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Dr Bob Nicholson Profile picture
@DigiVictorian
Aug 26, 2020 • 6 tweets • 3 min read • Read on X
Scrolly
In 1877, the Police News reported this extraordinary story of a celebrated Parisian dancer who, they claim, auctioned off her amputated leg to a Hungarian prince for the sum of 221,000 francs!

Amazing! But...

/1 Image
The accompanying article claimed to feature extracts from Le Figaro, the Parisian newspaper, but I haven't been able to find any matching stories (though I can't read much French!). The IPN might've got her name wrong, but it's much more likely that they made it all up.

/2 ImageImageImageImage
The paper often printed sensational stories about the Parisian demimonde. For them, Paris was a fantasy world peopled by courtesans & their lovers — a landscape of sexual possibilities where everything goes. They printed some MAD stories about the place!

/3
For example: Image
Here's another (almost certainly) invented story about the Parisian demimonde — this time, the tale of a courtesan who murdered the man who won her in a game of cards!

— IPN (1877) Image
Yet another Parisian tale about the vengeance of a discarded mistress!
— IPN (1877) Image

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More from @DigiVictorian

Dr Bob Nicholson Profile picture
Sep 18, 2022
In 1892, Answers magazine ran a competition inviting readers to explain the things that would make them happy. Lot of people dreamed of money and a country estate, but not this girl...
Pity the 'little wife' who gets trapped in this man's fantasy
This is my favourite entry:
Read 4 tweets
Dr Bob Nicholson Profile picture
Jun 22, 2022
In 1892, Answers magazine published an article predicting what the news would be like in a hundred years's time. Let's see how the Victorians imagined the 90s...

Thread 👇👇👇 Image
Firstly, they accurately predicted the arrival of broadcast news! Or, at least, that it would be 'read out' to audiences thanks to the perfection of Edison's phonograph.
/2 Image
Their prediction about commercially saleable weather is perhaps still a *bit* sci-fi, but they were right about Britain adopting the decimal system. For now, at least. 🙄
/3 Image
Read 12 tweets
Dr Bob Nicholson Profile picture
Nov 17, 2021
A quick digital research tutorial!

All of @galecengage's newspaper archives — e.g. The Times, Daily Mail, British Library Newspapers — have a built-in 'Term Frequency' search tool. You can access it at the foot of the archive's home page. /1
This allows us to 'distant read' the archive by graphing how often a particular word or phrase appeared each year. It's similar to google's ngram tool (books.google.com/ngrams) but for newspapers! /2
This is a really useful tool for historical research. You can use it to map (potential) historical trends, highlight (potential) moments of change or significance, or just check to see when a particular term was in circulation. I use it a lot. /3
Read 18 tweets
Dr Bob Nicholson Profile picture
Mar 3, 2021
In 1891, the Illustrated Police News published these reactionary cartoons bemoaning what they regarded as women's growing power to accuse men of sexual/romantic misconduct. There are striking parallels here with more recent responses to movements like #MeToo and #TimesUp.
This panel, for instance, ridicules the idea of men being publicly shamed by women.
These panels remind me of men who now say things like, "you know, you can't even LOOK at a woman in public these days without being ACCUSED of something."
Read 13 tweets
Dr Bob Nicholson Profile picture
Mar 3, 2021
When notable Victorian murderers were sent to the gallows, the Illustrated Police News often printed vivid front-page illustrations imagining their tortured dreams on 'the night before the execution.'

Kate Webster was a maid who murdered & dismembered her mistress.

(1879)
The imagined dreams of Charles Peace — infamous Victorian burglar and murderer — on the night before his execution.

— Illustrated Police News (1879)
Another set of pre-execution dreams, this time attributed to Percy Lefroy Mapleton, who robbed and murdered a coin dealer named Isaac Gold on the London to Brighton train.
(1881)
Read 10 tweets
Dr Bob Nicholson Profile picture
Feb 28, 2021
Spring is in the air, and I'm reading a Victorian newspaper devoted to adultery. Here, a 'guilty pair' of lovers are spotted playing a red-hot game of whist!

- The Crim-Con Gazette (1839) Image
My favourite thing about these illustrations is always the face of the person observing the adulterers... Image
Image
Read 4 tweets

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