Thread by @drskyskull

Oh no I found an Edwardian era article about animal masquerade balls

... and right after that, an article about playing the piano with rifles.

Me to literally everyone in the Edwardian era:

It wouldn't be an Edwardian magazine if it didn't include at least one story with racism and colonialism.

Okay, stepping away from the illustrated Edwardian magazines for a while. I could easily lose days reading through them.

I must say that Edwardian photo magazines are a treasure trove. Those folks were into some weird shit, as in this example I have shown before:

Old time machine goals: go back and stop Hitler

New time machine goals: go back to Edwardian England and ask: “What the FUCK is wrong with you?”

Honestly if I slap enough people in Edwardian England that might indirectly solve the Hitler problem too

Regarding that Masquerade article: I went back to read it, and I could not have written a more perfect introduction to it if I tried.

When a town in New Jersey put out an order that all unmuzzled dogs should be shot on sight, one fellow had a unique bulletproof solution.

Presented without comment.

Oh, cool -- I found another painting showing galloping horses before the invention of high-speed photography.

Definitely bookmarking this article to read later.

Solar power, circa 1904.

Next up: found an article about ghosts in art.

THIS ONE.

I should send this 1904 article along to some of my astronomy friends.

Somehow, Edwardian people managed to make snowpeople creepy as fucking hell, too.

This group is definitely coming alive at night to murder people.

If you're wondering: could Edwardians make parades terrifying? The answer is yes.

I should note that when I say "Edwardian," I am largely referring to the time period, and not necessarily specifically UK folks at that time. Some of this weird shit comes from other European countries.

Let's add this to the list of insane shit that Edwardian era people did for kicks.

I mean...

"Pardon to me, Miss, but what happened to your intenstines?"

Oh wow -- I just reposted some mathematical fallacies on twitter the other day, and here's one from 1904! This is a new fallacy for me. See if you can figure out what went wrong!

Okay, maybe more later.

Okay shit just this one more for now.

"Tender romance." Okay, based on the facial expressions, who wants to give this illustration a modern title?

"It's not sexism, it's SCIENCE!!!"

This is fascinating. Someone noting the similarity in structure between clouds and cauliflower in 1904, way before the mathematics of fractals.

And I was so enraptured with the cauliflower head, I didn't even notice the story of people being rescued at sea at first.

Holy SHIT. This "tramp chair" was proposed and seriously considered for use in punishing vagrants. The victim would be basically seated immobile, to be paraded before the public.

Okay, more later. At this rate, I will finish my book draft in... 2032.

Waiting for food to be ready, so here's some more. For those who say that Edwardians clearly were bored out of their minds, well. people were working on it. There's a whole article on hypothetical new amusement park rides.

And they just get weirder...

... and weirder...

... and weirder...

... I mean...

... I don't even understand the purpose here.

It is important to know how your leader measures up in comparison with others in the world.

... and your scientists, apparently?

The Strand was really into publishing optical illusions from readers, which I am grateful for.

And here's a cool cat illusion!

All of this is from a *single* volume of The Strand, btw.

For those who asked: Just use Google books to track down The Strand, as all the issues are free to access there.

A few more random tidbits before going to bed: the whole reason I was reading The Strand was to track down Sherlock Holmes stories, which were illustrated.

Now this image is just unabashed Edwardian mansplaining.

This is genuinely fascinating -- an article where the author endeavors to track down the models who sat for famous artworks.

A LOT going on here.

"I do say, I wish a motherfucker would."

The inside of a salt mine. I don't think it ever occurred to me that it could be a quite striking thing to see.

There's also an article all about how different sound effects were produced for stage performances.

Weird Edwardian inventions.

Unsettling.

Apparently the "black and blue versus white and gold dress" controversy of 1904.

The internet couldn't come fast enough.

Okay, going to wrap up this thread here and go to bed! Thanks to everyone for reading and sharing!