Everyday Life Around Our Victorian Home

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"This is the true nature of home -- it is the place of Peace... it is a sacred place, a vestal temple, watched over by Household Gods, before whose faces none can come but those whom they can receive with love, -- so far as it is this... so far it vindicates the name and fulfills the praise of home."
​—John Ruskin, 1878.​
​Get this on a poster     ​Get a book of great Victorian quotes like this one
​

Home - our Victorian house and its rooms

Sarah's writing den
Bedroom
Kitchen / Dining room
Parlor

A typical day

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Everyday Life

Beauty / Grooming / Washing

​Clothes

Cycling

Victorian Food

Light and Heat
Some reflections on light in winter

Sewing

Books as Time Machines: A Reflection

Sports & Leisure

Tips from a Victorian household

Etiquette

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Port Townsend, WA

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Daily Challenges
More issues

Favorite books and research materials 
​
Victorians in their own words: 19th-century stories and poetry transcribed from our private archive

Quotations of Quality:
​A Commonplace Book…

A Bouquet of Victorian Roses

Love's Messenger: Victorian Love Poetry

Words For Parting: Victorian Poetry on Death and Mourning

The Wheelman's Joy

A Christmas Wish

19th-century online article index 

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A little about the history of our home:

Our house was built in 1888.  In 1895 it was rented by five siblings: Charles, Mathilda ("Mattie" or "Tillie"), Edward ("Ed"), Daniel ("Dan") and Thomas Jr. Bracken.  The children of Thomas Bracken Sr. and his wife Mary, they moved here together after the death of their mother.

Dan was a bit of a local football hero.  Click here for a contemporary account of one of his big games (as reported in the local paper on Sunday, October 13, 1895).

Over the years, the Brackens followed opportunities which scattered them throughout the country.  Charles moved to Montana, married, and started a successful butcher business.  Dan went to Colorado to follow mining prospects, and eventually owned his own mine before dying in a tunnel collapse.  Tillie was the only Bracken who remained in Port Townsend; when her older brothers started to leave, she married Charles Webber (sometimes spelled "Weber"), an immigrant of northern european origin (some census records list him as german, while other archived materials claim him to have been Dutch.)  The couple lived for over fifty years in a little house just one block away from the home Tillie had rented with her brothers.  Tom Jr., the baby of the family, lived with Tillie and her new husband until he was old enough to strike out on his own, at which point he joined the military.   He served in Hawai'i during the first World War, then taught at a military academy on the U.S.'s east coast.

Photo courtesy Estar Hyo Gyung Choi, Mary Studio.

“Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” 
--Morris, William. “The Beauty of Life.” Hopes and Fears for Art. London: Ellis & White, 1882 p.108. 

More quotes and images related to the nature of home, on cards and other merchandise

Curiosity piqued?  
There is a lot more information about our home 
(and the Brackens as well) in Sarah's book, 
This Victorian Life:
Modern Adventures in Nineteenth-Century
Culture, Cooking, Fashion and Technology 
Happy reading!

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

The Tales of Chetzemoka

First Wheel in Town:
A Victorian Cycling Club Romance​​
Buy the book​
​Learn more​​​​​

Love Will Find A Wheel:
A Victorian Cycling Club Romance
Buy the book
​Learn more

A Rapping At The Door:
A Victorian Cycling Club Suspense Story
Buy the book
Learn more

Delivery Delayed:
A Victorian Cycling Club Romance
Buy the book
Learn more

A Trip and a Tumble:
A Victorian Cycling Club Story
Buy the Book
Learn More

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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.

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.
​

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.
​

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.
​
          Compiled and edited by Sarah A. Chrisman, author of the Tales of Chetzemoka series, This Victorian Life, 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.

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

True Ladies
and
Proper Gentlemen:
Victorian Etiquette...

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