Rare Photos Showing That Victorians Weren’t That Serious
Before you could burst-shot 4 selfies per second with your mobile phone, photography was a very expensive pleasure. Back in the Victorian era, for instance, the cost of pictures meant that you’d only have your photo taken once or twice in a lifetime. Or sometimes even after it, as post-mortem photography (i.e posing with dead members of your family) was actually a thing back then. Yeah. Cheerful times.
So photography wasn’t as casual as it is now, and getting yourself snapped was a rather big deal. As a result, you won’t find too many photos of Victorians actually enjoying themselves in front of a camera. But a few photographers were lucky enough to a capture a lighter side of the otherwise serious-looking Victorians, and thanks to the guys at Whizzpast, we get to see it.
(h/t: boredpanda)
#1 A Victorian Couple Trying Not To Laugh While Getting Their Portraits Done, 1890s
#2 A Unique Tea Setting For Two
#3 Cakewalk Dance
#4 A Snow Lady, 1892
Image source: The Strand magazine
#5 Unusual Portrait Of A Victorian Lady, 1840
#6 Three Fashionable Young Men At Yale, 1883
#7 Awkward Family Photo, Victorian Edition
#8 Tsar Nicholas II Goofing Around, 1899
Image source: statearchive
#9 Vintage Humor
Image source: statearchive
#10 Piggy Nose
#11 Men And Women Cross Dress In This Silly Victorian Snap, 1880-1900
#12 Say That Again, And I’ll Dip You In, 1897
Image source: James M. Davis
#13 Unknown Victorian In Mid-jump
#14 Vacation Sports At The Seaside
Image source: Strohmeyer and Wyman
#15 Richard Freiherr Von Krafft-Ebing
Image source: Krafft-Ebing
Take a look at more vintage goodness from World War 2.
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