming with disease, infection and death.

Florence Nightingale, a true Victorian heroine, helped to change all of that. Having been influenced at an early age by Parisian Mary Clarke that women were equal to men, Florence dared to follow her calling.

Yes, really. Despite what we are often told, women did not wait to start changing the world until they got the vote.

Even more daringly, she did this during the Crimean war. She became known as “the Lady with the Lamp.” But Florence used more than her caretaker skills to save the lives of soldiers who had been injured.  She used her powerful writing, speaking, and science itself to revolutionize medicine to value and prioritize clean conditions and good hygiene in treating wounded soldiers — and all the unfortunate souls injured badly enough they required hospital care.

Like my dad with his triple bypass, and colon cancer.

Like me when my wrist was broken and I needed surgery.
We sometimes have a tendency to overlook how influential women in the 1800s were, despite the restrictions they had. But all the rights and freedoms we have in the law today are the result of women who defied the law and convention to change the world. Florence Nightingale was born to a wealthy, educated family. She was born to marry well and raise sons who wold contribute to society.

Instead, she chose to change the world in her own right.
My father- and I-have a lot to thank her for. You can read more about her, if you’re intrigued, in a new biography of Florence Nightingale: Florence Nightingale, The Courageous Life of the Legendary Nurse, by Catherine Reef. You can buy it at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iBooks, Kobo, or Google Play.

What about you? Do you have a hospital story that involved a courageous and compassionate nurse?

Filed Under: Strong Women, Victoriana Tagged With: female role models, florence nightingale, improper victorians, victorian life, Victoriana, women change the world

Victorian Curiosities Began with the Curious Victorians

September 28, 2016 by kelly mcclymer Leave a Comment

madrid-1493003_1920What were they thinking in Victorian times? Well, when you look at history, it seems like they were thinking “the sky is the limit” when it came to inventions and possibilities. A little like modern times, right? Jules Verne came up with Around the World in 80 Days and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea during this time period.

Victorians were curious about so many things, and both Queen Victoria and Prince Albert supported the curious in areas as diverse as science, history, art, medicine, and even the supernatural.

Have you heard about the Crystal Palace? It was Prince Albert’s pride and joy back in 1851, when England decided to host The Great Exhibition and showcase the wonders of the Victorian world.

After a lot of back and forth about how much room they would need, a spot in Hyde Park was chosen and an entire (huge) building built to house the exhibits. It only took 5 months for the building to be completed, so you know they were very, very motivated (my daughter’s recent, much smaller household renovation project took about twice as long).

The exhibits of Victorian curiosities were meant to celebrate and showcase all the new wonders that technology and science were bringing to the world.

People came from around the world to look at the exhibits.

They also admired the Crystal Palace itself, which was designed by a 23 year old gardener! To be sure, he was the Duke of Devonshire’s head gardener, but he was still quite young. Not too young, though, to be passionate about building “glass houses” (what we call greenhouses today).

crystal-palace-1431488_1920Parliament decreed the Crystal Palace had to be removed from Hyde Park, and it was. But the owners moved it rather than tearing it down. I guess anyone who can build something like that in 5 months can figure out how to move it even more quickly, right?

But did you know that the work Prince Albert and the owners of the Crystal Palace began almost 200 years ago is going on still today? Check it out here.

Wouldn’t it be the coolest thing ever to create a virtual reality Crystal Palace to transport us back to Victorian times for a while? I’d do it. Would you?

Filed Under: Victoriana Tagged With: Crystal Palace, curiosity, development, innovation, invention, progress, romantic, The Great Exhibition, Victorian

On Corsets

September 21, 2016 by kelly mcclymer Leave a Comment

Did you know that corsets began to be used in the Western world regularly in the 1500s (where they were called “whalebone bodies” see Corsets in Context). When I began to do my research into why Miranda (of The Fairy Tale Bride) would prefer not to wear her stays, I thought of a corset as something from Gone With the Wind, meant to cinch in the waist.

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Contrary to my then-uninformed opinion, I discovered that corsets (or stays as they were often called) changed as fashion changed. Just like modern fashion trends tend to go from skinny jean legs to flared leg styles in cycles, so did corsets go from pinched waist to normal waist trends. In the 1830s and 1840s, the same time period when Miranda’s broken stay caused her considerable distress, the hourglass figure was the desired shape. But in the high-waisted Regency fashion period, it was more important that a corset lift the bust than make the waist as small as possible.

Image Courtesy of Amber Brooks' blog: Music, Corsets, and Star Wars
Image Courtesy of Amber Brooks’ blog: Music, Corsets, and Star Wars (click the image to check out her blog: it’s fascinating)

I still don’t want to wear a corset myself, but I admire those seamstresses and costumers who make the corsets (of all shapes and designs) for those who attend Victorian, Regency, or Elizabethan costume events.

What’s your opinion on corsets? Would you wear a corset? Would you make yourself one? Comment and let us know!

Filed Under: Victoriana Tagged With: corsets, regency, romance, undergarments, Victoriana

Queen Victoria’s Proposal

September 6, 2016 by kelly mcclymer 17 Comments

Sometimes when I talk to people who enjoy history, I’m shocked that they believe that women were weak in the past. You and I know better.

This was not. True.

Emphatically. Not. True.statue-656869_640

It is true that the laws of the past were often written to blunt a woman’s power over herself. But that is separate from how strong women found a way to find a way to advocate for themselves, despite the obstacles in their way.

Victorian women, especially, had the example of Queen Victoria to guide them as to exactly how much power a woman could wield effectively. That’s one reason I set my Once Upon a Wedding series right at the beginning of Victoria’s reign. My heroines are women of their time, but they also have a sense of their own power and don’t let anything thwart themwhen they know what is right.

For instance, did you know that Victoria proposed to Prince Albert? Legally, because she was queen, he could not propose to her. (Source)

She wrote in her diary about the incident. But let’s see if we can interpret between the lines to get a sense of what she must have been feeling:franz-winterhalter-92248_640

At about ½ p.12, I sent for Albert.

Why must I be the one to propose? Every other young woman knows her suitor’s heart when he goes down upon one knee.

He came to the Closet where I was alone,

How relieved I am that he answered my summons, and did not send an excuse because he wished to evade my proposal. Does he know I intend to propose? Oh, he must. Would he hate me if I were to falter and send him away without knowing my heart?

…and after a few minutes I said to him, that I thought he must be aware why I wished them to come here,- and that it would make me too happy if he would consent to what I wished (to marry me);

He isn’t going to make me actually say the words, is he? Should I go on one knee? Nonsense, I am a Queen. I do not go on one knee to anyone.

…we embraced each other over and over again, and he was so kind, so affectionate… I really felt it was the happiest brightest moment in my life.

He wants to marry me. He really wants to marry me, not just the Queen of England. I’m so glad I was not afraid to propose.

What a sense of power that must have given the young Victoria (she was only 18 when she took the throne in 1837, and she had to propose to Albert only

2 years later).

What a thrilling, empowering story that must have been to young women of her time, who went on to use their voices to demand the vote, and demand change to many other laws that were harmful to women.

Would you like it (or have liked it) if you were the one to propose? Comment below to let us know!

Filed Under: Strong Women, Victoriana Tagged With: British Royals, love, proposals, Queen Victoria, romance, royal romance, strong women

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