Victorian Readers: 30 Charming Portraits of People With Books

These charming portraits capture Victorian men, women, and children posing thoughtfully with books. In an era when literacy and self-improvement were highly valued, being photographed with a book signaled education, refinement, and intellectual curiosity.

The sitters appear in formal attire, often seated or standing in studio settings, holding volumes that range from literary works to religious texts. Together, these images offer a quiet and intimate glimpse into the reading culture of the Victorian age, preserving both the fashion and the scholarly ideals of the time.

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Unique Costumes for Children and Adults by Jane Asher From the 1980s

Jane Asher’s Fancy Dress is a costume design book first published in 1983 by British actress and author Jane Asher. The book offers over 100 costume ideas for both children and adults, complete with detailed instructions on how to create them. The designs range from traditional outfits representing various historical periods to imaginative concepts like “The Future.”

The costumes vary between those that are very easy to make to those that require much time and effort. Materials used include paper cups, postcards, fruit gums, old curtains etc. as well as more conventional but generally inexpensive fabrics. The book is full of fun ideas and never again will you be stuck for ideas of what to wear to a fancy dress party.

Assembling an ensemble cast of seamstresses led by costume designers Vin Burnham and Jill Thraves, Asher began to create an outlandish array of outfits. “Most of them were made at my house. I’d be sketching the ideas and helping with a bit of sewing,” she recalled. “I don’t think coming up with ideas was much of a problem. Because once you start thinking in a lateral way, there’s so many things you can do.”

The cover of Jane Asher’s Fancy Dress (1983)

Every costume was photographed by Asher’s friend and Sunday Times photojournalist Bryan Wharton. The models were a mix of famous and not-so-famous  friends and family. “With my good friend Joanna Lumley, you could put her in a bit of crêpe paper and she’d be fantastic,” she said. Other stellar muses include Monty Python member Terry Jones (as Birthday Cake) and actor Martin Shaw (as Club Sandwich).

“When I asked Terry Jones if there was anything particular he would like to be for the book, he immediately said he would like to be a ‘sex object,” having always wondered exactly what such an object would look like,” she said. “He had in mind something faintly surrealist and symbolic and although I had grave doubts about exactly what it should be like, I think the end result is really quite successful. He certainly made us all laugh while he was being photographed — but then Terry could make me laugh whatever he wore. I also made him a more conventional alternative ‘sex object’ costume.”

While the visuals might have aged, the ethos hasn’t; dressing up for all ages is still magical, an innocent form of escapism built on arts, crafts and a lot of sticky tape. Fancy dress still gives us all a chance to shed our skins, play a part and have a party, flipping the script on our quotidian lives and casting ourselves in a new role. It might seem silly and gimmicky, but throw on an extravagant hat, flamboyant frock or a clownish pair of shoes and you’re guaranteed to feel and act differently. Costumes stretch clothes’ personality-altering effect to the extreme, letting us spin new yarns.

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Vintage Photographs of People Using the Card Catalog at the Library in the 1970s

Back before computers were invented, librarians put information about their books on cards and filed those cards in cabinets called card catalogs. Multiple copies of the card for a particular book were printed, and particular bits of information–such as the title, the author’s name, or a subject the book was about–would be added at the top of different cards. The cards were then filed in alphabetical order in the card catalog so people who wanted to find a book (patrons) could search and find the book they wanted. The people who decided what to put on the cards were called catalogers. The information on the cards is human created metadata.

The librarians had a special ‘Librarians only’ card catalog called a shelf list. This cabinet had all the cards filed in the same order as the books on the shelf. If they needed to mark a card in that catalog they used little metal clips on the top of the card. There would be a list of what each color clip meant posted on the side of the cabinet or on the first card in a drawer. The list might say: Black = missing; Blue = being repaired; Green = on reserve for class; Yellow = Additional copy on order. When they began moving the information from cards to computers the librarians used color clips to show which cards had already been copied and which ones still needed work.

Sometimes the librarians needed to let their patrons know something special about a particular book, like a special location, but they didn’t want to do anything to the card that would require them to change or replace it when the location changed. For those times they put plastic covers with a colored stripe at the top over the card to show there was something special about it. There would then be a sign that told the searcher what the colors meant: Red = Reference shelves; Green = Children’s collection; Blue = 3rd Floor reading room.

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Book-O-Mat, the 1947 Pocket Book Vending Machine

In June 1947, Popular Science featured an early book vending machine called the Book-O-Mat, which featured a selection of 50 books any one of which could be purchased for a quarter.

Two years later the Rock-Ola Manufacturing Corporation introduced an upgraded version also named the Book-O-Mat. Rock-Ola, which is known for making slot machines and jukeboxes, decided at some point that books might also make a buck as demonstrated by their advertising for the device:

“Here for the first time is a coin operated automatic merchandiser which permits the operator to share in the profits of the multi-million dollar paperback book business.”

This Book From 1908 Shows How Photo Retouching Was Around Long Before Photoshop Ever Was

“Photoshopping” portraits have been around a lot earlier! Over a century ago, photographers were already altering images to satisfy demands of customers in the Victoria era. Their retouching tools include an easel, magnifying glass, lead holder, lead, spotting brush, retouching fluid, negative varnish, and etching paste. Pencils were used to remove imperfections and blend highlights, shadows, and halftones, while etching knives were used to reduce highlights and remove photo parts.

An instructional book published in 1908 shows examples of photo retouching dating all the way back to the early 20th century. “Complete Self-instructing Library of Practical Photography” is a 10-volume collection of black and white books. It gives instructions to photographers on how to shoot, retouch, and 'eliminate imperfections’ on their subjects.

The book says, “in delivering finished work to your customers, you do not hand them the photographic negatives, but the prints made from these negatives.” And that “the early days of photography prints were made directly from the negative without any alteration.”

This is because “the wet-plate rendered softer effects than are obtainable with the ready prepared dry-plate.” Therefore, “the imperfections were less visible, and at that time the general public was satisfied with an exact likeness of themselves.”

However, when the dry-plate began replacing the wet-plate, photographs became more accurate, and “the defects in the human face became more apparent on the negative, and there arose a demand for a greater softening of the lines and a removal of the more objectionable imperfections.”

That’s when retouching became a thing! Here are some examples portrayed in the book regarding the removal of imperfections from photography subjects during the early 20th century.

This image mentions the use of “first stage, preliminary etching.”

The finished result appears much smoother. The photographer used “second stage etching and retouching.”

The original negative print alongside the retouched negative print.

The three stages of elementary retouching.

Some side view before-and-after examples of first stage retouching.

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35 Amazing Vintage Photos of Victorian People Posing With Books

The Victorian Era is characterized by the expanding horizons of education and literacy, as well as by an increased desire of the people to question religion and politics. This era also marks a time of great economic growth, technological discovery, and industrialization. The influence of literature became more prevalent in society as reading evolved into a social pastime indicated by the increasing literacy rate.

At the era’s beginning in 1837, it is estimated that approximately half of the adult male population was literate to a certain degree. Because of the new practices, compulsory education and technological advances in printing resulting in widely available reading materials, standard literacy was more or less universal by the end of the century.

Here below is a set of amazing photos that shows people with books during Victorian era.

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Shades on Feathers: This Old Book of Color Shades Depicted With Feathers

Sample book with dyeing instructions and an 18-section foldout containing 143 dyed feathers.

Directions for Dyeing.

Dye at the boil with an addition of

2–8./0 sulphuric acid 168. Tw.

10–20./0 Glauber’s salt. cryst.,

according to the depth of the required shade. The dyeing must be continued until the bath is exhausted and the shades are sufficiently level, i. e. the feathers will have to be boiled for about an hour.

Afterwards rinse well, dry and steam (if necessary).

Before dyeing, clean the feathers well. For this purpose, it is advisable to use a weak, lukewarm solution of olive oil soap, to which a little ainmonia has been added. Some Tetrapol may also be added to the solution. After cleaning the feathers, rinse well and treat as described above.

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Persinger’s Scrapbook: The 35-Pound Comic Scrapbook That Paints a Picture of Great Depression-Era Life

In 2020, Australian sculptor and collector Eric Oglander bought an old and cumbersome scrapbook at an auction and published the photos on his Instagram account. This 830-page, 12-inch-thick, 16-pound contraption is a scrapbook that belonged to a Kansas barber named I. A. Persinger.

Persinger (shown here in 1918) invited his barbershop customers to contribute to the scrapbook—as long as they handled it with care.

Persinger began the book in 1928 as a collection of Roy Crane’s “Wash Tubbs” comic strips for the entertainment of visitors to his barber shop called “Bungalow” in Fredonia (Kansas). The album evolved and was updated and reformatted (or rather patched up) over nearly a decade (1939) to become a sort of historical diary with notes and drawings of the barber and his customers.

Although most of the pages contain two “Wash Tubbs” strips, over the years, they became a place to comment on the state of the world or the length of the Depression, among many other topics, much like today’s social networking sites, but also in the traditional guest books of bars, museums, and so on.

Mr. Persinger repeatedly warns his readers to handle the book with care, and refers to it as a “relic.” On one page he notes that the “Depression is still here,” but “It’s not very hungry” and that “Only silliness (or humour, I suppose) seems to keep things going.” His inscriptions are also an interesting collection of testimonials and recollections from people who suffered various hardships because of the Great Depression.

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30 Travel-Book Photos of Yosemite National Park in the 1930s

Yosemite National Park is an American national park in the state of California, surrounded on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service and covers an area of 759,620 acres (1,187 sq mi; 3,074 km2) in four counties – centered in Tuolumne and Mariposa, extending north and east to Mono and south to Madera County.

Yosemite National Park in the 1930s

Designated a World Heritage Site in 1984, Yosemite is internationally recognized for its cliffs, waterfalls, clear streams, giant sequoia groves, lakes, mountains, meadows, glaciers, and biological diversity. Almost 95 percent of the park is designated wilderness. Yosemite is one of the largest and least fragmented habitat blocks in the Sierra Nevada, and the park supports a diversity of plants and animals.

The geology of the Yosemite area is characterized by granite rocks and remnants of older rock. About 10 million years ago, the Sierra Nevada was uplifted and tilted to form its unique slopes, which increased the steepness of stream and river beds, resulting in the formation of deep, narrow canyons. About one million years ago glaciers formed at higher elevations which eventually melted and moved downslope, cutting and sculpting the U-shaped valley that attracts so many visitors to its scenic vistas.

These amazing travel-book photos from ChiefRanger that show Yosemite National Park in the 1930s.

Ahwahnee Golf Course, Yosemite, 1930s

Autumn in Yosemite, 1930s

Bridalveil Falls, Yosemite, 1930s

Campfire Entertainment, Yosemite, 1930s

El Capitan, Yosemite, 1930s

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Every Reason Why Women Should Not Vote

Published in 1917 by the National Woman Suffrage Publishing Co., this book compiles an exhaustive list of reasons women should not be allowed to vote. Unsurprisingly, all the book’s pages are entirely blank. Probably because, even in 1917, there were no valid reasons why women shouldn’t have been eligible to vote.

This Little Book Contains Every Reason Why Women Should Not Vote (New York: National Woman Suffrage Publishing Co., 1917).

National Woman Suffrage Publishing Company was tasked with publishing pamphlets and booklets covering practically the entire field of suffrage claims and evidence. It is designed especially for the convenience of suffrage speakers and writers and for the use of debaters and libraries.

All the books pages are blank.

In 1920, three years on from the publication of the book the legislative battle for women’s suffrage was won. 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibited discrimination on the basis of gender and made voting the fundamental right for women.

However, discrimination on the basis of race and color was still prevalent. Like any other constitutional amendment, there was a great deal more required in order to give it teeth. It was only in 1965, that the Voting Rights Act culminated the fight for voting rights for all.

As an ultimate troll, Rep. Sherman Berry, an anti-women’s suffrage activist, was left with a copy of the book on her desk. Conventional wisdom held that civic duty was bad for the ovaries; she decried,

“….I also find on my desk this morning a little pamphlet, entitled, This Little Book Contains Every Reason Why Women Should Not Vote. We open the book and find blank pages within. It is only another sample of what many of you have seen, and, I might almost say, of the detestable and cheap politics practiced in this State. Gentlemen, that little book carries no more weight with it than does the picketing of the White House in this time of crisis and peril to this nation and the heckling of our President….”

This kind of humor has not lost its touch and is still relevant in today’s political sphere. During the 2020 presidential elections, book shops did a brisk trade on books like The Wit and Wisdom of Donald Trump and Why Trump Deserves Trust, Respect and Admiration. All are entirely blank.

(This original article was written by Kamna Kirti and published on Medium, via The Public Domain Review)

Your Beautiful Home on a Budget, 1974

“Your Beautiful Home on a Budget: How to Create Style on a Shoestring” was a home decorating book published in 1974. It was aimed at people who wanted to brighten up their homes on a shoestring budget. The book was written by Dawn Marsden, who also published a book titled “Planning Colour for Your Home: All You Need to Know About Colour” in the same year. She made her last contribution to literature world with her 1981 book “The Complete Home Handywoman.”

Here’s a few pages from the seventies home interior publication. They include ghastly looking bathrooms and kitchens, groovy tables and a Brian May look-a-like model – Enjoy!

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