Victorian

Dark side of fashion: a 1910 portrait of a woman wearing a hat adorned with ostrich plumes and a stuffed bird. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, owning hats like this was a sign of status for many women. (Photo by ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

A hatful of horror: the Victorian headwear craze that led to mass slaughter

Otto von Bismarck, pictured on horseback, was instrumental in the creation of a unified German state and was among the most influential politicians of late 19th-century Europe.(Photo by ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

Otto von Bismarck: a brief guide to the ‘founder of modern Germany’

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In the 19th century, devoted pet-owners established Britain’s first pet cemeteries. Dr Eric Tourigny explains what they tell us about Victorian attitudes to animals. (Image by Getty Images)

Victorian pet cemeteries: animals in the afterlife . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Padraic X Scanlan discusses how slavery fuelled the British empire and explores the complicated motivations of abolitionists. (Image by Getty Images)

How slavery fuelled the British empire . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert, pictured in 1854. (Photo by Roger Fenton/Roger Fenton/Getty Images)

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert: what was their relationship like?

Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman to receive a medical degree in the US

Elizabeth Blackwell The ‘first female doctor’, who entered medicine to prove a point

Queen Victoria smiling

Q&A Did Queen Victoria really say “We are not amused”?

Harriet Tubman (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images)

Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad: how one woman saved hundreds from hell

A scene from an early rugby union game

The history of rugby: when was the sport invented?

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The inner courtyard of the old pottery factory at Gladstone Pottery Museum, with its five towering bottle ovens. (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images)

History explorer The Gladstone Pottery Museum . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

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Annie Gray portrait by Ian Farrell

Annie Gray “For Queen Victoria, food was a way of exploring the world” . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Photo of Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria: how and why did she become Empress of India?

Alphonse de Neuville's 1880 painting 'The Defence of Rorke's Drift'. The battle was to become a

The battle of Rorke’s Drift: a stand still clad in the “myths of empire”

Princess Feodora (left), half-sister of Queen Victoria (right)

Princess Feodora: the little-known sister of Queen Victoria

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Helen Czerski explores the impact of oceans on human history, from providing food to connecting trade routes. (Images by Getty Images)

How oceans shaped human civilisation . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.