At our April 4th dinner and meeting, Victorian Historian, a.k.a. Adam Shefts, took us on an adventure into some of the customs and culture of the Victorian era. It was a fun evening listening to Shefts list oddities from the era of history (1837 to 1901.)
His mutlimedia presentation included
An image of the first selfie;
Recounting of a maritime shipwreck disaster long preceding the Titanic, where of over 400 people on board only 81 survived; AND all were men; AND most were from the crew!
Why Lincoln grew his beard (It was requested by a child.)
How conjoined twins were entered into a draft to serve in the Union forces, only to have one drafted, while the other was not. The dilemma was solved by excusing the one who had been drafted.
How what looks strangely like the wink emoticon ;) appeared in 1863 in an article on a Lincoln speech.
A Parlor game trick on how the speaker could drink from bottle covered by a cloth, without ever touching the cloth….
Shefts entertained like that for an hour and left with great applause!
His website is www.TheVictorianHistorian.com
As usual our book raffle had six in-house winners, with preservation the ultimate winner!
