Welcome to the world behind the stories!

Gabriel and Sarah Chrisman are a married couple who specialize in late 19th-century history and culture; we bring back as many elements of 19th-century culture and technology as humanly possible in our everyday lives.  Gabriel is a trained archivist and librarian, who also crafts hand-built bicycles.  Sarah writes books about the Victorian era which incorporate the details we learn by living as we choose.  A typical day

Our home was built in 1888/89.  We wear Victorian-style clothes every day, use a wood-burning stove and an antique ice box, and incorporate countless other details of everyday Victorian life into our own daily lives.  The way we choose to live provides us a depth of insight which gives an exceptional vibrancy and realism to Sarah's historical fiction.  Be sure to check out her internationally acclaimed Tales of Chetzemoka series!  The Edinburgh Book Review​ says these books bring history to life "by imbuing each character and their backdrop with all the small details that make up everyday life; shedding light on the sort of things others would perhaps take for granted."  You can explore some of the "stories behind the stories" and get a small glimpse into the extensive research that goes into each book by visiting the Tales of Chetzemoka backstory pages:     First Wheel in Town           Love Will Find A Wheel

A Rapping At the Door

Delivery Delayed

A Trip and a Tumble

​Tales of Chetzemoka merchandise

​We are NOT actors playing dress-up to portray "great men/women", but just ordinary people choosing to insert as much of history into our present as we can, and using our experiences to teach others.  Sarah wears a corset 24/7, 365 days a year.  All of Gabriel's current glasses date from the nineteenth century, from his 1850's green sunglasses, to his everyday gold-rimmed spectacles, to his pince-nez for reading.  We don't have cell phones, or watch television; Sarah doesn't even have a driver's license.  This is who we are.      

We help researchers in various genres with their projects.  We've worked with novel writers,  film producers (for documentaries as well as movies), and radio programs.  For help with your project, please contact us through our Historical Consulting page.

We also make appearances at history-oriented events, as well as giving formal presentations and inspirational talks.  If your organization is interested in having us present, by all means please contact us!  A number of different options are available: Services We Offer.

We would be honored if you would put the titles of Sarah's books in the suggestion box of your local bookstore or library, and ask your friends to do the same!  Please ask them to sponsor a presentation / signing, or to choose one of her books as a Community Reads project.  Thank you for your support!

An interview about Sarah's books with the Edinburgh Book Review:
https://www.edinburghbookreview.co.uk/interview-sarah-a-chrisman/
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"From my earliest boyhood, ancient wearing apparel, old household and kitchen utensils, and antique furniture, have appealed to me with peculiar force, telling facts and relating incidents to me in such a plain, homely but graphic manner of the every-day life of our ancestors, that I look upon them more as text-books than as curiosities; for it is only by the light of truth reflected from these objects that we are enabled to. . . pierce the. . . fiction with which the perspective of years surrounds the commonest objects of those remote times." 
—Beard, Dan C. "Six Feet of Romance."  The Cosmopolitan. July, 1889. p. 226.

Photo courtesy Estar Hyo-Gyung Choi, Mary Studio.

This Victorian Life
Gifts

The Past is Present…

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Remember to check out Sarah's books —and tell your friends about them!
Buying these books is the best way to show your support for what we do and help us keep doing it!
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Tales of Chetzemoka
​In a seaport town in the late 19th-century Pacific Northwest, a group of friends find themselves drawn together —by chance, by love, and by the marvelous changes their world is undergoing.  In the process, they learn that the family we choose can be just as important as the ones we're born into.  Join their adventures in
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First Wheel in Town:
A Victorian Cycling Club Romance​​
In the summer of 1881, a Pacific Northwest town is buzzing with curiosity over a mysterious package received by handsome young Dr. Brown. Kitty Butler, the town dressmaker, is as curious as anyone else. She only knows one thing about that crate in the post office: everyone else's guesses about its contents are all wrong. 

When Dr. Brown unpacks the crate and reveals the first bicycle the town has ever seen, he wants to share his enthusiasm for this revolutionary new piece of technology —but encounters overwhelming hostility instead of the excitement he'd expected. The only one who seems positively interested is the pretty young widow Kitty Butler, and Dr. Brown soon realizes how much he needs her support…

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Love Will Find A Wheel:
A Victorian Cycling Club Romance

            "I'm sure he'll be glad you're here —once he gets used to it." 
            When Jacob Simmons arrives in Washington Territory in the summer of 1882 and receives a glacial reception from his uncle Silas, he appreciates Dr. Brown's encouraging prediction but doesn't have much faith in it.  Jacob's not even sure Silas will have time to get used to his presence, let alone consider him welcome.  If the young man can't meet the draconian requirements of a contract with his business investors, he'll face exile and financial ruin, thus fulfilling old Silas' prediction that he would be just as dismal a failure as his father.  His whole future rests on finding a market for a remarkable new machine —and he'll need help selling them.
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            Addie Kellam is an incredibly lonely young woman.  She's more comfortable with books than with other people, yet she longs for the sort of romance she reads about in stories.  It's something she fears she'll never experience herself, since even friendship seems elusive.  She envies the cameraderie her brother finds in his cycling club, but the only bicycles in the town of Chetzemoka are specifically designed for men.  There aren't any wheels for women anywhere —are there?
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A Rapping At The Door:
A Victorian Cycling Club Suspense Story

         When the delivery of a mysterious letter to Silas Hayes' mansion is followed by the arrival of a beautiful young woman who claims she can communicate with the dead, Nurse McCoy sniffs trouble in the wind. It's obvious to her that the newcomer is after Silas' fortune, but he is helplessly in awe of the medium's eerily intimate knowledge of his past and her seemingly supernatural abilities. Meanwhile, Kitty Brown's yearning to reach out to the departed spirit of her first love is making her push away her new husband, just when she needs him the most. The whole situation is a dreadful mess, and McCoy's got to straighten it all out before Silas' nephew and his bride come back from their honeymoon. Honestly, she doesn't know how any of the fools in this world would get along without her…

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Delivery Delayed:
A Victorian Cycling Club Romance

It's obvious to everyone in the Chetzemoka cycling club that Lizzie and Isaac could make each other very happy —but does anyone really listen to their friends about affairs of the heart?  A prim schoolmarm and a stoic steamship captain are hardly the people to discuss their sentiments, especially with each other.  The smallest challenges seem like huge obstacles, even with everyone else trying their best to bring them together.  When progress finally seems possible, a well-intentioned little girl steps in with the kind of help they'd be better off without.  Will the situation be resolved in time, or will Isaac ship out for good?

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A Trip and a Tumble

Time for a vacation —step right up! When Felix's newspaper sends him up to Victoria, Canada, to report on a visiting circus, Ken inevitably tags along, "like a dutiful puppy", as Addie says. Meanwhile, the cycling company Jacob represents sends him north to Victoria as well, as an ambassador for the sport. Addie tells him to keep an eye on the chums, but no one ever could keep Ken and Felix from stumbling into scrapes. When a vivacious high-society belle and a surprisingly timid circus bicyclist enter the picture, things heat up quickly. Be prepared for a grand circus pageant —let the show begin!
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Collections

Love's Messenger
A Choice Collection of 
Victorian Love Poetry


The verses embraced within these pages have been kissed awake after a long slumber.  Copied from the fragile pages of nineteenth-century books and magazines, they are the whispers of lovers long entranced.  In this beautifully diverse collection of Victorian love poetry high-born ladies and their eloquent beaux keep company with simple maids whose sweethearts pledge their love in simpler —and often much funnier— terms.  Prepare for your happy sighs to be joined by occasional giggles while you hold this book close to your heart.
 
Compiled, edited and introduced by Sarah A. Chrisman, author of the charming Tales of Chetzemoka historical fiction series, This Victorian Life, Victorian Secrets, and others.
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Words For Parting
Victorian Poetry on Death and Mourning
 Love and grief and the two most private, and at the same time the most universal of all human emotions. It is for love that we remember the dead: love of their spirits, love of their vibrancy, love of the good deeds which they did and which live on after them. The poems in this collection were all written by grieving hearts who have now themselves passed over into that great mystery. We can not truly know what death is, yet we know it will come to all of us. In ancient times when a friend told the philosopher Socrates that his judges had sentenced him to death he responded, "And has not Nature passed the same sentence on them?"
          Inasmuch as there can ever be any comfort for those left behind, part of it lies in knowing that death is a reflection of life. When it comes we cry, then we take our first faltering steps towards understanding. In time we become accustomed to this manifold enigma which nature has given us, and then ultimately we look towards the future with hope.
          If this little book of poems may be of some help to those in sorrow by reminding them they are not alone, then it will have done its work.
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          Compiled and edited by Sarah A. Chrisman, author of the Tales of Chetzemoka series, This Victorian Life, and others.
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The Wheelman's Joy
Victorian Cycling Poetry and Words About Wheels
There is something inherently romantic about cycling, and there has been since the first riders set their wheels to the road. This collection of nineteenth-century poetry, prose quotes and bon-mots about cycling reflects both the ardent passion and the innocent affection cycling inspires. From the glory days of high-wheel cycling through the boom of the safety bicycle, riders were falling in love with their wheels, with new-found freedoms, and above all with each other. This delightful little collection tells of those days in their own words, and evokes sentiments which every cyclist will find timeless. Compiled edited and introduced by Sarah A. Chrisman, author of the charming Tales of Chetzemoka cycling club series, This Victorian Life, Victorian Secrets, and others.

Quotations of Quality
A Commonplace Book of Victorian Advice, Wit, and Observations on Life

Eloquent statements are like the seeds of beautiful flowers: in the fertile garden of the mind they grow and blossom into inspiration, reflection, and rewarding conversations. The Victorian era was a time when people expressed themselves skillfully and beautifully, and the writings of that age are a rich legacy from the past. This little volume is a collection of sentiments on an array of subjects, among them:

Books: "A minute's reading often provokes a day's thinking." —W.H. Venable, 1872. "Books are those faithful mirrors that reflect to our minds the minds of sages and heroes. A good book is the precious life-blood of a master spirit treasured up on a purpose for a life beyond." —J.F. Spaunhurst, 1896.
Writing: "Every new book must have, in the consciousness of its author, a private history that, like the mysteries of romance, would if unfolded have an interest for the reader, and by unveiling the inner life of the volume show its character and tendencies." —Sarah Josepha Hale, 1866.
Language: "The [Ancient] Greeks said that barbarians did not speak, they twittered." —Charles DeKay, 1898.
The Sexes: "It is better for men, it is better for women, that each somewhat idealize the other." —Gail Hamilton, 1872.
Love: "True love is that which ennobles the personality, fortifies the heart, and sanctifies the existence. And the being we love must not be mysterious and sphinx-like, but clear and limpid as a diamond; so that admiration and attachment may grow with knowledge." —Henry Frédéric Amiel, 1880.
Optimism: "Refuse to dwell among shadows when there is so much sunshine in the world." —Hester M. Poole, 1888.
History: "The past is our wisest and best instructor. In its dim and shadowy outlines we may, if we will, discern in some measure those elements of wisdom which should guide the present and secure the welfare of the future." —Frederick Douglass, 1889.
Work: "Make the most of your brain and your eyes, and let no one dare tell you that you are devoting yourself to a low sphere of action." —Anonymous, late 19th-century

Keep this book in a place where its wisdom can refresh your spare moments, or buy a copy for a friend to brighten their day. May the flowers of thought thus planted bear rich fruit for you.

​Compiled and edited by Sarah A. Chrisman, author of The Tales of Chetzemoka, This Victorian Life, and others.
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A Bouquet of Victorian Roses

          "What flower did she most resemble?… A rose! Certainly… strong, vigorous, self-asserting… yet shapely, perfect in outline and development, exquisite, enchanting in its never fully realized tints, yet compelling the admiration of every one, and recalling its admirers again and again by the unspoken appeal of its own perfection—its unvarying radiance." —John Habberton, 1876. 
          All hail the Queen of Flowers! In this collection of Victorian writings on roses, brief prose remarks, lovely poetry and engaging short stories are gathered together —all with nature's most perfect blossom as their central theme. From poetry on the fragrant beauty of roses, to tales ranging from a ghost story about roses as omens to a romance of love among the roses, this collection will delight anyone who dreams of being surrounded by roses. A perfect gift for weddings, birthdays… or your own sunny afternoon!
​          Compiled and edited by Sarah A. Chrisman, author of the Tales of Chetzemoka series and others.

True Ladies and Proper Gentlemen

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Non-fiction

Victorian Secrets:
What A Corset Taught Me About the Past, the Present, and Myself

This Victorian Life:
Modern Adventures in Nineteenth-Century Culture, Cooking, Fashion, and Technologies

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This Victorian Life
Gifts

The Past is Present…

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Essays by Sarah about a few of our philosophies:

Costumes vs. Clothing: An excerpt from Victorian Secrets:
http://www.thisvictorianlife.com/costume-vs-clothing.html​

Curating history:
http://www.thisvictorianlife.com/blog/curating-history

The Cyclical Nature of Time —or, What An Oak Tree Has In Common With Human History
www.thisvictorianlife.com/blog/the-cyclical-nature-of-time-or-what-an-oak-tree-has-in-common-with-human-history

The difference between digitization and preservation:
http://www.thisvictorianlife.com/blog/digitization-does-not-equal-preservation

Everyday Life As A Learning Experience:
www.commonlit.org/texts/everyday-life-as-a-learning-experience

Getting Intimate With History:
https://vintorian.blogspot.ca/2015/12/getting-intimate-with-history-lessons.html

​What Millenial Women Can Learn From Victorian Ladies:
​http://www.refinery29.com/victorian-living-millennial-women


Daily Challenges:
http://www.thisvictorianlife.com/blog/-daily-challenges-perverts-at-purple-haze-fire-to-temper-steel
More challenges:
www.thisvictorianlife.com/blog/victoria-bc-canada-downs-and-ups-on-an-anniversary-trip-or-how-we-were-denied-entrance-to-victorias-most-famous-garden-for-dressing-too-decently-yet-still-managed-to-find-many-lovely-flowers-in-much-better-places

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Index to this website:

Books
Books we've written or otherwise been involved with.  Thank you for looking!

Historical Fiction
​Pictures and special inside details behind the internationally acclaimed Tales of Chetzemoka
First Wheel in Town backstories

Love Will Find A Wheel backstories

A Rapping At the Door backstories

Delivery Delayed backstories

A Trip and a Tumble backstories

Non-fiction

Anthologies

Presentations
Our educational presentations

Consulting Services

Tours
Book a walking tour of historic Port Townsend with the author of the Tales of Chetzemoka

Our Victorian Home
Sarah's Writing Den
Home - our Victorian house and its rooms
-Bedroom
-Kitchen / Dining room
-Parlor
Light and Heat
Sewing
Cooking / Mealtimes
Sports & Leisure
Writing
​Tips from a Victorian household
Etiquette
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Daily Challenges

Antique Clothes
Selections from our antique clothing collection

Everyday Clothes
Selections from our everyday clothes

Sarah
A few words about Sarah

Gabriel
A few words about Gabriel

Upcoming Presentations

Past events

Links

Media
Articles about us and interviews on radio and television

Frequently Asked Questions

Cycling

A bit of cycling history—and pictures of us with our wheels!

Leisure Activities
Popular Victorian sports and leisure activities and pictures of our experiences with them

Victorian Food

Fun with Fine Art
Paintings and photographs

Research materials

Blog

Historical articles
Historical articles transcribed from materials in our collection, indexed by title and by subject

Historical images
Historical images scanned from ephemera in our collection
Animals
Athletes
Bicycles
Comics
Children
Corset advertisements
Dining
Fashion Plates
Flowers
Food advertisements
Health and Beauty Products
Misc.
Photo of children
Photos of couples and families
Photos of maids
Photos of nurses
Photos of various Victorian women
Romantic images
Servants
Sheet music

Donate

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Victorian Cycles
Hand-built 1890's-style bicycles
Interested in a real time machine?  Commission one of our 1890s-style custom bicycles!  Custom, hand-made steel frames with wooden fenders and chainguards, leather saddles and cork grips.  Whether you are interested in a roadster or a racer, we can build you the period bicycle of your dreams. 

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For words of wit and advice sage,
I hope you'll like my author page!
History lessons, folks who dare,
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