Events Timeline

Orlando includes short event entries, freestanding and embedded in author profiles, about moments and processes relevant to literary history and organized into four categories: Women writers, Writing Climate, Political Climate, and Social Climate. Explore the timelines by searching for date(s) and/or words or phrases associated with them.

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1850: The Royal Academy unleashed the full weight...

Building item

1850

The Royal Academy unleashed the full weight of its criticism against the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood .
Boase, Thomas Sherrer Ross, editor. English Art, 1800-1870. Clarendon, 1959.
281-3

1850: The first midnight mission for the reclamation...

Building item

1850

The first midnight mission for the reclamation of prostitutes was held, in a Waterloo Road schoolroom, London.
Prochaska, F. K. Women and Philanthropy in Nineteenth-Century England. Clarendon, 1980.
194

1850: In Britain at mid-century, only 2 percent...

Building item

1850

In Britain at mid-century, only 2 percent of the women convicted to prison were sent to standardized convict prisons; the rest were sent to unregulated local jails.
Zedner, Lucia. Women, Crime, and Custody in Victorian England. Clarendon, 1991, http://U of A HSS.
173

1850s: Railway lines were completed to provide service...

National or international item

1850s

Railway lines were completed to provide service along the north and south coasts in Wales.
Turnock, David. Railways in the British Isles: Landscape, Land Use and Society. Adam and Charles Black, 1982.
42

1850: The British Royal Meteorological Society...

Building item

1850

The British Royal Meteorological Society was founded.
Gascoigne, Robert Mortimer. A Chronology of the History of Science, 1450-1900. Garland, 1987.
400

By mid nineteenth century: East India Company archives record the near...

Building item

By mid nineteenth century

East India Company archives record the near disappearance of wills made by British men in India which left their property to Indian wives or mixed-race families. Back in the early 1780s a third of British...

1850: The Metropolitan Magazine ceased publica...

Writing climate item

1850

The Metropolitan Magazine ceased publication.
Sutherland, John, b. 1938. The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction. Stanford University Press, 1989.
431

1850: A Royal Commission was appointed to examine...

National or international item

1850

A Royal Commission was appointed to examine the workings of the British legal system, particularly the law on divorce.
Shanley, Mary Lyndon. Feminism, Marriage, and the Law in Victorian England. Princeton University Press, 1989.
35-8
Chedzoy, Alan. A Scandalous Woman: The Story of Caroline Norton. Allison and Busby, 1995.
244

1850: The earliest periodical for women in Welsh,...

Women writers item

1850

The earliest periodical for women in Welsh, the monthly Y Gymraes: cylchgrawn i ferched Cymru, issued its first number at Caerdydd or Cardiff. It was funded by Augusta Hall, Lady Llanover , and...

1850: The Pinkerton Detective Agency, beloved of...

Building item

1850

The Pinkerton Detective Agency , beloved of crime writers, was set up in Chicago by Allan Pinkerton , a Chartist from Glasgow.
Davenport-Hines, Richard. “Suffocating Suspense”. London Review of Books, 16 Mar. 2000, pp. 36-37.
36-7

1850: Toilets on board trains were introduced,...

Building item

1850

Toilets on board trains were introduced, although ordinary coaches did not have water-closets until much later.
Allen, G. Freeman. Railways: Past, Present and Future. Orbis Publishing, 1982.
48
Ellis, Hamilton. British Railway History: An Outline from the Accession of William IV to the Nationalisation of Railways 1830-1876. George Allen and Unwin, 1954.
373

By 1850: 2,215 miles of telegraphic wire traversed...

Writing climate item

By 1850

2,215 miles of telegraphic wire traversed Britain; the industry expanded rapidly thereafter.
Standage, Tom. The Victorian Internet. Walker and Company, 1998.
61

1850: Scottish doctor Robert Knox in The Races...

Building item

1850

Scottish doctor Robert Knox in The Races of Men posited racial difference as the foundation of human conflict; a second edition followed in 1862.
British Library Catalogue. http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1489778087340&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&fromLo.
Kaplan, Cora, and Dinah Mulock Craik. “Introduction”. Olive; and, The Half-Caste, Oxford University Press, 1996, p. ix - xxv.
xv-xvi
Beckman, Linda Hunt. Amy Levy: Her Life and Letters. Ohio University Press, 2000.
112 and n93

1850s: During this decade of rapid economic expansion,...

Building item

1850s

During this decade of rapid economic expansion, many successful female retailers sold their businesses to men.
Adburgham, Alison. Shops and Shopping 1800-1914: Where, and in What Manner the Well-Dressed Englishwoman Bought Her Clothes. Allen and Unwin, 1964.
25-7

1850: John Wycliffe's complete Bible was printed...

Building item

1850

John Wycliffe 's complete Bible was printed for the first time by Oxford University Press .
Gentry, Helen, and David Greenhood. Chronology of Books and Printing. Rev. ed., Macmillan, 1936.
111

1850: Prussia agreed to the Treaty of Olmütz (now...

National or international item

1850

Prussia agreed to the Treaty of Olmütz (now in the Czech Republic, then political capital of Austria), which undid the work of the Frankfurt Assembly and restored the Confederation.
Cowie, Leonard W., and Leonard Woolfson. Years of Nationalism: European History 1815-1890. Edward Arnold, 1985.
178

1850: By this year, puerperal insanity was a popular...

Building item

1850

By this year, puerperal insanity was a popular diagnosis for post-partum depression.
Showalter, Elaine. The Female Malady: Women, Madness, and English Culture, 1830-1980. Pantheon Books, 1985.
57
Smith, Roger. Trial by Medicine: Insanity and Responsibility in Victorian Trials. Edinburgh University Press, 1981.
151

Some time in the 1850s: Hannah Crafts, a fugitive slave, wrote The...

Writing climate item

Some time in the 1850s

Hannah Crafts , a fugitive slave, wrote The Bondwoman's Narrative; possibly the first novel by a black woman, it reached publication in 2002.
Crafts, Hannah. “Introduction”. The Bondwoman’s Narrative, edited by Henry Louis, Jr Gates, Warner Books, 2002, p. ix - lxxv.
xii, xliv-xlv, lvi

1850: By this year, eighty million passengers travelled...

Building item

1850

By this year, eighty million passengers travelled by rail annually in England.
Allen, G. Freeman. Railways: Past, Present and Future. Orbis Publishing, 1982.
49

January 1850: The London Mesmeric Infirmary opened at 9...

Building item

January 1850

The London Mesmeric Infirmary opened at 9 Bedford Street, Bedford Square, and was patronized by a number of respectable citizens including the second Earl of Ducie , who served as president.
Gauld, Alan. A History of Hypnotism. Cambridge University Press, 1992.
213

January 1850: The trees of liberty, planted in Paris during...

National or international item

January 1850

The trees of liberty, planted in Paris during the revolutions of 1790 and 1848, were cut down by the military.
Cowie, Leonard W., and Leonard Woolfson. Years of Nationalism: European History 1815-1890. Edward Arnold, 1985.
148

1850: Oxford established Honours examination schools...

Building item

1850

Oxford established Honours examination schools in mathematics and science, ending the academic monopoly of the classics.
Brock, William H. Science for All: Studies in the History of Victorian Science and Education. Variorum, 1996.
X: 952

1850: From this date, anaesthetic was regularly...

Building item

1850

From this date, anaesthetic was regularly used in the practice of gynaecology, gaining wide popularity after 1870.
Moscucci, Ornella. The Science of Woman: Gynaecology and Gender in England, 1800-1929. Cambridge University Press, 1990.
126

1850: The famous Gorham case publicized the battles...

Building item

1850

The famous Gorham case publicized the battles between High Church and Evangelicals within the Church of England.
Bradley, Ian. The Call to Seriousness: The Evangelical Impact on the Victorians. Jonathan Cape, 1976.
71-2

1850: From this date, female visitors gained ever...

Building item

1850

From this date, female visitors gained ever greater access to workhouses.
Prochaska, F. K. Women and Philanthropy in Nineteenth-Century England. Clarendon, 1980.
174