Victorians

Industrial revolution powered Britain to global pre-eminence and initiated social reform.

Queen Victoria and her Prime Ministers

Find out which of her ministers she loved 'like a father' and which drove her into a white rage. By Christopher Hibbert.

• Disraeli and Gladstone: Opposing Forces by Robert Blake
• Prime Ministers and Politics Timeline
• Victoria as a Girl: The Patient Rebel by Professor Lynne Vallone

British India and the 'Great Rebellion'

How did the Great Rebellion - otherwise known as the Indian Mutiny - of 1857 shape modern India? By Professor Peter Marshall.

• Zulu: The True Story - Evidence of a cover-up, by Saul David
• Women's Rights Quiz - Test your knowledge of the rights of Victorian women
• The Irish Famine by Jim Donnelly
• Irish Home Rule: An imagined future by Dr James McConnel
• The Chartist Movement 1838 - 1848 by Stephen Roberts
• Reforming Acts by Asa Briggs
• Beneath the Surface: A Country of Two Nations by Joanne de Pennington
• The Boer Wars by Professor Fransjohan Pretorius
• The Crimean War by Andrew Lambert

Who Wants to Be a Cotton Millionaire?

Cotton was one of the driving forces of the Industrial Revolution. Find out if you have what it takes to make it in this cut-throat Victorian trade.

• The Workshop of the World - Britain's industrial dominance, by Pat Hudson
• All Change in the Victorian Age by Bruce Robinson

Victorian Technology

The technology developed in Victoria's reign brought a social and economic revolution whose effects are still being felt today. By Paul Atterbury.

• Brunel: 'The Practical Prophet' - Brunel won some, he lost some, but he surely had nerve.
• The 'Great Eastern' - Brunel's blueprint for decades of ship design
• Stephenson's Rocket Animation - Inside the trailblazing steam engine
• The Blast Furnace Animation - Inside the device that shaped the industrial revolution
• The Spinning Mill Animation - Inside the machinery that revolutionised textiles
• Winding Gear Animation - Inside this mechanism of the industrial age
• The Beam Engine Animation - Inside the Victorian engine
• Paddle Steamship Animation
• Iron Bridge Virtual Tour
• The Iron Bridge - How was it Built? by David de Haan
• Seven Wonders of the Industrial World by Deborah Cadbury
• Panama Canal Gallery by Panama Canal Authority
• The Airy Transit Circle by Emily Winterburn

Women's Work

The ability to earn contributed to Victorian women's independence, but at what cost? By Professor Pat Hudson.

• Tudors and Victorians: Dressing Up
• The Rise of the Victorian Middle Class by Dr Donna Loftus
• Crime and the Victorians by Professor Clive Emsley
• Victorian Mugshots Gallery by Steve Jones
• London: 'A Modern Babylon' by Bruce Robinson
• Sex, Drugs and Music Hall by Matthew Sweet
• The Victorian Seaside by Professor John Walton
• Victorian Sport: Playing by the Rules by Alex Perry
• Beneath the Surface: Social Reports as Primary Sources by Joanne de Pennington
• On the Beat in Birmingham by David Cross

Muck and Brass

Make tough choices as you balance coffins and coins.

• Foul Facts Gallery: Vile Victorians
• The Rural Exodus by Mike Winstanley
• Victorian Medicine - From Fluke to Theory by Bruce Robinson
• Florence Nightingale: the Lady with the Lamp by Mark Bostridge
• The Foundling Hospital by Rhian Harris