Lecture 1) Victorian Visions 1800,1899
Ref:http://moseley-society.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Victorian-Moseley-booklet.pdf
The Victorian era seen a great rise in agriculture and an increase in leisure time which was mainly associated with the wealthy upper class people. As it was known that only these type of people could afford to have time spent to themselves. Many inventions were created in this era for entertainment purposes these included;
The camera Lucida created in 1834 by William Hyde Wollaston
Who's aim was to create a piece of equipment which helped people of the upper class, who lacked artistic skills, to be able to draw or paint at a high standard. Some great paintings that were created using the camera Lucida included Caravaggio, Ingres and Van Eyck.
The zoatrope & Phenakistoscope were used as entertainment to show some of the earliest moving images.
The Stereo scope was invented to enable the wealthy to see 3 dimensional images, created by H.C White in 1890. Nowadays version of this invention includes the Gear Oculus by Samsung and the Go Pro 360 which enables people to see and play games in 3D .
Other Victorian Spectaculars include;
The Robert Barker Panorama invented in 1792 in which he painted large scale landscapes which made people believe they were actually within the place that was painted giving off a type of illusion effect.
The Daguerre's Diorama Created in 1823 which was similar to the Panorama however Diorama meaning 2 which means it showed 2 different types of images that often created an illusion of night and day by using light and a range of sounds for impact.
The Box Diorama was a miniature version of the Daguerre's Diorama but a more compact version made in the form of a box for people to play with themselves making an image go from night to day.
So how does all this link to my Photography Project...?
Below is an image of the location of where my project is taking place Moseley Village in the Victorian Era.
Around the late 1800's Moseley was seen to have a great deal of leisure activities going on for those who could afford it. One of those activities being at Moseley Hall Pool in which many people would gather at winter time (when the lake was frozen stiff) to participate in ice skating.
Above you can see the people of Moseley in the Victorian Era participating in the ice skating event.
The people of the Village loved this as it was said that one thousand pounds had been collected from admissions to the event that Mr Hadley hosted and he went on to give a half of this money to various charities. With the success of this event Moseley went on to hold ice skating behind the Trafalgar Hotel. This success lead to the creation of many sports clubs which included;
Moseley Cricket Club established in 1864
Moseley Football Club established in 1873
Moseley Park Lawn Club established in 1880's
'Moseley Park had “beautiful lawns”, which offered “exceptional advantages for tennis and bowls, the green for the latter being considered a really first class one.” '
(‘The Moseley Society Journal’, November, 1911)
Therefor Moseley during the Victorian era was show to be the place to be when it come to leisure time.
