Victorian Daily Life Resource

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If you are trying to write some Gothic and strange historical fiction and are not sure what time period to place it in, I would give the Victorian Era some serious consideration. The way in which they lived and operated alone lends itself to creepiness.

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No matter when you set your story, you are going to need to know the finite details of how your characters lived, even in ways that don’t affect your story. Did they have running water? Toothpaste? Medicine? What aspirin invented yet? These things might seem like little details that don’t matter but you can’t just leave them out of your story. Historical fiction readers want these little details and bits of historical life in their fiction so they can feel transported to that actual time period.

Discovering the secrets of the Victorian home was one of the most important steps in the research I conducted for my historical novel A White Room, and this PBS resource is just awesome for anyone who is doing this kind of research.  

PBS's “The 1900 House” and was created after a reality television show aired in the year 2000 following a London family who agreed to live the lives of Victorians for a period of time. You might remember when The Simpson made fun of this show. The PBS resource uses the show to reveal the essential aspects of every-day Victorian life from brushing their teeth to trading a living room for a parlor.

This is a wonderful resource because the PBS site is very reliable for historical information. The only down side is that PBS is usually directed toward children and will not go into great detail. Nevertheless, it does provide certain key facts about everyday life that are not always easy to find and will help you further in your research.

photo credit: zabethanne via photopin cc

Here is an explanation of the contents:

The House section is the most useful for research and gives you the ability to see a Victorian home layout, take a virtual tour, and get historical information about the front parlor, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, and scullery. Although these pages give tons of important information that can help an author piece together the daily routine of their Victorian characters, it does not provide a plethora of photos of actual Victorian homes or of the home used for the show. However, other sections provide plenty of clips and there is a different clip from the show for each of these pages.

The Family section talks about the 20^th century family that lived in the Victorian house for the show. Unfortunately, there is not a lot of research information about the Victorian family model, but you can glean some information by reading about these people and their experiences in the house. These pages provide many clips from the show highlighting different family member’s experiences, which could be used to see the actual Victorian garb and home as well as some of the major differences in Victorian vs. modern life, which were especially highlighted in this show.

Behind the Scenes gives you the ins-and-outs of how the show worked, which will be helpful for those concerned about how closely the show enforced Victorian rules on this modern family.

Lesson Plans includes two plans for students: “Our Town in 1900,” which calls for students to research their own homes in the 1900s and “Living Without Technology.” Although these aren’t great research tools, they are wonderful for teaching others.

About the Series gives you information about the actual show, how it worked, when it aired, etc.

Resources provides a list of other Victorian research sites and books, all-in-all making this PBS a very valuable tool for anyone trying to write a historical fiction novel piece set in Victorian times.

What project did this resource help you with?