Questions tagged [19th-century]
The 19th century began on January 1, 1801, and ended on December 31, 1900.
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How did Adam Worth make sure his crooks didn't keep what they stole?
I'm currently reading through the The Life and Times of Adam Worth and as much as I'm fascinated by Adam Worth and his mastermind for 19th century crime, there is one thing that the book fails to ...
2
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1answer
162 views
Did people in the late 1800s and earlier really think that there would be, or already exist, “mechanical men”?
I've very often been wondering about how people used to think "back in the day" about all kinds of technical things.
For example, once it was common knowledge that factories existed, and most people ...
2
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1answer
104 views
In which banking institute was Soren Kierkegaard a customer?
Is there any information about which bank the danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) used in Copenhagen?
I might think it is 'Sparekassen for Kjøbenhavn og Omegn', literally 'The Savings ...
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1answer
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What would have been the typical drinks for a US farmer in the late 18th/early 19th century?
What would have been the typical drinks for a US farmer in the late 18th/early 19th century?
I have read a lot about cider being a frequent drink, but it is not a common drink now in the United ...
4
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1answer
286 views
Would an Illegitimate child of a monarch have been recognized at the Russian court?
For purposes of a novel I am writing I would like to know if an illegitimate son or daughter of a 19th century Russian tsar would have been recognized by the court. Would it matter if the birth was ...
4
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1answer
183 views
Did Empress Cixi divert funds for the Beiyang Fleet to build the Summer Palace?
There is a popular story that Empress Dowager Cixi diverted funds originally intended for the Beiyang Fleet in order to upgrade the Summer Palace. This is significant because the amount - approx. 22 ...
2
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1answer
182 views
How widely accepted are Tolstoy's views on history within the academic community?
Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace is a historic fiction and part essay in which Tolstoy regularly expresses his views on how events happen. More specifically, Tolstoy says that the actions of great men such ...
4
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2answers
333 views
In the 19th century, do we know how armor changed with respect to guns of the time?
I know that the 19th century was relatively peaceful in Europe according to Wikipedia. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_warfare#Land_warfare) Interestingly, industrial technology has aided in ...
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1answer
185 views
Who is this particular inventor from XIX century?
I came acros with the following description about a certain inventor from XIX century:
An illustrious 19th-century European character who amassed an immense fortune thanks to his more than three ...
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143 views
After the end of slavery at the closure of the US civil war, what percentage of former slaves stayed at their previous workplaces?
Upon the abolition of slavery in the USA, there were suddenly millions of former slaves set free. But they were left without an obvious workplace. On the other side, millions of jobs done previously ...
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196 views
Was lobster considered a poor man's food in the Georgian era?
Many years ago I took a tour through a restored Georgian-era house in Dublin (best €2 I spent that summer). This included some pretty good explanations on the everyday life and customs in that period, ...
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1answer
264 views
Would Victorian era British soldiers wear their short sword bayonets while wearing uniform when off duty?
In depictions of the Victorian era we often see lower ranks of soldiers wearing uniform when off duty in pubs or frequenting fairs, or just milling about as extras in the background etc.
My question ...
4
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2answers
297 views
What are specific parts of this 19th century dress called?
Src: Portrait of Nadezhda Polovtseva
So this a the Portrait of Nadezhda Polovtseva in which she is wearing a white and green gown. I just need a really simple explaination of what the separate ...
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3answers
438 views
Are there any examples of California gold rush prospectors becoming exceedingly wealthy due to their claim(s)?
Thousands of people tried to find their fortune in the California gold rush. Though, it's often reported that the people who became wealthy from this event were the ones that were selling supplies to ...
2
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1answer
260 views
How were concussions treated in late 19th-century America?
It’s 1899 America, a person has a bleeding head wound after an impact (the rest of their body being unharmed for the sake of the focus question).
They have a concussion and, when they wake up, they ...
6
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1answer
156 views
What were the rules of the migration to the Louisiana Territory in USA?
To my best knowledge, at the point of Louisiana Purchase, the area was inhabited mostly by Native Americans. At the time there existed some legislation regarding how the settlement should look like. ...
3
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1answer
215 views
Where did poor London women give birth in the latter half of the 19th century?
I have a personal reason for asking this question. I'm researching my family tree and I have some ancestors who lived in Mile End Old Town, London between 1850 and 1900, but gave birth in Mile End New ...
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1answer
2k views
Who are these people in this satirical cartoon of the Congress of Verona?
Who are these people in this satirical cartoon of the Congress of Verona?
Alternative images, click for details:
Three men in military dress sit around a rectangular table - a fourth man has stood ...
6
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0answers
165 views
How long did it take to buy a house in 1870?
I'm interested in how long it took to carry out major transactions in the nineteenth century compared to today. On the one hand, I expect there was less formality; on the other hand, less information ...
7
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1answer
161 views
When did coal replace firewood in early America?
From the perspective of early colonists in America, it makes sense that firewood was initially easier to collect, but that as demand grew there was a transition to coal, which was more abundant. ...
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1answer
170 views
In Tolstoy's War and Peace, one character is captured after the Battle of Austerlitz and is taken as a POW. Was his experience historically accurate?
Prince Andrei Bolkonsky is captured after sustaining a wound in battle and is taken as a POW. He, along with other officers of the Russian Army, were treated with care and respect by the French, and ...
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0answers
48 views
What were the demographics of New Orleans in the 1890s?
What were the demographics of New Orleans in the 1890s? Population, race, born overseas vs born in the US, that sort of thing.
And what would be the best source to do more research about New Orleans ...
6
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1answer
120 views
How did the educational curriculum (books) flow from grade to grade in the 1800s?
I'd like to understand how educational curriculum (book choice/material) progression worked during the 19th century within the United States and perhaps even abroad.
We frequently hear of people only ...
4
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1answer
593 views
When did Tsar Nicholas II become Tsar of Russia?
I'm having trouble understanding the technicalities of throne inheritance in the Tsardom.
Did Nicholas II become Tsar after his fathers' death on the 1st of November 1894, or did he become Tsar after ...
2
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1answer
102 views
What was Richard Owen's status within the Royal Society in 1858?
I'd like to know if Sir Richard Owen was still a distinguished fellow of the Royal Society by 1858.
The information I have collected is controversial. The RS website shows his being VP in 1849-1850 ...
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1answer
85 views
Who kept official records in 19th century America? [closed]
I'm curious about records and archives in America during the 19th century. Was there any record keeping done? Who did it? Was there a place people could have gone to view public records?
For example ...
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4answers
3k views
Did the Russian Empire have a claim to Sweden? Was there ever a time where they could have pursued it?
Consider that Charles Frederick, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp and the one that all Russian emperors after Catherine were descended from, would have been king of Sweden had his aunt not stolen the throne ...
3
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1answer
127 views
Why did the Party “Deutschkonservative” vote against renewing the “Sozialistengesetze” in 1890?
The German conservative Party "Deutschkonservative" voted in 1890 against the annual renewal of the "Sozialistengesetze" ("Laws against the revolutionary machinations of social democracy"). This ...
3
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3answers
299 views
What is the average travel speed for railways between European capitals in the late 19th century?
Most sources I checked only present how the maximum train speed developed over time. For example, the top speed for a passenger train in 1854 was around 130 km/h. This record was set by a steam-...
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5answers
7k views
Which languages would be most useful in Europe at the end of the 19th century?
If I were a tourist planning to visit all the major cities in Europe, which languages would be most beneficial for me to know? Nowadays, the answer would be straightforward, as many people in Europe ...
0
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1answer
73 views
To what extent has the United States become (in 1870) the nation that it originally set out to be? [closed]
I was thinking about this for a while. I know that the US never intended to abolish slavery at that time, but it still happened. Is that even relevant?
Some of the things I thought that they ...
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1answer
216 views
Could a jeweler in 1800 AD tell a synthetic gem stone is fake?
Say I traveled back in time to 1800 and took a bag of synthetic rubies with me. Could a jeweler of the time period tell that the stones are "fake", even though at that time synthetic gems aren't yet ...
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8answers
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Why were helmets and other body armour not commonplace in the 1800s?
Before the widespread use of firearms, various kinds of plate armour were in widespread use. As muskets (and later, rifles) became widespread, full plate became less effective and fell out of use.
...
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2answers
9k views
Was murdering a slave illegal in American slavery, and if so, what punishments were given for it?
Was there any punishment for killing slaves, and what punishment was given for it, and was it enforced?
3
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1answer
234 views
How did a student grant work in 18th/19th century Western Europe
I am making research for a book, and I need details about grants/scholarships in Western Europe around the beginning of the 19th century, ideally for a teenager living far away from the applied school....
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85 views
What percentage of first births were illegitimate in 19th century England?
One peculiarity of Victorian England is the rather very high number of illegitimate births and premarital conceptions relative to the periods before it. Illegitimate births and premarital conceptions ...
8
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1answer
335 views
Why didn’t the U.S. annex the entire Spanish East Indies at the end of the Spanish-American War?
The Spanish East Indies were a large territory comprising mainly the Philippines,1 plus a large scattering of Micronesian islands in four main groups (the Marianas, the Carolines, the Marshalls,2 and ...
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2answers
171 views
Was the Times of London available for sale in 19th century Singapore?
Were copies of The Times of London generally available for sale in 19th century Singapore? If so, how much did a copy cost? And how many days would the newspaper take to arrive in Singapore?
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4answers
375 views
What was this slender hooked rod thing that John Wilkes Booth posed with?
In this photo (¿daguerreotype?):
John Wilkes Booth is posing with some kind of hooked rod. It does not seem to be a pipe, cane, umbrella, or writing instrument.
What is it?
Here ...
3
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2answers
175 views
How did laborers travel from China to Malaya in the early 19th century?
There was a wave of Chinese emigration to Malaya beginning in the early 19th century. Those who emigrated were mostly laborers seeking to work in tin mines, rubber plantations, and other agricultural ...
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2answers
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Virginia's response to Harper's Ferry, compared to the US response to 9/11
9/11 is now far enough in the past that I feel more able to analyze it as history. For most of the last 18 years, my rough mental model has been something like this. The US was subject to horrific ...
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3answers
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What (else) happened July 1st 1858 in London?
I'm looking for sources of information freely available online about happenings in London the day July 1st 1858 (besides the famous Darwin-Wallace presentation, that is.)
I have found copies of the ...
7
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1answer
162 views
How was library classification done in English-speaking libraries prior to the 19th century?
I was reading about major library classification systems. The major one in English-speaking lands seems to be the Dewey Decimal Classification system, which was invented in 1876. Several other ...
4
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1answer
68 views
Does anyone have information about a pre-1859 church in Villers-Bretonneux?
The current church of Villers-Bretonneux, Église Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Villers-Bretonneux was built after WWI. Before this was a church built in 1859; here is an historic photo. There was a church ...
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2answers
816 views
Why was fellatio considered so horrible during the XIX century in Europe?
The mentioned sexual practice was extremely frowned upon during that period, basically only prostitutes were to do them and even in this case, only with huge amounts of received money, that, in the ...
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2answers
231 views
How did Qing China keep in contact with other places?
Imperial China received diplomatic missions from other places whenever those places decide to send a mission (for example: Japanese missions to Imperial China). These missions were irregular, and were ...
3
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2answers
369 views
Is this wrench from 1881, or is it just a serial number?
One of my facebook group's member posted these pictures, he found them in their garden buried. He made cleaning, and they look old, but are they from 1880's? If the location helps: it is in Hungary, ...
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0answers
84 views
How much would it cost to bribe a prison warden in New England in the year 1800?
The value of money from one decade to another is a very confusing topic - in my opinion, anyway.
For instance, something called the CPI Inflation Calculator states that $1 in 1800 was the equivalent ...
5
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1answer
210 views
What was the rate of premarital conceptions in England from 1850 to 1890?
Much research has been done on the topic of prenuptially conceived births within England from the 1540s to 1830s, but I have yet to come across anything resembling a statistic for the period from ...
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2answers
743 views
Why did Russia set up so many cities in Siberia and Far East?
If one takes a casual glance at the Russian population census data, he or she would be astonished to find that a significant part of the Russian population is actually not concentrated west of the ...
