By the way, is there a possibility to research who the London wire affiliate was for a random foreign newspaper? (Possibly in newspaperarchive.com, to which I want to subscribe in a couple weeks?) I've looked up the Te Aroha News, and it used to come out also as The Upper Thames Advocate. I guess another quick way to research the London wire affiliate would be to compare the reports in the foreign newspaper in question with the London ones. (I bet that Jane can do that easily, since she has all 1887 newspapers available at home, for the book she's preparing. I wonder if her quoting the Te Aroha News means that it said something different/additional than the London newspapers?)
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The Bloody Piece of Apron Redux
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Hi Maria,
No, your'e right of course, we can't trust a single newspaper report, but if we make a note of it, then it's possible that at some time in the future other information will come to light that confirms or contradicts it and so it's still valuable. It's just one to put on the back boiler.
Having said that, some of the overseas newspapers were a damn sight more accurate than the British ones and provide some really excellent reports on life in the area at the time as seen by the foreign press. As Dave said, it depends who was relaying the information!
Just seen your last post. The contents of the foreign newspapers in relation to British ones, varied greatly, some seemed to just parrot what the British papers said, and some had an entirely original report on whatever it was. It seemed to have taken a long while for some of the reports to permeate out to far flung places. They were still reporting Kate's murder on November 17th and presenting it as fresh news!
I'm trawling through now and when I get to Kate's reports, I'll compare some of the foreign reports with the UK ones and see what sort of difference there was in reporting styles. If I find anything interesting in connection with Kate's apron, I'll post it up here.
Much love
Janie
xxxxLast edited by Jane Coram; 02-24-2011, 10:23 PM.I'm not afraid of heights, swimming or love - just falling, drowning and rejection.
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Hi Jane,
I completely understand and agree. Yes, it'll be interesting to compare the foreign newspapers with the UK ones and see what different elements were reported.
By the by, Lynn Cates recently located a very interesting report in a Russian English speaking newspaper which attempts to link the Whitechapel murders to a Russian anarchist whom the Okhrana had an agenda against. Lynn is researching this further. It's posted in the Kaufmann thread.
Apologies for mentioning this detail here.Best regards,
Maria
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Victorian London Photographs by John Thomson
Most of you have probably seen this photo by the famous Scottish photographer John Thomson, but I thought I'd post it for those of you who are unfamiliar with Victorian-Era clothing as worn by the poorer inhabitants of London.
The first photo is c.1876-1877 and shows a woman in a typical long white apron. You can see that it's a utilitarian piece meant to protect her skirts rather than a fashion item. The apron wraps around her sides as well as her front. This photo shows people of all ages, so gives us a good idea of what clothing was like in the Victoria Era.
The second photograph depicts a trio of 'Covent Garden Flower-Sellers' with their baskets of flowers. It was taken in 1877, but styles among the poor would have changed very little by 1888.
There is such pathos in this photograph... If you zoom in you can see the pinched faces more clearly. Note the shabby, well-worn clothing, particularly the pitifully thin shawls of the women, which might have been their only protection against the cold. The shawl of the woman in the center is criss-crossed over her chest, while the shawl of the woman at left is pinned tightly at the neck to keep the cold out.
The woman in the center is wearing a white apron. The woman on the left appears to be wearing a smaller white apron that is twisted up in front, close to her bouquets. The light-colored skirt she is wearing may be a full apron or it may be an actual skirt, though it's a bit short to be a Victorian-era skirt. She looks to be taller than the others, so perhaps it's a second-hand skirt that's a bit short for her. However, if you zoom in and look under its hem you can see that she is also wearing another darker skirt that goes nearly to the ground, which is what one would expect for a woman in that era. (Of course poor people couldn't be too fussy about hem-lengths, especially when most of their clothes were 2nd-hand.) The woman on the right is wearing either a full apron or a skirt of a different, somewhat shinier fabric with what appears to be a pattern. (My guess is that it's a glazed calico or something similar.)
The poor young boy looks rather grubby, doesn't he? His sadly too-big outfit reminds me of Charlie Chaplin's "Little Tramp".
Best Regards,
Archaic
PS: The Victoria & Albert Museum have some of Thomson's wonderful photos in their collection. Here's a link: http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/micros...rapherid=ph054Last edited by Archaic; 02-25-2011, 11:24 PM.
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