At the turn of the twentieth century, a new form of dangerous and very costly entertainment appeared… staged train crashes 🚂🚂 Thousands of Americans would appear at these events, watching the crashes and collecting “souvenirs” from the wrecks. ⚙️
This craze lasted for almost 40 years!
Check out this story about the most dangerous of these crashes: Atlas Obscura 😎
Crinolines 💃 were hugely popular in the second half of the 19th century, since their fairly light construction allowed women to play with fashion and big dress shapes without the need to carry the weight of several petticoats (as it was done earlier). This vast popularity of crinolines among women of all classes led to coining the word ‘crinolinemania’ and numerous caricatures in the media.
And while there were some hazards 😱 connected with wearing crinolines, especially in factories or near an open fire 🔥, they were definitely great at providing some personal space 😎
Usually Veinity Fair is all about the Victorians, but I just couldn’t resist sharing with you some more medieval advice…
You can find more delightful and morbid trivia in this surprisingly funny book by Jennifer Wright: Get Well Soon
While working in Vienna General Hospital in the 1840s, Ignaz Semmelweis noticed a curious thing – the mortality rate of new mothers was a lot higher in wards supervised by doctors 👨⚕️compared to those supervised by midwives 👩⚕️. After some investigating, he found the source of the problem – only doctors had access to both maternity wards and autopsy tables. Semmelweis quickly developed a theory of what he called “cadaverous particles” 🧟♀️🧟♀️ and introduced rigorous handwashing 🧼 in his clinics. Unfortunately, even though his method worked spectacularly well, he was ridiculed by most of the medical professionals until his death in a lunatic asylum. 💀
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