Unusual Research Sources and Methods

I've never used Tumblr so I can't comment on what you'd find there that you couldn't in a library or from the usual online sources. You're lucky in that the Victorian era is extremely well-documented--I wouldn't go looking for unusual research until you've exhausted the usual. If you need specific suggestions, you'll have to give details on your time, place, and subjects you need help with. But there's a ton out there, so look around first to get the basics and then come back for help on stuff you can't find.

Where to start? Victorian diaries, travel accounts, maps, etiquette/advice books, cook books, newspapers, fiction...again, much depends on your time and place, but Google Books, archive.org, and Project Gutenberg will have lots to browse through. Also check out your local library for both primary sources and books about the era.

Have fun!

I'd recommend message boards or re-enactment societies. They're sure to have members that really know this stuff and make it a source of pride to know the real facts and details.

I don't know if it's unusual, butI find my best research comes from the field. I'm writing a western, set in Colorado in 1882, so I have spent a lot of weekends out at ghost towns, mining towns, western museums, and meeting horses, cowboys and ranchers.

I don't know what kind of real-life experiences might be available in your area, but if there's a restored Victorian home nearby, or a costume society with genuine clothes on hand, I'd check them out.

Not tried it, and perhaps a kooky idea, but what about eBay? I'm sure household items are for sale, and that might connect you to collectors who can tell you all sorts of stuff about daily life.

Don't know if this is unusual, but I've been reading a lot of archaeological reports (particularly Yadin's work on Masada and En Gedi), and have used the infamous Bar-Kokhba letters to generate some of my best plot ideas.

I did read recently that Val McDermid uses estate agent's listing to create her murder scenes (don't know if she visits them, though.)

victorianlondon.org is a quirky little website which one of our staff (a historian of the nineteenth century) recommends. You can also access old bailey criminal trial records from the period online at oldbaileyonline.org

Not sure if this is what you're looking for. Hope this helps.

Why get unusual when the usual sources work just fine? Newspapers, magazines, books of the period, etc.

Id say newspapers and magazines are the best resources. Youll find everything you need to know there--vital stats, fashion, trends, ephemera, crime, politics, attitudes, social issues, everything. There are plenty of old newspaper archives online, and google books has lots of old magazines and books, including old slang dictionaries, manuals, catalogues, maps, travelogues, etc. Ive found tons of obscure info this way. Manuals for pharmacists that let me know what people were drinking at soda fountains, catalogues for news sellers that listed all the various magazines that were available, police manuals that detailed how the police in a given city operated, books about racial issues, social issues, prostitution, driving magazines that listed various types of wagons and their features, vital stats for various cities, you name it. Its all out there.

For pictures and other visual reference stuff you can try the library system for the city your story is set in. Many libraries keep photo archives of their city's history, including old maps. If youre lucky theyve digitized them and have them online.

Chris P said:

Not tried it, and perhaps a kooky idea, but what about eBay? I'm sure household items are for sale, and that might connect you to collectors who can tell you all sorts of stuff about daily life.

Click to expand...

I definitely use ebay! I'm a really visual person and I like knowing what all the stuff my people interact with looks like. So I go "shopping" (ie, saving pictures) for props and costumes, and ebay is really great for that, especially minor everyday things. I've also used it when wanting to know what articles would be in the particular issue of the magazine my character is reading... issues of popular magazines are almost always on ebay, and you can read the article titles off the cover at the very least, sometimes even get pictures of the inside.

For photos I always recommend starting with the Flickr Commons (https://www.flickr.com/commons/)-- a whole bunch of museums, archives, libraries, etc. from all across the world have shared a whole bunch of their image collections there. This definitely beats google image search or tumblr because they aren't floating out of context-- all the cataloguing info the institutions have is there, usually, and if it isn't you know who to contact about it. You have to be careful about images that aren't shared by the institutions that hold the originals-- years and captions are removed or altered so easily, invalidating them as a source.

I'm not entirely sure what you mean about using Tumblr as a source-- I'm sure there are lots of Tumblrs relating to Victorian things, and it's probably easy to find lots of photographs and images. If you're just trying to get a feel for things or some inspiration, no reason not to poke around. However, for what I would consider actual research-- facts or any details that you are going to use in the novel itself-- I would be very very cautious, because anyone can say anything, and, maybe unless the Tumblr belongs to a top-level institution (and many do have them), check all the facts and details in other sources, whether books, articles, newspaper archives, etc. But as for just seeing what is out there to begin with? sure!

There's a listserv that I've subscribed to for years that focuses on all aspects of the Victorian era.

It is pretty amazing some of the stuff thats hidden away on ebay.

Dont forget the Library of Congress (if the story is set in the US). Lots of stuff there.

I like to read books of the era that can be found for free online. There's etiquette books that are fascinating, and I even found a guide to pregnancy and childbirth that was absolutely amazing. I also have an antique book that was part of a series of sex education books for young girls, young ladies, young wives, etc. Really interesting stuff!

Just check the dates to be sure it's a book from the period of your novel, and not later. You don't want to make any mistakes because your book mentioned a concept or product that wasn't introduced until a later date.

Pinterest. I use to search for and store visual information about my period like portraits, paintings and various museum objects like extant clothes, weapons, household equipment etc.