Victorian

A portrait of Florence Nightingale

Nursing by numbers: how Florence Nightingale campaigned for better conditions

The Eiffel Tower was built by Gustave Eiffel for the International Exhibition of Paris in 1889. (Photo by Underwood Archives/Getty Images)

From ‘eyesore’ to icon: a brief history of the Eiffel Tower

Premium

A woman in riding gear breaks out in a grin in the c1860s.

Smiling Victorians: why it’s a myth that our ancestors didn’t smile for pictures . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

'Self Portrait' by Vincent van Gogh, autumn 1887 (Photo by Marc DEVILLE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

Why did Vincent van Gogh cut off his ear?

Two lovers embrace in this 18th century painting.

How has dating changed over time? A brief history of courtship

PT Barnum and General Tom Thumb

The greatest show on earth? The myths of the Victorian freak show

UNSPECIFIED - CIRCA 1986: Hans Holbein the Younger (ca. 1497-1543), Portrait of Jane Seymour (ca. 1509-1537), Third Wife of Henry VIII of England. (Photo By DEA / G. NIMATALLAH/De Agostini/Getty Images)

Royal women podcast episodes

'The Poor Actress's Christmas Dinner', a painting by pre-Raphaelite artist Robert Braithwaite Martineau, says much about the way Victorians had begun to understand the problem of loneliness. (Photo by Bridgeman Art Library)

The invention of loneliness: why being ‘unhappy alone’ is a surprisingly modern idea

Elizabeth II and Prince Philip with their third son, Prince Edward, on the balcony at Buckingham Palace. (Photo by Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

A brief history of royal mothers and childbirth

Premium

The cast of Belgravia

Behind the scenes on Belgravia . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Immigrant children are examined by a city health officer upon arrival at the battery from Ellis Island during a Typhus scare, c1911. (Image by Bettmann/Getty Images)

A short history of quarantine

Premium

Attack on the Court-House, St. Thomas-in-the-East, Jamaica, during the Morant Bay rebellion, October 1865. (Photo by Getty Images)

Resistance in the British empire . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Wartime evacuees wash their hands

“The very sight of her hands did almost turn my stomach”: a brief history of hand-washing

Premium

Writer Virginia Woolf photographed in 1932. (Photo by ullstein bild via Getty Images)

London’s trailblazing women . This is a premium piece of content available to subscribed users.

Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Donald Trump

From Lincoln to Trump: a brief history of the US Republican Party