Victoria's Final Decade, 1890's

The invention of photography in the first half of the 19th century gave people a completely different way of recording what was happening around them and soon professional and amateur photographers were turning their lenses onto every subject imaginable - monarchs and politicians, soldiers at war, industry and transport, farming and rural life, national celebrations, ordinary people at home and at work, entertainers and actors, fashion, sport, school and much else. Their work has given us a unique view of our nation's heritage. This volume looks at the major events, people and stories of the 1890s through photographs that reveal the essence of those times. Gladstone, one of the giants of Victorian politics, retired from politics in 1894 but Victoria herself was still going strong - crowds thronged the streets of London to celebrate her Diamond Jubilee in 1897. Three years earlier, photographers had been there to record the opening of Tower Bridge and a Thames crowded with boats. Inventions from this decade included the electric kettle, introduced in 1891, and the tea bag. By the end of the decade Britain was once again at war - this time in South Africa, fighting a small but determined force of Boer settlers. Relive these times in the dramatic and moving pictures presented in this book.