My Victorian Nightmare
Here you’ll find mysterious deaths, morbid fascinations, disturbing stories, and otherwise spooky events from the Victorian Era. If you consider yourself an enthusiast of creepy Victorian history, you probably already know about the age of spiritualism, the grizzly murders, the grave robbers, twisted pseudo psychotherapy, and memento mori – But I try to dig a little deeper. This was a time full of lace corsetry, romantic poetry, and a deep reverence and affection for the dead. It was a culture of shared sorrow, ornament and elegance, prudishness and scandal, bone chilling children’s stories, and for whatever reason, I just feel at home there. There’s something strangely comforting about the heebie jeebies this era gives me. If you find yourself equally enchanted by things that most people would find horrifying, this podcast is probably for you. Join the community Instagram @myvictoriannightmare
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On today’s episode, Genevieve will be discussing the very macabre ways in which French Victorians would entertain themselves: the death-themed cabarets, horror shows in old gothic chapels, and the very upsetting and morbid curiosities that Parisians would literally trample over each other to get a glimpse of.References for today's episode:https://daily.jstor.org/the-cabarets-of-heaven-and-hell/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Guignolhttps://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/paris-morgue-public-viewinghttps://dianamarin.com/tag/the-uncanny-cabaret-du-neant/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabaret_de_L%27Enferhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabaret_du_Ciel
On today's episode, we will have butchery with banjos, naked maniacs decapitating people, Lesbians, more butchery, some charming insults that Victorians liked to send to one another on Valentines day, and a very special love poem.References for today's episode:“A Naked Man's Horrible Deeds,” Illustrated Police News, December 18, 1880"Butchered" With a Banjo,” Illustrated Police News, July 3, 1880“Bloody Butchery,” Illustrated Police News, January 31, 1880https://medium.com/equality-includes-you/misogyny-created-a-space-for-women-to-f-ck-in-the-19th-century-d32f6ab34e48https://medium.com/equality-includes-you/misogyny-created-a-space-for-women-to-f-ck-in-the-19th-century-d32f6ab34e48https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/victorian-same-sex-valentines-day
On today's episode, Genevieve takes you on a tour of the Victorian Lunatic Asylum. She'll discuss the history of the institution, surprising and spine-chilling facts, as well as her very own terrifying experience of the time she broke into the Overbrook Asylum in New Jersey. References for today's episode: https://cpp-college.netlify.app/programs/education-blog/victorian-mental-health-and-women-part-one-american-asylums https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/medicine/victorian-mental-asylum https://www.theatlantic.com/sponsored/netflix-2017/how-victorian-women-were-oppressed-through-the-use-of-psychiatry/1607/ https://www.talkspace.com/blog/history-inhumane-mental-health-treatments/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nellie_Bly https://usghostadventures.com/haunted-places/americas-most-haunted-hospitals-and-asylums/overbrook-asylum/ https://storymaps.arcgis.com/collections/8bcb0263e26f4ceeb6d41a00cfc72b7a?item=1
On today's episode, Genevieve will discuss the 5 Points slum, a church lunatic, a woman that takes investment advice from her dead husband, a cannibalistic affair between 2 ladies, the curious caper of an unruly cow, a locomotive disaster, mayhem, mysterious tragedies and a man who saved an entire New Hampshire town because he loved his girlfriend a little too much. References for today's episode: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_Our_Lady_of_the_Scapular%E2%80%93St._Stephen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Points,_Manhattan#:~:text=The%20local%20politics%20of%20%22the,racial%20integration%20in%20American%20history
In today’s episode, Genevieve will discuss the grisly history of the graveyard that is London, and the subterranean train system built in the Victorian era within and around the final resting places of literally millions of tightly packed Londoners. References for today’s episode: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enon_Chapel https://gizmodo.com/how-corpses-helped-shape-the-london-underground-1493312117 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-66507599 https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/london-crossrail-bedlam-big-dig https://www.timeout.com/london/news/londons-victorian-necropolis-railway-station-is-for-sale-060424 https://www.mylondon.news/news/nostalgia/london-underground-station-built-right-21001175 https://www.avantiwestcoast.co.uk/where-we-go/blog/the-forgotten-story-of-london-necropolis-railway https://thehistorypress.co.uk/article/the-forgotten-men-of-the-london-underground/
On today's show, Genevieve has a robber who becomes a raving maniac in prison, a very shocking confession followed by a very grisly request, a woman poisoned by laudanum and nearly frozen to death, a footrace between a phrenologist and a zippy young lady, a thief who nearly blows his own head off, a wife’s vengeance with a pen knife, murder, blackmail, and an unfortunate sled accident on an historic Boston Street, among a few others. References for today's episode: https://www.murderbygaslight.com/2015/06/the-murder-of-pet-halsted.html https://pages.vassar.edu/realarchaeology/2017/03/05/phrenology-and-scientific-racism-in-the-19th-century/ https://www.schenectadyhistory.org/families/hmgfm/shields.htmlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centennial_Exposition
In this week's episode, Genevieve gives a full, very dramatic review of Nosferatu, and dives into the truly diabolical murders of H.H. Holmes. References for todays episode: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._H._Holmes https://www.newspapers.com/image/668069816/?terms=h.h.%20holmes https://www.history.com/news/murder-castle-h-h-holmes-chicago https://www.ranker.com/list/hh-holmes-origin-story/hannah-gilham https://www.bustle.com/p/quotes-from-hh-holmes-memoir-provide-insight-into-the-american-ripper-69194 https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/enduring-mystery-hh-holmes-americas-first-serial-killer-180977646/
Today, Genevieve will discuss a Lunatic Asylum escapee in a washtub boat, a steamboat slaughter, a tragic murder on a lovely evening, a clergyman’s narrow escape from certain death, a fit of apoplexy, hatchets, razors, insanity, and a somewhat tragic ice skating accident that luckily has a meet-cute happy ending. References for Today's Episode: https://blogs.loc.gov/headlinesandheroes/2022/11/nellie-bly-blackwells-island/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sultana_(steamboat) https://genealogytrails.com/ill/woodford/tradgies.html
On today's episode, we’re still celebrating the Holiday season with some weird, wonderful, and downright irresponsible Victorian Christmas traditions! References for today's episode: https://www.history.com/news/christmas-tradition-ghost-stories https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/652043/victorian-christmas-traditions https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/dec/12/shock-of-the-old-11-murderous-and-macabre-victorian-christmas-cards https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-34988154 https://historycollection.com/strange-and-delightful-holiday-traditions-of-the-victorian-era/ https://www.marthastewart.com/1097532/decorative-past-tradition-christmas-pickle-ornament
Today's episode is Christmas themed! Genevieve will be discussing a family hatchet fight, an assault with a pot roast, an assault with a teapot, a fruit and nut plundering, an insane chimney sweep, a grizzly Christmas day murder, A tragic Christmas Day train disaster, a Chamber of Horrors, and a few more truly horrific Christmas day events. References for today's episode: https://www.measuringworth.com/blog/?p=256 https://www.postalmuseum.org/blog/victorian-christmas-boxes/#:~:text=These%20tokens%20were%20known%20as,form%20of%20money%20or%20alcohol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_railroad_accidents https://sites.dartmouth.edu/toxmetal/arsenic/arsenic-a-murderous-history/#:~:text=Beginning%20in%20the%20eighteenth%20century,common%20in%20the%20market%20place
In today's episode, Genevieve keeps with Victorian Christmas tradition, and tells a terrifying ghost story: The Signal Man, by Charles Dickens.
On today's episode, Genevieve dives back into the salacious, at times terrifying, at times, grisly, at times charming Illustrated Police News Law Courts and Record, from which she will read about Bleecker Street harpies punching cops in the face, some discomfiture of an older gentleman who gets a parasol stuck in his mouth, a madhouse ax murder, a man on a smashing spree, a saloon slaying, a murderously jealous lover, and a man killed by a coffin. References for today's episode: https://cemeteryclub.wordpress.com/2020/03/02/killed-by-a-coffin/ https://www.loc.gov/item/ca07000366/
In today's episode, Genevieve digs deep into the murder trial of Mary Ann Mailman at the hands of her husband, Peter Mailman in 1873. The trial was full of salacious accusations of affairs, jealous husbands, heartbreaking testimony, flagrant slut shaming from the defense, and details of the murder that shook Nova Scotia to the core.The Trial of Peter Mailman:https://ia600201.us.archive.org/10/items/cihm_09620/cihm_09620.pdf
In this very short episode Genevieve waxes on the current state of affairs. We will return to the 1800s next week, and especially in 2 months.
On today's episode, Genevieve pulls out a few articles from the Illustrated Police News Law Courts and Record: volumes between 1871 and 1875. She'll provide you with your Weekly Dose of Blood, a very concerning case of 2 men either infected with rabies, or turning into werewolves - it’s a bit unclear, a Frenchman nearly eaten alive by rats, a grizzly wedding party, a blood-thirsty maniac, a woman melting down exquisitely on stage, and a damsel giving an impromptu acrobatic performance on the streets of Chicago
On today's minisode, Genevieve reads her 3 favorite spooky Victorian Halloween poems! Edgar Allan Poe's, The Raven, Lake of the Dismal Swamp by Thomas Moore, and The Broomstick Train or the Return of the Witches by Oliver Wendell Holmes.
Today’s episode will contain absolutely delightful, bone-chillingly fascinating Victorian Halloween traditions, as well as a few more creepy-eepy Victorian house histories and hauntings.References for today's episode:https://gaslampfoundation.org/victorian-halloween-traditions-now-thats-scary/https://www.grunge.com/1056548/what-victorian-halloween-was-really-like/https://mix108.com/is-this-home-the-most-haunted-estate-in-minnesota/https://www.huntingdondailynews.com/daily_herald/news/spooktacular-stories-the-haunting-of-baker-mansion/article_7370709e-6ff2-5d04-a92a-9853bc26b288.htmlhttps://hauntedhouses.com/minnesota/forepaughs-restaurant/
In today's episode, Genevieve will be diving back into your favorite grisly, hideous, at times very witty, and fabulously illustrated Victorian publication - The Illustrated Police News Law Courts and Record. She'll discuss a creepy German law, Revolutionary war skeletons found in walls, coffins for lifeboats, and a journalist’s detailed report on what it was like to walk around a surgical school in the middle of the night in 1871.
On today's episode, Genevieve discusses the creepiest Victorian haunted house she could find: The Villisca Axe murder house. She talks about both the chilling backstory and the hauntings. References for today's episode:https://adelaidehauntedhorizons.com.au/haunted-villisca-ax-murder-house-ghosts/https://murderhouse.com/https://www.reddit.com/r/Ghosts/comments/eldrm7/stayed_the_night_at_the_villisca_axe_murder_house/https://usghostadventures.com/haunted-places/villisca-ax-murder-house/https://villisca.advantage-preservation.com/viewer/?k=moore&i=f&d=06011912-12311929&m=between&ord=k1&fn=the_villisca_review_usa_iowa_villisca_19120613_english_6&df=1&dt=10https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villisca_axe_murdershttps://coronertalk.com/28
On today's episode, Genevieve will discuss coffin-shaped boxes in mysterious huts, a case of suspended animation, a struggle in an elevator with a lunatic, and some other disturbing, little “Items of interest” as they’re called in the 1878 volume of The Illustrated Police News Law Courts and Record which are indeed very interesting items. We’ll also enjoy a pumpkin smash.
On today's episode, Genevieve discusses "America's most haunted house®" - The Whaley House of San Diego California. She'll dive into the bone chilling back story, as well as the spooky hauntings that delight (and seriously creep out) visitors today. References for today's episode include:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whaley_House_(San_Diego,_California)https://yourtahoeguide.com/2021/07/gold-rush-vigilantes-jim-ugly-and-yankee-jim/https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Whaley-1836https://www.kcghosts.com/california-whaley-househttps://sdghosts.com/the-whaley-house/https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2017/jul/03/history-san-diego-1850/https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=SDDU18850820.2.29&srpos=26&e=-------en--20-SDDU-21--txt-txIN-thomas+Whaley-------
In today's (first!) minisode, Genevieve reads articles from the "Weekly Dose of Blood" in an 1873 volume of The Illustrated Police News Law Courts and Record publication, as well as a spooky little article about a thieving somnambulist.
In today's episode, Genevieve will discuss Mediums getting attacked by spirits, men drinking their own blood, live burials, nuns getting struck with lightning and rising from the dead – it’s going to be a spooky rollercoaster.
In today's episode, Genevieve talks about Victorian circus horrors. References for today's episode:https://www.notesfromthefrontier.com/post/freak-showshttps://www.neh.gov/humanities/2011/septemberoctober/statement/the-circus-you-never-knewhttps://victorian-era.org/victorian-era-circus-performances.htmlhttps://boroughsofthedead.com/barnum-museum-fire-july-13-1865/https://www.historyextra.com/period/victorian/greatest-show-earth-freak-shows-pt-barnum-tom-thumb/https://newspapers.library.in.gov/?a=d&d=DMST18851009.2.46&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------https://www.historyireland.com/the-wee-est-little-man-that-ever-was-general-tom-thumb-in-ireland/https://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/2016/08/the-lost-original-madison-square-garden.htmlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiji_mermaidhttps://jvc.oup.com/2021/05/20/lost-circuses-of-victorian-leeds/
In today’s episode, Genevieve dives back into the Illustrated Police News from 1871 - the insane Victorian publication full of grisly murders, body snatchers, mice in donuts – it was a publication full of complete chaos.
In today's episode, Genevieve discusses how Tuberculosis influenced fashion, hazardous beauty routines, deadly hatpins, the dangers of corsets, and strange, kind of gross beauty trends, as well as some really weird and intriguing facts about Victorian fashion. References for today's episode:https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-tuberculosis-shaped-victorian-fashion-180959029/ https://www.thecollector.com/tuberculosis-art/ https://thevictorianhistorian.com/beauty-fashion/ https://nyamcenterforhistory.org/2015/05/29/did-corsets-harm-womens-health/ https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-leeds-mercury-death-of-matilda/30613252/?locale=en-US https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/hatpins-mashers-self-defense-history-women-hats-fashion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheele%27s_green https://hyperallergic.com/329747/death-by-wallpaper-alluring-arsenic-colors-poisoned-the-victorian-age/
Today’s episode is going to be a little different. Genevieve will be reading horrifying stories from the Illustrated Police News from 1871, and giving context to the stories. References for today's show:https://oxfordre.com/americanhistory/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.001.0001/acrefore-9780199329175-e-875?d=%2F10.1093%2Facrefore%2F9780199329175.001.0001%2Facrefore-9780199329175-e-875&p=emailAamzPoP9dB6io https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/266/oa_monograph/chapter/3065998#:~:text=This%20doctrine%2C%20called%20%E2%80%9Cspiritual%20affinity%2C%E2%80%9D%20swept%20the%20ranks%20of%20spiritualism%20in%20the%20early%201850s.&text=As%20sages%20of%20this%20world%20and%20the%20next%20one https://time.com/6107025/victoria-woodhull-free-love-movement/
In today's episode, Genevieve dives into the spine tingling world of Victorian Spiritualism. She'll talk about where it all began, what a Victorian materializing seance would entail, the ways mediums would trick people into believing they were talking to dead people, and the history of the Ouija board. References for today's episode:https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-john-brown-was-queen-victorias-channel-to-alberts-ghosthttps://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-fox-sisters-and-the-rap-on-spiritualism-99663697/https://www.grunge.com/665457/the-strange-truth-about-ectoplasm-explained/https://www.ranker.com/list/victorian-medium-seance-tricks/olivia-pasquarellihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritualism_(movement)https://husheduphistory.com/post/653477933416120320/calling-the-unknown-by-name-helen-peters
In today’s episode, Genevieve will discuss the wild world of Victorian vampires. She'll discuss vampire panic and vampire autopsies of the 1800s, real vampires - or at least, folks who were believed to be real vampires, and the inspirations for everyone's favorite vampire, Dracula. References for today's episode:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_England_vampire_panichttps://www.cdc.gov/tb/worldtbday/history.htmhttps://www.queensu.ca/gazette/stories/vampire-myths-originated-real-blood-disorderhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_Westenrahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Paolehttps://www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/dracula-bram-stoker-inspirationhttps://lithub.com/on-the-victorian-science-and-prejudices-behind-bram-stokers-dracula/
On today's episode, Genevieve talks about the life and times of a Ms. Mary Mallon, otherwise known as Typhoid Mary – much to her chagrin. References for today's show:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Mallonhttps://the-line-up.com/north-brother-islandhttps://www.atlasobscura.com/places/north-brother-islandhttps://ukhsa.blog.gov.uk/2019/03/28/are-victorian-diseases-making-a-comeback/https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/typhoid/letter.htmlhttps://www.americanhauntingsink.com/typhoid
In today's episode, Genevieve talks about the deeply disturbing world of Victorian Children’s stories and the twisted origins of some nursery rhymes of the time that we still enjoy today.References for today's episode:https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2019/04/the-creepy-and-harsh-lessons-of-early-childrens-books/https://news.ufl.edu/archive/1996/10/todays-scary-stories-are-tame-compared-to-victorian-age-tales.htmlhttps://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/penny-dreadfuls-victorian-children-literacyhttps://www.representingchildhood.pitt.edu/victorian.htmhttps://writingtoberead.com/2023/04/26/dark-origins-the-creepy-true-story-behind-alice-in-wonderland-darkorigins-aliceinwonderland/https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/meet-springheeled-jack-the-leaping-devil-that-terrorized-victorian-england
In today's episode, Genevieve covers the life and mysterious death of beloved gothic fiction writer, Edgar Allan Poe.My Main References:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Edgar_Allan_Poehttps://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/a45782209/edgar-allan-poe-death-mystery/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/still-mysterious-death-edgar-allan-poe-180952936/
In this week's episode, Genevieve talks about elaborate Victorian funeral traditions, what was, and was not, acceptable mourning fashion of the day, Queen Victoria’s obsession with her dead husband that sparked the trends, the hardship and power of 19th-century widowhood, as well as the almost fetishistic keepsaking of the deceased.
In this episode, Genevieve covers the mysterious death of Octavia Hatcher – a women who died in 1891 who, according to legend, was buried alive.
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