The Platypus & the Feejee Mermaid

Colonialism, Science

The platypus was a real mystery to the first Europeans who encountered this graceful creature, some even doubted its existence! When Captain John Hunter sent a pelt of the animal to the naturalist George Shaw in 1799, the scientific community was baffled. Shaw named the animal Platypus anatinus, a flatfoot duck, but also expressed his doubts about the authenticity of the bizarre creature, saying that “there might have been practised some arts of deception in its structure.” Other naturalists were equally suspicious that the beast was just a hoax. This was linked to the popularity of fake specimens, such as Feejee mermaids, shown at sideshows.

As the infamous anatomist Robert Knox* explained: “Aware of the monstrous impostures which the artful Chinese had so frequently practised on European adventurers, the scientific felt inclined to class this rare production of nature with eastern mermaids and other works of art.” Knox also had a chance to perform a thorough dissection of a platypus and published a series of articles about its anatomy.

Big thanks to @skull.slinger (IG) for becoming a star adventurer for VF! Together, we’ll bring more stories about real and mythical beasts of the past.

*Yes, that’s the same Robert Knox who bought bodies from Burke and Hare. Expect a lot of stories surrounding resurrectionists this year as well!

Vinegar Valentines

Holidays, Valentines

While the Victorians loved sending cute lace-trimmed cards on Valentine’s Day, they didn’t shy away from sending other types of cards to people they wanted to fend off or play a joke on. In such cases, they would send what was known as “vinegar valentines,” which often contained mean poems or caricatures.

One of such cards read:

“To My Valentine
‘Tis a lemon that I hand you and bid you now ‘skidoo,’
Because I love another—there is no chance for you.”

PS. See Nosferatu today if you haven’t yet. 🐀🖤

Victorian spiritualism: séances and automatic writing

Spiritualism

Another séance with Miss Tique, aka @coven_of_skulls ! 👻

We already know about spirit rapping and how tedious it could be to spell spirits’ messages this way. That’s when automatic writing came along – a much faster way for mediums to channel spirits and convey their messages. At least in theory, since many of the ‘messages from beyond’ were indecipherable scribbles or confusing drawings, especially when the writing was done by a few inspired people at the séance table at once.

Automatic writing could be done just with a regular pen, or with the help of a big stylish planchette with little wheels and a hole to put a pen in. The planchette itself was created during an alphabet-calling session in Paris in 1853. As reported by Allan Kardec, one of the participants of a séance that day channeled the spirits who told them to grab a basket, put it upside down, and put a pencil in it. ✏️👻

As for Miss Tique’s rude guest, it was actually a belief at the time that women made better mediums because they were passive and their minds were ‘vacant,’ thus they could be more easily possessed by spirits. This sexist belief was however embraced and used by female spiritualists in surprising ways, which we’ll explore in future episodes. 💪

Victorian spiritualism: séances and spirit rappings

Spiritualism

It’s time for the first séance with Miss Tique, aka  @coven_of_skulls!

Spiritualism was a movement revolving around the belief that it was possible to communicate with the spirits of the dead, especially via séances. Many ideas that originated in that time regarding séances are still present, e.g., in modern movements interested in the paranormal or popular horror and gothic tropes.
While there are a few people who could be credited with starting spiritualism, it hadn’t taken off until 1848 when the famous Fox sisters claimed to contact the spirit of a murdered peddler in their house.

To contact the realm of the dead, the Fox sisters held sessions of ‘spirit rappings’ in which a spirit was supposed to spell out answers to questions by raps, taps, and knocking. It often involved calling out the alphabet, letter by letter, which often took a long time. After a few decades of fame, the sisters revealed themselves to be frauds and admitted they produced the sounds by cracking the joints in their toes.

The New York Herald reported, “There stood a black-robed, sharp-faced widow working her big toe and solemnly declaring that it was in this way she created the excitement that has driven so many persons to su*c*de or insanity. One moment it was ludicrous, the next it was weird.”

Get ready for Miss Tique!

Spiritualism

Happy Halloween, fellow Victorian ghouls!

Since we’re welcoming all the spirits from behind the veil tonight, let’s also welcome Miss Tique, the medium who will introduce us to some techniques and tricks used by different people at the height of the spiritualism movement when beliefs often met with showbusiness. 

Our Miss Tique was inspired by @coven_of_skulls and her love of everything gothic. 

Morbid Souvenirs

Crime

Happy Halloween! 🎃

Veinity Fair is finally back! 👻 I missed you guys and I hope you’re ready for some more Victorian trivia and peculiar comics! 🖤

Let’s start just where we left off, with topics chosen by a few lucky winners of previous contests and auctions. Today’s comic was inspired by the winner of a local charity auction who took on the role of our early Victorian investigator. 🕵️‍♂️

The famous Scotland Yard was formed in 1829, but the Metropolitan Police was far from organized in its infancy. In the beginning, the MP was merely keeping watch on the streets and investigation procedures were just being formed, relying primarily on the so-called “story model” rather than the meticulous practices we’re used to today. Because of that, even crime scenes were often left unattended, with curious crowds peeking in and collecting ‘souvenirs’, as in the below example:

The Examiner 11.12.1831

THE DISEASED APPETITE FOR HORRORS,

“The landlord upon whose premises a murder is committed, is nowadays a made man. The place becomes a show—the neighbourhood as the scene of a fair, The barn in which Maria Martin was murdered by Corder, was sold in toothpicks: the hedge through which the body of Mr. Weare was dragged, was purchased by the inch. Bishop’s house bids fait to go off in tobacco-stoppers and snuffboxes; and the well will be drained—if one lady has not already finished it at a draught —at the rate of a guinea a quart. (…)”

New Year’s Eve Inside a Dinosaur

Event, Famous Victorians, Paleontology, Science

Happy New Year! 🥳 What did you do for New Year’s Eve? Maybe you spent the night at a fancy dinner party inside a giant concrete Iguanodon, surrounded by prominent scientists? That’s exactly what Richard Owen, a paleontologist famous for coining the word Dinosauria, did on 31 December 1853. The party took place at The Crystal Palace at Sydenham, and the Iguanodon was a part of a larger exhibition of dinosaur models sculpted by Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins under Owen’s scientific direction. The lavish dinner consisted of eight courses and the whole event was reportedly quite boisterous.🦕

It is not entirely clear whether the scientists spent the night inside of the model itself or rather the mould in which it was made. What is clear though is the fact that Owen’s Iguanodon was not scientifically correct, even given the research available at the time. His rival and the discoverer of the Iguanodon, Gideon Mantell, came to the conclusion that the animal was a reptile of a slender build, not a heavy mammal-like creature Owen believed it to be. Unfortunately for Mantell, Owen was a fame-driven creationist who did not hesitate to steal specimens and research from other scientists, bend data to fit his own agenda, and publish negative reviews of his colleagues’ work behind their back. Plagued by opium addiction he developed after a carriage accident, Mantell was no match for the cunning rival. 😔

On 10 November 1852, Mantell died of an opium overdose, leaving Owen completely free to prepare the Crystal Palace dinosaur sculptures according to his own vision. The post-mortem showed that Mantell had been suffering from severe scoliosis. A section of his spine was removed from the body stored at the Royal College of Surgeons, where no other but Richard Owen was the conservator at the time. 

Check out Professor Joe Cain’s comprehensive article on the legendary dinner party

Mumpers on St Thomas day

Christmas, Holidays

December 21, the winter solstice, is a day on which Victorians would honor St. Thomas by participating in various charitable events, giving food and money to the poor. One of the customs was for poor women to go around the houses asking for alms, which was often referred to as going “a thomasing”, “a gooding”, or “a mumping.” The last term comes from the word mumpers, a name given to toothless beggar women, probably originating from the Dutch mompen = to mumble. 🦷🎁

St. Nicholas Day

Christmas, Holidays, Victorian Slang

Numerous countries observe Saint Nicholas Day, and many children have been gifted small presents from this seemingly jolly saint today. For instance, in Poland St. Nicholas hides gifts inside shoes or under pillows, provided that kids were good during the year. 🎅 But it turns out that the beloved St. Nicholas’ name was sometimes used in more sinister phrases and imagery. 😈

We find the first clue for that in Ware’s Victorian Dictionary of Slang & Phrase:
“Nathaniel, Below (Old English). Even lower than Hades—Nathaniel (like Samuel, or Zamiel in Germany) and Old Nick, or Nicholas, being familiar synonyms for Satan.” 🔥

The familiar euphemism ‘Old Nick’ is not easy to investigate, but it took on around the 17th century and most sources provide two possible origins of the name:
– connection to a water demon, goblin, or sprite (e.g., Old English nicker, nicor, Middle Low German necker); 🧞
– humorous reference to Saint Nicholas himself. 🎅

And a few St. Nicholas legends do contain some grizzly elements which could have inspired such a connection! Like the one where St. Nicholas resurrects three children, who had previously been killed and pickled in a barrel of brine in order to be sold as ham. 😱 He resurrects them by making the Sign of the Cross, but the imagery is of a very necromantic nature. Other stories show St. Nicholas controlling the weather by calming a seastorm and mention him encountering and vanquishing a sea monster (a nihhus), which echos the first possible etymology of Old Nick. We might never know for sure, but hopefully, historical linguists will bring us more answers!