A #church for Sunday, St Martin's in Blackheath, Surrey, by architect Charles Harrison Townsend with (the real surprise) frescoes inside of the Life of Christ, painted by the American artist Anna Lea-Merritt (1844-1930) (photos by Sarah Sullivan) victorianweb.org/art/architec...

Kensington, #London A #Victorian “Penfold” postbox, manufactured by Cochrane & Co, Dudley #PostboxSaturday

St Mary Abbots Church, Kensington, #London The #Victorian font is by Farmer & Brindley. It has a large marble bowl on a central shaft supported by four further shafts. The figures/angels represent the rivers of Paradise. Tall openwork cover of wrought iron was added in 1881. #FontsOnFriday

Last call! Colby Book Prize nominations are due TOMORROW, 31 January. This prize is awarded to a book published during the preceding year that most advances our understanding of the #19thC British press. If you recently read a book that fits that description, we want to know!

Looking at this lovely anonymous design for the 1893 ed. of Rip Van Winkle, with its poppies/sleepiness disrupted by the winds of change blowing among them, and the thistles! Photo: Simon Cooke. victorianweb.org/art/design/b... #bookdesign

To round out your January, please enjoy Part 2 of "Getting Started in Periodicals Research," a conversation between @c19thnewshound.bsky.social and @patrickleary.bsky.social! In this installment, Patrick talks attributions research and digitization in periodical studies. rs4vp.org/getting-star...

Late for Monday, but have only just seen!

The British Library’s PhD placement scheme for 26/27 is now open. My team are offering an exciting placement aiming to raise the profile of our illustrated newspaper collection: www.bl.uk/services/res...

This is a brilliant post -- follow the thread for (spoiler alert!) work by Henry Wilson, and wonderful choir-stall carvings by Trask & Co.!

The artist Arthur Hughes was born #OnThisDay 1832. One of his paintings was of "A Music Party" (1862-4)— a popular subject in those days. William Michael Rossetti enjoyed its "dreamy charm" victorianweb.org/painting/hug... #paintings #PreRaphaelites

📢 The City of London Planning Sub-Committee will be considering Network Rail and Acme's plans for Liverpool Station on Tuesday 10th February. 🚂 The way to make your voice heard is to write an objection. Here's our helpful Guide: bit.ly/4jLWsim 🧵

"Dr. Griskin" imagines a future for condom manufacturing (from William Dugdale's 1838 ed. of Charles Knowlton's Fruits of Philosophy)

Jane Morris died #OTD 1914 - last week of Winchester Arc's justly titled Beauty of the Earth exh curated by @suzannefagence.bsky.social about the Morris family as a creative collective. Fascinating and gorgeous www.arcwinchester.org.uk/event/beauty...

This little ceramic plaque in Postman's Park in London, commemorates an act of heroism: #OnThisDay 1863, one Sarah Smith died in a fire, trying to save a friend: it was the artist GF Watts's idea to memorialise ordinary folk in this way. victorianweb.org/art/design/c...

Economist & sociologist Beatrice Webb was born #OTD in 1858 + One of the founders, London School of Economics + Co-authored 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘰-𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘔𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘎𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘉𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯 & 𝘐𝘯𝘥𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘋𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘤𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘺 where she coined the term "collective bargaining" + First female fellow, British Academy, 1931 #WomenInSTEM

These articles are wonderful. Who knew there were so many "peeresses"?!

A sad #OnThisDay post from us, courtesy of the "father" of the Newlyn School of artists: "The 22 January 1901 (Reading the News of the Queen’s Death in a Cornish Cottage)" by Stanhope A. Forbes, RA (1857-1947). 1901. victorianweb.org/painting/for... #paintings

Dr. Sophia Jex-Blake was born #OTD in 1840 + Led the campaign to secure women access to a university education in the UK + First practicing woman doctor in Scotland + Founder, Edinburgh School of Medicine for Women, 1886 + Helped establish the London School of Medicine for Women, 1874 #WomenInSTEM

So many Victorian artists were inspired by the theme of #music: here's a lovely essay on "Touching the Strings: Edith Martineau and Aestheticism" by Pamela Gerrish Nunn victorianweb.org/painting/mar... #painting #womansart

In 2011 some of us from the Victorian Web went to the annual wreath-laying service for Thomas Hardy at Westminster Abbey: his cremated remains (minus his heart) were buried here #OTD 1928. We were given permission to print the programme here: victorianweb.org/authors/hard...

World War I poets weren't the first to show the pity of war. The painter Orlando Norrie, born of Scottish parents in Bruges #OnThisDay 1832, spent much of his time in England and is thought to have produced well over 5000 military paintings during Victoria's reign victorianweb.org/painting/nor...

For anyone in London I’m going to be giving a paper on settlement bedrooms on 19th February, 6.30-8.00. I’ll share titbits on how they were used by settlers&wardens. I’ll also discuss servants too! This will be with a building tour of Oxford House, Bethnal Green! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/building-t...

Look away, Pre-Raphaelite fans! Simon Cooke's latest is about Max Beerbohm's irreverent cartoons making fun of Rossetti & co.! Here's a diminutive Swinbrne reading his poetry to the Rossetti bros. Well, they did take themselves rather seriously! A fun read: www.victorianweb.org/authors/mb/p...

Congratulations to Graham Law, who has made his deeply researched biography of critic and journalist Eneas Sweetland Dallas freely available: glaw.w.waseda.jp/ESD-PofJ.pdf See also the @vicmanch.bsky.social review of his earlier work on Dallas at www.victorianweb.org/periodicals/... #victorian

The National Sporting Club (formerly Evans's Song and Supper Rooms / Music Hall) in 1891

Happy birthday to us! Our founders – Octavia Hill, Robert Hunter and Hardwicke Rawnsley – believed that nature, beauty and history were for everyone. On this day in 1895, they set up the National Trust and we're proud to continue their work today. Thank you to all those who support what we do.

"Bibliophiles will be able to read in libraries at Wightwick Manor, Powis Castle, mid Wales, and Kingston Lacy, Dorset." #books #reading #heritage #library www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026...

Painter John Singer Sargent was born on this day in 1856. In 1915 he painted this portrait of University Librarian Francis Jenkinson, to mark the 25th year of his librarianship. It hangs outside the present Librarian's office @theul.bsky.social.

a Victorian oyster bar, probably, from context, Rules in Maiden Lane

Whilst Edward Wilson (1872-1912) is primarily known as a polar explorer, taking part in the Discovery and Terra Nova expeditions with Captain Scott, he was also an accomplished natural history artist. #DigitisedCollections #OpenAccess #NaturalHistoryMuseum #SciArt #NatureInArt #ZoologicalArt

One shouldn't have favourites... but! A church for #Sunday: St Raphael's (RC), by Charles Parker (1799-1881), 1846-48, Grade II*–lovely warm Bath stone ashlar, overlooking the river at Kingston-upon-Thames. victorianweb.org/art/architec...

Interesting piece by Simon Cooke on A B Houghton and the representation of children in his illustrations--sometimes (as in "A Story by the Fireside" of 1865) suggesting a far from sentimental view of mid-Victorian childhood victorianweb.org/art/illustra...

How to be glamorous in the cold weather! "The Lady of the Snows" by George H. Boughton (1834-1905), from the Walker Gallery. More at victorianweb.org/painting/bou... #paintings #weather #fashion

Do have a look at Christian Gallichio's review of Alberto Gabriele's "The Nineteenth-Century Novel and the Pre-Cinematic Imagination"—illustration wasn't the only way in which the visual was brought to bear on (and provokes a response to) the narrative! Read on! www.victorianweb.org/technology/r...

A sad one: "The Last Legacy of the Old Year," a dramatic illustration in Fun magazine #OTD 1880, shows a young woman kneeling in front of a sombre Britannia: she weeps over the tragic loss of life in the Tay Bridge disaster at the end of 1879. victorianweb.org/periodicals/...

St Andrew's Sonning Berkshire. Henry Woodyer's spectacular 1875 reredos comprising saints is unusual for this area. Woodyer had previously engaged in a comprehensive reorganisation of the nave in 1852. The roof painting is by Bodley between 1903 - 1906.

#HappyNewYear for 2026 from all of us at the Victorian Web! This is John Leech's New Year's Dance, illustrating Dickens's Christmas story for 1844, The Chimes.

The beautiful Gothic of the Lady Chapel (1326) of Wells Cathedral. (The East Window is a Victorian restoration.) #windowsonwednesday

St Egwin in the Elgar Window at Worcester Cathedral by Archibald Keightley Nicholson 1935. #stegwin #saintsday #stainedglass

New Year's Eve, and 125 years old today is 'The Darkling Thrush' by Thomas Hardy. (And when I myself read this poem, I often find myself becoming aware of that blessèd Hope from that frail and gaunt thrush ✨️)

#GeorgeEliot was buried #OTD 1880 in Highgate's Eastern Cemetery. Crowds braved the weather to pay their respects. On her grave are words from one of her poems: "Of those immortal dead who live again/ In minds made better by their presence." More here: victorianweb.org/sculpture/fu...

Whitby Harbour Frank Meadow Sutcliffe, 1885-90

Beautifully worked #embroidery on the Sancta Maria banner at St Augustine's Church, Kilburn, London NW6, with crowned lilies at each corner, and an elaborate oval frame around the central figure of Mary with the Infant Jesus. victorianweb.org/art/design/e...

#OnThisDay 1831, H.M.S. Beagle set sail from Devonport with a certain "gentleman naturalist" on board. His findings would prove momentous, and not just for him. Here's a brief introduction: victorianweb.org/science/darw... Wonder what discoveries the New Year will bring to us?!

Hope you had (maybe are still having) a sociable or quiet day, according to your taste, on #BoxingDay Here's how you might have enjoyed a gathering in Victorian times, with a parlour song "In the Gloaming" sung by Derek B. Scott victorianweb.org/mt/parlorson...

Wishing a very happy Christmas to all who celebrate today! These are two of Arthur Rackham's illustrations for "A Christmas Carol"—showing what Scrooge had missed earlier in life, and how he enjoys the day after his change of heart! victorianweb.org/art/illustra...

Early C15th West window of Norwich Cathedral with glass dating to 1854 designed and made by George Hedgeland #norwichcathedral #stainedglass #architecture #heritage #history

Laing (1856-1931) designed the engines of the Mauretania, seen looming forward dramatically, top right.

Happy Holidays from RSVP! Our gift 🎁 to you is the debut of a new interview series, starting with @patrickleary.bsky.social, who sat down with @c19thnewshound.bsky.social this past year to discuss "Getting Started with Periodicals Research." Stay tuned for more in 2026! rs4vp.org/introducing-...

The organ in Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral is the biggest in the UK, the second biggest is at The Royal Albert Hall and the third biggest is at St George's Hall in Liverpool.