THE OSCHOLARS
__________
TRAFFICKING IN STRANGE WEBS
A Survey of Websites
May 2008
‘I don’t want it put straight, Leaf.   I only want the key.’ ‘Well, sir, you’ll be covered with cobwebs if you go into it.  Why, it hasn’t been opened for nearly five years – not since his lordship died.’
TABLE OF CONTENTS : SITES OF GENERAL INTEREST
After each section, we add the sites that we can no longer find. If this changes, they will be restored to their proper place in the lists.
Art history		Research Aids & Guides
Banks		Theatre
Books		Turkish Baths
Dandies & Decadence		Victorian London
Lesbian & Gay History		Victoriana
Reading Groups
ART HISTORY
First reported September 2002
§ http://www.efn.org/~acd/resources.html is the website of ‘Resources in Art History for Graduate Students’, now entering its fifth year of publication, is a source for information on fellowship, grant, publication, symposia, internship, and other opportunities for graduate students in art history and most areas of the humanities.Contact information: Adrienne DeAngelis, Editor, Email:  @
v Added September 2003:  The rubric now reads ‘This continuously updated newsletter lists grants, fellowships, internships and study abroad opportunities for graduate students in art history and closely related areas such as humanities and visual art studies. It also carries listings of art history conferences and publication opportunities of particular interest to graduate students. Some listings are also open to undergraduates or to postdocs. See the Index to find all of these.’
v Added May 2008: This valuable site flourishes, last updated 31st March 2008.
First reported March 2003
Victorian Art in Britain http://www.victorianartinbritain.co.uk/ describes itself thus: ‘A personal guide to Pre-Raphaelite and other Victorian Art in the galleries of Britain, VAB is a non-profit making web site, and will remain so. The site does need, however, some income to pay for the costs of research, development, and web space. VAB has considerable traffic from all over the world, and has more than 100,000 visitors each year.’
v Added March 2007: This site also continues and is kept reasonably up-to-date: (‘Last Updated June 1st 2006. Due to pressure of work the next updates will be in September 2006’).
v Added May 2008: This has fallen into decay. The note on updating remains the same and access to its discussion forum has hit the rocks : ‘Sorry, but this account has been suspended and cannot be accessed. This account and all its services have been suspended for violating the Bravenet Terms of Service Agreement.
First reported July 2003
The Visual Arts Data Service: The AHDS Centre for Visual Arts (VADS) is delighted to announce the launch of www.fineart.ac.uk, a new online resource of art works selected from the Council for National Academic Awards Collection (CNAA), and from the collections of some of the UK’s finest art colleges and universities. This new web-based collection is dedicated to work by staff, students and other alumni of UK higher education institutions that have made a significant contribution to higher education fine art practice. The site makes available online an initial selection of 200 works by more than 100 artists who have studied and taught fine art in the UK, together with supporting information. The selection of works covers the period from the mid 19th century through to the present day and includes work from many important figures in British Art such as Henry Moore, Bridget Riley and Richard Hamilton.
The main purposes of www.fineart.ac.uk are to: -celebrate the achievements of art education in the UK -provide a resource for teaching and learning -encourage scholarship and research -offer a framework for an historical picture of the developments in the field -provide access to inaccessible and otherwise hidden collections-serve as a living collection incorporating contemporary practice.
The site has been developed following a feasibility study commissioned by the CNAA Trustees, with the support of the Conference for Higher Education in Art and Design (CHEAD) and the National Association of Fine Art Education into the demand for a national collection to represent the nature, history and achievements of higher education teaching within fine art practice. Work on the project has been carried out by VADS located at the Surrey Institute of Art and Design, University College. Ten higher education institutes have participated in this initial phase of the website’s developments and include: Glasgow School of Art, the London Institute, Norwich School of Art, Royal College of Art, the Slade School of Fine Art and the Universities of Central England, Brighton, Dundee, Leeds and Ulster.
Brenda Brinkley, User Services Officer, Visual Arts Data Service, The Surrey Institute of Art & Design, University College, Falkner Road, Farnham, Surrey GU9 7DS. Tel: 01252 892723 Fax: 01252 892725; E-mail: @
Added May 2008: This is now well established as the ‘National Fine Art Education Digital Collection’. ‘Fineart.ac.uk is a prototype for a national web-based collection of work by staff and students of UK higher education institutions who have made a significant contribution to UK fine art education through practice. Currently, it contains a sample of around 200 digital images and associated curatorial information, drawn upon work from the mid 19th century through to the present day held within 10 institutions and the collection of the Council for National Academic Awards (CNAA). You can search fineart.ac.uk by keyword using the search box on every page of the site, or can browse the collection according to criteria such as Geographical Location, Time Period or Artist by clicking on the links below or going to the search page.’
First reported September 2003
§§ http://www.pmsa.org.uk is another scholarly site, that of the Public Monuments and Sculpture Association. The PMSA, based at the Courtauld Institute of Art, is a charity founded in 1991 for the promotion and protection of the nation’s public sculpture and monuments.  The images and data available via VADS are intended as an introduction to this continuing collection.  The PMSA collection is a valuable resource for the subject areas of Art and Design, Architecture and the particular disciplines of Public Art and Sculpture, as well as broader socio-historic and cultural studies in the Arts and Humanities.
v Added May 2008: This excellent and important site is highly recommended.
Banks
First reported August 2002
http://www.bba.org.uk/public/consumers/590/2297 is a simple list of British banks with the dates of their foundation and acquisition of other banks and building societies, but the dates of the foundation of these are not given.  (BBA=British Banking Association).  Useful for finding out the present whereabouts of Parr’s Bank, say, or Hoare’s or Drummond’s or the London and County.  It is not exhaustive, presumably being limited to the members of the Association.  Merchant banks such as Rothschild or Kleinwort are not listed, though Lazard’s is, nor could we find the Royal Arsenal Building Society.  Baring’s too has vanished.
v Added August 2003:  No changes here.
v X Added May 2008: This useful site has been taken down, it seems, for the address now brings a message ‘We are sorry, the page you requested can not be found on www.bba.org.uk
BOOKS
First reported August 2002
Our thanks to Michael Goss of Delectus Books for putting us on to The Lost Club Journal, A Journal of Literary Archæology.  Edited by Roger Dobson and Mark Valentine, it specialises in drawing attention to authors who have fallen out of favour.  A great number of these are from the 1890s. http://homepages.pavilion.co.uk/users/tartarus/lost.html
v Added August 2003:  This worthwhile endeavour has not been updated since the Autumn of 2001.  The authors explored (many with Wilde connections) are Michael Arlen, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, James Branch Cabell, Richmal Crompton, Baron Corvo/Frederick Rolfe, August Derleth’s Solar Pons,  Ernest Dowson, Jeffery Farnol, Ronald Fraser, John Gawsworth, Joe Gould, Althea Gyles, H. Rider Haggard, Edward Heron-Allen, Wrenne Jarman, Edgar Jepson, Julian Maclaren-Ross, Christopher Millard, Count Potocki de Montalk, Arthur Ransome, Sarban, M.P. Shiel, Prince Zaleski, Count Stenbock, Peter Vansittart, Stanley John Weyman, Charles Williams, Francis Brett Young.
v Added May 2008: The Lost Book Club appears itself to have got lost. The page has not been changed since 2001, and the alternative address www.lost-club.co.uk merely brings one back to the same page.
First reported November 2002
§ http://www.bl.uk/collections/early/victorian/intro.html is a fascinating site (as one would expect from its provenience), devoted to all aspects of the Victorian book: production technology, illustration, binding, children’s books, penny dreadfuls and so on.
v Added May 2008: This site remains in place, though it is not possible to say if or when it is updated.
Dandies and Decadents
First reported August 2001
§ http://landow.stg.brown.edu/victorian/decadence/decadence.html.  This elaborate site uses background material drawn from the Victorian Web and quotes from Æsthetes and Decadents of the 1890s by George P. Landow as well as the citation from the Victorian Web from Sex, Scandal and the Novel by William A. Cohen (Duke University Press, 1996). It includes the text of Dorian Gray, chapter by chapter, and, most unusually and very usefully, a concordance to the text. There is a brief bibliography: this includes Ed Cohen: Talk on the Wilde Side: Towards a Genealogy of a Discourse on Male Sexualities (Routledge 1992). It also has a forum for notes from readers similar to those discussed in previous issues of THE OSCHOLARS. Unfortunately, the level of these hardly seems to live up to the style of the rest of the site.
v Added May 2008: This site has now been brought into the Victorian Web: http://www.victorianweb.org/ (for more information, see http://www.landow.com/), and this is the nec plus ultra of all Victorian studies on the world wide web.
First reported May 2002
http://members.xoom.virgilio.it/newdandy/-- very new in fact: we were only the twenty-fourth visitor.  The creation of Andrea Sperelli, this site is multi-paged, elaborate and well designed, but its Italian was, unsurprisingly, more advanced than ours.  Perhaps one of our Italian readers would like to report upon it in detail?
v Added May 2008: ‘New dandy’, now called simply ‘Il dandy’ has moved to http://www.noveporte.it/dandy/, and appears to consist of a series of reflections on life and art on a beautiful website.
Lesbian & Gay History
First reported May 2002
§ A good academic site is the website of the Committee on Lesbian and Gay History (CLGH), [see below] an affiliated society of the American Historical Association, maintained by Dr Marc Stein of York University, Canada.  This site, with useful pages concerned with dissertations and other publications, is being developed.
v Added May 2008: This now has its own website http://www.clghistory.org/ and has naturally expanded over the years. The website, last updated 20th October 2007, is maintained by Martin Meeker.
v Added November 2009: Another website http://www.datehookup.com/content-the-history-of-lesbianism.htm may be of use. Site suggested by Elizabeth Miller.
READING GROUPS
First reported August 2002
http://fr.groups.yahoo.com/groupEpoqueVictorienneAnglaiseEnLisant is a small but vigorous discussion group on set texts, currently La Pierre de Lune by Wilkie Collins.  Founded on 1st July, it is deserving of support.
v Added August 2003: This remains a small and friendly group, currently reading David Copperfield.
v Added May 2008: This hardly functions now despite occasional efforts to revive it.
http://gaslight.mtroyal.ab.ca was founded in 1993 at Mount Royal College where 19thc. texts are posted for discussion once a week.  These have included Pen, Pencil and Poison and The Canterville Ghost, and The Mauve Decade: American Life at the End of the Nineteenth Century by Thomas Beer (1889-1940).
v Added August 2003:  This is still thriving, the only reading group as far as we know that has a real website and posts its texts on line.
v Added May 2008: This has become more guarded: ‘Gaslight is an Internet discussion list which reviews one story a week from the genres of mystery, adventure and The Weird, written between 1800 and 1919. The current readings and selected ones from the past are available here. For more information about joining the discussion list, write Stephen Davies and Diana Patterson at Gaslight-Safe@MtRoyal.ab.ca’
N.B. With our Reconstruction in 2007, we created a separate page where Reading Groups are somewhat sporadically reviewed. No new ones will appear here.
RESEARCH AIDS & GUIDES
First reported October 2002
§§ This notice by Patrick Leary appeared on the VICTORIA List.  We have edited it slightly.
<< The Victoria Research Web (http://www.indiana.edu/~victoria) will be hosting a new biographical reference work contributed by Eileen Curran. This series should interest many of us who’ve had occasion to look up the author of an article in the Wellesley Index and have then wished we knew more about the often unfamiliar name we’ve found there. Dr. Curran, who is Professor of English, Emerita, at Colby College, Maine, and was a member of the team of scholars who created the Wellesley, makes use of her extensive research notes to bring us “Biographies of Some Obscure Contributors to 19th-century Periodicals,” a work-in-progress that seeks to rescue some 40 to 50 writers from the inattention or forgetfulness of posterity. A number of these writers were prolific; some were influential; none is currently to be found in the DNB.
The first instalment is at  http://www.indiana.edu/~victoria/Obscure_contributors.htm and includes a list of those whose biographies will eventually appear; the link to it can be found, along with other resources for research in this area, in the “Periodicals” section of the VRW at http://www.indiana.edu/~victoria/libraries.html#periodicals.  My heartfelt thanks to Eileen for her willingness to put together these biographies and make them available to us in this way. Quite apart from their inherent interest and obvious reference value, it seems to me that they also provide useful models of how to go about this painstaking kind of literary/biographical detective work. The Web is a particularly handy place for reference works and notes, and I’ve been glad to see the VRW’s emergence as a publishing medium for such things.>>
v Added October 2003:  The core address of the Victoria Research Web is now http://www.victorianresearch.org/. In all its branches it is the leading guide for research into the period.
v Added May 2008: This remarkable site continues to be of essential value.
First reported December 2002
The Victoriana.ComStudy Center contains a collection of articles and web site links for the  19th Century enthusiast.
The Library covers a wide range of topics from a Queen’s wardrobe to 19thc. Cake Recipes, from architecture to antique prints. ‘Harper’s Bazaar Online’ presents a collection of articles and illustrations from the 19th Century magazine.
‘Behind Closed Doors’ includes a seldom seen collection of articles about the darker side of Victorian ‘private lives’. Visitors can read about 19th century women’s issues, unsuitable Victorian men, and 19th century alcohol consumption. The Library also offers Internet locations of Museums and Historical Societies.
v Added May 2008: This has been largely remodelled. The two sections mentioned above have vanished, and in general one arrives at links for Victoriana shopping. We have removed its ‘star’.
First reported March 2003
§ http://irith.org/index.jsp is the site of Irish Resources in the Humanities.  We are delighted that this excellent site contains a link to THE OSCHOLARS.
v Added March 2007: this elegant site, the creation of Susan Schreibman of the University of Maryland, is still with us, and contains much new material.
v Added May 2008: Susan Schreibman’s excellent work goes on, a useful guide to Irish culture.
§§§ http://www.copac.ac.uk/copac/ provides free access to the online catalogues of twenty-two university research libraries in the Ireland and Great Britain.
v Added March 2007: The introduction to this invaluable site now reads ‘The Copac^® library catalogue gives free access to the merged online catalogues of major University and National Libraries in the UK and Ireland, including the British Library. Start searching Copac. Copac includes details of materials held in libraries throughout the UK, plus Trinity College Dublin Library in Ireland. Copac includes the catalogues of all the UK National Libraries, a wide range of major University libraries, as well as specialist collections such as the National Art Library (V&A Museum).
v Added May 2008: The number of libraries included has now reached forty-seven.
§ A new collection of links to Victorian sites is now published by Sylvia Milne at http://www.sylviamilne.btinternet.co.uk/plucked/vic.htm. Clearly in time there will be a site exclusively for the URLs of sites that contain links to other sites . . .
v Added March 2007: This very useful site has now moved to http://www.sylviamilne.co.uk/vic.htm and has been in existence for some eight years and is packed with useful links. It is regularly updated and the links checked.
v Added May 2008: The site continues to expand, and was last updated on the 27th April 2008 with the links checked on 3rd April.
First reported April 2003
We ‘cross-post’ the piece below from VICTORIA.
Victorianists who are not historians may not be fully aware of the RHS Bibliographies, now available free on-line at http://www.rhs.ac.uk/bibwel.html (for an introduction) or http://www.rhs.ac.uk/bibl/ (to start searching). Patrick Leary has pointed out the associated London’s Past On-Line Bibliography (which can be accessed through the main site or on its own at http://www.rhs.ac.uk/bibl/london.asp), but the underlying principles - which the two bibliographies share – and the scope of the main RHS Bibliography may still be unclear.
The main RHS bibliography records details of over 300,000 publications in British, Irish and imperial history, covering all periods. These include journal articles, chapters in edited books, and books and pamphlets. For Victorianists, the immense usefulness of this database lies in the fact that each publication is indexed by SUBJECT based on a huge set of subject-terms(including place-names and personal names and all manner of more abstract subjects), as well as by period covered. So you can search for ‘animals, attitudes to’ in 1830-1901, and get 24 publications over the past 50 years, including material as disparate as vivisection, views on bird plumes in women’s hats, and attitudes to zoological displays. (If you put in ‘animals’ alone, you get 150 hits, ranging more widely than these controversial subjects.) Anyone can therefore construct a pretty exhaustive bibliography on a very focused historical subject in a matter of minutes, for free, and at your desk. No more asking, ‘does anyone remember where that article by Brian Harrison on Victorian attitudes to animals appeared?’ (you can of course search by author as well), or ‘does anyone know if there’s any work on the plumage controversy in the last 10 years?’.
Of course, you can - and should! - still ask, ‘does anyone know any GOOD work on the plumage controversy?’. A bibliography can’t do quality control. But it’s a great starting point for any student, or even an experienced scholar exploring new areas. And Victorianists who do interdisciplinary work are so often exploring new areas that they ought to find this tool highly useful. – Peter Mandler.
I would like to the report that bibliographic resources for London history have been improved by the availability of London’s Past On-Line (http://ihr.sas.ac.uk/cmh/projects) which went live last week. It incorporates 30,000 records, and covers all items in Heather Creaton’s award-winning Bibliography of Printed Works on London History to 1939 (LAPL, 1994), Sources for the History of London, 1939-1945 (BRA, 1998), as well as data compiled by Heather since 1990.
The project, which is based in the Institute of Historical Research and funded by the AHRB, has been developed in collaboration with the Royal Historical Society Bibliography on British and Irish History. The London data is separately searchable, if you wish, but also fully integrated and searchable within the wider body of Royal Historical Society data (http://www.rhs.ac.uk/bibwel.html).
Since last spring, Heather Creaton of the Centre for Metropolitan History at the Institute of Historical Research has been directing a project called “London’s Past Online,” which seeks to create a free online database of published material on the Greater London area from Anglo-Saxon times to the present.  The first fruits of that project have just been made public as part of the Royal Historical Society Bibliographies, which have themselves recently mutated into a free (for the time being, at least) online version.  Researchers working on any aspect of London’s nineteenth-century history will probably want to do some searching and browsing in this new bibliographical resource, which can be found at http://www.rhs.ac.uk/bibl/london.asp.
The “search form” makes it easy to restrict your search by specifying the date range of the period covered, as well as by subject, words in title, etc.  The RHS bibliographies as a whole can likewise be searched at http://www.rhs.ac.uk/bibl/.  These bibliographies, like the London ones, are particularly rich in local, specialist, and privately printed publications that some others miss, and are helpfully subject-coded. – Patrick Leary.
Summary:
http://www.rhs.ac.uk/bibwel.html		http://www.rhs.ac.uk/bibl
http://www.rhs.ac.uk/bibl/london.asp		http://ihr.sas.ac.uk/cmh/projects
Added May 2008: The first three of these have of course grown, being updated three times a year, most recently in February 2008; but the fourth brought up ‘The document name you requested (/cmh/projects) could not be found on this server’. The RHS also has an alerts system: ‘For news of updates and site developments, click here to subscribe to our mailing list’.
First reported May 2003
§§ http://www.humbul.ac.uk/about/index.htm.  HUMBUL (Humanities Bulletin) is a capacious website maintained at the University of Oxford as the Humbul Humanities Hub, a service of the UK’s Resource Discovery Network, dedicated to discovering, evaluating and cataloguing online resources in the humanities. Humbul provides online access to this growing collection of records. It is constantly seeking new ways to increase the availability and use of its archive collection.
v Added May 2008: This is now called Intute: Arts & Humanities and is lodged at http://www.intute.ac.uk/artsandhumanities/about.html. Its purpose remains the same.
First reported June 2003
http://www.doaj.org/articles/about/ is the site of the Directory of Open Access Journals.  This service covers free, full text, quality controlled scientific and scholarly journals, and aims to cover all subjects and languages. A useful way of finding journals on line.
From the site:
The proliferation of freely accessible online journals, the development of subject specific pre- and e-print archives and collections of learning objects provides a very valuable supplement of scientific knowledge to the existing types of published scientific information (books, journals, databases etc.). However these valuable collections are difficult to overview and integrate in the library and information services provided by libraries for their user constituency.
At the First Nordic Conference on Scholarly Communication in Lund/Copenhagen (http://www.lub.lu.se/ncsc2002) the idea of creating a comprehensive directory of Open Access Journals was discussed. The conclusion was that it would be a valuable service for the global research and education community.
Available technologies makes it possible to collect and organize these resources in a way that makes it possible for libraries worldwide to integrate these resources in existing services thus offering value adding both for the service providers of these resources and for the global research and education community.
v Added May 2008: The address is now simply http://www.doaj.org. The site announces that ‘There are now 3380 journals in the directory. Currently 1158 journals are searchable at article level. As of today 187070 articles are included in the DOAJ service.’
X SITES DECEASED OR DERELICT WHEN RESEARCHED FOR THIS UPDATE
First reported February 2002
Irish Literature [IrLit] is a moderated forum for the discussion of topics relating to the literature of - and about - Ireland. Related subjects are acceptable where they bear some relevance to the core purpose of the list. IrLit is a member of Irish Quaternary Studies Online [IRQUAS] .Other, related, IRQUAS member lists include: Irish Linguistics, Irish Social History, Irish Art History. You can subscribe to any of these from the IRQUAS website: http://www.maqqi.supanet.com
v In February 2003 we added:  The activities associated with this site flourish, notably the Irish literature discussion group, although the homepage, managed by Stiofan MacAmhalghaidh (to non-Irish speakers: pronounced MacAulay) has not been updated since the autumn of 2001.
v Added February 2007: This seems to have slipped backwards – we are told, for instance, that The ‘Irish Literature’ discussion group is due to become active in November 2001’ – and the link to it that we used in 2003 has vanished away.
v Added May 2008: Although these sites still exist, they are derelict, and an t-Uasail MacAmhalghaidh seems to have relinquished any involvement with them. Inquiry elsewhere has drawn blank.
Theatre
First reported November 2001
§§  http://footlightnotes.tripod.com is a well-illustrated and growing theatre site (called Footlight Notes) maintained by John Culme, covering theatre from the 1850s to the 1920s. It is chiefly but far from exclusively concerned with the lighter side of theatre, musical comedy etc. This could be a good way of discovering more about such plays as The Poet and the Puppets or The Colonel as well as the lesser-known actors who played in the original Wilde casts
v Added May 2008: This excellent site is in good heart, updated last on 17th May 2008, and with much new material. We add a second ‘star’.
First reported July 2002
§ http://www.tcd.ie/Drama/iftr/eng/about.html is the website of the International Federation for Theatre Research.  Recommended.
v Added July 2003:  This has not been updated.
v Added May 2008: This has moved to http://www.firt-iftr.org/firt/site/index.jsp.
v Added July 2003: This has been updated. One of the most useful features is a list of Conferences for theatre scholars.
v Added May 2008: The site now announces that it is updated daily.
First reported August 2002
http://www.geocities.com/pubtheatre/index.html is devoted to pub theatres in England and may be usefully consulted in conjunction with our theatre listings. Unfortunately, it is necessary to ‘visit’ each of the listed pubs separately to find out what is showing.
v Added August 2003:  This site is still going, and there is a useful list of theatre links.  Unfortunately, not many theatre pubs are listed; those that are, are chiefly in London.
v Added May 2008: Still functioning, and up to date, with sixteen London and three out of London venues listed, but still hampered by the absence of a search facility.
First reported November 2002
§ http://www.str.org.uk/is the website of the Society for Theatre Research.  There is a link to the Society’s journal Theatre Notebook, which gives the Table of Contents of the current issue and a cumulative index.
v Added May 2008: This is kept right up to date.
First reported July 2003
http://www.theatrehistory.com/ is the address of a site that is only called TheatreHistory.com. It links to numerous other sites, largely bookshop related, but incidentally providing good bibliographies.  Readers may find it useful.
v Added May 2008: This has expanded its coverage, and is a good research tool.
First reported September 2003
http://www.backstage.ac.uk/  Backstage provides a single point of entry for finding and searching performing arts collections in the UK.  It is aimed at the research community, plus anyone with an interest in the performing arts.  It contains: a directory of institutions [418 records]; collection level descriptions [900 records]; selected item level records [60556 records].  Our search for Wilde led to 176 records.
v Added May 2008: To our surprise the search for Wilde only brought up 170 records. It is not possible to say how often the site is updated.
X SITES DECEASED OR DERELICT WHEN RESEARCHED FOR THIS UPDATE
First reported May 2002
http://www.collectorspost.com/GoldenAge.htm (The Golden Age of Theatre) is for collectors of Edwardian theatre postcards, which are illustrated.  This includes a stunning picture of Irene Vanbrugh, the first Gwendolen Fairfax.
v In May 2003 we added:  This flourishes.
v Added May 2008: Alas, no longer. We were unable to reach this site, and suppose it has been discontinued.
TURKISH BATHS
First reported June 2002
§ A corner of Victorian social and architectural history is explored by Malcolm Shifrin on his site http://www.victorianturkishbath.org/ where additions and corrections are welcome malcolm@victorianturkishbath.org
v Added May 2008: The site thrives. Last updated 30th April 2008
Victorian London
First reported February 2002
§§ Dickens’s Dictionary, 1879 (first edition), a guidebook to Victorian London compiled by Charles Dickens (junior) is now online as an e-text at www.victorianlondon.org under Publications - Directories. The direct link is http://www.victorianlondon.org/publications/dictionary.htm
v In February 2003 we added:  This site continues to expand.  One day, in Borgesian fashion, it will be the size of Victorian London.
v Added February 2007: Formerly only splendid, this site is now magnificent.
v Added May 2008: We have not given enough credit to Lee Jackson for his wonderful Victorian London website.
VICTORIANA
Mary Welsch, as ‘Miss Mary’, created a site for Victoriana that has undergone many changes. Our entries below chart something of its progress.
First reported March 2002
§ http://www.victorianlinks.com/index.shtml is a site for enthusiasts of Victoriana, with many useful sections on Victorian domestic crafts and décor.
v In March 2003 we added:  We have had more than one occasion to commend this site, although it is early to mid-Vic, rather than fin-de-siècle.
v Added March 2007: The link now redirects to MissMarysGazette.com, and is as full of Victoriana as ever.
v Added May 2008: This site (i.e. Miss Mary’s Gazette) continues to change and develop.
First reported August 2002
‘Miss Mary’s Victorian Links’, which is an excellent site for discovering domestic Victoriana, has consolidated a number of its offshoots and can be found at  http://www.victorianlinks.com
v Added May 2008: This is now simply a list of links to Victoriana. ‘Miss Mary’ is no longer mentioned. Not recommended.
First reported December 2002
What we fondly suppose were the defining objects of the Victorian Christmas can be seen at http://www.victorianyule.com. This is a bye-page of the ‘Miss Mary’ website, which will allow any user to reconstruct a Victorian Christmas and much Victorianism besides, according to the best canons of Victoriana.
v Added May 2008: This is more of the same, and Miss Mary has apparently retired.
First reported February 2003
For those interested in Victoriana, Mary Welsch continues to expand the ‘Miss Mary’ site.  Click on her rather strange illustration to reach this.  Ms Welsch does succeed in recreating the domestic interior obsessions of Victorian times.
v Added February 2007: This site still thrives and expands. A good guide to Victorian taste.
v Added May 2008: The odd logo has gone, but the site goes on.
Return to Table of Contents | Return to hub page |Return to THE OSCHOLARS home page
Click on the banner below for the Victorian Web