Bringing this one back for April Fools’ Day: an 1850s invitation to the fake “Washing the Lions” event at the Tower of London.
Tag Archives: 1850s
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Here’s a print from American company Currier and Ives – circa 1840s-1850s – illustrating romantic life with children in tow!
On this day…
H.M.S. Electra, struck by a “whirlwind” on the passage from Auckland, New Zealand to Sydney, New South Wales on the 20th of November 1856.
On this day: free bread to honour the Queen
Canada honoured the Queen’s official birthday on the 21st of May this year. The British monarchs have celebrated an official birthday separate to their real birthday since the 1740s.
In 1859 this holiday occurred on the 24th of May, which was in fact Queen Victoria’s real birthday. To mark the occasion officials in Toronto handed out tickets for free loaves of bread.
On this day: a Victorian Dinner
This is the menu from the High Sheriff’s Dinner at the Royal Station Hotel in York, England. The dinner took place 160 years ago, on the 8th of March, 1858.
From the collection of the National Railway Museum.
On this day: the Black Thursday Bushfires
As depicted by English-born artist William Strutt in 1864.
One of the worst bushfire disasters in recorded Australian history, the Black Thursday fires took place on the 6th of February, 1851, in the colony of Victoria.
Severe drought in 1850 helped to create the conditions ideal for bushfires. An estimated maximum temperature of 47 °C and strong winds on the day of the disaster magnified the situation.
It is believed the fire started when two bullock drivers left burning logs unattended.
The disaster claimed the lives of twelve people and many animals, and caused significant damage to the countryside.
On this day…
On the 14th of April, 1877 Leslie’s monthly magazine announced the March 23 execution of John D. Lee, who took part in the Mountain Meadows massacre in 1857.
The massacre involved the Mormon Utah Territorial Militia, accompanied by some Paiute Native Americans, killing between 100 and 140 members of an emigrant party in Utah.
1st April in Victorian London
An invitation to the fake “Washing the Lions” event at the Tower of London – an April Fools’ Day joke from the 1850s.
On this day…
John D. Lee sits beside his coffin in Utah moments before his execution by firing squad on the 23rd of March, 1877.
He was the only person who was ever punished for playing a part in the 1857 Mountain Meadows massacre, when a Mormon militia killed over a hundred non-Mormon settlers over a number of days in September.
Merry Christmas from 1859
A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year by Winslow Homer for Harper’s Weekly on the 24th of December, 1859.
In Times Gone By... 
