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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13 July 1855: The first sister from the Anglican Society...

Building item

13 July 1855

The first sister from the Anglican Society of St Margaret at East Grinstead in Sussex went into the community to nurse.
Anson, Peter F. The Call of the Cloister: Religious Communities and Kindred Bodies in the Anglican Communion. Editor Campbell, A. W., Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1964.
335, 340

Elizabeth Gaskell: 16 July 1855

Women writers item
Author event in Elizabeth Gaskell

16 July 1855

EG received a letter from Patrick Brontë asking her to write his daughter Charlotte 's biography.
Uglow, Jennifer S. Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories. Faber and Faber, 1993.
392, 656n9

23 July 1855: The Friendly Societies Act issued licenses...

National or international item

23 July 1855

The Friendly Societies Act issued licenses and created a system of regulation for these organizations.
Shiman, Lilian Lewis. Crusade against Drink in Victorian England. Macmillan, 1988.
176
The Statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Printed by J. Bentham, 1762–2026.

Robert Browning: 25 July 1855

Building item
Author event in Robert Browning

25 July 1855

RB and Elizabeth Barrett Browning participated in a séance with D. D. Home .
Porter, Katherine H. Through a Glass Darkly: Spiritualism in the Browning Circle. Octagon, 1972.
47

30 July 1855: An amendment to the Public Libraries Act...

Building item

30 July 1855

An amendment to the Public Libraries Act gave libraries the power to provide schools of science and art.
Kelly, Thomas. A History of Public Libraries in Great Britain 1845-1975. 2nd ed., Library Association, 1977.
21
The Statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Printed by J. Bentham, 1762–2026.

Charlotte Maria Tucker : August 1855

Women writers item
Author event in Charlotte Maria Tucker

August 1855

CMT travelled with her brother St George Tucker to Paris to see the great national Exhibition there.
Giberne, Agnes, and W. F. Tucker Hamilton. A Lady of England. Hodder and Stoughton, 1895.
103

August 1855: James Kaye's The Non-Existence of Women appeared...

Building item

August 1855

James Kaye 's The Non-Existence of Women appeared in the North British Review.
Helsinger, Elizabeth K. et al. The Woman Question. Garland, 1983.
3: 6, 213
North British Review.
23: 536-62

Georgiana Chatterton : 5 August 1855

Women writers item
Author event in Georgiana Chatterton

5 August 1855

Sir William Chatterton , first husband of GC , died at Rolls Park in Essex.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Dering, Edward Heneage, and Georgiana Chatterton. Memoirs of Georgiana, Lady Chatterton. Hurst and Blackett, 1878.
126

Dorothea Gerard: 9 August 1855

Women writers item
Author event in Dorothea Gerard

9 August 1855

DG was born at New Monkland in Lanarkshire, Scotland, not far from Glasgow, the youngest but one in a family of seven in which three boys preceded four girls.
Memoirist Helen C. Black

14 August 1855: The Religious Worship Act was passed, under...

National or international item

14 August 1855

The Religious Worship Act was passed, under the direction of Lord Shaftesbury .
Bradley, Ian. The Call to Seriousness: The Evangelical Impact on the Victorians. Jonathan Cape, 1976.
58
The Statutes of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Printed by J. Bentham, 1762–2026.

Caroline Clive: 18 August 1855

Women writers item
Author event in Caroline Clive

18 August 1855

CC published her best-known work, Paul Ferroll, an early sensation novel about wife murder, under her pseudonymous initial V.
Partridge, Eric Honeywood. “Mrs. Archer Clive”. Literary Sessions, Scholartis Press, 1932.
123-4
Athenæum. J. Lection.
1451 (1855): 947-8

Amelia B. Edwards: By 18 August 1855

Women writers item
Author event in Amelia B. Edwards

By 18 August 1855

ABE published her first book, My Brother's Wife: A Life History, as one of Mr. Routledge 's cheap novels.
Athenæum. J. Lection.
1451 (1855): 948

Elizabeth Gaskell: September 1855

Women writers item
Author event in Elizabeth Gaskell

September 1855

Lizzie Leigh and Other Tales, published as by the author of Mary Barton, Ruth, etc., made Elizabeth Gaskell 's short fiction available to audiences beyond Howitt's Journal and Household Words.
Sadleir, Michael. Excursions in Victorian Bibliography. Chaundy and Cox, 1922.
206-7

Julia Wedgwood: Autumn 1855

Women writers item
Author event in Julia Wedgwood

Autumn 1855

JW began working on her first novel, Framleigh Hall, which appeared in print in January 1858.
Sutherland, John, b. 1938. The Stanford Companion to Victorian Fiction. Stanford University Press, 1989.
664

Susanna Moodie: Fall 1855

Writing climate item
Author event in Susanna Moodie

Fall 1855

During visits from spiritualist Kate Fox , SM and her husband received communications from both dead fathers and a dead friend, Anna Laura Harral .
Thurston, John. “‘The Casket of Truth’: The Social Significance of Susanna Moodie’s Spiritual Dilemmas”. Canadian Poetry, Vol.
35
, 1 Sept. 1994–28 Feb. 1995.
14
Gray, Charlotte. Sisters in the Wilderness: The Lives of Susanna Moodie and Catharine Parr Traill. Viking, 1999.
241, 246

By 1 September 1855: John Wilson's fictional dialogues Noctes...

Writing climate item

By 1 September 1855

John Wilson 's fictional dialogues Noctes ambrosianae was published.
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.
The Athenaeum Index of Reviews and Reviewers: 1830-1870. http://replay.web.archive.org/20070714065452/http://www.soi.city.ac.uk/~asp/v2/home.html.

September 1855: Sebastopol finally fell, helping to bring...

National or international item

September 1855

Sebastopol finally fell, helping to bring the Crimean War to a close.
Mitchell, Sally, editor. Victorian Britain: An Encyclopedia. Garland Press, 1988.
202-3

Mary Seacole: 14 September 1855

Women writers item
Author event in Mary Seacole

14 September 1855

Crimean war correspondent W. H. Russell praised MS in a dispatch as a kind and successful physician.
qtd. in
Fryer, Peter. Staying Power: The History of Black People in Britain. Pluto Press, 1984.
250

Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon: 22 September 1855

Women writers item

22 September 1855

John Chapman 's final letter to Barbara Leigh Smith ended their relationship.
Herstein, Sheila R. A Mid-Victorian Feminist: Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon. Yale University Press, 1985.
109

Elizabeth Siddal: Autumn 1855

Women writers item
Author event in Elizabeth Siddal

Autumn 1855

ES was persuaded by Ruskin to winter on the Continent for the sake of her health.
qtd. in
Marsh, Jan. Elizabeth Siddal, 1829-1862: Pre-Raphaelite Artist. The Ruskin Gallery, 1991.
15

October 1855: The Sempstress/Distressed Needlewoman's Home...

Building item

October 1855

The Sempstress/Distressed Needlewoman's Home Monthly began publication in London.
Doughan, David, and Denise Sanchez. Feminist Periodicals, 1855-1984. Harvester Press, 1987.
1
Harrison, Royden et al. The Warwick Guide to British Labour Periodicals, 1790-1970: A Check List. Harvester Press, 1977.
490

Mary Fortune: 3 October 1855

Writing climate item
Author event in Mary Fortune

3 October 1855

MF (then probably twenty-two) landed in Melbourne, Australia, with her three year-old son , at the end of a voyage via Britain from Canada (having married at Melbourne, Quebec).
Sussex, Lucy, and Mary Fortune. “What the Mischief Does a Bonnet Want Here?: An Introduction to Mary Fortune (Waif Wander)”. The Fortunes of Mary Fortune, edited by Lucy Sussex, Penguin, 1989, p. xii - xxiii.
xiv-xv
Sage, Lorna, editor. The Cambridge Guide to Women’s Writing in English. Cambridge University Press, 1999.
250

George Eliot: 13 October 1855

Women writers item
Author event in George Eliot

13 October 1855

The Leader carried GE 's important short article Margaret Fuller and Mary Wollstonecraft, another trenchant examination of women's position in society.
Ashton, Rosemary. George Eliot: A Life. Hamish Hamilton, 1996.
143

Elizabeth Siddal: Autumn 1855

Women writers item
Author event in Elizabeth Siddal

Autumn 1855

Dante Gabriel Rossetti showed Robert Browning some drawings by ES of a scene from Pippa Passes, with which Rossetti reported him delighted beyond measure.
Rossetti, Dante Gabriel. Letters of Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Editors Doughty, Oswald and John Robert Wahl, Clarendon Press, 1965–1967, 4 vols.
1: 281

Christina Rossetti: November 1855

Women writers item
Author event in Christina Rossetti

November 1855

CR again took a temporary post for two months as governess; her health once more suffered, and this was the last such position that she held.
Smulders, Sharon. Christina Rossetti Revisited. Twayne, 1996.
xi
Marsh, Jan. Christina Rossetti: A Writer’s Life. Viking, 1995.
172
Rossetti, Christina. The Family Letters of Christina Georgina Rossetti. Editor Rossetti, William Michael, Haskell House, 1968.
24