Victorian Society in America

The final day of the London program was spent in the Surrey countryside, visiting Gertrude Jekyll's Munstead Wood (now owned by the National Trust), the privately-owned Norney Grange (C. F. A. Voysey, 1897), and finishing with a final group high tea at the Watts Gallery and astonishing Watts Cemetery Chapel.

The final days of the London program were spent in London and the Surrey and Sussex countryside. On Thursday, the group Leighton House Museum and Linley Sambourne House, near Holland Park and the neighborhood of artist houses that grew out of the Holland estate. The afternoon was spent in Bedford Park at the UK Victorian Society headquarters for lectures and a reception sponsored by the Alumni Association.

Friday and Saturday our group was back on the coach. On Friday, this meant a visit to Philip Webb's late-career commission for a solicitor's country home at Standen, overlooking the South Downs. Then it was back to London, investigating the sewage challenges of the Victorian era at the astonishing Crossness Pumping Station, and finishing with a twilight tour of Highgate Cemetery.

Tuesday was day 11 of the London program, and our group started the day in Cheltenham viewing the collections at The Wilson, moving on to admire All Saints, Selsley an early church by G. F. Bodley and the first stained glass commission for Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Company. In the afternoon they visited Rodmarton Manor, built in the local vernacular by local craftsmen, and Buscot Park and the Faringdon Collection of art.

The group spent Tuesday night in Oxford in order to awaken bright and early for a walking tour of the city, its 19th-century colleges, chapels and museum collections with architectural historian Peter Howell. Then it was off to William Morris's Oxfordshire retreat, Kelmscott Manor, and back to London for the final days of the program.

Day 9 of the London summer program found our group touring Liverpool with Joseph Sharples, author of the Pevsner Architectural Guide to the city - from Stanley and Albert Docks to St George's Hall and the Walker Art Gallery, the business district to Giles Gilbert Scott's Anglican Cathedral.

On Monday (day 10), they boarded the coach for Port Sunlight, the garden suburb designed for the workers and their families of the Lever "Sunlight" soap works. Then it was on to the beautiful Wightwick Manor in Wolverhampton, with its beautiful Arts & Crafts interiors and collection of Pre-Raphaelite artwork.

On Friday, Day 7 of the London program, our group woke to a walking tour of Birmingham, followed by a day in Staffordshire, visiting churches by G. E. Street, A. W. N. Pugin and Richard Norman Shaw.

Day 8 began with a tour of Manchester, or "Cottonopolis" as it was called in the 19th century, when it was the second largest and wealthiest city in the country.

On day 5 of the London program, our group began the day at Westminster Cathedral, followed by a walking tour of East End social housing and a visit (with a bonus archives treat) to the Museum of the Home, and finishing at All Saints, Margaret Street.

On Day 6, they departed for points north, beginning with The Higgins Bedford, with its wonderful 19th-century collections. From there, they traveled to Northampton to visit the remarkable late architectural work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh at 78 Derogate, and ended the day in Birmingham, with an investigation of the Jewellery Quarter with Tim Bridges, Conservation Adviser for the Victorian Society (UK) in Birmingham and the West Midlands.

Day 3 of the London program found our group back at the Art Workers' Guild, learning about the great A. W. N. Pugin, Victorian Churches, and the Oxford and Cambridge Movements. Then it was off to G. E. Street's Royal Courts of Justice, rounded off with an historic pub crawl along Fleet Street!

On day 4, participants began the day walking the Cadogan Estate in Chelsea with their intrepid director, architectural historian Kit Wedd. A stop at "the cathedral of the Arts & Crafts," Holy Trinity Church, Sloane Square, with its breathtaking Morris & Company window, was followed by a visit to the equally impressive St James the Less in Pimlico (by G. E. Street). The day ended with a tour of Tate Britain's Victorian collections with curator and independent scholar Dr. Amy Lim, who was also one of the curators of the current groundbreaking Tate exhibition "Now You See Us: Women Artists in Britain 1520-1920" - not to be missed!

Our 48th London Summer School began on Saturday, with introductions and lectures on Victorian Stained Glass, the London Underground and the Victorian Building Industry. Sunday morning brought lectures on The Great Exhibition and William Morris Interiors by former London program director Joanna Banham.

Fortified with all of this new information, our group set off on Sunday for a walking tour of Albertopolis with director Kit Wedd, capping the day with a visit to the Victoria & Albert Museum.

Apologies for the delay posting! Tuesday was the last day of our Chicago Summer School, which included walking tours of Astor Street and Prairie Avenue along with visits to Charnley House, the Driehaus Museum, St James Cathedral and St Andrew's Chapel, Glessner House, and the stunning Second Presbyterian Church. The day concluded on an exceptionally high note with a reception and farewell dinner at the Glessner House!

Yesterday, our Chicago Summer School group was back on the road to Oak Park, a community just west of Chicago that prides itself on having more Frank Lloyd Wright-designed buildings than anywhere else in the world. The concentration of Wright buildings is located on Forest Avenue, anchored at the north end by Wright’s Home and Studio. Oak Park also contains houses designed by many prominent architects of the early 20th century, including Tallmadge and Watson, Robert Spencer, John Van Bergen and George Maher.

Our Chicago Summer School group spent the weekend in the city and on the road. On Saturday, they visited the Frederick C. Robie house and Hyde Park (with lunch on Wooded Isle), followed by an afternoon in town of Pullman, now a National Historical Park.

Sunday was the newly-introduced "Mies van der Rohe Day," including visits to 860/880 Lake Shore Drive, the IBM Building, and the campus of the Illinois Institute of Technology. The day finished with a tour of the minimal and magical Edith Farnsworth house.

The second day of the Chicago Summer School included visits to two Chicago icons, the Auditorium Theatre and The Rookery, as well as lectures Building Technology, Frank Lloyd Wright, Chicago's Department Stores, and the World's Columbian Exposition.

Yesterday our Chicago Summer School kicked off with warm and rainy weather, ending in glorious sunshine, as the group enjoyed introductory lectures on Chicago's history and architecture, followed by a tour of the Downtown Loop and the Art Institute, and finishing with a reception at the Cliff Dwellers Club.

The Newport Summer School finished yesterday after a heady 10 days together, exploring the Gilded Age enclave and neighboring areas.

On Friday, the group visited North Easton and Fall River in Massachusetts, touring the great works of H. H. Richardson for the Ames family, and the wonderfully Japanese-inspired Knapp house in Fall River by Ralph Adams Cram.

On Saturday, they spent their last full day of the program in Newport, with Edith Wharton and Ogden Codman as a theme, visiting the Whartons' Lands End, Hopedene (with its Codman interiors), and the Codman-designed Faxon Lodge. The day ended with a lovely tour and reception at the Greenvale Farm and Winery in Portsmouth. Congratulations to our Newport class of 2024 - we wish you all a wonderful summer!

Yesterday our Newport group braved the rainy weather to visit some of the later architecture of the nineteenth century, and examined the work of west coast architect Irving Gill, in his collaboration with the Olmsted Brothers at Wildacre. The landscape designs of Frederick Law Olmsted and his brothers were another theme of the day.

On Day 6 of the Newport program, our group visited Pawtucket, Providence and East Greenwich, touring the historic Slater Mill, the Providence Art Club, City Hall, and Henry Lippitt house, as well as the richly eccentric Clouds Hill Museum. The day finished on a high note with a lovely reception courtesy of the Victorian Society Alumni Association at the G. Pierce Metcalf estate in Exeter, Rhode Island. Another full and enriching day!

On the 5th day of the Newport Summer School, the group examined more works by McKim, Mead & White, including the Newport Casino and the Edgar and Tilton houses. In all, the firm designed 42 complete buildings in Newport, along with 20 unbuilt projects.

The day also included a visit to Channing Memorial Church, with its stunning examples of opalescent glass designed by American artist John La Farge.

Today (Wednesday), the group will be heading to Providence and environs, but more on that (with photos) tomorrow! 😉

Over the past couple of days, our Newport group has been treated to a number of works by the architectural firm of McKim, Mead & White, from the Isaac Bell house to Kingscote and the stunning LeRoy King house. Yesterday, the work of R. M. Hunt was also a running theme, as they visited Ochre Court, the Breakers, and Marble House. They have had some beautiful weather so far, too! See captions for more about each building, and keep following our group this week for more Newport adventures!

This past Friday marked the beginning of the 42nd Newport Summer School, led by the incomparable Richard Guy Wilson, who offered an introductory lecture on "Newport and the Resort Scene in the 19th Century." Saturday and Sunday found the group exploring "Newport's First Golden Age" and being introduced to the work of the influential architect Richard Morris Hunt (1827-95) who, as well as being responsible for some of the greatest "cottages" of Newport, also established the first American school of architecture, and helped to found the American Institute of Architects.

Today in Victorian History: March 25, 1882 - The first demonstration of pancake making (at a department store in NYC)

Here is a Victorian recipe for pancake batter from Mrs. Charles Roundell's Practical Cookery Book c. 1898

Batter for Pancakes.—Take half a pound of flour, four eggs, a pint of milk, and a pinch of salt. Make a hole in the middle of the flour, break the eggs one by one into a teacup, and drop each into the hole. Pour in a little milk, and stir the flour in gradually, adding milk by degrees, and rubbing away all lumps. When you have used half the milk beat the batter well with a wooden spoon till it is full of air bubbles, add the rest of the milk, and let the batter rest for two hours. Then butter a small frying-pan well, heat the pan till the butter smokes, but be careful that it does not burn, drop in just enough batter for one Pancake, let it spread itself over the pan, run a knife under it, and turn it over, roll the Pancake up, set it on a hot dish before the fire. Butter the pan again, and make another Pancake. When all are made, lay the Pancakes on a napkin, three in a row, and three across them, dust over with sugar, and hand quarters of lemon. Clarified suet burns less easily than butter; if it is used melt a small piece in the pan before putting each Pancake.

‘5,000 little detective stories' helped recreate Charles Darwin's eclectic library An ambitious 18-year project has virtually reassembled the complete library of naturalist Charles Darwin for the first time since he died in 1882.

If you enjoyed our most recent online lecture on the upcoming exhibition "Pre-Raphaelites: A Modern Renaissance" in Forli, Italy, don't miss this opportunity to join a tour of Northern Italy with the VSA's Alumni Association!

The tour will include a visit to the exhibition with one of its curators (and one of yesterday's speakers), Peter Trippi. If you missed the lecture, the recording is now available on our Lectures web page - https://victoriansociety.org/lectures-4/

Nellie Bly... 1864-1922

London Summer School, Day 15:

The last day of the program was spent in the Surrey countryside, visiting the Watts Gallery and Memorial Chapel, along with George and Mary Watts' home of Limnerslease, and finishing at Norney Grange (C. F. A. Voysey, 1897).

Voysey had many commissions to build gracious country and suburban houses, and this one was designed with two lodges and stables. He was inspired by English vernacular houses and employed simple building materials like rough-cast plaster and slate. The house has the familiar Voysey feature of flat triangular gables riding over projecting bay windows. The semi-circular pediment over the entrance porch is an unusual Classical element. Inside, there is an impressive double-height front hall. Voysey was also a highly successful designer of wallpaper and textile prints, furniture, and decorative arts.