Rare Photos Showing That Victorians Weren’t That Serious

Published 8 years ago

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)

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#1 A Victorian Couple Trying Not To Laugh While Getting Their Portraits Done, 1890s

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#2 A Unique Tea Setting For Two

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#3 Cakewalk Dance

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#4 A Snow Lady, 1892

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Image source: The Strand magazine

#5 Unusual Portrait Of A Victorian Lady, 1840

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#6 Three Fashionable Young Men At Yale, 1883

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#7 Awkward Family Photo, Victorian Edition

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#8 Tsar Nicholas II Goofing Around, 1899

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Image source: statearchive

#9 Vintage Humor

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Image source: statearchive

#10 Piggy Nose

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#11 Men And Women Cross Dress In This Silly Victorian Snap, 1880-1900

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#12 Say That Again, And I’ll Dip You In, 1897

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Image source: James M. Davis

#13 Unknown Victorian In Mid-jump

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#14 Vacation Sports At The Seaside

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Image source: Strohmeyer and Wyman

#15 Richard Freiherr Von Krafft-Ebing

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Image source: Krafft-Ebing

Take a look at more vintage goodness from World War 2.

Andrius

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happy Victorian pictures, old photos, smiling Victorian pictures, smiling Victorians, Victorian age, Victorian era, Victorian photographs, Victorian photos, Victorian pictures, Victorian smiling, Victorian Times, Victorians, vintage photography, vintage photos
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